Designing database courses

for distance learning An Open University

view Kevin WaughDepartment of Computing

Faculty of Computing and MathematicsThe Open University

Introduction:

The Open UniversityTeaching and learning context

Courses offered by the computing department

Course Type LevelSize

(credits- months)

Student numbers

Associate lecturer

numbers

M358 U/G 3 30 – 9 1500 60

TM422 U/G project (final) 30 – 9 150 25

M876 P/G conversion 15 – 6 330 15

M877 P/G masters 15 – 6 200 12

The department has around 5 central academics and 2 staff tutors directly involved in database courses.

Teaching and learning model Supported distance learning

personal tutor (phone, e-mail) face-to-face and on-line tutorials (optional) residential schools (none in u/g computing)

in reality <20% of the students make effective use of these mechanisms

Supported distance teaching associate lecturers (ALs, tutors) supported by staff

tutors and the course team

(tutor notes, teaching summaries, assessment guidance, phone, e-mail)

Course development model

Production course materials, support and assessment strategies

for a course are designed by a small number of academic and educational specialists

Presentation course materials supported by large number of

associate lecturers to teach and assess very large number of students

Production: overview Timescale: 2 - 5 years before first presentation Course team:

3-12 academic members ,course manager, industrial and external academic advisors, consultants, academic editors + experts from specialist departments (IET, LTS, Graphic designers, Assessment office, …)

responsible for the planning, design and implementation of all aspects of the course, inc. fitness for purpose

Need to get it right – cannot depend on tutors or presentation team to overcome course deficiencies and the production team will not be available to “patch”

Need to communicate within the course team and to the tutors and students (the end-users).

Production: documents generated Course design documentation

for production team and presentation teams

Teaching texts for students and associate lecturers support texts for associate lecturers

Assessment guidance for assessment authors and associate lecturers

Administrative documents for presentation team, university, ….

Course design documentation? What is this course? (analysis) Draft zero (Overview – narrative outline) Content description (topic detail)

topic scope style narrative detail teaching and learning aims and objectives assessment objectives description

AL guidance documents Student (and AL) workload planning Case studies and scenarios Unit zero (style sheets), dictionary, standard form of

words, notations, etc.

Presentation: overview

Course team: course manager, 2-3 academics, external examiner, industrial

consultant, staff tutor

Day-to-day activities to run the course (light) maintenance assessment evaluation of feedback examination and assessment board

follows the production team’s strategies, plans and direction (nothing to design)

Presentation: documents generated Annual admin

Study timetable Standard course web site Routes - library managed

web links Stop Press Errata University reports

Examination board e.g. monitoring reports

Assessment materials TMAs

TMA question booklet tutor notes sample solutions

Examination papers exam paper/solutions special paper/solutions marking guides for tutors

Production or where the design

happens The M359

experience

M359? An update/replacement of M358

u/g, 30 credit, 9 months, ~60% new material due for first presentation in Feb 2007

Analysis complete (we know what M359 is going be!) and business appraisal complete course team chair and course manager working

since April 2003 Curriculum and resource planning complete. Draft zero ~5 course team members since Jan

2004

Design issues in M359

Course aims and objectives

Student learning issues

Maintenance schedule

(feedback from students, tutors and course teams on previous course)

Narrative

Teaching strategy

Practical activities

Assessment strategy

Delivery mechanisms

Support mechanisms

supports design choices regarding..Awareness of

Student learning issues Isolated Poor workload management skills Diversity of cohort

academic backgrounds, ages, learning styles, confidence, study skills, reasons for studying

Varied access to support mechanisms

M358 (2003 intake)New to OU study – 8% Registered before 1990 – 5%Age: <25 – 7% >50 – 9%Educational achievement: <A-level – 22% >=1st degree – 20%BFPO: 1% (low in recent years)

Practical activity meets isolated learner “Having done battle with this question most of yesterday

to no avail, your email this morning gave me hope.

But after battling again all day from 9.00 this morning till now (5.10), and holding my head in my hands, banging it against the wall, and kicking the cat into next week, I finally got something to happen but the tables are empty!!!!!”

(conference note from M358 student)

(The rest of this message made it clear the student was well aware the question was worth 4 marks in the 100 mark TMA)

Supplied scenario meets assumed knowledge In the domains list, what does the acronym ISBN mean? It

must be really obvious but I just can’t see it. It stands for International Standard Book Number and is a

reference code used to identify books individually (see …. for more details).

Where about in the coursework is it explained what 'ISBN' is? Its probably assumed to be common knowledge. Doesn't help

if you didn't know it i can see that...you must have been wondering what the hell page was missing from your book..

(8 hours between 1st message + 1st reply) I can find out how many of each book have been bought and

what each one cost but I don’t see how to work out the total amount spent by each customer.

Teaching strategies Clear narrative

(and a clear place in the overall course narrative) Appropriately “chunked” Clear learning objectives, stated and re-stated Flexible Consistent

OU Production also requires: Student support documents

study guides, course guides, … workload planning support

Tutor guidance documents learning and assessment objectives

On-line comments - M358 students (oh dear!)

“I read the course work and the more you read the more you are confused by pointless techno babble. All you want is 3 words to explain and you get 3000.”

“I have worked on databases for some years, and can set up a database as a set of related tables fairly easily. Why oh why, does the text (block 4) make me think I am reading some totally alien subject.”

“As for what we are learning I was talking to a friend of mine (who has a MA in computing applied to archeology/specializing in databases) and he’s never heard of half of it!!”

Conference comments from M358

(is this the same course?) “… I have found M358 to be very interesting and fulfilling. The one thing I did notice was that it is definitely a level 3 course and noticeably more in depth than any level 2 courses I have taken. That said, if you are interested in databases, this is the course to do.”

“From personal experience (list of commercial database and technical authorship roles deleted) … and 15 years' previous experience in the industry, I say the course is very relevant, very thorough, and of great relevance to modern practice in the serious software industry.”

Practical activities Problems:

interruptions inevitable - support is far away, equipment may fail, what if the student is unable to do the activities?

students without support will “hack” exercises must be repeatable and non-blocking chosen software must support the narrative examples must be inclusive and documented in detail

M359 practical style: show, explain, try, review

- embedded in the course text limited number of teaching and assessment scenarios larger activities – workload planning support (essential,

necessary, handy, optional), timing advice and yes it is problematic!

Isolated student … complex software “The main problem, for me is not knowing whether I am

getting it very wrong or the software is playing up again.” “Please forget my message. I resorted to speaking to

the tutor and found I had done it correctly. Just couldn't understand what the instruction was supposed to do. Also I understand we learnt in block 1 where to see references - now back to the database to look for this information.”

“… yesterday I opened up InfoMaker as I do everyday and had lost all the study.db files as well. I had to reinstall from the CD and then re-enter all my tables again not having a clue as to why they disappeared. Interesting.”

Delivery mechanisms

Available to production teams paper, e-book, CD-ROM, Web – PDFs, Workbooks –

electronic, audio, DVD, animation, simulation, (TV)

need to be: appropriate for student cohort, flexible to varying learning patterns, support chosen teaching style, enables study any where and any when?

M359 main texts – paper (with copies available on the web) study guides, course guides, assessment booklets,

glossaries, etc – web practical exercise in-line in the main texts (no workbooks)

Summary

Is the OU different? OU course production teams develop

supported learning materials supported teaching materials and assessment and support strategies

for students and tutors to use at times, in places and in ways over which they have no control

at a scale that makes impractical any direct contact with the end-users.

Documented design is essential The separation of

production and presentation teams, central academics, associate lecturers and

students and the long lifetime of an OU course

(5 years production for 8 years presentation)

requires a clear communication of design intentions regarding teaching, learning and assessment strategies.

Students will find distractions everywhere…

“I cant help wondering, why does the entity type LawnMower have a capital M.”

(28 conference messages resulted!)

Thank you.