understanding student use of digital learning resources glenda morganchuck dziuban patsy moskalflora...
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Understanding Student Use of Digital Learning ResourcesGlenda Morgan Chuck DziubanPatsy Moskal Flora McMartinAlan Wolf Josh Morrill
Copyright G. Morgan et al. (2012). This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors."
Why Study Use of Digital Resources• How people interact with
scholarly content is changing
• Roots in NSDL and other digital library initiatives
• People had only studied how faculty used specific collections
• No one knew how faculty found & used materials
• But it gives us some provocative insights into how people work, and teach and learn and the implications of that knowledge is fairly profound
We Started Out Looking at Faculty Use of Digital Resources
• 2006 – 2009 – National survey of STEM instructors regarding their use of digital resources in teaching (n=4,439)
• 2009 – Large international survey of Physics instructors (n=9,275)
• 2011 – National study of Social Science faculty (n=1,037)
Research Questions - Faculty
• What do faculty members do with the online digital resources they find at digital libraries, online collections, etc.?
• Do faculty value digital resources?
• How do faculty use digital resources for teaching purposes?
• What are the barriers to their use of resources and digital libraries/collections?
How different are faculty from one another?• When we look at traditionally identified faculty
populations, we saw few differences.• The type of institution where they serve• The amount of time that they have been teaching• Even discipline was less a factor than expected
• Differences in the types resources used• As far as these traditional groups go, we have a
homogenous population
Types of Digital Resources
Type of Resource% Use Very Frequently How Used
Digital images - visual 42 LectureProf. Dev. as Teacher
Animations 11 Review/Study aidLecture
Data Sets 22 Prof. Dev. as TeacherResearch/PBL
Teaching, Learning Exercises 28 Review/Study aidLecture
Online scholarly resources 49 Prof. Dev. as TeacherGrants, Scholarship
Digital Resources – other findings
• Google favorite starting point for searching
• Iterative process (satisficing)
• Tend to use DRs developed by others ‘as is’, regardless of the type of DR (digital image, data set, etc.)*
• Importance of
• Peer review – 50%
• Organized to find materials quickly – 40%
• Supplemental teaching materials – 8%
• Supplemental PD materials – 2%
Motivations• Strong Agreement
• Top – Improve student learning (Social desirability?)
• Stay abreast of professional developments
• Keep material fresh
• Help students learn difficult concepts
• Agreement• Incorporating DR’s in class is fun
• Saves time
• Ambivalent • Accommodation for students with disabilities
Barriers to use• Agreement
• More time
• More useful DR available
• More/better training in
• Ambivalent• Institutional rewards for use
• Disagreement• More dependable technology
• Not access to technology
• Greater priority to institution
Photo Credit: Brandon
Physics & Social Science Instructors
• Results tend to parallel those of larger study
• All valued DRs highly
• Similar broad patterns of digital resource type – but some interesting differences across disciplines
• Barriers are the same regardless of demographic e.g. social science discipline, type of school
Frequency of Use of Digital Resource by TypeThere are significant differences in utilization of different kinds of resources
This example is use of simulation:
Never
Rarely
Occasionally
Often
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
All Disciplines
Social Sciences
Physics
Conclusions about Faculty
• Data are still relevant – Instructors change more slowly than the educational landscape?
• Need activation to overcome barriers and encourage adoption
• Knowing about & valuing resources does not always translate to use
• Intrinsic motivation is a powerful force (but people do not have limitless reservoirs)
• Students are a powerful extrinsic motivator
• Faculty tend not to turn to online resources that focus on teaching improvement
What instructors think of student use of resources?
This question always sparks debate
BUT ….
For those who would like student use supervised, it is too late
But it does raise the question
• How do students use digital resources in their learning?
Student Study – 2011 - 2013
Interviews & focus groups
Qualitative data
analysis
Survey instrument
developmentSurvey
Survey data analysis
Follow up interviews & focus groups
Case study of Physics
students & other
intensive users
Summary Report & findings
Research Questions - Students• Do student believe DRs contribute to greater learning?
• What are the circumstances that motivate students to look for DRs?
• Where to students start searching?
• What criteria to students use to assess DRs?
• What barriers to students face in finding & using DRs?
• What kinds of DRs do students prefer?
• How to DRs contribute to student learning?
• Do students value “collections”?
Qualitative Findings• Students making far more independent use of DRs than
anticipated
• Students desire content that is well organized and that teachers teach it to them
• They seek information/explanation when teachers are doing a poor job of it.
• Students seek video, but it is unclear if they prefer it
• Differences between recordings of full lectures vs. chunks.
• Students may be turning to new or different content providers faster than we discover them e.g. YouTube channels
• Students may value collections more than their propensity to turn to Google may indicate, especially when directed to ‘authoritative’ sources
How and Why Students Use Digital Resources
Formal Syllabus
• Learning happens both inside and outside• Outside is the realm of the “free range learner”• Learners have always been a bit “free range”
Hypothesis
• That we are seeing more free range learning – or a different type of free range learning
• Who are the free rangers?• Are there different types of free ranger?
Free Rangers
• Demographics• Motivation• Barriers
Non Free Rangers
• Are there students who don’t free range, and why not?• What are they doing to fill that role
Quantitative Data Collection
Trying to determine what kinds of learners students are
Student Survey Lines of Inquiry
• Where do students turn when they run into problems with schoolwork
• Where do students turn when they are interested in a topic
• General motivations for studying and academic work
• Use of digital resources in class and students preferences
Student preferences about the “collection-ness” of data
Additional Lines of Inquiry
• Perceptions about college affordability
• Questions about textbook use and affordability
• Wikipedia use
• Technology ownership
• Demographics
Survey strategy
Survey Strategy
• Used data gathered from focus groups to formulate and refine questions
• Brainstorming sessions to tie the survey to our objectives and formulate a plan
Pilot survey
• Online survey• Ease of data collection• Ease of administration
• Conducting pilot • Asked 2 faculty at UCF to advertise
to their classes• ~50 responses• Asked students for feedback regarding
questions that were confusing
Some preliminarypilot survey results
Likely to do the following to help with course material
Seek out faculty
Seek out friends
Text friends Search Wikipedia
Search Google
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
3642
51
3944Pe
rcen
t
(n=51)
Use of technology in class
Video or audio Wikis/Blogs E-books Simulations or online games
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
10088
9
41
16
Perc
ent
(n=51)
Prefer frequent use in class
Series10
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
61
2418
2718
41
Perc
ent
Video/Audio
Wikis/Blogs
E-books Mobile Apps
Simulations/Online games
OtherWebsites
(n=51)
Steps taken in the past year to reduce textbook costs
Series10
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
34
5663
19
3444 44
Perc
ent
Sharedbook
Checked out from
library
Didn’t buy book
Borrowed book
Rented book
Found materials
online
Other
(n=51)
Computer, laptop, net-
book
Ipad Other tablet eReader0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
6
75
43
73
38
0
21
0
71 71
Perc
ent
Plan to purchase
Technology Ownership100 Own Have access to
(n=51)
Survey Strategy
• Using survey administration company• Maintain large database of people• Can pre-screen on demographics• National sample• Removes researcher pressure on participants• Sample size of 10,000-20,000• Plan on 10% response rate
Questions
• Glenda Morgan [email protected]
• Patsy Moskal [email protected]
• Alan Wolf [email protected]
Acknowledgements & Co-Conspirators
• Flora McMartin
• Josh Morrill
• Chuck Dziuban
• Ellen Iverson
• Lynette Hoeltter
Questions and CommentsGlenda Morgan [email protected]@morganmundum
Or one of the other researchers on the project
Chuck Dziuban, University of Central Florida, [email protected] McMartin, Broad-based Knowledge, [email protected] Morrill, University of Wisconsin at Madison, [email protected] Moskal, University of Central Florida, [email protected] Wolf, University of Wisconsin at Madison, [email protected]
Support for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation DUE award no. 1049537 Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation