Convenience and community?An exploratory investigation into learners’

experiences of web conferencing

Sarah Cornelius, School of Education

Background

http://maps.google.co.uk

Images from www.abdn.ac.uk

What are the experiences of

individual learners?

Do learners take up the opportunity to engage in student-

led meetings outside formal class times?

Can learners engage effectively with each other?

Do learners always engage with activities?

What is it like to be a learner in the

virtual classroom?

Work-based learners: in-service Further

Education college Lecturers

Diversity in - subject background - IT experience - level of study

Web conferencing and the online TQFE

• Groups of approx. 12-15 students– Face to face induction– Online Workshops (10 x 3 hours)– Online Tutorials (6 x 1 hour)– Online Drop-in ‘open office’ sessions (6 x 1

hour)– Student-only online sessions (unknown)

Research

• 21 questionnaires (76% response rate)– technical resources, support, problems– use of and attitudes towards Elluminate – the induction day – experiences of different types of online

sessions

• 3 interviews– stories of experiences, challenges, successes

and impact on learning

Respondents

100% had NO prior experience

of web conferencing

63% female

38% male

63% no prior DL or online learning

experience

94% participated

from home at some time

44% 41-50 years old

31% over 50

50% found engagement

most successful from home

Two key themes: technology and engagement

• Laptops more successful than desktops

• Headsets with built-in microphones best

• Wireless and broadband connections equally suitable

• Most common technical problems – accessing Elluminate (81% of respondents) – with audio during the sessions (75%)– with headsets (50%)

I was doing it from work … deliberately … so that I was in a room where I

had two colleagues who are … more IT friendly

I had a practice … to get used to what it would be like listening .. through

headphones … in a room where there might be other

people and telephones ringing …

Myself and one other colleague worked together in the same

room, and that really helped, that someone else was there. ...once or twice I was on my own and I found that harder to cope with

I worked mainly from home and I was on

wireless…it was pretty straightforward for me

Appropriate learning environmentSupport

Using Elluminate Live! has…(n=16)

Mean(5 = strongly agree

– 1 = strongly disagree

SD

… allowed flexibility in my learning 4.27 1.01

… allowed me to communicate effectively with tutors

4.13 1.06

… allowed me to communicate effectively with peers

4.0 0.97

… made me feel part of a community of learners

3.81 0.98

… allowed me to collaborate effectively with peers

3.75 1.06

… reduced my isolation as a distance learner

3.6 0.99

you develop more if you can have access to other people’s opinions and thoughts and discussion on things, and it

facilitated that

Timings and concentration levels were

quite intense … body language is obviously

missing

Disappointment or dissatisfaction in

the way that the content was managed

So straightforward when you got used to it

Kept all [whiteboards]…they were very, very

useful

very small disadvantage

was the fact that it’s not visual

Positives Challenges

Summary

Small scale study, voluntary participation…

• Convenient and flexible• Learners needed to prepare themselves and

their study/support environment• Communication and interaction with peers was

supported – voice is particularly important• There was some independent collaboration• There was diversity in experiences

(reflecting personal learning preferences?)

Where next?

• Duality of learners’ and teachers’ experiences

• ELESIG funded projectWtolexperiences.wordpress.com

• Study of feedback

• Teachers’ experiences

Sarah Corneliuss.cornelius@abdn.ac.ukTwitter: SarahCornelius