Undergraduate study skills and group wiki projects
Teaching & Learning Conference
Freya Jarman, Nedim Hassan, Jo Ashley, Tünde Varga-Atkins23rd June 2010
Rationale & Module Development
Creation of module University information literacy strategy; Subject specific skills sets; Issues with first attempt;
Creation of wiki task “Teaching is learning something twice”; Benefits of group work; Working outside the department.
Teaching Sessions
Provided guidance on the wiki tool Advised students on the range of
resources that they could use when gathering information for their sites, identifying some of the potential difficulties that they might have encountered
The role of the teaching team was primarily an advisory one
Teaching sessions were used to facilitate student meetings
Using wikis
An example wiki
Group 1
Discuss in groups
Whiteboard exercise
Thinking through what these meant
Study skills specific to Music students
Listening to and analysing music
Place, environment, time, concentration, equipment
Instrumental practice – both individual and group
Organisation – time, place, maybe book?
The Liverpool Music scene
Some Examples
Resources
Where to look
Books
Journals
Databases
Websites
How to look
Keywords
Synonyms
Boolean searching
Truncation and wildcards
Academic, VITAL expert, Librarian
Demonstrates that we are joined-up
All able to help with general queries in sessions
Could refer to relevant expert when necessary
All contributed to assessment
Working together
The best group wiki
Group 4
Group wikis: creative ‘skills’ content
Group 4
Group wikis: use of multimedia
Group 4
Practising the skills
Group 3
Dynamics of Student Groups Engagement with the task and groups
members’ approach to teamwork varied Many had clearly assigned individual
members specific roles and tasks Some students took on a leadership role –
delegating tasks and motivating their groups
Poor attendance and time management skills impeded the progress of other groups
Tendency for many groups to focus on planning of individual sections but not on uploading content to the actual wiki sites
Reflections on areas for development Purpose of wiki.
Subject-specific issues.
Management of group process:
Self/Peer assessment Team building. Formative mid-semester deadline. More regular contact hours.
Further information
Contact: Freya Jarman, School of Music