learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Jake Leith et al.
One comment in particular highlighted the significance of problems associated with lack of internet
access at crucial points in the course: “for the entire first term we had problems installing the internet
at home, this made connecting with information that was only available on the internet an obstacle in
accessing information. It shouldn’t be assumed that everyone has full internet access”.
Students still valued the face-to-face elements of the teaching – in particular talks from visiting
lecturers (“I enjoyed the Tom Savigar lecture the most, it was very interesting”; “BJ Cunningham
lecture was great EVERYONE was talking about it”), and face-to-face tutorials. We will be looking at
the possibility next year of including live web conferencing that should simulate many of the benefits
of face to face talks from external practitioners whilst reducing the number of hours required of their
time.
Opinion was divided on the usefulness of online peer assessment (40% found it useful or very useful).
7. Staff team experiences on the impact of the design and implementation of
blended learning
7.1 Designing the new course content
The short timeframe in which the new course content had to be implemented meant that in many
cases the material was being produced “as we went along”.
The weekly audio podcasts provided by the Course Leader during this academic year were intended
to aid students with general feedback in an informal, ‘human’ manner, more akin to the aural qualities
associated with face to face delivery. These included ‘tip of the week’, which became a weekly feature
of the podcast. The Course Leader, new to the production of podcasts, found it helpful to make bullet
points and prepare written elements of text before making the audio recording. An added advantage
on one or two occasions was the ability to record podcasts in advance and then use the VLE’s ‘timed
release’ function to publish it for students at a predetermined future date.
There was a steep learning curve for staff and HPL’s involved in the production of captured lectures.
Again short notice and lack of time available resulted in perhaps not enough “redesign” of content. We
also recognise the need to address intellectual property issues surrounding the capture of lectures by
HPL’s.
7.2 Delivery
As noted above, email was a prime method of communication for the majority of students.
Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control, some first year students were not able to
access their university email for several weeks at the start of the first term. This caused considerable
problems, but validated the need for a blended approach to learning, as the face-to-face introductory
and project briefing sessions at the start of the term became essential in allowing us to recognise and
deal with the problem.
The online format of the “week by week” programme noted above was supplemented by a hard copy
timetable and project briefing document. These were also stored on the VLE in downloadable form.
We realised early on that the documents (in particular the timetable) needed to be more visually
consistent with the online format, as this could have assisted the students in navigating the VLE.
7.3 Assessment
Online formative peer assessment (using Turnitin software) was conducted to help focus the students’
thinking and provide an opportunity to critically reflect on each other’s projects. This aspect of the
assessment process was complemented with a face to face tutorial session. Students appreciated
being able to see what other groups were doing and assess their progress against this.
Several additional points of assessment were introduced by breaking the projects down into “chunks”.
This was helpful not only to give students structure to their project but also in providing staff with
clearly defined stages to pick up on progress with students. It was also recognised during the delivery
of the project that these stages needed to be more clearly integrated with the delivery of online
materials to facilitate the students’ understanding of these.
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