Post on 07-Jan-2016
description
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student Interaction with a Sakai VLE in Plant Sciences
University of Cambridge, UK
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CMI Teaching and Learning Project Aims
To develop learning approaches and resources to enhance the effectiveness of small group teaching in 2nd year Plant and Microbial Sciences course
Improve learning outcomes
Engage students better
Enhance student recruitment and
retention
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CMI Teaching and Learning Project
Identification of potential new practices (from literature, theory or participants)
Development of new resources to support new practices
Intervention : implementation of resources and practices
Analysis and review of effectiveness of new practices
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CamTools – an integrated learning environment
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Why use a wiki?• Allows intuitive organisation of content• Quick and easy way to make web pages• Organisational flexibility
o Editing rights can be set for individual pageso Editing rights can be changed at any timeo Allows easy arrangement of pages
• Possible to make links within pageso Link to e-learning objectso Link lecture topics togethero Link to appropriate webpageso Link to glossary pages
• All wiki pages are searchable
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Additional resources in CamTools
Exemplar essays
Self-assessment questions
Connotea library
Video explanations
Flash animations
Glossary definitions
Podcasts
3D molecules
Concept map
Metabolic jigsaw
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CamTools usage questions
• How has usage varied throughout the year?• Have different students engaged with the site to
different extents?• What do the students think about the site?
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Evaluation strategy
Site stats:- per day
- per studentQuestionnaire
Focus Groups
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CamTools usage questions
How has usage varied throughout the year?
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CamTools usage questions
Have different students engaged with the site to different extents?
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Individual student usage – content read
Student
Con
tent
rea
d
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
What did ‘student K’ do?
• Visited site 58 times• Sourced all past examination papers• Looked at a range of exemplar essays• Accessed practical class information• Read 7 lecture wiki pages• Accessed archived 1st year Cells notes• Watched 4 video explanations• Used a Jmol tutorial
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Individual student usage – content read
Student
Con
tent
rea
d
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
How about ‘student O’?
• Visited site 60 times• Watched 12 flash animations• Sourced all past examination papers• Looked at 1st and 2.i exemplar essays• Accessed practical class information• Read 2 lecture powerpoints• Read selected wiki lecture notes:
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
CamTools usage questions
What do students think about the site?
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student questionnaire
• How useful do they find the site and how frequently do they use it?
• During which terms and vacations did they use it?
• Rate components of site for usefulness and frequency of use
• Free text comment box
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student questionnaire
19 out of 26 students responded (73% return)
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student questionnaire
ComponentFrequency of Use (1 to 5) Component
Usefulness (1 to 5)
EXEMPLAR ESSAYS 3.0LINKED JOURNAL ARTICLES 4.5
LINKED JOURNAL ARTICLES 2.9 EXEMPLAR ESSAYS 4.3
LECTURE SLIDES 2.9 ANIMATIONS 4.1
WIKI LECTURE NOTES 2.9 LECTURE SLIDES 4.1
VIDEO EXPLANATIONS 2.9 WIKI LECTURE NOTES 4.0
ANIMATIONS 2.7 VIDEO EXPLANATIONS 4.0
SELF TEST QUESTIONS 2.3 SELF TEST QUESTIONS 3.7
GLOSSARY DEFINITIONS 2.1 GLOSSARY DEFINITIONS 3.5
3D MOLECULES 2.0 3D MOLECULES 3.1
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student comments – what they likeVideo explanations / online tutorials• “Really like the videos! Like the gene for gene one for example.”• “Tutorials are excellent.”
Past exam questions sorted by topic• “Links to Short Answer Questions and Essays grouped by topic are very helpful when
revising.” • “Grouping exam questions with their relevant topic is very useful, especially for exam
preparation.”
Links to papers• “Links to papers very helpful since they are hard to find sometimes.”
Organisational tools• “Announcements, and the schedule (for practicals etc.)”
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student comments – requests
Self-assessment questions• “More self-assessment questions. There is not much in the test yourself section at the
moment.”• [more] “multi choice questions would be ideal, they allow the student to identify holes in
their knowledge and wouldn't require extra work on the staff's part in terms of marking.”
Exemplars • “The exemplar essays are a fantastic idea, but they would have been useful to have
from the start of the Easter holidays, when revision really kicks in.”• “Putting up answers to past exam papers, particularly the practical exams and short
answer questions. This would be very helpful for exam preparation. (Engineering seem to have an efficient way of doing this).”
Videos & Animations• “More animations/ videos (as they are very useful).”
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Student comments – valuing variety
• Reluctance to score any component on questionnaire below 3 as ‘useful’
• “In reference to the "references" question above, I think the best idea would be to have the online library AND to have links in the lectures.”
• “In regards to question 11, both are useful depending on the situation.”
• “I find I don’t often visit CamTools, but when I do I find lots of interesting things and spend time watching videos etc. and forgetting why I was there in the first place!”
11. Recently, a new tool called ‘references’ was added to the IB PMS CamTools. This is an online library of all the journal papers for the course. Do you prefer online references this way, or to be linked to their occurrence in lecture notes?
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
One year in – future development
• Exemplars for practical paper and short-answer questions
• More self-assessment questions• More videos and animations
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
One year in - Some conclusions and ways forward
• Strong influence of examinations• Common ideas about value of items• Usage shows a lot of variation• Value richness of the environment• Offers flexibility in supporting learning
Sakai Conference 13th June 2007
Josh Jacobs
Lori Breslow
Warren Seering
Patrick Carmichael
Helen Burchmore
Naomi Irvine
Harriet Truscott
John Norman
Keith Johnstone
Fran Tracy
sakai@plantsci.cam.ac.uk
http://www.tfln.org