May 17 2006 Networking Day for Humanities Librarians

E-learning and e-resources

Brett Lucas

Learning Technology & Web Development Officer

English Subject Centre

brett.lucas@rhul.ac.uk

Overview

• Current Higher Education Academy E-learning work• Current English Subject Centre E-learning work• Other e-learning sector initiatives • Resources• Questions for discussion

Current HEA work

• Distributed e-learning– Cultural issues, subject differences and embedding – http://www.jisc.ac.uk/programme_edistributed.html– http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/distributedelearning.htm

• E-tutor of the year– http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/etutor.htm

• E-learning Benchmarking exercise– to allow institutions providing higher education to identify their

current progress, on embedding e-learning, in relation to similar institutions

• Academy e-learning resources– http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/969.htm

English Subject Centre e-learning work

• E-learning advocates– http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/resources/tech

nology/advocates.php

English Subject Centre e-learning work

• E-learning advocates• National scoping study of English studies

(Philosophy & Religious studies and History)

UK English department survey - 2002/3

Yes

No

Don't Know

Source = Curriculum & Teaching Survey (2003) - English Subject Centre

Yes - 55%No - 26%

Don’t know - 19%

“Does your institution support a VLE/CMS?”

UK English department survey – 2002/3

7% 0%

34%

55%

4%

All lectures Majority of lecturers Substantial minority of lecturers A few enthusiasts No response

A few enthusiasts – 55%

A substantial minority – 34%

If Yes, How many lecturers in your department use it

Majority – 4%

UK English department survey – 2002/3

• Early stages - 15% • Well established 49%• Innovative - 25% • Not an issue - 11%

What stage best describes where you would like to see your department’s use of IT in teaching in three years?

UK English department elearning practitioner survey - 2005

1

“Does your institution support a VLE/CMS?”

English Subject Centre e-Learning Practitioner Survey 2005

English is….Respondents by Subject Area

English literature

Creative writing

Cultural studies

Linguistics

Media studies

Educational Studies

Drama / Theatre studies Other (please

specify)

Area studies (e.g. American studies)

English language

E-learning Practitioner survey 2005

What VLE(s) are available for use by your students if any?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

BlackboardIn house / Intranet

WebCTMoodle

We don't use a VLEBodington

Granada learnwiseMinerva

FirstclassLearnwise

E- BoardCourseWorkDon't know

Other (please

% % % % % %

3.1 How valuable do you think e-learning is for:

not at all valuable of limited valueof considerable

valueextremely valuable

communicating with students 0% (0) 4% (5) 21% (24) 75% (87)

supporting discussion among students 0% (0) 29% (33) 39% (45) 31% (36)

creating learning resources for students e.g. a website or VLE based course 2% (2) 11% (13) 40% (46) 47% (55)

providing access to learning resources 1% (1) 6% (7) 36% (42) 57% (66)

improving literacy/essay writing skills 4% (5) 52% (60) 33% (38) 11% (13)

supporting classroom activities 4% (4) 19% (22) 48% (55) 28% (33)

supporting learning outside the classroom 2% (2) 17% (19) 40% (46) 41% (47)

improving accessibility for all students e.g. part-time dyslexic 1% (1) 14% (16) 50% (57) 36% (41)

assessing students and giving feedback 6% (7) 44% (51) 34% (39) 16% (18)

tracking students' activity/progress 4% (5) 47% (54) 31% (35) 18% (20)

managing classes 12% (13) 46% (52) 27% (30) 16% (18)

Total Respondents 116

Source: English Subject Centre E-learning practitioner survey 2005

3.1 How often do you currently use e-learning for:

Never Rarely Quite often Frequently

communicating with students 1% (2) 5% (6) 11% (13) 83% (97)

supporting discussion among students 18% (21) 36% (41) 30% (35) 16% (18)

creating learning resources for students e.g. a website or VLE based course 16% (19) 20% (23) 24% (28) 40% (46)

providing access to learning resources 7% (8) 9% (11) 36% (42) 47% (55)

improving literacy/essay writing skills 36% (41) 32% (37) 20% (23) 11% (13)

supporting classroom activities 8% (9) 22% (25) 41% (47) 29% (33)

supporting learning outside the classroom 7% (8) 27% (31) 35% (40) 30% (34)

improving accessibility for all students e.g. part-time dyslexic 20% (22) 32% (36) 31% (35) 17% (19)

assessing students and giving feedback 30% (34) 29% (33) 28% (31) 12% (14)

tracking students' activity/progress 33% (38) 31% (36) 23% (27) 12% (14)

managing classes 34% (38) 27% (31) 24% (27) 15% (17)

Total Respondents 116

Source: English Subject Centre E-learning practitioner survey 2005

3.1 How often do you currently use e-learning for:

Never Rarely Quite often Frequently

supporting discussion among students 18% (21) 36% (41) 30% (35) 16% (18)

3.1 How valuable do you think e-learning is for:

not at all valuable of limited valueof considerable

valueextremely valuable

supporting discussion among students 0% (0) 29% (33) 39% (45) 31% (36)

Source = English Subject Centre e-Learning practitioner survey 2005

3.1 How often do you currently use e-learning for:

Never Rarely Quite often Frequently

assessing students and giving feedback 30% (34) 29% (33) 28% (31) 12% (14)

tracking students' activity/progress 33% (38) 31% (36) 23% (27) 12% (14)

managing classes 34% (38) 27% (31) 24% (27) 15% (17)

3.1 How valuable do you think e-learning is for:

not at all valuable of limited valueof considerable

valueextremely valuable

assessing students and giving feedback 6% (7) 44% (51) 34% (39) 16% (18)

tracking students' activity/progress 4% (5) 47% (54) 31% (35) 18% (20)

managing classes 12% (13) 46% (52) 27% (30) 16% (18)

English subject centre e-Learning practitioner survey 2005

3.1 How often do you currently use e-learning for:

Never Rarely Quite often Frequently

improving literacy/essay writing skills 36% (41) 32% (37) 20% (23) 11% (13)

3.1 How valuable do you think e-learning is for:

not at all valuable of limited valueof considerable

valueextremely valuable

improving literacy/essay writing skills 4% (5) 52% (60) 33% (38) 11% (13)

English subject centre e-Learning practitioner survey 2005

8.2 Has your teaching practice changed as a result of having access e-learning resources?

81

25

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Yes

No

“I've found myself shifting attention to primary literary and dramatic materials and away from critical/interpretative material. That is to say, I find my teaching practice more likely now to be the encouragement of students to find their own explanations of what's in the drama and the literary rather than to become well-read in the secondary material. (This development has, I think, good and bad sides to it.)”

“more able to transcend limitations of book-based resources and open new channels of learning”

“Raised my expectations of what students can accomplish on their own initiative (I am more demanding in some ways - with set assignments each week for preparation. The students respond well to this and I don't get large numbers who 'haven't read the text' and require spoon-feeding with a plot summary. They know we press on regardless on the basis of the work they can all access on or off campus - so no excuses!) Made me more creative about providing supporting materials that students might find helpful.”

Is practice changing?

English Subject Centre E-learning practitioner survey 2005

Some conclusions from the survey…

• Careful that we aren’t replicating existing practice• Early adopters vs luddites• Institutional pressure – top down vs bottom up• More work on student perspective• longitudinal studies

Use and reuse

For each resource type listed below please indicate whether you regularly…

use with learners produce myself find elsewhereshare with colleagues

Response Total

Reading lists / bibliographies 100% (108) 97% (105) 25% (27) 47% (51) 108

Websites as secondary source material 100% (97) 40% (39) 85% (82) 36% (35) 97

Online primary texts e.g poems plays etc 100% (94) 41% (39) 84% (79) 24% (23) 94

Essay questions 100% (96) 94% (90) 10% (10) 42% (40) 96

Class tasks & exercises 100% (86) 95% (82) 16% (14) 36% (31) 86

Overhead or PowerPoint slides 100% (80) 96% (77) 12% (10) 22% (18) 80

Digital images (used in a VLE or individually) 100% (65) 51% (33) 68% (44) 22% (14) 65

Digital text archives e.g. EEBO 100% (59) 22% (13) 86% (51) 32% (19) 59

Moving images, video or animations 100% (57) 30% (17) 77% (44) 23% (13) 57

Audio 100% (59) 49% (29) 75% (44) 25% (15) 59

Multiple choice test questions 100% (20) 75% (15) 25% (5) 40% (8) 20

Software e.g. concordancing tools 100% (18) 22% (4) 83% (15) 22% (4) 18

Simulations, games, virtual worlds 100% (14) 29% (4) 81% (10) 29% (4) 14

Total Respondents 108

(skipped this question) 8

Sharing & re-use

• 2/3 prepared to make materials available outside their institution

• But… “I think of sharing in terms of people I know – material only really makes sense in the context of a larger conversation. Other people’s material is often a bit useless if you are not personally engagedWith it/them – no matter how good it is.”

Re-using learning materials in English – report forthcoming

S1

Print-based (articles, books)

VLE Repository in own university

Departmental website

On personal websiteNational repository

Distn via email lists

Known individuals only

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

Through which medium (or media) would you be most prepared to share your material

Re-using learning materials in English – report forthcoming

English Subject Centre e-learning work

• E-learning advocates• National scoping study of English studies

(Philosophy & Religious studies and History)

• Digitisation Projects

Digitisation projects• Web-based resources for teaching, research

and general use, on Robert Bloomfield and Thomas Chatterton

– Romantic poets– Ug & 6th form– Nottingham Trent University

• Interdisciplinarity & Online learning: Fiction in the Victorian & Edwardian provincial press

– Digitisation of local/regional papers– University of Teesside

• Digitisation of manuscripts and papers relating to D.H Lawrence’s ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ with supporting pedagogical materials for textual, historical and critical study.

– University of Nottingham

English Subject Centre e-learning work

• E-learning advocates • National scoping study of English studies

(Philosophy & Religious studies and History)

• Digitisation Projects• Repurposing digital archives

Repurposing Digital text archives

• Repurposing Research tools– Pedagogical layers

– good practice guide on using Digital text archives

– Sheffield Hallam

http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/technology/tech20.php

English Subject Centre e-learning work

• National scoping study of English studies (Philosophy & Religious studies and History)

• Digitisation Projects• Repurposing digital archives• Information Literacy

How do I reference an article again? Information Literacy & E-Learning

• researching and creating a web-based module which concentrates on research and writing skills

• helping students make the transition from A-level directed work to university self-directed study

• on-line assignments in conjunction with library assignments

• entirely web-based /mandatory for progression• University of Newcastle• http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects

/archive/technology/tech12.php

http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/networks

Sheila Webber’s Information Literacy Webloghttp://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

Other e-learning sector resources

http://www.jorum.ac.uk

Other e-learning sector resources

http://www.merlot.org/Home.pohttp://www.nln.ac.uk/Materials/default.asp

http://careo.ucalgary.ca/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CAREO.woa

Other e-learning sector resources

• Designing Spaces for Effective Learning• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISClearni

ngspaces.pdf

The Saltire Centre

Glasgow Caledonian

University

• 21st century Library• Learning space

• Single point of access to services

An Organisational Change project

Other e-learning sector resources

• Humbul & Artifact-> http://www.intute.ac.uk/development/

Other e-learning sector resources

• JISC exemplars of online resources for FE• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=exemplars

Using a VLE as a portal for useful web resources on a final year specialist course.

WWW

• Online libraries• Journals• Datasets

• Resource / enquiry /PBL

Questions

• What is your role in promoting e-resources?• How far do you see yourselves going in suggesting teaching

applications?• How much access do you have to individual courses on your

institutional VLE’s?• How do you see your role vis-à-vis the JISC• How far do you think academic staff are aware of what is

available?• How do you choose which elearning resource to subscribe to?• How far do get involved in elearning design issues

Today’s students….

Attributes of the “information-age mindset” of today’s students:

1. Computers are not technology

2. The Internet is better than TV

3. Reality is no longer real.

4. Doing is more important than knowing

5. Learning resembles Nintendo over logic.

1. Diana Oblinger. "Boomers, Gen X's, & Millennials: Understanding the New Students," Educause Review 38.4 (2002):27-47.

Today’s students..

Attributes of the “information-age mindset” of today’s students:

6. Typing rather than handwriting.

7. Multitasking is a way of life.

8. Staying connected is essential.

9. Zero tolerance for delays.

10. Consumer / creator blurring.

1. Diana Oblinger. "Boomers, Gen X's, & Millennials: Understanding the New Students," Educause Review 38.4 (2002):27-47.