Online and mobile technologies for student support

Dr Janet Macdonald

Refocusing ODL in the Nigerian University System. Abuja, Mar 2011

Think about your students

– Where and when will they study (home/campus/work)?

– What technologies are they familiar with?– Where will they get online access?– What new techniques do they need to learn?

What I will talk about

1. Preparation and Induction

2. Pastoral support throughout

3. Facilitating student learning

4. Assessment

1. Preparation and Induction

What do students need to know?• What they must do to

pass the course• How to study at a

distance, time management

• What technologies they need to use and how

• Where to get help• How to reach fellow

students

2. Pastoral support

Lost Disheartened

Isolated

Demotivated

Abandoned

at a distance

Out of time

Frustrated

Perils of distance learning

Strategies for pastoral support

Fellow students

Family

Tutor

Regular contact/encouragement from:

“You can do it…keep going..its worth it..”

Technologies you might use for pastoral support

Forum

Social networking

phone

Sms or instant messaging

Skype

What tools can your students access?

What are they familiar with?

Online groups for community

“if I was going to recommend anything at this stage, it would be to find people facing similar problems and discover that you are not alone!”

Alerts• Reminders of

assignment submission• Exam results• Warnings• Encouragement !“The students feel socially included,

because even without access to the internet they can interact through a technology that is more familiar..” Rodrigues de Lemos,(2009) Brazil

Rodrigues de Lemos 2009

3. Facilitating student learning

From Lecturer

Course content

+

Facilitator

The classroom

Understanding difficult concepts“Distance students often have less opportunity in

which to diagnose their own errors or mistaken assumptions before they commit to a formal assessment task. It may not be until halfway through a semester or course, when a student’s first assignment is returned, that a simple error is discovered.”

Beukes (2009) Univ Namibia

Threshold concept

“ a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. (Meyer & Land 2005)

Troublesome Knowledge…Can trip students up because hard to believe, or lacking application, meaningless (Perkins 2006)

A new protocol for supporting blended learning. When to facilitate student learning? (Macdonald & Black 2010; Macdonald & Campbell, in press)

Aims Rationale Activity

Evaluating theories (Social Science)

Level one students find evaluating theories difficult.   It is an important skill and a specific learning outcome for the final two assignments. 

1. Reasons for evaluating theories (interactive quiz)

2. Reviewing the criteria –participants make a link to definitions

3. Participants evaluate a theory using criteria, apply it and discuss their ideasMacdonald & Campbell (in press)

Aims Rationale Activity

Writing and running simple code (Computing)

BlueJ is the tool students use for writing and executing code.  Learning how to use it can be daunting for a novice. 

1. Demonstration of BlueJ: writing line of code, compiling, observing the results

2. Allow participants to practise using shared application

Macdonald & Campbell (in press

Technologies you might use for facilitating student learning

Forum

Quiz/simulation

Web conferencing

Phone/Skype

Sms or instant messaging

Radio and podcasts

What tools can your students access?

Classroom!

Use of audio“Once I discovered how much it helped to go over the

main points more than once by downloading and reading over the handouts and listening to the podcast, I started to get the gist of what it was about then at least I had a fighting chance.”

(Macdonald & Creanor, 2010)

Radio/website/memory stick

4. Assessment

• Where will students prepare assignments?• Which ones do they have to do?• How will they send them to you? • How will they be marked?

Strategies for assessment

Help before assignment

Feedback afterwards: to group/individual

Assignment preparation

Submission

Technologies for assessmentWord processor Web searching

Email/forum/blog Plagiarism detection

Where will students be when they prepare assignments? What access to technology?

Plagiarism

Students need to learn how to write appropriately at university.

Paraphrasing, summarising, referencing

See handout

References• Macdonald, J and Black, A (2010) Disciplinary knowledge

practices in distance education.  Testing a new methodology for teaching enhancement in History, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, vol 9, no 1, pp 69-86Macdonald, J and Campbell, A (in press) Demonstrating online teaching in the disciplines, British Journal of Educational Technology

References (2)• Meyer, JHF and Land, R (2006) Threshold concepts

and troublesome knowledge: An introduction, in Meyer, JHF and Land, R, eds (2006) Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, London: RoutledgePerkins, D (2006) Constructivism and troublesome knowledge, in Meyer, JHF and Land, R, eds (2006) Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, pp 33-47, London: Routledge