Virtuality and Education: A Reader (At the Interface Probing the Boundaries 34)

Virtuality and Education A Reader

At the Interface

Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Margaret Sönser Breen

Advisory Board Professor Margaret Chatterjee Professor Michael Goodman Dr Jones Irwin Professor Asa Kasher Dr Owen Kelly Revd Stephen Morris

Professor John Parry Dr David Seth Preston Professor Peter L. Twohig Professor S Ram Vemuri Professor Bernie Warren Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E Volume 34

A volume in the At the Interface project ‘The Idea of Education’

Probing the Bounderies

Virtuality and Education A Reader

Edited by

Tuan Hoang Nguyen & David Seth Preston

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006

The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents Requirements for permanence”. ISBN-10: 90-420-2054-7 ISBN-13: 978-90-420-2054-2 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006 Printed in the Netherlands

Table of Contents Page vii

Preface Chapter 1

Embedding E- learning i n a Higher E ducation Institution

1

Mark Stiles Chapter 2

Students’ approaches to learning and their use of and feelings about a VLE

27

Adrian Bromage Chapter 3

An Evaluation of an E-learning Strategy: Watching the e-Learners Learn

47

Simon P. Bates and Judy Hardy Chapter 4

Out of University and Into Intensive Care: A Case Study of the Development of a Distance Learning Course in Intensive Care Nursing

63

Justin Macklin and Audrey Blenkharn Chapter 5

Supporting non-native English-speaking students in an online postgraduate degree

81

David Catterick Chapter 6

The Challenge of the Paperless Thesis: Issues in the Implementation of a Regime of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

99

William W. Bostock Chapter 7

‘I’m a virtual lecturer but I need real help’ Loykie Loïc Lominé

115

Preface

vi Chapter 8

Plotting Virtuality: dimensions of E-learning space

131

Peter J Williams Chapter 9

Computer Aided Learning in midwifery: Panacea or Pandora’s box?

147

Jenny Prior Chapter 10

Authenticating E-learners and Virtual learning systems

171

Godfried Williams & Hossein Jahankhani Chapter 11

Invisible Barriers: Understanding Women’s Experiences in Computing and Information Systems in a Distance Education Environment

183

Lynda R. Ross, Peter Holt and Julia Johnson Notes on Contributors

201

Index

205

Preface Following the success of the first ‘Virtual Learning and Higher Education’ conference held at Mansfield College Oxford in 2002 and the subsequent edited volume, it was felt that the specific theme of Virtuality and Education was of such import that there was need for a conference focussing singularly on it. As a result a conference was held the following year at the same venue. A highly intellectual debate around the presented papers ensued at the Conference supplemented afterwards by an on-going debate amongst delegates. Indeed these communications continued late into 2004. I believe this edited book gives the reader an accurate summary both of the 2003 conference and the subsequent communications which resulted in refinements of the papers. Perhaps my abiding memory will be how delegates from so many different backgrounds and institutions clearly had very similar experiences of Virtuality and Education. In particular it was universal that whilst virtuality was already a significant factor in our institutions there was a surprisingly lack of thought going into what these systems look like or rather what type of education virtual systems most suits and how to gain a well integrated and efficacious structures. This consistency is reflected across the chapters of this book. In Chapter One of this volume, our keynote speaker Mark Stiles examines the issues of ‘embedding’ E-learning in a UK University. He considers E-learning to be embedded into an institution when all policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities pertaining to its use are fully integrated within it. Dr Stiles argues that E-learning is part of the culture of the institution and both management and administrative practice needs to be aligned to its use. In Chapter Two Adrian Bromage analyses data from a UK University to explore the relationship between how they use a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and the perceived benefits. Dr Bromage considers his data from deep, strategic and surface forms of learning and produces some very persuasive conclusions. In Chapter Three Simon Bates and Judy Hardy provide a general evaluation of a particular E-learning strategy. It utilises data from Elearning courseware from a UK University. The chapter uses the concept of a learner profile based on students' previous usage of the online resources together with a range of other data. In Chapter Four Justin Macklin and Audrey Blenkharn examine a distance learning programme based in a UK University. The chapter provides insights into the educational, professional and technical issues arising as a result of developing distance learning development and implementation. They explore the background issues surrounding intensive care nursing education: the difficulties in delivering a hands-on clinical

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Preface

course at a distance; the curriculum design; the technical structure of the VLE and the evaluation of the course. In Chapter Five David Catterick reports on a collaborative project between a UK and Australian university of Sydney designed to test the validity some issues and hypotheses pertaining to on-line learning programmes. The chapter also considers how the results of this project might go some way to informing student support considerations. In Chapter Six William Bostock examines prospects for the ‘paperless’ University. The chapter outlines how strides towards such an institution have already been made. In particular Dr Bostock considers the paperless thesis by assessing the challenge this concept presents to universities, academics and thesis writers, and reviews progress in its implementation. In Chapter Seven Loykie Lominé addresses the issues for those individuals who are new to online instruction. It identifies the professional challenges and pedagogical opportunities pertaining to virtuality in higher education. In line with the topic theme, the chapter does not follow the traditional form of academic papers. Instead it is designed as a series of messages posted onto an online discussion board. In both form and content the chapter provides special emphasis on the potentially creative nature of e-teaching. In Chapter Eight Peter Williams seeks to provide contextual and internal analyses of E-learning as an initial stage in the process of creating a frame of reference that can be used to determine what types of E-learning suits the context in which it is being applied. Boundaries of E-learning are examined and an overview is made of ways in which it is employed at higher education level within private, corporate and state-funded systems. Earlier conceptual models for E-learning are examined and a model is proposed and assessed comprising four dimensions of virtual space: course utility, study flexibility, delivery technology and learning paradigm. In Chapter Nine Jenny Prior examines the main reasons behind developing a computer aided learning (CAL) package for a midwifery curriculum within a UK university. Furthermore Dr Prior considers the subsequent development of the CAL package and evaluates its implementation. In Chapter Ten Godfried Williams and Hossein Jahankhani discuss the security implications of virtual learning (VL) as a form of Elearning. It is the belief of Drs Williams and Jahankhani that VL and security is a much ignored but significant consideration when selecting and using E-learning. In particular they examine the authentication issues and methods appropriate for ensuring the integrity, confidentiality and availability of resources that supports e-learners, VL systems and tools.

Preface

ix

In Chapter Eleven Lynda R. Ross, Peter Holt and Julia Johnson report on an on-going project, at Canada’s Athabasca University examining and analyzing the under-representation of females in computer science degree courses. Based on data from some of the women students the authors suggest some potential remedies for this globally all too common condition. I am grateful to all the contributors of both this book and the 2003 Oxford Conference as well as the many who contributed to the subsequent discussions. As ever I am extremely grateful to the Series Editor Rob Fisher for being generally so helpful and supportive. In addition I owe an enormous debt to my co-editor, Tuan Hoang Nguyen for his extraordinary technical talents and fast turnaround of my large number of questions and requests. This book is dedicated to my extraordinary wife, Margaret and our wonderful children, Benjamin, Rachel and Gabriella. February 2006 David Seth Preston

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CHAPTER ONE Embedding E-learning in a Higher Education Institution Mark Stiles Abstract This chapter discusses issues of ‘embedding’ E-learning in a UK University. For this purpose, E-learning will be considered embedded into an institution when all policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities pertaining to its use are fully integrated – not just with each other, but with those applying to normal practice. Whilst an institutional map could be produced for E-learning, it would be done by extracting the information from policies, etc., covering the institution holistically, rather than as a special set of E-learning statements. Many components of practice covered by these policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities are not (and may never be) implemented technologically. Embedding implies however, that the technologies are employed seamlessly alongside them Embedding also implies that E-learning is part of the culture of the institution, and is seen by all as part of normal working practice, and as part of the normal portfolio available to facilitate learning by teachers and learners. Equally, management and administrative practice will be aligned to its use, which is integrated into business systems and day-to-day operations whilst also forming part of planning and strategy. Cultural embedding issues, can, given experience so far, only be addressed in parts until process embedding is complete. Keywords: E-learning strategy; E-learning embedding; Higher Education policy

1.

Introduction In the majority of universities, E-learning has begun with the introduction of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), a system focussed on the delivery and support of learning opportunities. Institutions whose use of VLEs is relatively mature are moving towards the establishment of Managed Learning Environments (MLEs) which include all of the wider features of enrolment, course options, management, student record and profile keeping, the wider management, interchange and publication of content, and the features needed to allow learners to move or progress between courses and institutions1

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Embedding E-learning in a Higher Education Institution

and include both technological and manual elements. Embedding is a long-term process; the UK Department for Education and Skills comments: “Embedding E-learning will not happen fast. This is a long-term strategy that looks ahead to years when the technology will probably have evolved further. That is all part of the strategy - how we prepare ourselves, through our education system, to cope with an ever-changing world. Most importantly, this is a unified E-learning strategy for the whole of England. There are E-learning strategies being developed at every level - in the four countries of the UK, in local authorities, institutions, agencies, and departments, as well as in private sector organisations. Elearning does not recognise these physical boundaries. Coming together to consider how best to blend E-learning with our existing systems will benefit all partners.”2 2.

The Local Background E-learning at Staffordshire University developed as a component of a wider Learning and Teaching Strategy ‘Building a Learning Community’ (BLC) which arose from senior management recognition of the need for the organisation to be distinctive in a changing and competitive UK HE sector. BLC emerged in 1996 from a Vice-Chancellor led process, facilitated by external consultants, and coordinated by the then Head of Education Development, Steve Outram. Outram notes: “Any doubts that I might have had about the desirability of using external development consultants were dispelled very quickly once the critical issues started to be addressed. … External consultants often see things that are taken for granted by, or quite invisible to, people working within an organisation. … Our external consultants were invaluable; in the expertise they brought to the situation and in their skills in sharing that expertise and moving faculty into a position where they would accept change.”3 The nascent strategy saw the University as a learning community, valuing collaboration and peer support, where people felt welcomed and included. This student-centred change process was driven from the top down and the bottom up, with the Vice-Chancellor and Executive emphasising that buy-in to the strategy was not optional, and that the

Mark Stiles

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process would be resourced. Senior management, academic, and service staff suggested contributions to the implementation of the strategy4. A first round of top-sliced funding was used for schools and services to run projects aimed at learning and teaching innovation. Many were technology related and typically carried out by enthusiasts. These projects, whilst producing some good outcomes and localised change, did not have widespread impact and revealed weaknesses in an enthusiast driven approach5. Late 1997 saw a move to large scale adoption of distributed learning, centred on the adoption of the Lotus LearningSpace and COSE VLEs, to increase the rate of change and provide a University-wide focus to BLC development6. In 1998 the definitive version of the BLC strategy was published and included: x Promoting lifelong learning and flexibility in learning provision using educational technologies where appropriate. x Enabling students achieve academic credit for experiential learning, including work-based learning. x All programmes including learning outcomes related to skills and the application of tacit knowledge gained in student’s studies. x A focus on learning and the delivery of flexible learning using ‘active learning’ strategies rather than on teaching x Enhancing students' independence as learners and promoting collaborative learning x The use of resource based learning in conventional programmes x Using ‘distributed learning’ where appropriate, using technology to support the learning strategy, not to drive it. x Promoting effective dissemination processes to share good practice and resources and supporting development and use of common materials A Learning Development Centre, co-directed by the author and Steve Outram, was set up to lead and support distributed learning and the BLC strategy, and act as a focus for research and development. Large-scale pilots of Lotus LearningSpace were chosen by competitive bidding, judged against BLC and Schools’ own learning and teaching strategies. Later, this changed to a system where schools submitted plans and were allocated funding to support them once approved. Developments were approved before funding was allocated and released against progress. School appointed managers to drive BLC activities and form a central group to drive dissemination of good practice. Central initiatives were also funded in particular areas. This model, with developments managed in schools and supported as requested by central

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Embedding E-learning in a Higher Education Institution

services, used the Logical Framework approach to planning and managing developments7. Staff development in E-learning was embedded in the process. Accounts for VLEs were allocated conditional on the undertaking of centrally provided training or verification of local cascading. Central staff development had pedagogic issues embedded into the technical training; this was found to be more acceptable to teaching staff, as they were less likely to take up purely pedagogic offerings. The University strove to integrate BLC. Estates strategy reviewed teaching and learning accommodation, a Learning and Teaching Fellowship scheme was introduced, Information strategy included plans for maintaining and enhancing the required infrastructures, including the linking of MIS systems with VLEs, and quality assurance procedures and policies for E-learning introduced. As Outram comments, “from 1998 until 2002, the institutional learning and teaching strategy, Building a Learning Community, together with the University’s widening participation strategy, led the university’s purpose and activities8.” 3.

The Internal Context – Outcomes as of mid-2002 By mid 2002, BLC could be viewed as an overall success. The initiative had succeeded in joining up many University strategies and had received direct commendation from the UK HE Quality Assurance Agency.9 Also, all QAA teaching quality reviews since 1998 had received excellent scores. In terms of cultural change, BLC was successful in bringing teaching and learning into mainstream discussion amongst faculty.10 Some School BLC managers had received advancement as a result of their work and other staff had received Learning and Teaching fellowships. This helped to get staff to see excellence and innovation in learning and teaching as an area worth personal effort. In E-learning there had been considerable progress: x Several hundred teaching staff had undertaken training in the use of the VLEs x Some two hundred modules were making use of E-learning x Full distance learning “e” awards had been developed and were proving successful x As part of its HEFCE funded HE/FE consortium, Staffordshire University Regional Federation (SURF), the first Foundation Degree had been developed, making significant use of a VLE11 x Generic modules in careers development and information skills had been developed and used

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x VLE and MIS systems had been linked for student enrolment x Progress had been made in the provision of eResources for learners from eLibraries and eAggregators 4.

Lessons learned and problems However, a number of lessons learned and problems had been identified. Outram notes of the overall BLC strategy12: x Both strategy and policy changes should have been evaluated from the outset x Too much effort was spent on staff who did not wish to engage with change, at the expense of focussing on gaining early wins x Whilst the need for continuous dissemination of strategy and activities was recognised, this was not as successful as hoped for, leading to some staff “getting the wrong messages” The technical E-learning environment was confined to: x The VLE systems x The automatic and semi-automatic links between the VLEs and the student information system used to enrol students on courses and modules in the VLEs x Links to library resources and e-book systems actively under development but not yet in place x Use of repositories for learning content – in very early stages x Personal Development Planning (PDP) – at project stage In E-learning, the move from competitive enthusiast led developments to funding developments against strategies and supporting them centrally had overcome some problems but significant weaknesses remained. Developments sometimes failed to deliver anything, frequently delivered something different, and suffered from creep, false expectations, late delivery, and academic workloads. Despite a central methodology, projects were difficult to monitor, and evaluation was often lacking or weak, or had only local benefit. Support staff personnel were not involved in the entire process of development, constraining growth and spread of expertise.13 Despite E-learning being generally accepted and widespread, there were significant areas of non-involvement. It was clear that Staffordshire University was still not a “learning organisation”.14 Specific problems with E-learning included: x Students falling through the administrative net and not being enrolled into courses within the VLEs. x Support for eLearners from services and academics ranging from excellent to sometimes poor.

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x Work with partner FEIs revealed weaknesses in policies and procedures, and problems with roles and responsibilities. x Arrangements for approving new developments did not involve those charged with supporting development soon enough to ensure smooth production and desired quality x Insufficiently joined-up policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities applying to E-learning. E-learning could clearly not be described as embedded in terms of the definition given earlier, and the approach to E-learning was not as sustainable as needed (with reinvention of wheels and failure to reuse or repurpose resources and approaches) and did not enable the University to be agile in responding to new opportunities and demands. 5.

Additional Change Drivers The University used two VLEs and was one of the first to face migrating courses and content from one (LearningSpace) to others (Blackboard, introduced in the 2002/3 academic year, and COSE). This provided a light in which to review practice. The changing UK HE sector, with greatly increased competition for students, changes in the basis of student financial provision, and major revisions in research funding, saw the University developing a revised corporate plan with a focus on enabling it to: x Anticipate demand and meet individual needs and aspirations x Retain its share of traditional students but seek new areas for growth via innovative delivery modes and patterns x Increase part-time and postgraduate numbers including continuing professional development and other targeted areas x Widen participation and offer flexible opportunities for an increasingly diverse group of learners x Foster enterprise and engage in focused, applied research resulting in consultancy and knowledge transfer to the private, public and voluntary sectors x Play a lead role in regeneration and the cultural, social, economic and intellectual development of the local, regional and wider communities it serves

These were areas of strength for the University and ones in which expertise in flexible learning and E-learning would play a major part. This initiative involved major organisational restructuring and, in summer 2002, a new Information Service was created. This includes Learning Development and Innovation (LDI), Learning Support, Corporate

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Systems, and IT. E-learning is one of its four core strategies and wider MLE developments are embedded into all of these. The SURF consortium runs foundation degrees across its partner FEIs. The first, started in 2001, makes use of the University’s COSE VLE. At that time COSE was already linked to the University student information system, TheSIS, for enrolment of students, and had been used since 1998 for a number of the University’s on-campus and distance courses. The University thought it could anticipate most problems, and put in place a programme of staff development for teaching and support staff from partner FEIs. However, given the inexperience of the FE partners (and the particular group of University teaching staff) in E-learning, coupled with general inexperience with Foundation Degrees, things did not go smoothly. This is discussed later. (It must be stressed that the course in question has continued to recruit well and is successful, but the lessons learned have proved useful.) 6.

The Wider Context This period saw a major explosion in the use of E-learning in UK HE and FE, with most institutions introducing or planning for VLEs and many starting to build or plan for MLEs. One agency heavily involved in developments is the JISC15, which has funded numerous national initiatives and produced guidance and briefing for institutions. Staffordshire University benefited from being active in these initiatives, locally and nationally, including development of a VLE16, work on interoperation of VLEs17, interoperation of VLE and MIS systems18, accessibility in E-learning19, reuse and repurposing of content20, work with eAggregators21, and PDP22. The author has contributed articles and briefings23, including a section on Embedding for the JISC MLE Development InfoKit24. The InfoKit draws on expertise from across the UK and reinforces many of the experiences and conclusions covered here. JISC funded a study of MLE activity in 2002/3, surveying a significant sample of UK institutions and detailed case studies of a small number25. This revealed the vast majority were now using a VLE and that 73% were involved in some degree of MLE development, with the following main drivers for development: x Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning x Improving access to learning for students off campus x Widening participation/inclusiveness x Student expectations x Improving access for part-time students x Using technology to deliver E-learning

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Embedding E-learning in a Higher Education Institution

Perceived disadvantages were revealing26: x Cost and time involved x Resistance to culture change x Need for large scale staff development The study finds evidence of positive reaction by students to developments but little evidence of enhancement of learning and teaching. The study concludes that pedagogic issues have not in general been addressed, commenting27: “It could be said that HE has never addressed pedagogy; its priority has always been, and broadly continues to be, research and the subject discipline. Until now, pedagogy has traditionally barely figured in planning or professional development. In FE, where learning and teaching have been the prime concerns, staffing and resource deficiencies have prevented, and continue to impede, a sustained focus on pedagogy.” The study takes a similar view to the author on embedding, concluding28: “What is not broadly apparent is any real sense that the MLE is as yet fully embedded in the institutions’ strategic and operational frameworks. MLE development is included in a variety of strategic planning documents, but it is hard to identify many examples where MLE activities are yet an integral part of the philosophy, policies and practice of the institution.” Echoing an earlier study by Boys29, these conclusions equate with those of the author in who, writing about the use of E-learning to widen participation, concluded30: “Unless there is a national focus on the aspects of Elearning concerned with form (pedagogy and assessment) which is aimed at bringing these into balance with the current focuses on content (curriculum and resources) and issues of technology, students will be increasingly provided with isolating and passive learning experiences which, in turn, will impact most negatively on those very learners which the government is concerned to involve in FE/HE participation.”

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The Approach

Compared with this general UK picture, Staffordshire’s situation in 2002 was distinctive in a number of ways: x E-learning had been embedded as a part of the BLC initiative. Discourse on learning and teaching had become part of normal practice – an indication of considerable cultural change31. x This was enhanced by embedding pedagogic issues in staff development in using VLEs (not popular with all staff, however). Other institutions had argued that getting people started justified a technology led approach, but Staffordshire felt this risked embedding weak educational practice. x Having two pedagogically contrasting VLEs32,33 and urging staff to choose on educational grounds had, whilst receiving criticism, produced evidence of E-learning changing mainstream teaching and learning practice34. x The BLC had contributed to the creation of an institutional philosophy of joined-up strategies x MLE development was part of core activity, and integrated into both institutional and Information Service strategies x E-learning infrastructural realities and costs of were recognised Problems were largely organisational: x Moving E-learning development work from a project to a production-line approach x Ensuring lessons learned were spread across the organisation x Ensuring developments were targeted at institutional priorities x Embedding E-learning at the operational level, and as part of all relevant policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities. These problems were discussed by Information Services’ senior management team, which realised that they could neither be owned nor addressed by the service in isolation. A project plan to address embedding E-learning was drawn up by the author, and sponsorship of the initiative (called eL-P2R2) sought from the most senior levels of the institution and its major committees. To identify the full range of issues and problems a walkthrough approach has been adopted, starting from the position of an academic group that has an idea for a new course involving E-learning and following this through developing the proposal, approval to proceed, validation, design, development, quality assurance, implementation, delivery and support, assessment, post-course evaluation, monitoring and other requirements. This involves interviews with staff at different levels, “rock-lifting” (asking difficult questions of departments and services) and

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group discussions. Task-focussed working groups are spun off to address specific areas, involving staff from the relevant parts of the institution. Progress is reported at multiple levels. Gaining sponsorship at senior level has been vital in opening doors, getting staff to make time available, and encouraging openness in those owning policies and procedures to the idea of change. Alongside this, a new approach to the management and support of E-learning developments was developed, and a number of major initiatives aimed at specific information needs, started. The following discussion dwells on issues identified, including approaches to solving problems where begun. 8.

Course Planning and Approval Policies and processes covering the creation and conduct of courses were considered first. The notion “I/we have an idea for a new course which includes E-learning” was posited and followed through existing channels. This revealed a number of problem areas, and the issue of support services not becoming aware of developments in time to make the best input, with important advice sometimes not being received by academic developers in time to prevent failure at approval stages, difficulties at validation, failure to reuse existing resources, failure to make best pedagogic use of available tools and so on. Initial discussions with the Quality Improvement Service focused on forms used at Faculty and Institutional level to facilitate the approvalto-proceed process. These asked many pertinent questions, but did not ensure that prior consultation with QIS and LDI had taken place. It was agreed that the forms should be changed to ask if the proposal included the use of E-learning, and if so require the completion of an ‘E-learning annexe’ to be signed off by the proposers and LDI. QIS, LDI and the recently created Academic Development Institute are now developing this annexe. The processes will be designed to ensure that proposals evidence a clear rationale for the use of E-learning and the particular approach suggested. In addition, evidence is will be required of a planned approach to course design, resources and support, staff development, monitoring and evaluation. This should ensure that new E-learning courses cannot be developed without appropriate consultation, and that a plan for development will be in place involving the appropriate staff (see discussion of Integrative Development). Teaching staff raised the issue of assessing demand for the proposed new offering. Given widespread recognition that the cost of developing E-learning courses is both considerable and not well understood35, 36 it is vital that credible assessment of demand is carried out. Whilst central advice and support is available, the onus falls on the

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proposing academic group. A working group to progress this area is to be set up. Following approval to proceed, proposals are worked up for formal validation. Work on the requirements for validation of distance Elearning courses had been carried out under BLC and refined in the light of experience. Here, requirements additional to those for traditional courses focussed on ensuring that course development and delivery is thought through and planned. A tension is created by the need to assure quality and delivery without making validation unmanageable in terms of workload and paperwork. Where courses are to be largely delivered via Elearning, economies are sought by providing electronically for prior consideration materials which are also useful beyond validation (e.g. course specifications and handbooks). National guidelines for the quality assurance of distance learning37 tend to focus on the distance aspects somewhat at the expense of addressing e-delivery issues. (Although the BSI is progressing with this38) The University had developed guidelines including service levels for academic, learning resource, technical and other support, based ensuring equity between “e” and traditional learners. As usual, validation includes examination of staff development needs, including administration and support, and correction of expertise shortfalls made a condition of validation. Assurance of intended learning strategies and pedagogic approaches is considered vital and validation events look for evidence of understanding of the educational aspects of E-learning, as well as the technical ones. Without exemplar content this is difficult and new “e” awards must supply substantial parts of three modules in advance of the validation. However, all these policies and procedures referred explicitly to distance E-learning, and validation of blended and other forms of Elearning was much less consistent in approach, and changes are being made to validation requirements to address this. Firstly a threshold statement is to be adopted which will be used to demarcate when Elearning validation requirements (and the changes to approval of new developments described earlier) should apply. This will be where: “A student cannot reasonably be expected, without due provision of individually focused accommodations (to meet the needs of disability, for example), to meet the learning outcomes of the course without accessing and/or engaging with the electronically delivered and/or supported components of the course.” Validation documentation will be expected to show, at award level, how the intended E-learning approach(es) meet the needs of the

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target learner population and illustrate how induction and orientation will be carried out. Module level documentation should evidence an integrated approach covering educational rationale, learning, teaching and assessment strategies, and learning and teaching activities including the Elearning elements. Overall evidence will be expected to include an implementation of one core module as it will be delivered including its electronic, and where included, traditional components, plus indicative exemplars and documentation for a further one third of the award’s curriculum. E-learning exemplars should be quality assured, using the trigger procedures described later, prior to presentation to the panel.

9.

Courses Changing to “e” Staffordshire University, like most institutions, has procedures covering changes to course learning strategies, mode of delivery or learning outcomes. However, what degree of change to E-learning or eresources requires a review, re-validation or re-approval? This is a source of considerable debate and highlights the problem of ensuring quality whilst not discouraging staff from innovation by imposing extra workload and bureaucracy. This issue is yet to be solved and will be examined by QIS, LDI and representative faculty. The threshold statement is a first step to its resolution, enabling the more robust processes to be applied to true E-learning, leaving e-enhanced courses, e.g. where traditional resources are duplicated in a VLE, to be covered by the trigger QA procedures described later. 10.

Assessment Review indicates that whilst the University has worked hard to ensure good practice in assessment, assessment in E-learning requires further thought, including the submission of traditional forms (essays, projects etc) electronically. Good practice has developed locally, but University-wide policy and practice is yet to be defined. Issues requiring consideration from an E-learning perspective include: x How should blind and double marking be implemented? x How is authorship and receipt of material submitted verified? x What additional mitigating circumstances might arise? x Does E-learning alter the role of external examiners? x How are assessments and exam boards for roll-on-roll-off courses organised?

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Diverse Course Types

As the use of E-learning grew, courses diversified in structure, calendar and delivery mode, challenging traditional administrative course categorisation. Distinctions between full and part-time modes of study blurred, and courses had start and completion dates conflicting with traditional administrative rhythms, particularly with roll-on roll-off courses. Here, there are no cohorts in the traditional sense, posing problems with mainstream VLE products viewing a course as a body of content to which learners are assigned39. New developments in negotiated learning compound this by requiring a highly granular relationship between learners, mentors and tutors. Course granularity in consortium based foundation degrees has also revealed administrative systems issues. 12.

Course Development and Delivery Whilst the centrally monitored project approach had been largely successful, by 2002 it was clear that the rate of increase had slowed down and there were areas of low involvement. Impact was too localised, inhibiting change of practice across the institution. The new Information Service decided to move to a Planned Development approach for the support of the development of E-learning courses. Discussed elsewhere40, this is characterized by a shift from an approach led by individual groups of faculty, to a more centrally managed approach loosely based on Prince 241 - an approach better suited to a production mentality. A member of LDI is assigned to manage each development as it is identified, and, with other IS staff, to work with the academic group to take proposals through to validation or approval, produce a development plan and manage it through to delivery. LDI staff work with the academic group to produce a course structure in the chosen VLE, and, where possible, pass on good pedagogic practice. Learning Support staff (mainly information specialists) help to identify resources, clear IPR and populate the VLE with content using the structure created. (The approach varies with the ability, inclination and time available for faculty to do elements of the process themselves.) A managed approach is taken to each of the following critical issues: x Rational for an E-learning solution, feasibility and capacity x Market and income, profile of potential learners x Learning outcomes, assessment mode(s) and pedagogy x Delivery mode and course structure x Technology choices x Producing an Outline Plan x Course Design – based on an output driven model42

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x x

Development and Implementation of the course product Satisfying quality requirements

(This approach is being widened to cover development of foundation degree courses delivered across the SURF consortium. Here an academic from a University School and a SURF College work together with a LDI manager to drive development of each module.) Previously, most staff development in E-learning was generic and in advance of real use. Integrative development allows staff development, including eTutoring, to be built into the production and delivery processes – a vital part of embedding. The approach has been very successful. Two distance E-learning modules were taken from conception, through validation and development, to delivery in just over eight weeks. However, the approach revealed how un-embedded much of the University’s E-learning actually was, and the need for further work on support of delivery. This contributed to the creation of the eL-P2R2 initiative. 13.

Quality Assurance at Point of Delivery A Quality Assurance Handbook for Distributed Learning was produced in 1998, with guidelines on types and uses of resource and course, course design, usability, accessibility, delivery and feedback. Two forms are used as part of the QA process, one for new (to Elearning) courses/modules, and one for repeat deliveries. New courses require a peer reviewer to assess the course against questions covering clarity of expectation, course conduct, guidance and induction, accessibility, communication and feedback, and monitoring and evaluation. They list conditions and recommendations, and once these have been covered sign off the course. The repeat form is similar but is lighter in touch. This process is used as a trigger to allow courses to be made available to learners and the forms are submitted to LDI who own the technical process enabling this. Initially the process was the source of some understandable resentment: “Nobody asks me to QA the notes I give out or slides I use!” another example of tension between wanting to do things well and not inhibiting developments. But in the light of new legislation on accessibility43, perhaps the distinction between traditional and “e” resources in terms of QA will break down. There is now less resistance to this process but it is still regarded as an imposition by some. The process has generally worked well at the trigger stage, but had been less well use in the assurance of indicative content for validations. An additional,

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sensitive, problem is ensuring that content does not include (normally accidentally or unintentionally) plagiarised material. The initiative has shown that quality requirements need to be addressed throughout development, and not as an end-point activity. Future plans include work on mechanisms to counter these problems and the production of a new E-learning quality handbook to replace the venerable original. Steps here include the changes to approval and validation requirements described, plus changes to QA forms to correct an emphasis on content at the expense of educational design, and to require a more robust approach to evaluation and monitoring. 14.

Support Whilst infrastructure and service levels for support were in place and clearly stated, it was clear that various elements were insufficiently joined-up, leading to inappropriate escalation of problems, or learners with problems being sent around in circles. “Who owns what problem?” needed examination, clarification and dissemination. Some students, particularly those accessing from work or other institutions, experience problems caused by firewalls, local IT regulations etc. that cannot easily be foreseen. Learners are often unsure if their problem is academic, administrative or technical. Problems are often simplistically presented, e.g., “COSE doesn’t work”: this could indicate an IT problem at client or server end, an administrative problem (an account not set up), a network or firewall problem, a human problem (using a wrong URL), poor induction, and so on. Learners needed a single point of contact to ensure the problem was handled and escalated effectively. The most pressing need for such improvements came from the courses of the SURF consortium. Following discussion and agreement with partner colleges (and within the University) on the ownership of various types of problems, a script was produced for use by college teaching and IT staff addressing the basic problem of “COSE doesn’t work”. This was produced by examining support records for consortium and University students, and could not have been produced without this base to work from. The script takes its user through a series of questions and lists solutions and escalation paths. Similar scripts are now being developed for use within the University covering the MLE in its wider context (including both VLEs used in the University). The development of non-academic staff supporting E-learning delivery was another problem area. As well as holes identified, it was clear that training concentrated on enabling them to carry out technical tasks required without providing an understanding of how the systems involved were intended to be used by learners. This made effective problem solving

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and communication with the customer more difficult than necessary. A development activity identified was to involve Help Desk staff in improving support by getting them to look at help desk records and reflecting on support needs. In support of wider staff development within Information Services, and the change in roles that E-learning brings, service staff are to be encouraged to publish externally, give conference and workshop presentations, and involve themselves in national activities and groups. Seen as an important part of embedding E-learning in the culture and practice of service staff, this will be led by LDI staff, who are already active in these areas. 15.

Enrolment Whilst links between VLEs and the student information system (TheSIS) had been developed, human error could easily lead to individual students not being able to access VLEs at the start of their courses, with obvious negative impact. Late starters and early dropouts also caused problems, as did non-standard courses, starting and finishing outside the norm, short courses and combination courses. Analysis revealed a surprisingly high number of informal and commercial courses that did not use the student information system. With SURF courses, enrolment is carried out at each partner college using the University’s own (paper) forms. Delays in processing these could mean learners had no VLE accounts by the time of the first face-to-face sessions. This led to the use of temporary accounts which, coupled with the need for local accounts to access colleges’ networks and computers, meant that once VLE usernames and passwords were available, students were confused as to which account to use. This all led to an undesirable level of manual intervention - itself a source of further errors - and revealed weaknesses in manual and technical processes. Also, the review has given rise to a debate about whether any course should exist outside of the central administrative systems, as this would be an untenable position should an electronic PDP system be introduced. Many problems were associated with the level of granularity and combination of course groupings that TheSIS and the VLEs could operate with. Whilst the VLEs could provide several or many levels of subgrouping, TheSIS was designed around standard modularised awards. With SURF foundation degrees, whilst the link between TheSIS and COSE allowed automated enrolment of learners into course and modules, students also needed to be grouped in the VLE into sub-groups for each college within each module. This required manual intervention because TheSIS could not supply groupings at this level of granularity. A similar problem was where a module served more that one course. For example, a

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study skills module could be delivered to a group of students drawn from more than one course, where the module might have different learning outcomes. These issues revealed MLE problems impacting on the flexibility of courses. This is now being addressed as part of a redesign of TheSIS, and enrolment is still an area of work in progress. For SURF courses, in September 2002, a scheduled comfort zone was built into the start of the award to allow learners to have individual usernames and passwords before use of the VLE started. In addition, the bulk of course module content was put onto a CD (COSE allows content to be published onto a CD which allows the VLE to be used in offline mode). This helps those with connection problems and gives late enrollers access whilst account issues are resolved. 16.

Pricing The university has recognized the need for a costing model to enable decisions on the pricing of E-learning courses to be well-informed. This is being addressed by a group of senior staff. The problem is far from simple as pricing is often contextual: according to type of client, mode of attendance, need to break into a new market etc. However, the lack of a common shared model could result in inconsistent charging (even to the same client!) or unintended loss making. The problem of free courses can pose problems where access to courses is linked to an enrolment system triggered by payments. For example, where one module (e.g. key skills) is free but the rest of the course is charged. Some groups consulted have urged the introduction of e-payment and the ability for learners to ‘pay as they learn’. 17.

Academic Staff Development and Student Induction These two issues have proved to be interdependent. Staff development had been embedded in the BLC initiative and is a requirement considered at validation. It has become clear, however, that although staff development had concentrated heavily on course design (including the pedagogic aspects), development in the delivery of Elearning had been less well addressed. The importance of induction for eLearners was recognized and its provision integrated into processes and policies. However whilst frequently well done, induction was uneven in quality. Problems at the start of the courses can be demoralising to learners and, therefore, staff development was built into the integrative development approach to embed it in the development and delivery processes. Experience and discussion had indicated that breaking such training into smaller, focused components, delivered at the point (and time) of need was a desirable change.

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Achieving the right coverage of systems and functionality covered when training teaching staff was an issue. Whilst during the early phases of the introduction of E-learning it was thought necessary to train staff in some management and higher-level course creation procedures, embedding has tended to centralise responsibilities and controls. This can lead to friction with teaching staff who feel control and flexibility is being removed, highlighting the co-dependence of staff development with associated the policies and procedures. Issues of staff development in delivery and learner induction were highlighted by the SURF foundation degrees. The programme of staff development put in place for the development of the first degree was less successful than hoped. Firstly, partner FEIs struggled to identify the staff who would be involved in delivery some four or five months before the start of courses. Secondly, staff involved in delivery needed actual course content to make best use of the training, and this was largely undeveloped at the time of training. Last, staff did not engage enough with the technology following training, often because they did not know they would need to! This reveals a cultural difference as course staffing decisions in FE often are made at a late stage and a higher proportion of part-time staff are employed. This was the first time that the partner colleges had used a VLE with off-campus students. The VLE server was also off-campus, based at the University. Course teams assumed, dangerously, that using a VLE was basically just like using the Internet. However, due to problems with firewalls, some colleges found that various VLE components were blocked. Also, colleges were not advised strongly enough to check access from the computers that students would use at the college, resulting in problems where the software installation on students PCs varied across the college. Overall, college staff did not receive enough advice on what might go wrong, and what induction learners needed. Support staff from the University will now go to colleges to carry out staff induction immediately prior to delivery and help identify local technical issues. An induction checklist has been produced, drawing experience within the University, for those delivering VLE-based modules in SURF colleges. This covers a range of issues: from ensuring the staff member has checked they can access the VLE content and understand its intent, that they have all support materials, that learners have accounts and are members of the group within the VLE, that facilities for induction are working, to ensuring that the staff member understands the various support mechanisms and procedures. This should help ensure consistency by making it clear what learner induction should include. To assist, a comprehensive set of materials for learner induction has been produced

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including slides and student handouts on the use on the VLE in the context of SURF courses. It is clear that working practice and culture can only be changed if the policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities in place reinforce the impact of staff development. 18.

Course Monitoring, Evaluation and Teaching Quality Mechanisms had been developed to allow access to past courses by learners, tutors, and external officials such as examiners. Investigation showed that that no clear policy on the retention period and rights of individuals over such archived material existed in the E-learning context. This is an area for further investigation. Issues of what may be presented electronically for external inspections and assessments, and what is needed on paper, need to be resolved. Lastly, alignment E-learning with traditional practice in aspects of the internal maintenance of teaching quality is needed – for example the practice of peer observation for lectures and other traditional forms was well embedded but had not been extended to e-Tutoring. LDI are now working on this with the Academic Development Institute. Course monitoring and student feedback was practiced effectively in both traditional and “e” delivery but the approaches used were local. Work is now being carried out to develop a university-wide electronic feedback form for E-learning courses which, if adopted, would enhance overall evaluation, an area identified as weak. Current progress in this area includes the changes of the trigger quality assurance forms to require evaluation and monitoring, and that on repeat delivery evidence is provided of how lessons learned have been addressed. 19.

Sustainability The University is in the position of migrating a significant volume of courses and content from Lotus Learning Space to either Blackboard or COSE, and is developing other MLE components such as content repositories, and links with eBook systems and other eResources. As a result, planning the change so as to not impede progress on embedding and cultural changes is an important issue. A prime area to address is facilitation and promotion of the reuse and repurposing of E-learning content. COSE allows any user to reuse and repurpose their own personally authored content, or to publish it into a central area for reuse at any level of (dis)aggregation by all users. Individual staff made good use of private reuse, but are slow to publish content for general reuse. This hinges on staff views of IPR, but there are signs that as some form of critical mass of content is reached, the potential time-savings become more attractive.

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Another initiative relates to the E-learning equivalent of eReading lists. Links to external references and resources are highly contextual, and represent the exercise of professional expertise by their creator, constituting significant intellectual property. The University is working with companies who provide access to substantial holdings of eBooks to build a mechanism for the creation of contextualized reusable reference objects. This will allow the publication and reuse of e-Reading lists with authenticated access to external resources. The Integrative Development process described earlier, with staff development embedded into course creation, is intended to reinforce the reuse and repurposing of content and contribute to cultural change. Alongside, the University plans to develop a content repository allowing the reuse and repurposing of content in multiple VLEs. Use of standards for the interoperability of learning systems and materials and contribution to their development is critical to E-learning sustainability. The University is currently actively involved with the IMS Content Packaging, Metadata, Enterprise, and LIP specifications44, and also UK LOM Core (Metadata for learning Objects)45, Accessibility Metadata46 and the SCORM47 reference model. It is likely that the reuse and repurposing of pedagogic approaches will also become relevant and the that initiatives such as the IMS Learning Design specification48 will become important. Sustainability of courses and resources involves a profound effect on roles49, and is being taken into consideration in the approach to staff development discussed earlier.

20.

Evaluation of E-learning and the MLE This was, and continues to be, a problem area. Attempts at large scale evaluation of BLC failed, due to time constraints, staff changes and similar barriers. This is common across education, where “more challenging” approaches to evaluation are needed50. The Logical Framework reporting mechanism used for BLC projects did, in general, work and produce prima face evidence of enhancement of learning, as well as confirming barriers such as faculty workload, inexperience in project management, and the need to create time. These barriers also tended to squeeze the time spent on evaluation with a negative impact on its quality. The switch to the integrative development approach is enhancing formative evaluation by providing a more managed framework for the review of outcomes. Evaluation needs to evaluate process as well as outcomes, procedures as well as educational impact. Hence, it must be both formative and summative, and be focused on the user. As E-learning and

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the MLE are developments that do not, given technological and sectoral change, have end points, it is felt that formative evaluation is the more informative. Summative evaluation is useful at the end of developments for examining changes to plans for reflective purposes. The eL-P2R2 initiative with its interviews, discussions and working groups, is proving to be an invaluable evaluative tool in its own right. 21.

Conclusion Embedding requires an understanding of how E-learning fits into organisational strategy, departmental and other operational plans. A shared understanding of how it forms part of the learning and teaching experience is an equally important facet which requires a perception by all staff that E-learning is part of normal practice. The cultural changes required affect teaching, support, administrative and management staff, and require recognition of the symbiotic relationship between culture and policy and procedure. Staff development linked only to strategy will not achieve the changes required, but needs to be embedded in the production process and the processes of changing policies and procedures. This will enable changes in roles and responsibilities to be embedded culturally as well as functionally. Administrative and management staff must be involved fully in this process with senior management commitment to real change at both strategic and operational levels. The process for working towards embedding at Staffordshire, with its inclusive approach, has proved to be a major staff development and cultural change activity in its own right, by causing disparate groups of staff, and particularly managers and administrators, to engage with the issues and each other in the context of E-learning.

Notes 1

Mark Stiles, “Effective Learning and the Virtual Learning Environment” In EUNIS 2000: Towards Virtual Universities , Poznan: Instytut Informatyki Politechniki Poznanskiej, 2000 pp. 171-180. 2 Department for Education and Skills, “Towards a Unified E-learning Strategy” Nottingham: DfES Publications, 2003 p. 6 3 Steve Outram, “Building a Learning Community” In A Guide to Staff and Education Development, edited by Peter Kahn and David Baume, RoutledgeFalmer, 2003 4 Ibid 5 Mark Stiles and Jennifer Yorke, “Designing and Implementing Learning Technology Projects – A Planned Approach”, Workshop paper

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for "EFFECTS" - Embedding Learning Technologies Seminar, University College London, 8th April 2003. Available at (accessed 23/08/03): http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/cosenew/eltfinal.doc 6

Mark Stiles and Paul Orsmond, “Managing Active Student Learning with a Virtual Learning Environment.” In Educational Development Through Information and Communications Technologies, edited by Stephen Fallows and Rakesh Bhanot, Kogan Page, 2002 7 AusAID, “Audsguide 1: The Logical Framework Approach”, Australian Agency for International Development, 20th June 2003. Available at (accessed 10/07/03): http://www.ausaid.gov.au/ausguide/ausguidelines/1.cfm 8

Outram Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, “Staffordshire University, Quality Audit Report” November 2001, paras 74-75 Available at (accessed 26/08/03):

9

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/revreps/instrev/staffordshire/infra.htm#2 10 11

Stiles and Orsmond “Staffordshire University Regional Federation” Available at (accessed

20/08/03): http://www.surf.ac.uk 12

Outram Stiles and Yorke 14 Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline : The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday, 1990 15 The Joint Information Systems Committee, “About the JISC”, 5th September 2003, (accessed 07/09/03) 16 Raymond Reid, “COSE”, Staffordshire University 1st July 2003 Available at (accessed 01/09/03): 13

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE 17

Sharon Perry et al, The CO3 Project - Stretching the IMS Specifications to Achieve Interoperability University of Wales, Bangor, 2002 Available at (accessed 12/07/03): http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/cosenew/CO3Report.doc 18

Mark Stiles, SURF Consortium: Interoperability between COSE and MIS Systems used across the Consortium, Staffordshire University, 2001 Available at (accessed 12/07/03): http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_surfinterop 19

Mark Stiles, Disability Access To Virtual Learning Environments, DISinHE, 2001 Available at (accessed 12/07/03): http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/stiles01.html 20

Susan Lee, The SURF X4L Project, Staffordshire University, 4th July 2003 Available at (accessed 23/07/03):

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/X4L

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21

Helen Hockx, Interoperation of COSE VLE with E-Resources, JISC, 10th July 2003 Available at (accessed 13/08/03): http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_cosevle 22

Centre for Recording Achievement, Managed Learning Environments (MLEs) for Lifelong Learning Programme: Developing Learner Profiles across HE and FE Available at (accessed 24/08/03):

http://www.recordingachievement.org/Current_Projects/detail.asp?sid=15 23

Mark Stiles, Reports and Papers from or relating to the COSE Project, Staffordshire University Available at (accessed 24/08/03): http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/cosenew/reportsandpapers.html 24 JISC Creating MLEs Infokit, In Press 25 The Social Informatics Research Unit, Managed Learning Environment Activity in Further and Higher Education in the UK, JISC, August 2003 p.6 Available at (accessed 15/08/03): http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_mle_activity#mle_study_report 26

Ibid p.6 Ibid p.45 28 Ibid p.7 29 Jos Boys, Managed learning environments, joined up systems and the problems of organisational change - A JISC Report. JISC, 2002 Available at (accessed 06/09/03): 27

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=mle_related_joined 30

Mark Stiles, “Strategic and Pedagogic Requirements for Virtual Learning in the Context of Widening Participation” In Virtual Learning and Higher Education edited by David Seth Preston Rodopi :Amsterdam 2004 pp.87 -106 31 Stiles and Orsmond 32 Sandy Britain and Oleg Liber, A framework for pedagogical evaluation of virtual learning environments, JISC, 1999 Available at (accessed 17/07/03): http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/jtap-041.doc 33

Colin Milligan, Virtual learning environments in the online delivery of staff development. Report 2: Delivering staff and professional development using VLEs, JISC, 1999 Available at (accessed 12/07/03): http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/jtap-044.doc 34

Siobhan Holland and Aidan Arrowsmith, Towards a Productive Assessment Practice: Practising Theory On-Line, Assessment and the Expanded Text Consortium University of Northumbria, 2000 Available at (accessed 17/08/03): http://www.unn.ac.uk/assessingenglish/practising.pdf

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35

Adrian Boucher, “Information Technology-based Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: a view of the economic issues” Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 7, 1, 1998 pp. 87-111 36 Charlotte Ash, “Towards a New Cost-Aware Evaluation Framework”, Educational Technology & Society 3, 4, 2000 Available at (accessed 17/08/03): http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_4_2000/ash.html 37

Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Guidelines on the Quality Assurance of Distance Learning, QAA Available at (accessed 01/08/03): http://www.qaa.ac.uk/public/dlg/dlg_textonly.htm 38

BSI, IST/43 IT for Learning, Education and Training, BSI, March 2003 Available at (accessed 25/08/03): http://edd.bsi.org.uk/link.php3/ist/43 39

Stiles1 Stiles and Yorke 41 Office of Government Commerce, Managing Successful Projects with Prince2: Reference Manual, HMSO, 1998 42 Mark Stiles, “Developing Tacit and Codified Knowledge and Subject Culture within a Virtual Learning Environment”, IJEEE, 37, 1, 2000 pp.13-25 43 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 Elizabeth II. Chapter 10, HMSO, 2001 44 IMS Global Consortium, Specifications, IMS, 4th September 2003 Available at (accessed 06/09/03): 40

http://www.imsglobal.org/specification.cfm 45

Cetis, UK LOM Core, Cetis, 5th August 2003 Available at (accessed

15/08/03): http://www.cetis.ac.uk/profiles/uklomcore 46

Sharon Perry, Cetis Accessibility SIG, Cetis, May 2002 Available at

(accessed 26/08/03): http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/accessibility/index 47

ADL, About SCORM, Advanced Distributed Networking Available at

(accessed 23/08/03): http://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=scormabt 48

IMS Global Consortium, IMS Learning Design Specification, IMS, 4th September 2003 Available at (accessed 06/09/03):

http://www.imsglobal.org/learningdesign/index.cfm 49

Mark Stiles, "How does content standardisation impact on staff support in the use of VLEs?" LTSN Supporting Sustainable E-learning, University of York, April 2003. LTSN 2003 Available at (accessed 17/08/03):

http://www.ltsn.ac.uk/embedded_object.asp?id=18792&filename=ELN049 50

Department for Education and Skills p.24

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Bibliography Charlotte Ash, “Towards a New Cost-Aware Evaluation Framework”, Educational Technology & Society 3, 4, 2000 http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_4_2000/ash.html

Adrian Boucher, “Information Technology-based Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: a view of the economic issues” Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 7, 1, 1998 pp. 87-111 Department for Education and Skills, “Towards a Unified E-learning Strategy” Nottingham: DfES Publications, 2003 Stephen Fallows and Rakesh Bhanot (Eds.) Educational Development Through Information and Communications Technologies Kogan Page, 2002 Peter Kahn and David Baume (Eds.) A Guide to Staff and Education Developmen RoutledgeFalmer 2003 Office of Government Commerce, Managing Successful Projects with Prince2: Reference Manual, HMSO, 1998 Steve Outram, “Building a Learning Community” In A Guide to Staff and Education Development, edited by Peter Kahn and David Baume, RoutledgeFalmer, 2003 David Seth Preston (Ed.) Virtual Learning and Higher Education Rodopi: Amsterdam 2004 Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline : The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday, 1990 Mark Stiles, “Effective Learning and the Virtual Learning Environment” In EUNIS 2000: Towards Virtual Universities , Poznan: Instytut Informatyki Politechniki Poznanskiej, 2000 Mark Stiles, “Strategic and Pedagogic Requirements for Virtual Learning in the Context of Widening Participation” In: At the Interface - Virtual Learning and Higher Education, Inter-Disciplinary.Net, 2002 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/Stiles%20Paper.pdf Mark Stiles, “Developing Tacit and Codified Knowledge and Subject Culture within a Virtual Learning Environment”, IJEEE, 37, 1, 2000 pp.13-25 Mark Stiles and Paul Orsmond, “Managing Active Student Learning with a Virtual Learning Environment.”, In Educational Development Through Information and Communications Technologies, edited by Stephen Fallows and Rakesh Bhanot, Kogan Page, 2002 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 Elizabeth II. Chapter 10, HMSO, 2001

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CHAPTER TWO

Students’ approaches to learning and their use of and feelings about a VLE Adrian Bromage Abstract This chapter reports on a survey of 209 students of Coventry University that explores the relationship between how they use a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and the perceived benefits, and their personal positioning in terms of three broad approaches to learning derived from Entwistle and Ramsden1 and Biggs.2 Little difference is apparent between those adopting ‘deep’ ‘strategic’ and ‘surface’ approaches. The findings are suggestive of a ‘minimum specification’ for VLE use that has educational benefits for learners, where tutors make course information and learning materials available online. However, it seems that those adopting a ‘deep approach’ are more likely to perceive benefits for their learning. Keywords: Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), deep approach, strategic approach, surface approach

1.

Introduction Coventry University was created from a former polytechnic in 1992, when UK government dissolved the distinction between polytechnics and universities. In 1998 the university commenced its ‘Learn Online’ initiative. The chosen VLE, WebCT, was automatically set up for every module across the institution, while its use was left to tutors’ discretion3. It was intended that the VLE be used to support traditional, campus-based programmes. Since then almost every staff and student personal computer on campus has been connected to the Internet, and offcampus users can dial-up the university’s Internet server. By 2002 the campus-based student population numbered 17000, of whom 69% studied full-time and on ‘sandwich’ courses and 29% part-time. Of ‘young undergraduates’, 94% were from the domestic state education sector, while 8% of all students were from non-EU countries. This chapter presents research that explores how students’ attitudes and motivations interact with their use of a VLE, and with what consequences. It falls into a category of research into VLEs that seeks to explore their educational effectiveness. The available evidence suggests

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that this depends largely upon the underlying andragogic assumptions that are built in by tutors. Wenglinsky4 studied US schoolteachers of mathematics, and found that the pupils of those who used computers mainly for "simulations and applications", which tend to be associated with higher-order thinking, exhibited greater intellectual development than those whose teachers used more ‘traditional’ approaches. One vaunted advantage of VLEs is the opportunity they afford students for increased collaboration with their peers and tutors. For example, when describing the criteria for ‘WebCT exemplary courses’, Graf and Caines5 quote Palloff and Pratt6, who argue that electronic environments should feature collaborative learning, both among students and between students and academics. Palloff and Pratt argue that tutors should aim to make students feel "embodied" with the course content. Similarly, Cradler et al7 found that the effective use of educational technology rests upon integrating it with instructional strategies that entail collaborative activities and formative feedback. It is at this level that one can begin to tease out the relative influence of VLEs on learning. Collaborative online learning invokes the learners’ experience of co-presence. Johannsen et al8 found, in relation to virtual seminars, that the most important factor in students’ learning may be how sessions are organized and structured rather than the quality of copresence enabled by the electronic media. On the other hand, Campbell9 describes a virtual world for language students’ education that explicitly uses ‘telepresence’, a sense of immersion in a virtual environment, as a tool to promote conceptual change within a constructivist model of learning. Quite how virtual environments can generate a feeling of immersion, and the educational implications, has been discussed by the present author elsewhere.10, 11 Students’ motivation is also important. Sherry et al12 cite Sternberg’s argument that motivation drives metacognition, which in turn stimulates the development of thinking and learning skills, which further stimulates metacognition, resulting in the development of expertise. They found a positive correlation between the motivating aspects of web-based learning and levels of metacognition in learners. VLE based teaching through authentic tasks has been found to be associated with more positive attitudes to study13. Selverian et al14 found that telepresence is associated with student’s motivation in complex ways, and so is likely to impact upon their learning. They call for more research into this neglected facet of VLE based learning. Another important variable is how the students go about their learning. Leopold-Lüsmann15 found that students’ learning styles interact with the models of teaching that a tutor constructs their VLE use around. Mismatches can inhibit learning. Leopold-Lüsmann cautions that online

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tutors working may not be able to observe these effects as easily as in a face-to-face situation. The research of this chapter explores a different aspect of students’ predispositions, their approaches to learning. The original work in this area by Marton and Saljo16 has been developed by Entwistle and Ramsden17 and Biggs18, who have independently identified three approaches to learning adopted by students in response to their perceptions of the demands of their teaching and learning environment. They are broadly a ‘surface’ or ‘reproducing’ approach: memorising course material to reproduce it in assignments so as to least pass the module, a ‘strategic approach’: organizing one’s studies and managing one’s time so as to achieve the very best assessment grades possible, and a ‘deep’ or ‘meaning’ approach: to be interested in a subject and seek to develop one’s understanding of it by relating new material to one’s existing knowledge and experience. The approaches have been found to have elements of individual stability and contextual variation.19 Thus it seems reasonable to assume that individuals will tend to broadly adopt one approach to learning, reflecting the balance of the relative ‘strength’ of their confidence and acquired study skills as well as their personal interest in their studies. Haggis20 offers strong criticisms of some recent ‘approaches to learning’ research literature, claiming there is evidence that the model has been uncritically assimilated, and of a ‘verificationist’ corruption of the hypothetico-deductive approach to science. Haggis also argues that the model is biased towards the viewpoint and values of ‘elite’ educators. A quotation from Winter21 perhaps demonstrates the pernicious influence that ‘elite’ values have on tutors’ perceptions: All too frequently our teaching fails to elicit more than an attempt by students to ‘play the system’. Instead of what anyone would mean by education, we are faced with a combination of ritualism, deception and collusion. On the other hand, the majority of academics, who would be involved in curriculum development, will arguably subscribe to such values to some extent. Thus the model’s reflection of those values may be advantageous, enabling students’ use of WebCT to be evaluated in terms recognizable by academics. However, Haggis22 further cautions that the ‘approaches to learning’ model implies that students arrive in higher education able to relate their conception of and approaches to learning to their perceptions of their learning environment, and this may not be true of all learners. Furthermore, Haggis argues that as participation in higher education widens, ‘elite’ values may not be relevant to every student.

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Students’ approaches to learning

Further caveats relate to general methodological issues besetting survey research into approaches to learning. Haggis warns of the phenomenological nature of the results; they represent respondents’ impressions of rather than their actual behaviour23, and of ‘response sets’ including social desirability24, perhaps a natural reaction to the implicit hierarchy of value conveyed in the descriptions. Haggis’ arguments underline the importance of emphasising the explicit caveat that the identified approaches to learning have an acquired, strategic, elicited, and motivational quality.25 2.

Participants in the survey A total of 209 students participated (1% of all students at the university). There were 95 men and 112 women, their ages ranging from 18 to 50 years old. However, 87% were aged between 18 and 30. Judged by eye, the sample had a slightly higher proportion of UK Black and Asian students than in the ethnically diverse student population at Coventry. 86% of the participants were UK/EU students, the majority from the UK (94% of Coventry’s ‘young undergraduates’ are from the domestic state education sector). 10% were from non-EU countries (8% of all students were from non-EU countries). 90% were full-time students, the majority in years one, two and three of their degree. The sample is thus biased towards this group when compared to the student population, 29% of whom study part-time. 3.

Procedure A structured questionnaire was deployed, produced in the Keypoint questionnaire authoring software. As well as questions to collect basic demographic information about the participants, it included three multiple-choice questions. The questions are shown below: 1: My main approach to studying: -I memorize course material to reproduce it in assignments so I will pass. -I organize my studies and manage my time so I will get the best assessment grades. -I’m interested in the subject and develop my understanding by relating it to my existing knowledge. 2: I use WebCT for (you can choose more than one option): Reading course materials, General course information, Sharing information/discussions with tutors, Sharing information/discussions with other students, Downloading course materials, Accessing hyperlinks to external web pages, Online tests/quizzes, Online tutorials, Group work assignments 3: My feelings about WebCT (you can choose more than one option): Having everything in one place is useful, I enjoy face-to-face discussions, It is good for studying/revision, Having the notes on WebCT means that I can listen properly during lectures, The notes are on WebCT, I don’t go to lectures, I can contact my tutors

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easily with module mail, I enjoy contributing to online discussions, Online discussions with other students help me to develop my ideas

The questions are somewhat lacking detail, and are likely to yield responses sharing these characteristics. However, this was judged sufficient to achieve the research aims. It was vital that the questionnaire be as short as possible. Students must complete two questionnaires at the end of each of their modules, as part of the university quality management policy, and are in consequence reluctant to participate in voluntary studies. The participants were selected by opportunity sampling from those present across the entire geographic area of the campus, to control for bias that may have resulted from sampling in one particular area. They were invited to complete the questionnaire, and were informed that its purpose was to explore students’ use of the VLE. Around 80% of those approached agreed to participate. The raw data from completed questionnaires were entered into Keypoint, which automatically loads them into an inbuilt spreadsheet with facilities for generating descriptive statistics. The graphs and percentages so generated are interpreted below.

4.

Results and discussion The first issue is the perceived extent of modules that actively use the VLE (see Figure 1 below). 38% of all participants report that ‘a few’ of the modules comprising their degree programme do so, 26% agree that ‘most’ of their modules do so, and 24% that ‘all’ of their modules do; together the latter groups account for 50% of all respondents. Just 11% report that none of their modules actively use the VLE. Turning to how the respondents differentiate by their approach to learning, 46% see themselves as predominantly adopting a ‘deep’ or ‘meaning’ approach. Next are the 30% who adopt a ‘strategic’ approach. The remaining 21% adopt a ‘surface’ or ‘reproducing’ approach (see Figure 2 below).

Students’ approaches to learning

32

Modules actively using VLE 38

Percent

40 30

24

26

20

11

10 0 All

Most

A few

None

Figure 1: The overall perceived proportion of each student’s modules actively using WebCT across the University

The next consideration is what the students do in relation to the VLE (see Figure 3 below). Over all respondents, the most frequently reported activities are as follows: 57% read learning materials, 52% download learning materials and 51% read general course information. A smaller proportion of those adopting a ‘strategic’ approach tend to do so than of those adopting either the ‘deep’ or ‘surface’ approach. One potential advantage of the VLE is that it supports hyperlinks to materials on the World Wide Web. Just 14% of all participants have accessed external Web pages. It is unclear whether such links exist but students have not taken them up.

Percent

Participants' approaches to learning 50 40 30 20 10 0

46 30 21

Meaning

Strategic

Reproducing

Figure 2: The percentage of all students who judge their approaches to learning as falling within each category

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WebCT supports automated online quizzes and tests, potentially offering efficiency savings for tutors and rapid feedback for students. 21% of all participants have participated in such tests. It seems there has been a limited take up by tutors, considering that 50% of all participants report that ‘most’ or ‘all’ of their modules use the VLE. Turning to discussions, 28% have shared information or discussions with tutors, with a slightly larger proportion of those adopting a ‘surface’ approach doing so than of those adopting ‘deep’ and ‘strategic’ approaches. Of all participants, 25% have shared information and discussions with other students. 20% have engaged in group work and 11% in online tutorials. The students’ feelings about the using the VLE are illustrated below in Figure 4. Regarding online learning resources, 31% of all participants agree that having everything in one place is useful. They comprise 56% of those who adopt a ‘deep approach’, 11% who adopt a ‘strategic approach’ and 13% who adopt a ‘surface approach’. Overall 21% agree that ‘it’s good for studying/revision’. They comprise 36% of those adopting a ‘deep approach’, 8% of those adopting a ‘strategic approach’ and 7% of those with a ‘surface approach’. It seems that those who adopt a ‘deep approach’ are most likely to perceive benefits. Turning to the perceived educational benefits of online learning materials, 22% of all participants agree that having notes available means that they can listen properly in lectures. They comprise 38% of those adopting a ‘deep approach’, 8% of those with a ‘strategic approach’ and 4% with a ‘surface approach. Just over 4% of the 184 respondents who report that ‘a few’, ‘most’ or ‘all’ of their modules actively use the VLE agree that they don’t go to lectures because the notes are online. They comprise 10% of those who adopt a ‘deep approach’ and 7% who adopt a ‘surface approach’, very similar proportions. None who adopt a ‘strategic approach’ agree, perhaps unsurprisingly given this is associated with organizing one’s studies and managing time to get the best possible marks. Discursive activities are now considered: 28% of all participants have shared information or discussions with tutors; and 11% have participated in online tutorials. Interestingly, 27% of those adopting a ‘deep approach’ find it easy to email tutors, compared to 4% of those with a ‘surface approach’ and 3% with a ‘strategic approach’. They are unlikely to be referring to ‘technical ease’; for were this true, one might expect a similar proportion from each group to agree. Regarding collaborative working between students, 20% of all respondents have participated in online group work and 25% in online discussions with fellow students. Those who enjoy contributing comprise 7% of those who adopt a ‘deep approach’, 2% of those adopting a ‘surface approach’ and none who adopt a ‘strategic approach’. Participants who enjoy face-to-face discussions comprise 13% of those with a ‘deep approach’ and 5% with a

34

Students’ approaches to learning

‘surface approach’, slightly higher proportions than enjoy online discussions. This hints at some loss of quality in online discussions, which one might expect given the severely limited ‘bandwidth’ of text-based online compared to face-to-face interactions.26 However, no one who adopts a ‘strategic approach’ enjoys face to face discussions, a finding which suggests that the discussions themselves are problematic. This tends to support Johannsen’s27 finding in relation to virtual seminars: the quality of co-presence enabled by the electronic media is less important than how sessions are organized and structured. Next to be considered are the perceived benefits to learning. The students who agree that peer-to-peer discussions help them to develop ideas comprise 9% of those who adopt a ‘deep’ approach’, 3% of those adopting a ‘surface approach’ and 2% of those adopting a ‘strategic approach’. These findings seem to undermine the constructivist philosophy that tends to be associated with learning in electronic environments28, 29 which emphasizes community, dialogue and shared understanding.30 However, it will be argued that there are likely to be two confounding adverse factors that reduce the validity of this conclusion.

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Discuss/share with peers

Groupwork assignments Discuss/share with tutor Online tutorials

Online tests/quizzes

Follow Hyperlinks Download learning materials Read learning materials Read course information

0

20

40

60

80

100

Percent Meaning

Strategic

Reproducing

Figure 3: Proportions of those adopting each approach to learning who engage in various online activities

Students’ approaches to learning

36

Having everything in one place helps VLE helps me study/revise I skip lectures, notes online I listen in lectures, notes online It's easy to email tutors Online discussion develops my ideas I enjoy online discussion I enjoy face to face discussion 0

10 20

30 40

50 60

Percent Meaning

Strategic

Reproducing

Figure 4: Proportions of those adopting each approach to learning whose feelings about VLE use fall under different categories

The first are ontological standpoints of academic disciplines. Coate et al31 found they influence perceptions of appropriate teaching activities. For example, tutors of History or of approaches to Sociology having constructivist ontology tend to be more likely to perceive synergy between teaching and research than those whose disciplines have underlying realist one. One can easily imagine the former being more prepared to create discursive learning activities. The second are students’ prior learning experiences. Those progressing straight through school and college are likely to have

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experienced mainly tutor-led learning. Savin-Baden32 argues that students with little prior experience of problem based learning, where collaborative discussions play a key role, must learn to recognize and value their own learning experiences and their role in their learning. Students are unlikely to be motivated to participate in peer discussions if they don’t recognize their value. One solution is to introduce extrinsic value to their participation. Price and Lapham33 sought to provide incentives to students’ participation in online discussions, making this worth up to 30% of their final grade, although they ignore the quality of postings. The way such discussions are implemented is likely to exert a strong influence. No one who adopts a ‘strategic approach’ enjoys the discursive format, online or otherwise, or finds it helps them to develop ideas. However, one could imagine that their understanding of a topic would improve were they required to explain it to their peers. This might play to their strengths as individuals who organize their time and manage their studies, while potentially benefiting those who adopt a ‘surface approach’. 5.

Conclusions The patterns of online activities across those characterizing themselves as adopting ‘deep’, ‘strategic’ and ‘surface’ approaches to learning appears very similar. It seems that fears of mass desertions of lectures when notes are posted online are unfounded, and many students appreciate the VLE as a central repository of module information and learning materials. The findings are suggestive of a ‘minimum specification’ for VLE use that enhances students’ learning. However, students who perceive the greatest benefits tend to be those who adopt a ‘deep approach’ to learning. The implication, given Haggis’34 arguments argument that the ‘approaches to learning’ reflect ‘elitist’ educators’ values, is that VLE-based learning will offer the greatest benefits to those whose attitudes to learning are more in step with those values. This does not necessarily mean that VLEs build inequality or elitism into the learning milieu. The present research, conducted in a ‘post 1992’ university with a commitment to widening participation, found that 46% of those surveyed claim to adopt this approach. While Haggis questions the relevance of ‘approaches to learning’ that reflect the values, attitudes and epistemologies of elite academia to learners in the context of a massifying system, it remains unknown whether participants in the present research who identify themselves as adopting a ‘meaning approach’ tend to have strong academic backgrounds, or are diverse but with a shared desire to engage deeply in their learning. Furthermore, the research does not explore the value that on-demand access to the VLE can add for students from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds. That the responses of students who perceive themselves as

38

Students’ approaches to learning

adopting a ‘deep’ ‘strategic’ and ‘surface’ approach to their studies differentiate suggests that they can be conceptualized as attitudes that have measurable consequences for their learning behaviour. This conclusion goes beyond the findings of earlier studies that general relationships exist between the approaches to learning and both students’ grades and qualitative measures of their learning outcomes. 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 Furthermore, the differentiation reinforces the notion that they represent distinctive groups of students. This would conflict with Biggs40 and Entwistle 41 who have questioned the extent to which empirical evidence supports the notion of a ‘strategic approach’ that exists independently of deep and surface approaches. In the present research, participants were asked to describe their predominant approach to learning in terms of broad statements derived from Biggs’ and Entwistle, raising the possibility that the findings are an artifact of the questionnaire. On the other hand, unlike those who adopt ‘meaning’ or ‘Reproducing’ approaches, none of the participants who adopt a ‘strategic approach’ reported that they enjoy online or face-to-face discussions, or skip lectures because notes are posted on the VLE. This is puzzling, suggesting that in practical terms they are a distinctive group, literally in between meaning and reproducing approaches. If students predominantly adopt an approach to learning that reflects their prior educational experiences and motivation for study, and this can be understood as an attitude, there are implications for the extent to which tutors can, in the manner suggested by Entwistle 42, lead students to adopt a ‘deep approach’ to their learning. On the other hand, Trigwell and Ashwin43 found that when students perceived their learning environment to be more supportive of learning, their description of their evoked conception of learning is more likely to reflect that promoted by their university. This suggests that student engagement is an important factor in changing these attitudes. The present author is currently involved in a major UK research project, Enhancing Teaching-learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses (ETL project), which partly addresses McCune and Entwistle’s44 call for fine-grained, discipline specific, longitudinal studies. One anticipated outcome is clearer evidence in respect of this question. All of this invokes McAlees45 argument that the process of educational innovation is interplay of the theories of education serving as intellectual frameworks and the tools deployed, or the ‘technology in education’ into programmes that can be characterized as a 'technology of education’. In short, it is meaningless to try to disentangle the technology in education from the technology of education.

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Notes 1

Entwistle, N. J. & Ramsden, P. (1983) Understanding Student Learning, London: Croom Helm. 2

Biggs, J. B. (1987) Student Approaches to Learning and Studying Hawthorn, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research.

3

Deepwell, F. H., & Syson, A. J. (1999) ‘Online learning at Coventry University: You can lead a horse to water..’ Educational Technology & Society 2:4 Available at (accessed 29/07/03):

http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_4_99/deepwell.html 4

Wenglinsky, H (1998) Does it Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics A policy Information Report, Educational Testing Service Policy Information Center, Princeton: New Jersey.

5

Graf, D. & Caines, M. (2001) WebCT Exemplary Course Project: Criteria Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://www.webct.com/exemplary/viewpage?name=exemplary_home_2001 6

Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (1999) Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

7

Cradler, J., McNabb, M., Freeman, M. & Burchett, R. (2001) How Does Technology Influence Student Learning? Learning & Leading with Technology 29:8 Available at (accessed 10/09/03):

http://www.iste.org/LL/29/8/index.cfm 8

Johannsen, A., Krcmar, H., Van Diggelen, W. & De Vreede, G. (2000) ‘Effects of Video Communication and Tele-presence on Cooperative Telelearning Arrangements’, Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 04 - 07, 2000, Maui, Hawaii: 1053. Available at (accessed 10/09/03):

http://www.computer.org/proceedings/hicss/0493/04931/04931053abs.htm 9

Campbell, A. P. (2002) Foreign Language Exchange in a Virtual World: an Intercultural Task-based Learning Event, Aaron Patric Campbell Friends World Program, East Asia Center, Kyoto: Japan, Available at (accessed 10/09/03):

http://www8.ocn.ne.jp/~apc33/FLEVW.html

40

Students’ approaches to learning

10

Bromage, A. (2002) Atatvistic avatars: Can synchronous learning communities transfer to virtual worlds? Paper presented at the ‘Virtual Learning and Higher Education’ conference, 10-11 Sept 2002, Mansfield College, Oxford. Available at (accessed 18/10/03): http://www.inter-disciplianry.net/Bromage%20Paper.pdf 11

Bromage, A. (2004) Atavistic Avatars: Ontology, Education and 'Virtual Worlds’. In Preston, D.S. (ed.), Virtual Learning and Higher Education, Amsterdam: Rodopi

12

Sherry, L., Billig, S., Jesse, D. & Watson-Acosta, D. (2003) ‘Assessing the Impact of Instructional Technology on Student Achievement’, The Journal, August Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3297.cfm 13

Wegner, S.B., Holloway, K.C. & Garton, E.M. (1999) ‘The Effects of Internet-Based Instruction on Student Learning’, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 3:2, November Available at (accessed 10/09/03):

http://.aln.org/publications/jaln/v3n2/pdf/v3n2_wegner.pdf 14

Selverian, M., Sung Hwang, H. & Mason, C. (2001) ‘Virtual learning: In search of a psychological model’ Proceedings of The 4th Annual International Workshop on Presence, Philadelphia, USA - May 21-23 Available at (accessed 10/09/03):

http://astro.temple.edu/~lombard/P2001/Selverian.pdf 15

Leopold-Lsmann, D.B. (2000) ‘Virtual Learning Environments and Student Learning Styles’, International Online Seminar: Teaching and Studying in Virtual Learning Environments, 5th July. Available at (accessed 10/09/03):

http://seminar.jura.unisb.de/publ/ss00/seminar/ss2000/int/individualwork/uploads/ 238/IndividualAssignmentHeatherWilliams.htm 16

Marton, F. & Saljo, R. (1976) ‘On qualitative differences in learning, IOutcome and Process’ British Journal of Educational Psychology 46: pp. 4-11.

17

Entwistle, N. J. & Ramsden, P.

18

Biggs, J. B.

19

McCune, V. & Entwistle, N. (2000) ‘The deep approach to learning: analytic abstraction and idiosyncratic development’ Paper presented at the Innovations in Higher Education Conference, 30 August - 2 September 2000, Helsinki, Finland Available at (accessed 01/11/03):

http://ed.ac.uk/et1/docs/mccune2000.pdf

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20

Haggis, T. (2003) ‘Constructing Images of Ourselves? A critical Investigation into ‘Approaches to Learning’ research in Higher Education’ British Educational Research Journal 29:1, pp. 89-104.

21

Winter, R. (2003) Contextualising the patchwork text: addressing Problems of Coursework Assessment in Higher Education, The journal of the staff and Educational Development Association, 40:2 , p.114

22

Haggis, T.

23

Mitchell, P. (1994) ‘Learning style: a critical analysis of the concept and its assessment’ In R. Hoey (Ed.) Design for Learning: aspects of educational technology 27, (1994): pp. 5-10.

24

Watkins, D. & Regmi, M. (1995) ‘Assessing approaches to learning in non-western cultures: a Nepalese conceptual validity study’, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 20: pp. 203-212. 25

McCune, V. & Entwistle, N.

26

Nelson-Kilger, M. (1993) ‘The Digital Individual’ The Third Conference on Computers Freedom and Privacy, March 9-12, 1993 Burlingame, CA. Available at (accessed 16/07/03): http://www.cspr.org/conferences/cfp93/nelson-kilger.html 27

Johannsen, A., Krcmar, H., Van Diggelen, W. & De Vreede, G.

28

Bromage, A. (2002)

29

Bromage, A. (2004)

30

Bird, L. (2002) ‘Action Learning sets: the case for running them online’. In S. Banks, P., et al (eds.), Networked Learning 2002. Sheffield: Lancaster University and University of Sheffield.

31

Coate, K., Barnett, R. & Williams, G. (2001) ‘Relationships between Teaching and Research in Higher Education in England’, Higher Education Quarterly 55:2, p. 159

32

Savin-Baden, M., (2000) Problem-based Learning in Higher education: Untold Stories Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.

33

Price, M.L. & Lapham, A. The virtual Seminar, In Preston D.S. Virtual Learning and Higher Education Amsterdam: Rodopi 2004 34 35

Haggis, T.

Entwistle, N. J., Hounsell, D., Macaulay, C., Situnayke, G. & Tait, H. (1989) ‘The Performance of Electrica’ Engineering Students in Scottish

42

Students’ approaches to learning

Higher Education’. Final Report to the Scottish Education Department University of Edinburgh: Dept. of Education and TLA Centre. 36

Entwistle, N. J., Meyer, J. H. F. & Tait, H. (1991) ‘Student failure: disintegrated patterns of study strategies and perceptions of the learning environment’ Higher Education, 21, pp. 249 - 261. 37

Trigwell, K. & Prosser, M. (1991) ‘Improving the quality of student learning: the influence of learning and student approaches to learning on learning outcomes’ Higher Education, 22, pp. 251-266.

38

Marton, F. & S, R. (1997) ‘Approaches to learning’. In F. Marton et al The Experience of Learning, pp. 39-58 (2nd Ed.). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. 39

Tait, H., Entwistle, N. J. & McCune, V. (1998) ‘ASSIST: a reconceptualisation of the approaches to studying Inventory’ In C. Rust (Ed.), Improving Student Learning: Improving Students as Learners, pp 262-271. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development. 40

Biggs, J. B.

41

Entwistle, N. (1992) The Impact of Teaching on Learning Outcomes in Higher Education: A Literature Review, Sheffield: CVCP. 42

IBID

43

Trigwell, K. & Ashwin, P. (2002) ‘Evoked Conceptions of Learning and Learning Environments’, paper presented at the Improving Student Learning Symposium (Theory and Practice – 10 Years On), Brussels, September 4-6, 2002.

44

McCune, V. & Entwistle, N.

45

McAlees, R. (1997) ‘Technology in Education to technology of education: Concepts, Conflicts and Compromises’ In S. Armstrong, et al (eds.) Facing up to Radical Changes in Universities and Colleges, London: Kogan Page.

References Armstrong, S., Thompson, G., & Brown S. (Eds.) Facing up to Radical Changes in Universities and Colleges, London: Kogan Page 1997 Banks, S., Goodyear, P., Hodgson, V., & McConnell D. (Eds.) Networked Learning 2002 Sheffield: Lancaster University and University of Sheffield 2002 Biggs, J. B. Student Approaches to Learning and Studying. Hawthorn,

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Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research 1987 Bird, L. ‘Action Learning sets: the case for running them online’, In S. Banks et al (eds.) Networked Learning 2002 Sheffield: Lancaster University and University of Sheffield 2002 Bromage, A. Atatvistic avatars: Can synchronous learning communities transfer to virtual worlds? Paper presented at the ‘Virtual Learning and Higher Education’ conference, 10-11 Sept, Mansfield College, Oxford. 2002 Available at (accessed 18/10/03): http://www.inter-disciplianry.net/Bromage%20Paper.pdf

Bromage, A. Atavistic Avatars: Ontology, Education and 'Virtual Worlds, In Preston, D.S. (ed.), Virtual Learning and Higher Education, Amsterdam: Rodopi 2004 Campbell, A. P. Foreign Language Exchange in a Virtual World: an Intercultural Task-based Learning Event, Aaron Patric Campbell Friends World Program, East Asia Center, Kyoto: Japan, 2002 Available at (accessed 10 September 2003): http://www8.ocn.ne.jp/~apc33/FLEVW.html

Coate, K., Barnett, R. & Williams, G. ‘Relationships between Teaching and Research in Higher Education in England’, Higher Education Quarterly 55:2, 2001 Cradler, J., McNabb, M., Freeman, M. & Burchett, R. How Does Technology Influence Student Learning? Learning & Leading with Technology 29:8, 2001 Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://www.iste.org/LL/29/8/index.cfm Deepwell, F. H., & Syson, A. J. ‘Online learning at Coventry University: You can lead a horse to water..’ Educational Technology & Society 2:4, 1999 Available at (accessed 29/07/03): http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_4_99/deepwell.html

Entwistle, N. The Impact of Teaching on Learning Outcomes in Higher Education: A Literature Review, Sheffield: CVCP 1992 Entwistle, N. J., Hounsell, D., Macaulay, C., Situnayke, G. & Tait, H. ‘The Performance of Electrica’ Engineering Students in Scottish Higher Education’ Final Report to the Scottish Education Department University of Edinburgh: Dept. of Education and TLA Centre 1989 Entwistle, N. J., Meyer, J. H. F. & Tait, H. ‘Student failure: disintegrated patterns of study strategies and perceptions of the learning environment’ Higher Education, 21, pp. 249 – 261 1991 Entwistle, N. J. & Ramsden, P. 1983 Understanding Student Learning, London: Croom Helm Graf, D. & Caines, M. (2001) WebCT Exemplary Course Project: Criteria 2001 Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://www.webct.com/exemplary/viewpage?name=exemplary_home_2001

Haggis, T. ‘Constructing Images of Ourselves? A critical Investigation

44

Students’ approaches to learning

into ‘Approaches to Learning’ research in Higher Education’ British Educational Research Journal 29:1, pp. 89-104. 2003 Hoey, R., (Ed.) Design for Learning: aspects of educational technology 27, 1994 Johannsen, A., Krcmar, H., Van Diggelen, W. & De Vreede, G. ‘Effects of Video Communication and Tele-presence on Cooperative TelE-learning Arrangements’, Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 04 - 07, 2000, Maui, Hawaii: 1053. Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://www.computer.org/proceedings/hicss/0493/04931/04931053abs.htm

Leopold-Lüsmann, D.B. ‘Virtual Learning Environments and Student Learning Styles’, International Online Seminar: Teaching and Studying in Virtual Learning Environments, 5th July 2000. Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://seminar.jura.unisb.de/publ/ss00/seminar/ss2000/int/individualwork/uploads/ 238/IndividualAssignmentHeatherWilliams.htm

Marton, F., Hounsell D.J., & Entwistle, N.J., The Experience of Learning, (2nd Ed.). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press 1997 Marton, F. & Saljo, R. ‘On qualitative differences in learning, I- Outcome and Process’ British Journal of Educational Psychology 46: pp. 4-11 1976 Marton, F. & Säljö, R. ‘Approaches to learning’ In F. Marton et al, The Experience Of Learning, pp. 39-58 (2nd Ed.). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press 1997 McAlees, R. ‘Technology in Education to technology of education: Concepts, Conflicts and Compromises’, In S. Armstrong et al Facing up to Radical Changes in Universities and Colleges, London: Kogan Page 1997 McCune, V. & Entwistle, N. ‘The deep approach to learning: analytic abstraction and idiosyncratic development’ Paper presented at the Innovations in Higher Education Conference, 30 August - 2 September 2000, Helsinki, Finland Available at (accessed 01/11/03): http://ed.ac.uk/et1/docs/mccune2000.pdf Mitchell, P. ‘Learning style: a critical analysis of the concept and its assessment’ In R. Hoey (Ed.) Design for Learning: aspects of educational technology 27, 1994: pp. 5-10. Nelson-Kilger, M. ‘The Digital Individual’ The Third Conference on Computers Freedom and Privacy, March 9-12, 1993 Burlingame, CA. Available at (accessed 16/07/03): http://www.cspr.org/conferences/cfp93/nelson-kilger.html

Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1999 Preston, D.S. Virtual Learning and Higher Education, Amsterdam: Rodopi

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2004 Price, M.L. & Lapham, A. The Virtual Seminar In Preston, D.S Virtual Learning and Higher Education Amsterdam: Rodopi 2004 Rust, C., (Ed.), Improving Student Learning: Improving Students as Learners Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development. Savin-Baden, M., Problem-based Learning in Higher education: Untold Stories Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press 2000 Selverian, M., Sung Hwang, H. & Mason, C. ‘Virtual learning: In search of a psychological model’ Proceedings of The 4th Annual International Workshop on Presence, Philadelphia, USA - May 21-23 2001 Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://astro.temple.edu/~lombard/P2001/Selverian.pdf

Sherry, L., Billig, S., Jesse, D. & Watson-Acosta, D., ‘Assessing the Impact of Instructional Technology on Student Achievement’, The Journal, August 2003 Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3297.cfm

Tait, H., Entwistle, N. J. & McCune, V. ‘ASSIST: a reconceptualisation of the approaches to studying Inventory’ In Rust, C., (Ed.), Improving Student Learning: Improving Students as Learners, pp 262-271. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development 1998 Trigwell, K. & Ashwin, P. ‘Evoked Conceptions of Learning and Learning Environments’, paper presented at the Improving Student Learning Symposium (Theory and Practice – 10 Years On), Brussels, September 46 2002 Trigwell, K. & Prosser, M. ‘Improving the quality of student learning: the influence of learning and student approaches to learning on learning outcomes’ Higher Education, 22, pp. 251-266. 1991 Watkins, D. & Regmi, M. ‘Assessing approaches to learning in nonwestern cultures: a Nepalese conceptual validity study’, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 20: pp. 203-212 1995 Wegner, S.B., Holloway, K.C. & Garton, E.M. ‘The Effects of InternetBased Instruction on Student Learning’, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 3:2, November 1999. Available at (accessed 10/09/03): http://.aln.org/publications/jaln/v3n2/pdf/v3n2_wegner.pdf

Wenglinsky, H Does it Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics A policy Information Report, Educational Testing Service Policy Information Center, Princeton: New Jersey 1998 Winter, R. Contextualising the patchwork text: addressing Problems of Coursework Assessment in Higher Education, The journal of the staff and Educational Development Association, 40:2 2003

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CHAPTER THREE An Evaluation of an E-learning Strategy: Watching the e-Learners Learn Simon P. Bates and Judy Hardy Abstract This chapter provides a general evaluation of a particular Elearning strategy, together with providing initial answers to some frequently asked questions. It utilises experiences of E-learning courseware developed for undergraduate courses taught within the School of Physics at the University of Edinburgh. The work reported forms part of a wider project to develop an adaptive E-learning environment for online and distance learning1. Both the project and this chapter use the concept of a learner profile based on students' previous usage of the online resources together with a range of other data. Keywords: tailored learning; E-learning environment; E-learning strategy 1.

Introduction Advances in communications technology over the past decade have permeated society to such an extent that it is not an exaggeration to say that the way in which we communicate with each other has radically altered. The development of a culture of “e-Everything” continues voraciously and new students entering Higher Education (H.E.) carry with them increased expectations of how Computing and Information Technology (C&IT) could be used to enrich their learning experience. This in itself provides a powerful driver for H.E. to incorporate the tools and techniques of C&IT into its teaching programmes, and the incorporation of buzzwords such as “E-learning” and “e-Teaching” into our everyday professional vocabulary illustrate that this is being widely embraced and actively developed. However, there is no doubt that there are tremendous overheads and a subsequent latency involved in this process. These may arise from many factors, both cultural and practical. If one seeks to deploy an E-learning strategy then, leaving practical considerations such as steep learning curves aside, what defines the strategy and - possibly more importantly - how does one evaluate and refine it? For all the time and effort spent pursuing the integration of C&IT developments into H.E. teaching, there appears to be very little direct assessment of the methodologies used. An E-learning strategy encompasses a wide variety of activities and resources. Oliver and Herrington2 have described a range of strategies that have been used to

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develop and support online learning. These range from simply “putting lecture notes on the Web” to a fully integrated Virtual Learning Environment to complement (but not necessarily replace) the more traditional methods of face-to-face teaching on-campus. Here we make the, often blurred, distinction between E-learning, the support of oncampus students, and distance learning, for remote students. Fry et al3 have suggested that students' use of IT can be evaluated in terms of content, method, sequence and sociology (i.e. the organisational aspects of learning), the four building blocks of the ideal learning environment proposed by Collins et al.4 Whatever the strategy adopted, a clearer picture of how students learn would be of tremendous assistance to course providers. It might enable us to provide tentative answers to general questions such as: x How do the students actually utilise E-learning materials? x Does this change over the progression of the course? x Do our perceptions of what we believe is valuable and useful map onto those of the students? x Do what we perceive to be more challenging aspects of the course material receive more or less attention in an E-learning environment? This chapter aims to undertake a general evaluation of a particular E-learning strategy, together with providing pointers towards answers to more generic questions such as those outlined above, through the context of E-learning courseware developed for undergraduate courses taught within the School of Physics at the University of Edinburgh. The chapter is organised as follows. In the next section, we present some relevant background technical details pertaining to the course we have used in our study, together with the software tools we have used for data collection and analysis. In our presentation and discussion of results we examine four specific areas of use: breadth and depth; correlation with performance; correlation with “difficulty” of material and usage patterns over time. The final section draws together some conclusions and looks ahead to future developments. The work reported here was undertaken as part of a wider project to develop an adaptive E-learning environment for on-line and distance learning5. This uses the concept of a learner profile based on students' previous usage of the online resources together with a range of other data e.g. their selected course objectives, results of self-tests etc. 2. A.

Technical Details The Course in more Detail

The course on which we base our investigations is a 13 week second year course in Computer Simulation taught in the School of

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Physics at the University of Edinburgh.6 It presents an introduction to the principles and practices of computer simulation via the Java programming language. Note that the term “Computer Simulation” as used here embodies a Physicist's definition of the term i.e. using a computer to pose problems, build models and perform investigations on systems of interest. The course attracts a diverse range of students following degree programmes across the range of scientific disciplines, from physicists, computational physicists and astrophysicists to computer scientists, mathematicians and engineers. Part of the reason for this is that there are no Physics prerequisites for the course; all the material is presented in a self-contained manner. Equally, there is no formal Java programming prerequisite, although students should have some familiarity with a programming language. The course is continually assessed and is split into two approximately equal portions; a relatively formal “lectures plus checkpoint assignment” taught component followed by a more open-ended project assignment. Our investigations here relate only to the first “formal taught” part of the course only; what one could reasonably call the “formal teaching” part. During this part, weekly lectures are augmented by two timetabled laboratory sessions where students work on a series of weekly checkpoint exercises that tie in with the relevant lecture material. The lectures aim to teach the principles and constructs of the language, the laboratory sessions give the students the chance to put theory into practice. In the same way that Java is a modular and extensible programming language, the checkpoints are likewise; later checkpoints utilise material from earlier ones. The focus of this investigation is on how students use the Elearning materials that we provide for them, so it is appropriate here to outline what a student registering for the course receives for study material. The course content can be divided into three categories: lecture material; assessed exercise descriptions (checkpoints and projects) and example codes. Henceforth we denote these as “categories”, with each category subdivided into “sections”. The course is delivered via a blended learning approach. Students are given a paper course handbook containing a skeletal version of the lecture material (the bones of which we expect them to flesh out during the lectures), the checkpoints and the example codes. In addition, they all have access to the course website which contains a full version of the course notes plus the checkpoint descriptions and all the example codes (which can be downloaded and experimented with). On the course website, the level of granularity is such that each section within a category exists as an individual, self-contained html page. One extra addition in the online version of the course is that the students

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have access to “self-test” questions. These are non-assessed online multiple-choice questions chosen randomly from a database with the same sections as the course material. Students submit their answers live and receive immediate feedback on both incorrect and correct answers. Students can use these, repeatedly if they wish to test their understanding of a particular section of material. Computer programming and simulation is an experiential activity; there is no substitute for sitting in front of a terminal and “doing it yourself”. It is therefore a challenging topic to try and teach to a diverse group of students. The cornerstone of our philosophy when designing the course was that: x Students should produce applications from scratch (as opposed to “sewing” together code snippets or templates with their own relevant routines). x The example codes were designed to facilitate this, acting as a bridge between the theory (presented in “lectures” and “notes”) and the practice (the assessed exercises). The course contained over 60 example codes that exemplified particular constructs or ways of doing things, often similar to what we would ask of the students in the assessed exercises. In the results we present below, a clear picture emerges of how valuable the students find these examples, corroborating our original thinking. B.

The Tracking Tools Three software applications were built in order to record, analyse and display the tracking data: x Student tracking tool, a set of scripts7 that recorded web site accesses to a text file (the tracking log); x Database updating tool, an application that processes the data in the tracking log and uploads the processed data into a relational database; x Graphical display tool, a suite of tools used to extract views from the relational database and display the results in graphical form. Each time a student visited a page in the online course an entry is recorded in the tracking log. This information can be grouped into three broad categories: x User identification, given by the user login name required to access the course. x Pedagogical information; which page was visited, the time it was accessed, the referring page (i.e. the page within the online

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course that the student came from) and the time spent viewing the page Technical data, including the client IP address and details of the client hardware and software.

Approximately 0.5% of the recorded entries had incomplete or missing values. These entries were deleted before processing the data. It should also be noted that the tracking tools were not designed as spy-ware and could be circumvented quite easily. For example, disabling cookies or JavaScript on the browser would result in incomplete data being recorded. However, tracking was done with the full co-operation of the students taking the course, and on this basis we believe that it is reasonable to assume that the data collected is representative of the true usage of the online course. 3. A.

Results and analysis

Breadth, Depth and Patterns of Use The results presented here cover approximately three calendar months. As outlined in Section 2.A the first 7 weeks comprise the taught section of the course, with weekly lectures and associated assessed checkpoints. This is followed by a vacation period of just over a month. Data is also included from the first week of the following term, when the final checkpoints were due for submission. Thirty three students were registered for the course, of which twenty eight accessed the web site at least once. This poses the question as to why did the remaining five students not use the online course at all. We can postulate several possible reasons e.g. some students may prefer to use the paper version of the course book or they may not have easy access to the Internet, but these can only remain as speculation without further investigation. Over the period of the study the web site received a total of 2785 page hits consisting of 945 separate sessions. Thus on average approximately three pages were visited in any one session. This relatively low number may simply reflect the coarse granularity of the online course. For example, all of the lecture notes for one week are covered in one or two web pages. It may also suggest that students prefer to dip into the course to refer to specific sections rather than reading large amounts of material online. The tracking software records the time spent per page, but the fact that a web browser is open at a page does not necessarily mean that the student is actively studying the material. This is demonstrated by the

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fact that there were a small number of sessions lasting over 16 hours, suggesting that browsers may have been left running overnight. It is interesting to note that the Computational Physics laboratory (where the practical sessions are held) is only available during normal working hours, so some students must have been working remotely, possibly from home or from the University Halls of Residence or 24 hour computer laboratories. Students' usage of the website varied significantly over the duration of the course. Figure 1 shows the number of page visits (hits) as a function of the week of the course. On lecture/laboratory days the website received about 180 hits per day; these days are clearly identifiable as the major spikes on the chart. The secondary set of peaks (averaging 60 hits per day) corresponds to a second weekly practical session. On weekdays with no timetabled class there were about 30 hits per day, and somewhat less than 10 hits per day at weekends and over the vacation. However, 30% of all the visits to the web site were on days with no timetabled classes. This is a clear indication that students worked at a time that suited them, and that this is not necessarily during timetabled classes.

Figure 1: Number of accesses to course material as a function of date

Further evidence for this comes from our analysis of the web site usage at different times of day, see Figure 2. This shows an approximately normal distribution centred around the period 2-3 pm, consistent with the

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fact that laboratory classes are scheduled between 2 and 5 pm. There is a secondary peak of activity in the early evening between about 7-8 pm and a much smaller peak at around midnight. Although over 80% the accesses were during the normal working day, about 5% were between 11 pm and 7 am - in fact, the only time of day when no activity was recorded was between 5 and 6 am. This shows very clearly that not only do some students choose to work on days other than those with timetabled classes, but that they follow different work patterns over the course of the day.

Figure 2: Number of accesses to course material over 24 hours

Some indication of the breadth of students' coverage of the material was obtained by looking at how many different pages were visited. Only two students looked at more than 50% of the pages on the web site, 18 students looked at between 25% and 50% and 7 students looked at less than 25%. Almost two-thirds of all the pages visited were example codes, with the remainder divided more or less evenly between the lecture notes and checkpoints & projects sections. This high usage level for the example codes may suggest that students do indeed find them useful to bridge the gap between the relatively high level overview presented in the lectures and the practical coding needed to complete the checkpoint exercises. Of course, on a purely practical level the online code examples are also probably used by students to “copy and paste” code in order to reduce the need for typing. Although all the checkpoint exercises require a complete program to be written from scratch, snippets from the example codes can be used to provide a starting point for some of the classes and methods needed to complete the checkpoints. In the future, it would be instructive to compare students' usage of the online course with their usage of the paper course book. We propose

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that the pattern outlined here may be reversed, with students using the paper version mainly to read and study the lecture material and checkpoint descriptions rather then to read code in printed form. If this is indeed the case, it would demonstrate the importance of making resources available in a variety of formats to meet the range of students needs. B.

Correlation with performance Our understanding of “what makes a good student good” is somewhat limited even for the tried and tested practice of face-to-face contact via lectures, tutorials, workshops, practicals etc. The same is true of a student who under-performs, though here it is clear that nonattendance and/or lack of engagement with study materials is one possible cause of underperformance. This subsection attempts to investigate possible correlations between performance on the course and usage of the online material. A preconception might be that good students who perform well on the course might be expected to use the material more, and vice versa for weaker students. We show in the following discussion that this is not necessarily the case. Students were ranked according to assessed performance on the course, on the basis of marks obtained for the checkpoint exercises. We then randomly selected a representative number (typically 4) from the upper and lower quartiles; the former were designated “strong” performers and the latter “weak”. In addition, a number of students were selected from the middle quartiles for crosschecking or validating any trends. At this point it is appropriate to reiterate the caveats regarding sample size. This is a small set of students, which we have just reduced to a much smaller subset for this investigation of correlation with performance. We steer well clear of concrete predictions and highlight possible trends. On the basis of our analysis, we find no evidence that either group of students visit a greater proportion of course pages, nor spend more or less time in accessing the course. Both strong and weak groups were found to on average, visit approximately 40% of the entire course, with a fairly narrow spread within the groups (typically10-20%). This is consistent with what was previously found (See Section 3.A) for the entire cohort. General trends for the entire cohort in terms of number of hits and time spent per category of the course are also mirrored for both the strong and weak sub-groups. All students appeared to spend most time and visit most frequently the category devoted to code examples, and particular spikes of high activity in the whole class data (see Figure 1) were reproduced in both the strong and weak sub-groups of students. In analysing both the times at which and frequency with which students visit the course material, we find a pattern for both sub-groups that again mirrors the entire cohort. In terms of number of visits as a

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function of time of day, we find the same bimodal distribution of use for students in both the strong and weak groups as was observed for the whole class cohort i.e. a smooth distribution, with peaks of activity in the afternoon and late evening (See Figure 2). As an illustration, Figure 3 shows data for a student from each of the two sub-groups; the upper panel is a student from the strong sub-group and the lower one from the weaker sub-group. Interestingly, the vast majority of students that we examined individually exhibited this bimodal (or higher order) distribution, but with considerable variation in the peak locations. Typically, the larger peak was centred somewhere in the afternoon (the “traditional” time of the student day for laboratory-type activities) with a second peak somewhere in the late afternoon or evening, or even late into the night (3-4 am).

Figure 3: Number of accesses to course material as a function of time of day for a student in the strong and weak sub-groups (upper and lower panels, respectively).

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In summary, we conclude that there do not appear to be significant, consistent differences in the “on average” learning patterns of strong and weak students, i.e. inter-group differences. There is, unsurprisingly, substantial variation in the way different students in a given group use the material as individuals, i.e. intra-group differences, irrespective of which group they belong to. C.

Voting with their fingers As teachers, we know that there are certain concepts or ideas which on average students find harder to master than others. We might approach our courses with certain preconceived ideas about what we think students will find most challenging. In this subsection, we highlight two of these preconceptions that turned out to be unfounded, and also how the tracking data has enabled us to identify the part of the course that the students find most challenging. Our starting premise was that if students find a topic difficult, they are likely to use the online material more frequently and/or more often. Of course, this can also be true for the parts of the course they enjoy the most. We believe this to be particularly true for the code examples category of the course, and the data we present in the following paragraphs is drawn from this category. This approach is justified on the basis that the greatest proportion of the hits to the site was for the codes examples than either of the other two categories (see Section 3.A). At the start of the course the teaching team shared the following general feelings: x The initial sections of the course, dealing with bootstrapping the principles of objects and classes, contained a lot of material to get to grips with in a relatively short time. x One specific section dealing with reading from and writing to files was conceptually difficult, and also a bit clumsy and “dry”. For each of these sections we found only an average number of hits and time spent on the code examples. Of course, it may still be the case that the students find these challenging or difficult and that our premise of “more difficult equates to more hits” is simply false. In the specific case of file handling, feedback from student questionnaires suggest that this is something that is seen as challenging, but the students “learn to live with” the difficulty relatively painlessly by using the code examples as a template for their own applications. A clear picture did emerge of the section of the course that students visited most frequently. The evidence presented below, together with that in the next section on looking ahead or back, lead us to conclude

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that they also found this the most challenging as well. The section that students visited the most was that on introductory Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming, introduced in week 4 of the course. One third of the entire time spent on all the code examples was spent on this page alone. An identical pattern emerges for the number of accesses. This provides concrete evidence that this section is most frequently visited; the following investigation of usage patters over time strengthens the assertion that students did indeed find it the most challenging as well. D.

Usage patterns over time Here, we investigate how closely students' usage of the web site followed the timetable of lectures and checkpoints. Figure 4 shows the number of hits in each of the three sections of the course, broken down according to whether the pages viewed related to the current weeks material, were “looking forwards” i.e. looking at material that had not yet been covered or were “looking backwards” i.e. looking at material that had already been covered in previous weeks. Over the first 7 weeks of the course, on average about half (48%) of the visits were to that weeks material, just over a third (37%) were looking backwards and 15% were looking forwards. This suggests that, although students spent most of their time studying the material required to complete that week's checkpoint, they also spent at least some time looking beyond this immediate objective. In week 3 there were more hits “looking forwards” than in any other week - and correspondingly fewer hits to the current week's material. This may be due to the fact that the topics covered in the week 3 lecture were not needed to complete that week's checkpoint. Another explanation (not mutually exclusive to the first) is that students may have considered the material covered during this week to be rather mundane - it included error handling in Java, which we believe that students may have found somewhat dry. Whatever the reasons, it is clear that students were taking the opportunity to see what was coming up over the next few weeks. This data also provides a further insight into which parts of the course students found challenging and interesting. For almost all of the students the GUI programming introduced in week 4 was their first introduction to the topic, and in order to complete the remaining checkpoints it was essential that they understood this material thoroughly. Figure 4 shows that there were a large number of “looking backwards” visits in the following week (week 5), especially for the code examples. A more detailed analysis revealed that most students were revisiting the GUI code examples from week 4. This would seem to indicate that students were using a combination of “learning by example” (i.e. using the code example as starting point) and experiential learning or “learning by

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doing”8 (i.e. writing the program for the checkpoint) and provides evidence that providing a library of pertinent code examples does indeed facilitate student learning.

4.

Conclusions and Future Directions For the small-scale, specific course presented here, we can draw a number of tentative conclusions. It is clear that the pattern of students' usage of the online material did not simply follow the pattern of timetabled classes and that there was considerable variation in the way that different students used the web site. It is tempting to conclude that this implies a difference in learning patterns between students, but of course learning does not necessarily follow directly on from browsing the web. Perhaps surprisingly, there appeared to be no correlation between students' usage of the online course and their performance in the course assessments, with wide variations in usage observed among both the low and high-achieving groups. Our premise that the use of illustrative code examples facilitates learning by providing a bridge between the relatively high level theory presented in the lectures and the practical coding needed to complete the assessments is supported by the present investigation. We also identified one specific section in the course that students found especially challenging, and it was clear that students referred back to the code examples in this section at later stages in the course. This provides further evidence to support our belief that for this course, the code examples are crucial to the experiential learning style that fosters the deep learning9 that is our aim as teachers. E-learning has become increasingly central to the learning experience of students in the HE sector. As teachers we aim to make this experience as rewarding as possible, but it is often hard to assess how students actually use the material we provide and whether our preconceptions about what students find useful match reality. In this study we have investigated the way that a small group of students use the online materials offered as part one specific course. With such a small, specific study, our conclusions are necessarily speculative. However, the results are sufficiently encouraging that we plan to extend the study to a much larger, more mainstream course that is provided within a full VLE. Finally, the work presented here provides a valuable input into the “tailored learning” scenario, in which the learner is assisted by a system which has an active role in the learning process, based on a personalised model of the learner and their preferred style of learning. Such a system is far beyond the static E-learning environments in general

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use today, but has the potential to make E-learning a truly personalised experience. Acknowledgements Part of this work was funded by the Socrates-Minerva Project 87574-CP1-2000-1-RO-MINERVA-ODL Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Tools for Innovative ODL The authors would like to thank Mario Antonioletti, and Katarzyna Zajac, Daisuke Torii and Florian Scharinger who worked on this project during a number of IAESTE exchange visits. We would also like to thank the Csim2H students of 2003 for their cooperation. Notes 1

Cristea, P.D., Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Tools for Innovative ODL, 7/10/02 Available at (accessed 27/09/03): http://www.dsp.pub.ro/SocratesAINN/ 2

Oliver, R & Herrington, J. (2001) Teaching and Learning Online, Edith Cowan University 3 Fry, H., Ketteridge S., & Marshall, S., (1999) A Handbook for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, Kogan Page. 4 Collins, J., Brown, S. & Newman, S., (1989) ‘Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Craft of Reading, Writing and Mathematics’ In Resnick, L.B., (Ed.) Knowing, Learning, and Instruction: essays in honor of Robert Glaser pp. 453-94, Hillsdale, N.J. (1989). 5 Cristea, P.D., (2002) 6 For more details see Bates, S.P. & Hardy, J. Computer Simulation 2h, 10/09/03 Available at (accessed 15/09/03): http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/~spb01/csim2h 7

The software was developed from similar software written for the EuroMET project (European Meteorological Education and Training) by Robert Black, Charles Duncan, Peter Douglas, Martin Morrey & Daniel Gondouin, Available at (accessed 14/08/03):

http://euromet.meteo.fr 8

Kolb, D., (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall 9 F. Marton, D. J. Hounsell & N. J. Entwistle (1997) The Experience of Learning, (2nd Ed.) Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.

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References Collins, J., Brown, S. & Newman, S., (1989) ‘Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Craft of Reading, Writing and Mathematics’ In Resnick, L.B., (Ed.) Knowing, Learning, and Instruction: essays in honor of Robert Glaser pp. 453-94, Hillsdale, N.J. (1989). Cristea, P.D., (2003) Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Tools for Innovative ODL, 7/10/02 Available at (accessed 27/09/03): http://www.dsp.pub.ro/SocratesAINN/

Fry, H., Ketteridge S., & Marshall, S., (1999) A Handbook for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, Kogan Page F. Marton, D. J. Hounsell & N. J. Entwistle (1997) The Experience of Learning, (2nd Ed.) Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. Oliver, R & Herrington, J. (2001) Teaching and Learning Online, Edith Cowan University (2001). Preece, J., Human-Computer Interaction, Addison-Wesley (1994) Kolb, D., (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Resnick, L.B., (Ed.) (1989) Knowing, Learning, and Instruction: essays in honor of Robert Glaser pp. 453-94, Hillsdale, N.J.

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CHAPTER FOUR Out of University and Into Intensive Care: A Case Study of the Development of a Distance Learning Course in Intensive Care Nursing Justin Macklin and Audrey Blenkharn Abstract This is a case study of the development and management of a specialist clinical course in intensive care nursing, delivered by distance learning. Its main aim is to give an insight into the educational, professional and technical issues that arose during the development and running of the course. There are five main sections. They explore the background issues surrounding intensive care nursing education: the difficulties in delivering a hands-on clinical course at a distance; the curriculum design; the technical structure of the virtual learning environment (VLE) and the evaluation of the course. The background is aimed at those not familiar with the intricacies of nurse education. It discusses: the professional accreditation process; the theory-practice gap; the increasing demand for intensive care nursing courses and the reluctance of nurse education to embrace distance learning. The examination of the educational and practical difficulties in delivering a hands-on clinical nursing course at a distance focuses on the goal of achieving clinical competence and explains the importance of the role of a well prepared preceptor. The curriculum design of the course is based around a social constructivist philosophy. The importance of the relationship between student, teacher and preceptor is explored, as is the blended learning approach which is designed to encourage collaboration between these three groups. A short explanation of the technical structure of the VLE is given, along with how the course was successfully migrated to a new Elearning platform. Each cohort was extensively evaluated using the “Realistic Evaluation” approach. It confirmed that the blended learning approach to intensive care nursing education is effective and concludes that students are not disadvantaged in any way by the distance learning mode of delivery. Keywords: Nurse education; education; and intensive care nursing.

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1.

Introduction At the time of starting our specialist clinical course in intensive care nursing, by distance learning, no other clinical nursing courses were offered in this mode of study. This presented a number of challenges which can be grouped into three main areas: the difficulties in delivering a “hands on” clinical nursing course at a distance; the design of the course curriculum; and the technical challenge of building the virtual learning environment and providing online educational support actually into intensive care units. Until 2001 all nurse education programmes in England leading to a professional award required the approval of the English National Board for Nursing and Midwifery (ENB). The purpose of this approval was to ensure programmes met accepted professional standards. Since 2001, this role has been fulfilled by the QAA (the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education). This award and other specific nurse education issues are discussed in the background section, which is aimed at those not familiar with the intricacies of this branch of higher education. 2.

Background Nursing is a practice-based profession, i.e. one that requires the mastery of a wide range of technical skills in addition to a broad knowledge base. Traditionally nurses acquired these skills and knowledge through an apprenticeship style of education, with nurses being trained within a specific hospital environment. This training involved small groups of nursing students developing knowledge and skills largely through supervised practice. In the 1990s however, the education and preparation of nurses underwent a major change with a greater emphasis being placed on the acquisition of knowledge that would prepare nurses to meet the challenges posed by the ever-changing healthcare needs of an increasingly ageing population and advancing healthcare technology. This resulted in nursing students spending more time in the classroom and less time with patients. The integration of nurse education into the higher education sector further increased the distance between where theory is taught and practice gained. The existence of a theory-practice gap in nursing in the UK has been acknowledged for many years, although the movement of nurse education into the higher education sector is argued to have increased this gap with learning now occurring in separate institutions1. This is especially true for those education programmes undertaken by registered

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or qualified nurses to prepare them to work within specialist clinical areas such as intensive care. Prior to 2001 such programmes required approval from the English National Board for Nursing and Midwifery (ENB) and led to the award of a professionally recordable qualification. These programmes were originally developed to facilitate the acquisition of nursing skills with a theory practice ratio of 1:3. Teaching occurred in small groups within the hospital setting with each group of students having a designated clinical facilitator/teacher. The clinical teacher was responsible for facilitating the application of theory to practice and worked alongside the students in the practice setting. However, the incorporation of these programmes into the higher education sector has meant these unique features have been lost. Students are now taught at institutions some distance from their hospital base, in large groups with the responsibility for the facilitation of linking theory to practice falling largely on hospital staff. In an attempt to address the theory-practice gap new teaching roles such as that of link lecturer have been created. The function of a link lecturer is to liaise in a particular clinical area with staff. In some Faculties of Nursing/Healthcare joint posts between the university and hospital trusts have been established, for example that of lecturer practitioner, thus ensuring the faculty has a clinical presence. However, this emphasis on establishing and maintaining the clinical credibility of nurse education programmes has led to a somewhat narrow perspective on nurse education provision and has prevented many faculties from pursuing the distance learning option for the delivery of post-qualifying clinical courses. The opinion of many nurse educationalists has been that for these programmes, which are designed to prepare nurses to work in areas requiring a high level of technical skill, the distance learning approach further exacerbates the problem for students in grasping concepts and putting these into practice. This argument appears to imply that students require face-toface contact with teachers in order to make connections between what they learn and what they practice. There is a fundamental flaw in this argument. As highlighted above, the theory component of post-qualifying courses has, since the merger with HE, taken place in institutions at some distance from the individual hospitals in which students practice. Students are no longer taught in hospital specific groups and an individual class may well comprise students from as many as ten different hospitals. Whilst undertaking these programmes students are employees of the hospital and generally attend university on a day release basis. A distance therefore already exists between where learning of theory and the learning of practical skills takes place. Bridging the theory practice-gap is not a question of where learning takes place but of what leaning strategies are

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the best in terms of their facilitation of students to create their own links. Providing appropriate strategies are adopted and support mechanisms incorporated, a distance learning programme is equally as able as a campus attendance programme to bridge the gap. The reluctance of nurse education to accept distance learning as a viable method for the delivery of post-qualifying programmes has limited the educational opportunities for a substantial number of nurses working within the intensive care environment, who through personal circumstance require a more flexible approach to learning than that offered by campus attendance modes of delivery. These nurses are often unable to progress in their careers and may leave the intensive care environment to work in areas where further education is not a prerequisite for promotion and advancement. The health service therefore loses a valuable pool of nurses at a time when there is an acute problem in the recruitment and retention of nurses with intensive care nursing skills both in the National Health Service (NHS) and the private health sector. This shortage of skilled nurses has led to patients being denied access to life saving treatments.2, 3 There is also an increasing demand for intensive care services as a result of an ageing population and technological advances. The present government has pledged to increase the number of intensive care beds to meet this increase in demand and this in turn has resulted in a greater demand for nurses skilled in caring for the critically ill adult. In order to meet this demand many NHS workforce development confederations (the bodies responsible for the planning and purchase of education and training in the NHS) have channelled additional funds into critical care educational programmes. However because of the shortage of nurses in general and financial constraints, many NHS Trusts have difficulty in releasing staff to attend study days at a Higher Education establishment. Access to distance learning programmes could help overcome this problem allowing hospital managers to be more flexible in the allocation of study leave and as a result may be able to support more students per programme than is possible with a traditional approach. It was therefore for these reasons the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, based in Thames Valley University, England embarked on the design and development of an intensive care nursing programme delivered by distance learning. 3.

Challenges of a “hands on” clinical nursing distance course The major challenge in developing any nursing programme, as has been highlighted above, is maintaining the focus on clinical practice. This is particularly true of an intensive care nursing programme because of the highly technical nature of intensive care. Any educational programme, whether it is designed to be delivered via distance or

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attendance therefore has to ensure participants acquire clinical competence. Competence has been defined as the ability to perform in a given context and the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to new tasks and situations.4 To be a competent intensive care nurse therefore requires the acquisition and demonstration of a combination of: ƒ Technical skills (i.e. the skills necessary for effective practice) ƒ Methodological skills (e.g. communication, interpersonal and presentation skills) ƒ Conceptual skills (e.g. knowledge and understanding, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, reflection and action planning) An educational programme therefore needs to ensure that the learning opportunities it provides enable students to acquire these various skills. The Commission for Education in its report “Making a Difference to Nursing and Midwifery Education”5 recommended that nurse education be focused on outcome-based competency principles developed collaboratively between higher education establishments and service providers. They felt this would ensure that nurses developed the higher order intellectual skills and abilities and the practice knowledge and skills essential to the art and science of nursing. The curriculum development team for the intensive care by distance learning programme (ICDLP) therefore included representatives from a variety of intensive care units within the West London and Thames Valley regions and focused on the development of realistic ie desirable and achievable competencies. These competencies with specified performance criteria would therefore drive the subsequent curriculum development. An example of the framework can be seen in Table 1. This approach to education is comprehensive, encouraging the development of knowledge, understanding, practical and technical skills, attitudes and values. Adopting this approach places the emphasis on output, i.e. on the achievement of learning outcomes through collaborative learning strategies and workplace application and the provision of evidence to validate competence. Learning that takes place within the practice setting is therefore considered as valid as learning in an academic institution.6 As discussed previously practice is the key place where nurses develop competence. Skilled practitioners facilitate this development of professional knowledge and skill either formally or informally. Any education programme therefore must create and structure learning experiences and opportunities in such a way as to assist the student achieve this competence, whilst at the same time formalising this

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practitioner facilitation. In the ICDLP it was decided that achievement of clinical competence would be facilitated through the design of learning activities situated in the real world of intensive care nursing and through clinical preceptorship. A preceptor is defined as “an experienced nurse within a practice [setting] who acts as a role model and resource for a student”7 advising and assessing the student throughout the duration of the programme. In traditional intensive care nursing programmes preceptorship is considered important, however with a distance learning approach this role assumes even greater significance as the preceptor becomes the personal point of contact. The preceptor therefore has to be carefully selected and prepared for this role. The selection criteria for a preceptor within the ICDLP were based on those for the faculty’s traditional attendance-mode programmes i.e. preceptors must be registered nurses who have themselves undertaken an accredited intensive care nursing programme or can demonstrate through a portfolio of evidence that they have acquired the necessary knowledge and competence to support a student undertaking the ICDLP. A preceptor must also have undertaken preparation to develop the skills of facilitating student learning, supervising practice and assessing the student’s level of competence. In addition preceptors within the ICDLP would require additional preparation in supporting students who are undertaking a programme at a distance. A distance learning pack was therefore developed incorporating learning activities designed to prepare the preceptor for this distinct role. The development team recognised the significant role the preceptor plays in facilitating student learning and the importance of incorporating supportive mechanisms within the programme for these individuals. The nature of this support mechanism will be discussed later in this chapter. 4.

Challenge - curriculum design The underpinning educational philosophy that drove the curriculum development was social constructivism. Social Constructivist theory proposes that much of our world cannot be objectively defined but rather is constructed by the social practices, discourses and interactions in which we engage with others in our culture. In a constructivist approach to learning the emphasis is placed on what is happening to the learner rather than what the teacher is doing. The learner interacts with objects, events and people and through this interaction, gains an understanding of these objects, events and people. Learning does not simply involve the receiving, storage and retrieval of information. Nor is it just the transfer of knowledge from the external world into the learner’s memory. Learning is

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an internal process. It is the result of mental construction and takes place by fitting new information together with what is already known and understood. Learners create interpretations of the world based on their previous experiences and their interactions with and knowing of the world.8 A social constructivist approach to learning places the teacher in the role of a creator of learning experiences and opportunities that facilitate the natural development of a learner’s mental abilities through various paths of discovery. Learning is seen as a social and collaborative activity that cannot be taught to anyone. The learner constructs his or her own understanding, the teacher acting as a facilitator in the construction of meaning. The nurses who undertake the ICDLP are registered practitioners who have worked within the intensive care environment for a minimum of six months. They therefore have knowledge, understanding and experiences of intensive care nursing upon which the programme can build. The learning activities were therefore designed to encourage the student to utilise this previous learning, and assist the learner to invent their own solutions to problems and try out ideas and hypothesis. Learning experiences were created which encourage students to reflect on and in their practice. The learning activities utilised a variety of resource materials presented via a variety of different media with students primarily studying existing resources rather than specially prepared learning materials. These resources included: nursing and medical research and review articles (some in print others accessed via on-line databases); existing learning packages; papers prepared by the programme team as well as electronically based resources. The learning activities require students to utilise these resources to analyse their own practice, arrive at new conclusions and adjust practice where necessary. In traditional distance learning programmes the student works through the learning materials independently. Social constructivism however requires that mechanisms be built into both the materials and the learning support to foster collaboration between distance learners, and between teachers and learners. The development team decided that this collaboration could best be facilitated through online (asynchronous) conferencing, and the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) was developed with this type of conferencing as the main focus. It was intended that the VLE would become the medium through which the teacher-student, student-student, preceptor-teacher and preceptor-student communication took place, establishing a tripartite learning relationship (Figure 1). The VLE also facilitated preceptor-preceptor communication allowing preceptors to share experiences and offer guidance and support to one another.

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At the time of the development the term blended learning was not in common use. However universities and in particular the UK Open University, were beginning to advocate combining several methods of delivery where possible.9, 10, 11 More recently, this has been adopted as normal practice, with healthcare and universities promoting a “‘blend’ of face-to-face, distance and electronic learning.12 So using the term with hindsight, the approach used on the intensive care nursing course by supported distance learning was a blended learning approach comprising a taught element, a distance element and an E-learning component.

Figure 1: The VLE and the tripartite relationship The blended learning components of the ICDLP are: A.

Taught component. In campus-based clinical nursing programmes, the student typically sees the tutor once a week, and time is easily found for informal, as well as formal tutorial support. For the distancE-learning student the main source of personal contact is the preceptor. The preceptor therefore supports the student in the traditional face-to-face manner. Preceptors, as outlined above are a vital part of the students learning, acting as a resource, mentor, clinical supervisor and assessor. Preceptors have access to the programme learning materials therefore are able to aid student learning.

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B.

Distance learning component. The programme content is delivered through a combination of print-based and web-based learning materials. The print-based distance learning materials are ‘activity’ based, and refer students to a range of resources both in print and electronic. A number of learning activities also require students to collaborate via on-line discussion groups. This design helps create the constructivist culture of the course. 13, 14 The programme content is presented in a series of learning units, each unit comprising of a number of activities and a list of resources that enable the student to complete the activities and achieve the unit outcomes. The student’s task is to weave their way through the resources, guided by the programme team advice, developing and using the skills of critical analysis and reflective practice, thus constructing knowledge of intensive care nursing. At the same time students collect evidence to support achievement of the clinical competencies of intensive care nursing. C.

E-learning. Some E-learning components were created as HTML pages for the emerging patient scenarios (these are released on a timed basis), links to relevant websites and online documents. Other components, including a notice-board for announcements and discussion groups (some tightly linked to the activities in the written materials and others dedicated to tutorial and peer support) were created in an E-learning platform. Email and occasional use of synchronous chat were also included in the design, even though the development team were aware that synchronous chat is usually less well reviewed by students.15 The inclusion of discussion groups and e-mail for discussions between tutors at the university and clinical preceptors was also part of the design. There was considerable concern amongst the course development team about making E-learning a compulsory component of the course. Although these students are usually technically competent, there were some worries about them being able to effectively use the E-learning system16 or being able to get access to an Internet enabled computer at all (Traditionally nurses are regarded a relatively low paid workers, and as such are likely to be late adopters of internet access at home). In the event this concern was overcome when funding was secured to install dedicated Internet access PCs in the two pilot intensive care units, meaning that students would have access at work, if not at home (but see comments in the evaluation). This arrangement also meant that technical support could be provided with relative ease.

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5.

Challenge - Technical Structure The VLE for the project had to be a developmental product called ‘Virtual Campus’ (VC), because this was the platform in which the university had a stake. Virtual Campus was initially created by the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside and further developed with funding from the Extended Learning Environment Network (ELEN) consortium, consisting of De Montfort, Huddersfield, Middlesex, Plymouth, Loughborough, Thames Valley and Manchester universities17. These in turn were funded by The Teaching and Learning Technology Programme, which is ultimately funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Education (HEFCE) and Department for Employment and Learning. 18 The course development team were aware of VC’s developmental nature and decided to put course materials, such as the emerging patient scenarios into HTML pages hosted on the faculty’s own web-server. These could be accessed by links in VC, but had the advantage of being easily accessible from elsewhere should there be a need to move to a different E-learning platform. This decision paid dividends in 2002, when the ELEN project terminated and the university migrated to the Blackboard VLE.19 The split of the location of the online components is shown in Table 1. Tutors and students were largely unaware that the information was coming from two sources. All content was viewed through frames in the VC HTML interface.

Virtual Campus Introduction. Course notice-board. Course discussion groups. Student discussion group. Preceptor discussion group. Synchronous chat

Faculty Server Online course materials Emerging patient scenarios

Table 1: Location of on-line components In 2002, following closure of the ELEN project, the University migrated to the Blackboard E-learning platform. Virtual Campus facilities were duplicated as far as possible on Blackboard and the transition was easily made. However, because Blackboard is likely to remain as the Elearning platform for some time, the course tutors have decided the next stage of development is to integrate the course content currently on the

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faculty web-server into Blackboard. This will mean updating the content will become easier for the tutors, rather than having to deal with two separate systems.

6.

Evaluation It is important when introducing any new programme of education to evaluate its effectiveness. This was especially true with the ICDLP because of its uniqueness. It was therefore decided that a rigorous evaluative process would be instigated with the first cohort of students although this has since been extended to each subsequent student group. The approach adopted was that of “Realistic Evaluation”. This approach was chosen as it focuses the evaluative process on finding out what it is about a programme that works, for whom and in what circumstances. 20 (see Figure 2) Using this model a number of assumptions or outcomes were tested: x The end product of the course is the same as that of the equivalent campus attendance programme i.e. students have the same level of competence x Students, preceptors and teachers primarily access the VLE in their workplace x Student interaction with and support from teachers on-line is perceived as adequate x Student interaction with and support from preceptors is perceived as adequate x Students and teachers rate the VLE positively as a means of communication x The blended learning approach is effective in enabling learning.

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Mechanisms (M) Contexts (C) Outcomes (O) What works for whom in what circumstances?

Theory

Programme Specification

Hypothesis What might work for whom in what circumstances?

Observation Multi method data collection and analysis on M, C,O

Figure 2: Realistic Evaluation Cycle (Pawson & Tilley, 1997)20 It was also important to identify the contextual factors which might impact on the success of the programme such as: the age range of the student group; gender; length of time in intensive care nursing; previous experience of distance learning; access to virtual campus in workplace/home; presence of other students undertaking the programme in workplace. The age range of the first cohort of students was 7 – 50 and this pattern has continued in subsequent groups. The majority of students have been female (only one male to date) and the length of time in intensive care nursing ranges from one to ten years. Most students were undertaking the programme with others from within their workplace although two students were studying “alone”. Data was collected from, students, teachers, preceptors and NHS managers by questionnaire, SWOT analysis and interviews. The general impression gained from the data collected is that the programme adequately prepares nurses to work in the challenging environment of intensive care and there is no demonstrable difference between those nurses who have undertaken this programme and those following a more traditional programme. Student performance in assessments is also comparable (see Figure 3)

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Distribution of grades Art & Science module

Distribution of grades Art & Science module Number of students

Number of students

10 8 6 4 2

10 8 6 4 2 0

0

30-39

30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70- 79 80- 89

40-49

Distance students

60-69

70-79

80-89

Attendance students

Distribution of grades Professional Judgement module 10

10

Number of students

50-59

Mark range

Grades

Distributio n o f grades P ro f e s s io na l J udge m e nt m o dule

8

8

6

6

4

4 2

2

0

0

30-39

30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89

40-49

50-59

60-69

70-79

80-89

M ark range

Grades

Attendance students Distance students

Figure 3: Distribution of grades

Although the pilot intensive care units had been equipped with designated PCs the data demonstrated that the majority of students accessed the VLE from home and rarely utilised the PCs within the intensive care units. This was also found to be the case with preceptors. Teachers however access the VLE both within their workplace and from home. Students rated the on-line support positively. Statements included “people were easily accessible for support and advice”, “the tutors always responded to messages promptly and that was really helpful and made up for the fact that I was on my own, although it would have been nice to have met them!” and “I knew that whenever I needed advice or just wanted to moan someone was on the other side of the screen and that made me feel better”.

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Students also perceived the support from preceptors to be effective although as with the attendance programme students, they often found it difficult to meet as regularly with the preceptors as they would have liked due to the pressure on the preceptors time. The use of discussion groups as a means of facilitating communication and collaboration was generally rated positively by students, although some students found it difficult to interact with the medium, e.g. “Most times I just post my contribution and leave it at that!” The majority of students did evaluate the VLE positively stating that it fostered communication both between each other and with the programme team and that it was a useful resource in its own right, as individual contributions remain as a written record after the discussion is completed. One student commented that this was a major benefit of the programme, which a classroom does not provide. Those students who were studying alone found the VLE particularly useful, leaving them feeling less isolated. One stated “It was great to be able to plan and present a paper with Sam in Reading.” The blended learning approach does appear to foster enquiry and reflection. Students remarked positively on the variety of media and activities within the programme and felt this caters for different learning styles. One specific comment said “I think this course makes you learn more than the classroom course. You can spend a day in the classroom without learning anything, but on this course you have to find answers and gain your knowledge. There is no one else who does it for you”. However students also stated they have “more work to do on the distance course than students on the taught programme”, whilst others felt that there were too many learning activities: “sometimes there were too many activities due within one week and this caused great stress”. “I feel the workload was too much. There wasn’t enough time to do the activities as well as I wanted to”. Students also stated that the activities “do not always stimulate discussion”. One aspect of the programme however appears to differ little from attendance programmes as one student commented “it is always the same four or five of us who contribute” Both students and NHS managers consider this mode of delivery to increase flexibility in regards to study time. This has allowed one NHS Trust to increase the number of students it can support on the programme at any one time because study leave can be staggered. Students have also been able to accumulate study leave and take it at a time that best suits their individual needs thus reducing stress especially around assessment submission time. Overall the evaluative data confirms that a blended learning approach to intensive care nursing education is effective. The issues highlighted by students are similar to issues highlighted by comparable

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groups on attendance programmes, some of which can and have been addressed. 7.

Conclusion The faculty considers the post-qualifying intensive care nursing programme by distance learning to be an overall success, to the extent that the conversion of other clinical nursing programmes to the format is being pursued. The programme now attracts both national and international students, something which helps increase revenue and therefore of particular interest to the faculty. This would have not been possible with a taught programme, or an older ENB validated programme, which only had value in England. From the experience of developing and running the programme the course team have concluded that the choice of E-learning platform (VLE) is largely irrelevant, although given the choice, the team would probably opt for one with an integrated e-mail application which received as well as sent mail, because it would help standardise the support process. Finally, after three years, the subjective view of the intensive care staff, managers and course tutors is that the learning of the students is not disadvantaged, and that this mode of delivery offers many benefits to both the hospitals and the students. Notes Hewison, A., & Wildman, S. (1996) ‘The theory-practice gap in nursing: a new dimension’ Journal of Advanced Nursing, pp. 754-761 2 Metcalfe, A., & McPherson, K. (1995) Study of the provision of intensive care in England London: School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 3 Roberts, S., & Cleary, V., (2000) ‘Sustaining care delivery – team nursing with intensive care assistants’ Nursing in Critical Care Vol. 5 Issue 2, March/April pp. 68-71 4 Harris, R., Guthrie, H., Lundberg, D., & Hobart, B., (1995) CompetencyBased Education and Training: Between a Rock and a Whirlpool South Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia 5 Department of Health (1999), Making a Difference. The nursing, midwifery and health visiting contribution to health and healthcare London: The Stationary Office 6 UKCC (1999) (United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting), Chair: Sir Leonard Peach, Fitness for Practice London: UKCC Section 4.10 7 Quinn, F., (1995) The Principles and Practice of Education London: Chapman and Hall 1

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8

Renshaw, P., (1995) Excellence in Teaching and Learning: External Environment Scan Queensland Department of Education 9 Grabe, M., & Grabe, C., (1998) Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning Boston: Houghton Mifflin p.65 10 Evans, T., & Nation, D., (2000) Changing University Teaching – Reflections on Creating Educational Technologies London: Kogan Page p. 46 11 Simpson, O., (2000) Supporting Students in Open and Distance Learning London: Kogan Page pp. 69-86 12 Rogers, A., & Jones, M., (2003) ‘From rhetoric to reality; E-learning in the NHS workplace’ Manchester: Paper presented at EMAP Open Learning Conference, Manchester Conference Centre, 17/02/03 13 Weller, M., (2000) Delivering and Learning on the Net London: Kogan Page p. 65 14 Young, G., & Marks-Maran, D., (1999) ‘A Case Study of Convergence between Conventional and Distance Education’ in The Convergence of Distance and Conventional Education, (ed.) Tait, A., & Mills, R., New York: Routledge p. 179 15 Hiltz, S.R., & Turoff, M., The Network Nation (Boston: AddisonWesley Publishing Company, 1978) p.90 16 Fred Lockwood at the Open University had identified that highly technical users can still have difficulties with online learning systems. Lockwood, F., & Gooley, A., (2001) Innovation in Open and Distance Learning London: Kogan Page 17 Howden-Leach, H., (2000) Extended Learning Environment, 21/08/00. Available at (accessed 15/08/03): http://www.hud.ac.uk/hhs/teaching/elen_info.htm 18

HEFCE, Outcome of bids for funding under the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme, 24/09/98 Available at (accessed 15/08/03):

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/1998/98_20.htm 19

Blackboard Corporation. The Blackboard Learning System 13/08/03 Available at (accessed 15/08/03):

http://www.blackboard.com/products/ls/index.htm 20

Pawson, R., & Tilley, N., (1999) Realistic Evaluation London: Sage References

Blackboard Corporation, (2003) The Blackboard Learning System 13/08/03 Available at (accessed 15/08/03): http://www.blackboard.com/products/ls/index.htm

Department of Health (1999), Making a Difference. The nursing, midwifery and health visiting contribution to health and healthcare London: The Stationary Office

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Evans, T., & Nation, D., (2000) Changing University Teaching – Reflections on Creating Educational Technologies London: Kogan Page Grabe, M., & Grabe, C., (1998) Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harris, R., Guthrie, H., Lundberg, D., and Hobart, B., (1995) CompetencyBased Education and Training: Between a Rock and a Whirlpool South Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia HEFCE, (1998) Outcome of bids for funding under the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme, 24/09/98 Available at (accessed 15/08/03): http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/1998/98_20.htm

Hewison, A., & Wildman, S. (1996) ‘The theory-practice gap in nursing: a new dimension’ Journal of Advanced Nursing, pp. 754-761 Hiltz, S.R., & Turoff, M., (1978) The Network Nation (Boston: AddisonWesley Publishing Company Howden-Leach, H., (2000) Extended Learning Environment, 21/08/00. Available at (accessed 15/08/03): http://www.hud.ac.uk/hhs/teaching/elen_info.htm

Lockwood, F., & Gooley, A., (2001) Innovation in Open and Distance Learning London: Kogan Page Metcalfe, A., & McPherson, K. (1995) Study of the provision of intensive care in England London: School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Pawson, R., & Tilley, N., (1999) Realistic Evaluation London: Sage Quinn, F., (1995) The Principles and Practice of Education London: Chapman and Hall Renshaw, P., (1995) Excellence in Teaching and Learning: External Environment Scan Queensland Department of Education Roberts, S., & Cleary, V., (2000) ‘Sustaining care delivery – team nursing with intensive care assistants’ Nursing in Critical Care Vol. 5 Issue 2, March/April pp. 68-71 Rogers, A., & Jones, M., (2003) ‘From rhetoric to reality; E-learning in the NHS workplace’ Manchester: Paper presented at EMAP Open Learning Conference Manchester Conference Centre, 17/02/03 Simpson, O., (2000) Supporting Students in Open and Distance Learning London: Kogan Page Tait, A., & Mills, R., (1999) The Convergence of Distance and Conventional Education, (ed.) New York: Routledge UKCC, (1999) (United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting), Chair: Sir Leonard Peach, Fitness for Practice London: UKCC Weller, M., (2000) Delivering and Learning on the Net London: Kogan Page

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Young, G., & Marks-Maran, D., (1999) ‘A Case Study of Convergence between Conventional and Distance Education’ in The Convergence of Distance and Conventional Education, (ed.) Tait, A., & Mills, R., New York: Routledge

CHAPTER FIVE Supporting non-native English-speaking students in an online postgraduate degree David Catterick Abstract Language support for non-native English speaking (NNES) international students is well-established within English-medium higher education institutions. Based on his experience as both an international student and a lecturer in a UK university, De Vita1,2 identifies a number of key issues which such support needs to address: metaphors and idiomatic expressions; discourse style; referencing; and cross-cultural small group interaction. With increasing numbers of NNES students joining online degree programmes, we need to ask whether the same provision that exists in face-to-face contexts is required in distance mode. An earlier study by Catterick3 began to address this question through a survey of online teaching staff. A large majority of respondents indicated their belief that NNES students do have differentiated support needs. This chapter reports on a collaborative project with the University of Sydney designed to test the validity of the previous study’s findings. For this ethnographic study, the presenter acted as participant-observer for a student cohort on one of Australia’s largest online graduate programmes. The author provided academic support as and when requested and categorised students’ self-reported support needs. The chapter summarises the findings and suggests how these might go some way to informing student support considerations. Keywords: non-native English speaking student, international student 1.

Background The increasing numbers of international students accessing higher education in British, Australasian and North American (BANA) countries (see Table 1) has brought an increased burden of care causing many institutions to now reassess their international student support provision.

Supporting non-native English-speaking

82

This growth in international student numbers is mirrored in the online arena. Students from Singapore and Malaysia studying for degrees in Australian universities by distance learning numbered 8,903 in 2003. This represents a 357% increase in Malaysian student numbers over the previous year4. In fact, in both the face-to-face and online teaching teachings, it is this continued growth in international student numbers that has brought the support needs of such students higher up the support agenda.

Country

Total number of international students

Annual increase

USA

582,996 (2002)

+6%

UK

255,000 (est. 2004)

+19.6%

Australia

115,000 (2003)

+15.5%

Table 1: Numbers of international students studying in country in higher education institutions.5

2.

Introduction to the earlier study In an earlier study4, the views of distance learning practitioners were sought with regard to the support needs of non-native English speaking (NNES) international students. As part of the study, a review was conducted of the published literature on online student support and distance learning practitioners were individually contacted by e-mail to request their views on the topic. The literature review revealed very little overt reference to the needs of international students but where specific reference was evident, there appeared to be a three-way split of opinion. Some researchers reported very little difference in needs due to the nature of the language used while others acknowledged that differences do exist and that there needs to be further investigation into the exact causes.7,8 A third group already recommended differentiated support9,10 and considered it a vital part of the student support paradigm. The results of the survey (n=52) indicated that only 15.4% of respondents believed there to be no differences in learning support needs between native English speakers (NES) and NNES students. Reasons given by these respondents fell into three broad categories:

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x x x

83

any linguistic problems have been solved before a student joins an online degree programme NNES students are generally more highly motivated than their NES counterparts and so even out the differences the technology overcomes any difficulties (online education is still highly text-based which is less linguistically challenging)11

Language Summary answer

Non-specified

Number of respondents 14

Difficulties with academic tasks (e.g. understanding assignments)

2

Difficulties with language skills (e.g. reading, listening, writing, grammar, vocabulary etc.)

8

Interlocutionary difficulties (e.g. lack of non-verbal clues, use of idioms / metaphors, different sociolinguistic context)

8

Total: 32 Culture Summary answer

Number of respondents

Non-specified

8

Differences in culturally inspired personality traits (e.g. deference to authority etc.)

3

Differences in processing of information among different cultures

3

Supporting non-native English-speaking

84

Differences in academic culture

11

(e.g. unfamiliarity with the group process ethos) Lack of awareness of host culture (e.g. structure of the US legal system)

1

Tutor’s lack of awareness of student’s own cultural context

1

Total: 27 Other Summary answer

Number of respondents

Non-specified

0

Differences in learning objectives

2

Unfamiliarity with the technology used

2 Total:

4

Table 2: Areas of difference in support needs12 Of the 69.2% who indicated that they believed NNESs to have differing support needs to NESs, many used statements which showed a high degree of certainty. The survey asked respondents to indicate where they felt the differences lay and the responses are summarised in the Table 2. The study ended with the following observation: Probably the most valuable form of future research will be a detailed ethnographic study of a cohort of NES and NNES students in an online study context. A longitudinal study, including an impact study of intervention strategies, would provide the most data-rich source of enquiry. As many of the respondents in this study pointed out, this is a very rich vein of enquiry --

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and one which could eventually inform best practice in the teaching of NNESs online.13

3.

The University of Sydney Pain Management programme Following on from the initial study, the researcher was invited to investigate, in a collaborative arrangement with the Pain Management Research Centre at the University of Sydney, the support needs of students in a fully online Masters degree. The Pain Management programme is one of the largest fully-online postgraduate programmes in Australia and one of the first postgraduate University courses in Pain Management to be offered worldwide. The programme is designed to provide: … advanced education in pain for graduates in medicine, dentistry, psychology, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and other relevant disciplines involved in the management of pain.14 Because of its relative uniqueness, the programme attracts dozens of international students from as far away as Europe, the Middle-East and Asia. In terms of student profile, these tend to be experienced medical practitioners with varying degrees of pain management experience but all studying part-time while continuing their work in hospitals or other medical institutions. Though the programme demands evidence of high proficiency in English, the fact that medical and allied students typically require a high level of English when dealing with English-speaking patients means that we might expect that students on the programme are less likely than most postgraduate students to have difficulty functioning in a linguistically-demanding environment. The programme is run in full distance mode using the WebCT Virtual Learning Environment. The programme was awarded an exemplary practice award in 2002 by the WebCT¥ Company and students in the WebCT environment can access core reading texts, formative assessments using a series of flash animations and a discussion board for posting e-mail messages. A CD-Rom containing video footage of actual cases is sent to all students on registration. Summative assessment on the programme generally takes the form of written assignments, case studies, and critiques of published articles of approximately 2,000 words. These assessments are worth 80% of the final module grade with the remaining 20% awarded for the frequency – and we assume quality -- of postings to the discussion board. There is no synchronous element of the Pain

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Management course i.e. there are no instruction or support provided using the WebCT chat function. 4.

Methods and Results To investigate the existence of support needs among the Pain Management students, a three stranded approach was adopted. The expectation was that the three strand approach with each strand using different methods would provide a certain degree of triangulation. A. Strand 1: Support service The researcher was given full access rights to the WebCT course materials and took on the role of observer-as-participant in an ethnographic study. The lead tutor notified all students that the researcher would provide on-demand academic study skills support for all students studying on the Pain Management programme. This was an open-ended invitation made to all students regardless of language background or student status offering assistance to students in whatever way they requested. Rather than receiving a steady stream of requests (as one might expect from such an invitation) there was only one response to the request from a NES Australian national who requested help with a module assignment. In the text of the e-mail the student explained the reason for approaching me; I am a nurse and have done lots of nursing study (no university degree or diploma, though) but this course is a step above what I have ever done before academically speaking. I can research and compile information but abstract writing is difficult for me. I am having trouble with this first essay. Could you find time to look at my draft perhaps? In the same e-mail the student goes on to write; Was this a serious offer or are you groaning already? I do not want to impose. A follow-up posting was placed on the discussion board verifying that the offer was indeed genuine and encouraging students to make use of the service. The student received assistance with the written assignment with discussion focusing on aspects such as organisation of information, referencing conventions and expression. A month later the student sent a follow-up e-mail saying that they had received a high grade and referring

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to the support received as “invaluable”. Despite this gratifying response, there were no requests from other students for similar support. B. Strand 2: Analysis of postings The second strand of the investigation was an analysis of postings written by NNES students on the Pain Management discussion boards. As twenty percent of a student’s summative assessment mark was based on postings to the discussion board, the discussion board was well used with each module containing two or three hundred postings running to many thousands of words of text. Using the WebCT search function, the postings written by NNES students were identified and analysed both in terms of frequency of posting and the linguistic features of each piece of text. There were three main observations from this analysis. Observation 1: Frequency and function Of the international student postings analysed, only two students posted with any great frequency and length. The fact that 20% of assessment marks are tied to online contributions suggests that as in many online learning contexts, non-participation or silence on the discussion board is viewed in much the same way as silence in the a face-to-face tutorial context i.e. with suspicion15. Interestingly, many of the comments from students in the third phase of the investigation point to the value the students themselves place on the contributions. A further analysis of the overall function of the postings suggested that one of the reasons for the discrepancy in the frequency of posting could be the social function of some of the postings. A much less detailed contrastive analysis of NES postings in the same thread showed a predominantly social function in the discourse such as is evidenced in the two postings below.

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NES posting showing the social function of the discourse

Similar social interaction is largely absent in the majority of NNES discussion board postings analysed. Observation 2: Grammatical accuracy Another observation from the analysis of NNES postings is the grammatical accuracy of the text. Here an attempt was made to distinguish between simple typos or slips and errors that appear to be more systemic in origin. In the sample posting below written by a NNES on the programme, we see some of the grammatical inaccuracies evident in the writing. These are the types of errors which in academic writing would tend to set NNES writing apart from NES: x x x x x

Subject–verb agreement Pluralisation Capitalisation Punctuation Definite article

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NNES posting showing evidence of grammatical inaccuracy

The issue here, though, is not the presence of grammatical errors in the text but rather the impact that such errors have on the reader and overall readability. In most electronic discourse there tends to be a general emphasis placed on comprehensibility rather than accuracy with a higher degree of tolerance of error existing in electronic rather than many other forms of written discourse. As this tends to be the norm rather than the exception even in academic discourse online, the grammatical errors evidenced here need to be assessed according to whether they impact on overall comprehensibility. A simple examination of the above posting leads us to the conclusion that though noticeable and perhaps even intrusive, the errors do not adversely affect overall readability. Observation 3: Resorting to plagiarism The stylistic features of one NNES posting were in stark contrast to he other NNES postings analysed. Further analysis of the text revealed the rhythm of the text and the range of vocabulary and expression to have many native English features.

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NNES posting revealing evidence of plagiarism

A Google search revealed the original source of the text as a website on acupuncture. As most source text for plagiarism is written by NESs, it is generally easier to identify when incorporated into NNES than NES writing. While studies have identified lack of confidence in the English language as a reason for resorting to plagiarism, it is certainly not the domain of NNES writing. One cause of plagiarism often cited in the literature is time pressure, a complaint referred to by a number of respondents in strand three. This would be at least as true for the NES as the NNES. C. Strand 3: Student Where survey the earlier study had focused primarily on the views of the online tutors, the main focus of this follow-up study was the responses of a cohort of students themselves. A personalised e-mail questionnaire was sent to all registered and recently-graduated students on the Pain Management programme for whom there a current e-mail address was available (n=64). For basic demographic purposes, the students were asked to confirm their language status (Native speaker of English/Speaker of English as a Second or Other Language/Bilingual or Ambilingual speaker of English) and the number of modules they had already completed (1-16). They were then asked to identify the aspects of the programme that they found most challenging and a follow-up question asked what study assistance (if any) they would find/have found most useful. The responses (n=21) to the demographic questions provided the following descriptive data showing a relatively even distribution in both

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language background (NES vs. NNES and bilingual) and time on the programme (number of modules completed).

Table 3: Responses to the demographic questions

Responses to the question about the types of difficulties students felt they experienced with the programme were grouped by the researcher in to eight themes.

Table 4: Chart showing summary of responses to study difficulties

Difficulties in understanding the content of certain modules and the overall volume of work demanded by the programme were the two most reported themes. Reasons given for difficulties with the module

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content seemed to be connected with the students’ varied clinical background given the fact that the student body is drawn from a wide variety of clinical contexts with differing degrees of exposure to content areas such as neurology or pharmacology. References to volume of work are also relatively easy to explain given the fact that the majority of students holding down full-time positions in medical institutions while simultaneously studying on the programme. This fact no doubt leads to the third theme, notably the difficulty applying the theories learned on the pain management programme to the student’s own work context. References to difficulties with computers ranged from a stated preference for working with paper and a pen to difficulties accessing online journal articles. Interacting with other students was explained in a variety of ways by different respondents. One respondent found it a challenge: … interacting with a cross-section of professionals (i.e. different disciplines and sometimes different cultures) working in the pain management setting Another respondent referred to her own “(required) contributions [as] facile and inadequate” compared with those of her peers while a third pointed to a general frustration recognising on the one hand how valuable the online discussions were but feeling on the other that their own contributions were limited because of relatively little experience. This student, a NES, was also responsible for the last theme, lack of confidence which seemed to affect almost every aspect of the student’s studies on the programme. As the focus of the investigation was on differing support needs of NES and NNES students, a correlation analysis of the results was undertaken. Perhaps not surprising given the relatively small sample size, there appears to be no correlation between language status or modules taken and any one of the themes identified. The relatively even distribution of the responses would therefore seem to suggest an equality of perceived needs among the student body. The final survey question asked for the type of study assistance the student might find/have found useful. Many students seemed to understand the question to mean what general programme improvements should be considered rather than considering specific support interventions which might be initiated. Among those who did refer to specific support interventions (n=5), two areas of support need emerged. 1.

Working through a real assignment so students know general expectations and can receive specific advice such as referencing

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(Induction?) Assistance in the use of computer technology to become proficient in navigating the online learning environment and accessing online texts such as through the University library.

NES

NNES / BL

Modules taken 1-4

5-8

9-12

1316

Module content

7

3

2

4

3

1

Volume of work / Time

4

5

4

3

0

2

Application to work context

3

2

3

1

1

0

Computer use

3

2

4

0

1

0

Interacting with other students

2

3

3

1

0

1

Reading contents

1

2

2

1

0

0

Writing

0

2

2

0

0

0

Confidence

1

0

1

0

0

0

Table 5 Responses across language status and time on programme

One student presented the need particularly clearly when he suggested that an; … individual tutor [be] allocated personally (who wasn’t a professor and therefore perhaps too unapproachable for minor problems/questions) who would assist, mentor and actively contact me re: the study.

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5.

Discussion The findings seem on the surface at least to contrast sharply with the main findings from the earlier survey of online tutors. Of those tutors in the earlier study who reported extensive experience of teaching NNES international students, a sizeable proportion (78.9%) indicated they believed there to be significant differences in support needs between NES and NNES in online study contexts. No such differences were observed in the current investigation among the students themselves. No individual support needs could be ascribed to either group. There are a number of possible reasons for this discrepancy which will now be explored. 1. Tutors’ lack of awareness of student support needs One possible reason for the discrepancy is that the findings from the first study are flawed because the tutors surveyed are not wellacquainted with the support needs of their students. While this may seem unlikely in a face-to-face academic context with seminars and tutorials, in the distance education context where the student may never step foot on the campus and where evidence of progress may be based on e-mail interaction and assignments alone, some would argue this is a distinct possibility. While this initial explanation focuses on the tutor’s awareness of the needs of individual students, it is of course possible that because the data gleaned from the survey was experiential rather than empirical, the tutors may be relying on anecdotal data or even responding according to their own internal stereotypes.

2. Methodological issues A second possibility is that the present study is methodologically flawed. One factor is the small, essentially self-selected nature of the sample group. Though a 33% response rate for a survey is slightly above what is normally to be expected, the size of the sample population (n=64) is still small (though unavoidably so). A bigger issue perhaps is the fact that respondents are self-selected, choosing whether to respond to the request to take part in the study. It is conceivable, for instance, that some students may not have responded because they did not want to acknowledge their needs or because they are so overburdened with work and studies that they feel they cannot justify the time to respond to the survey. 3. (Self)-awareness of support needs A third possibility is that the students themselves are not as aware of their support needs as their tutors. While a conscious effort was made in this study not to canvass the opinion of the tutors on the course, one fact

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remains that the leaders of the programme did not consider this investigation futile. A follow up study could analyse tutor feedback data from the assessments to determine whether weaknesses can be attributed to language and cultural background. 4. Representative nature of the sample group A final possibility is that this specific group of online learners are not representative of the vast majority of online learners in other higher education contexts. Though respondents in the earlier study were not asked to distinguish between undergraduate and postgraduate students, many of the comments were provided by people teaching in postgraduate contexts. But it is still possible that the students on the Pain Management course are not representative even of postgraduate students in an online distance learning context. One possible reason for this is that highly trained people in the medical profession in almost any society worldwide are typically representative of an educated elite rather than the average student accessing higher education. This patrician class are educated elite who have already proven their academic prowess by virtue of the fact that they have successfully completing what is often an extremely academically demanding first degree. 6.

Conclusion If we accept the face validity of the findings from the current study and view them in isolation, there seems to be a clear indication that (from self-reported needs at least) there are no apparent differences between support needs of NES and NNESs on the Pain Management programme. When the findings are put into the context of the previous study, it seems that the face validity of the findings of both studies needs to be challenged. What this does indicate is the need for further investigation to provide reasons for the apparent inconsistencies. There are two obvious avenues for further investigation. The first is to analyse other descriptive statistical data from the Pain Management programme such as assignment scripts and tutor feedback. The second would be to undertake a similar analysis of a different online study context in which the English language and academic proficiency of the NNES students were not as high. This might be an undergraduate programme which commonly accepts students with the equivalent proficiency in the English language. As was stated within an earlier paper16, this is a very rich vein of inquiry whatever the eventual findings precisely because it has the potential to eventually inform best practice in student support for NNESs in online contexts.

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Notes 1

De Vita, G. (2000) ‘Inclusive approaches to effective communication and active participation in the multicultural classroom: An international business management context’ Active Learning in Higher Education Vol.1 No. 2 pp. 168-180 2

De Vita, G and Case, P (2003) ‘Rethinking the internationalisation agenda in UK higher education’ Journal of Further and Higher Education, Vol. 27, pp.383-398.

3

Catterick, D., (2005) ‘An “uneven playing field” or “one size fits all”? Investigating differences in support needs between native and non-native students in VLEs’ Journal of Southeast Asian Education Vol. 5 No. 1 4

IDP (2003) International Students in Australian Universities – Semester 2, 2003 IDP Australia 5

Adapted from the Times Higher Education Supplement 6/12/2002, 23/01/2003, 11/07/2003

6

Catterick, D., (2005)

7

Williams, J (2000) ‘Transnational Collaboration: Negotiating Cultural Diversity’ In Teaching across Frontiers Baumeister, H., Williams, J., Wilson, K., (eds.) pp. 61-69. Tubingen: CEFES 8

Kim, K. J., & Bonk, C.J. (2002) ‘Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Online Collaboration." Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 8, No. 1 9

McNickle, C., & Daniell, R., (2001). Online Student Services: An Overview of the Provision. Unpublished

10

Alexander, S. (2002) ‘Designing Learning Activities for an International Online Student Body: What Have We Learned?’ Journal of Studies in International Education 6, no. 2 pp. 188-200 11

Catterick, D., (2005)

12

Ibid

13

Ibid

14

Pain Management & Research Centre, (2003) Programme brochure Available at (accessed 18/09/03): http://www.painmgmt.usyd.edu.au/assets/brochure.pdf 15

Williams, J (2000)

16

Catterick, D., (2005)

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References Alexander, S. (2002) ‘Designing Learning Activities for an International Online Student Body: What Have We Learned?’ Journal of Studies in International Education 6, no. 2 pp. 188-200 Baumeister, H., Williams, J., Wilson, K., (eds.) (2000) Teaching across Frontiers Tubingen: CEFES Catterick, D., (2005) ‘An “uneven playing field” or “one size fits all”? investigating differences in support needs between native and non-native students in VLEs’ Journal of Southeast Asian Education (in press) De Vita, G. (2000) ‘Inclusive approaches to effective communication and active participation in the multicultural classroom: An international business management context’ Active Learning in Higher Education Vol. 1 No. 2 pp. 168-180 De Vita, G and Case, P (2003) ‘Rethinking the internationalisation agend in UK higher education’ Journal of Further and Higher Education, Vol. 27 pp.383-398. IDP (2003) International Students in Australian Universities – Semester a , 2003 IDP Australia Kim, K. J., & Bonk, C.J. (2002) ‘Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Online Collaboration." Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 8, No.1 2, Pain Management & Research Centre, (2003) Programme brochure Available at (accessed 18/09/03): http://www.painmgmt.usyd.edu.au/assets/brochure.pdf Williams, J (2000) ‘Transnational Collaboration: Negotiating Cultural Diversity’ In Teaching across Frontiers Baumeister, H., Williams, J., Wilson, K., (eds.) (2000) Teaching across Frontiers Tubingen: CEFES

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CHAPTER SIX The Challenge of the Paperless Thesis: Issues in the Implementation of a Regime of Electronic Theses and Dissertations William W. Bostock Abstract While the arrival of the paperless office has been much anticipated, the paperless airline ticket already exists, as does the paperless intensive care unit, and the paperless hospital is soon to be realised.1 Although the paperless university is still quite some way off the paperless thesis is already a reality. This chapter assesses the challenge that the paperless thesis presents to universities, academics and thesis writers, and reviews progress in implementation to the present. Keywords: Paperless dissertation 1.

thesis;

electronic

thesis;

electronic

The concept of the thesis or dissertation

“The thesis is the document which best represents the research and teaching activities of the university. It is also that which distinguishes the university from other places of teaching.”2 The concept of the PhD thesis/dissertation came to the Englishspeaking world through the United States after American scholars who had studied in Germany in the early nineteenth century returned with doctorates to teaching posts in major east coast universities. The three first PhD degrees were awarded by Yale University in 1861. One of the theses was a six page handwritten document in Latin on the proverb Brevis Vita, Ars Longa. The second was a study entitled ‘Wedgewood on English Philosophy’ and was later printed as a 24 page review, while the third was on astronomy.3 In British universities, doctorates were named for particular faculties such as Divinity, Medicine, Law and Music, the PhD being imported from America in the early 20th Century,4 in a desire to attract American and colonial students5 while the first Australian PhD was not conferred by an Australian university until 1949.

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The Challenge of the Paperless Thesis

The PhD was regarded as a more restricted achievement than the ‘higher doctorates’ of D.Sc. (Science) or D.Litt. (Letters), since it involves a limited amount of work of around 3 years, and embodied in a thesis or dissertation, which is externally examined. 6 The 1990s saw the development of the professional doctorate where the thesis or dissertation is of generally about 50,000 words compared to that of the PhD of 100,000 and is combined with course work and practicum, in universities throughout the English-speaking world. They include the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Doctor of Nursing (D.N.), Doctor of Social Work (D.S.W.) and Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.). Examiners are advised that the standard of examination is the same as that for Ph.D. The professional doctorates generally require a written thesis and a practical thesis, which could be a videotape or CDRom.7 Thus the essential requirement of a higher degree remains wholly or partially the thesis or dissertation, a substantial written document presented for examination by experts at the end of a higher degree program. Sometimes a distinction is made between a thesis or idea and a dissertation as a document8, but generally, in Northern American usage, thesis refers to the document required for a master’s degree and dissertation to that for a doctoral degree, while in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and most other countries, the word thesis is used to refer to the document submitted for either degree and also the Honours level of the bachelor’s degree. In some disciplines such as Fine Art and Music, the Ph.D. thesis may include other formats of material such as works of art, craft and design, compositions, recordings of performances and even performances and exhibitions themselves. These will be supported by a written document contextualising and explaining the body of work presented. In many countries, the PhD degree requirements include a course work component as well as a thesis in varying degrees of proportion, but all appear to require a thesis of ‘self-contained scientific work’ or series of independently published scientific articles, as in Sweden.9

2.

The significance of the thesis Sometimes the thesis is seen as being an original contribution to knowledge but this may be unrealistic as there are many different criteria of originality providing for what have been identified as some fifteen definitions of originality. Not surprisingly, it is the examiner’s interpretation of the concepts of originality that is critical to the success or failure of the project.10

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In addition to variation of interpretation over originality, there is also difference of view over the requirement of publishability of the thesis. One view is that the thesis should be publishable as a test of entry into the academic profession, while another view is that the thesis is ‘the last important exercise that students will do in their graduate career’.11 At the basis of this difference of view is a presupposition about personal maturity, specifically that the candidate has reached full personal maturity.12 The uncertainty over the nature of doctoral research has led to the setting up of many enquiries, both by government and universities themselves. The outcome has been many calls for the standardisation of quality but also recognition of the need for diversity of format, within the complexity of an emerging globalised higher education system.13 The growing demand for professional doctorates has added impetus to calls for diversification of thesis presentation, as, for example, in the case of clinical skills that cannot adequately be reflected in a written thesis. To take one example, the Northern Territory University’s Doctor of Teaching degree requires, in addition to a written thesis of about 30,000 words, a practical thesis which could be a video recording or CD-Rom, and which must be deposited in the library with the written thesis.14 The creation of professional doctorates is not only recognition of demand but also a widening of the definition of concepts of research to take in a wider range of issues, many of which require treatment in a form other than the written document. They also allow for a wider range of people to be involved in research work15 which is another important impulse towards implementation of a new regime of thesis presentation. Thus the thesis or dissertation, produced at the end of a period of study and research, remains the essential requirement of a higher degree, but its form and content have greatly changed since the 1990s, creating new challenges in which the electronic presentation of theses and dissertations can play a major role.

3.

Motivations towards the paperless thesis The electronic submission and archiving of theses and dissertations has “…the potential to extend the work of the academy more deeply into the public sphere.”16 In addition the development the Internet has facilitated the electronic thesis with a multi-media presentation of material as text graphics, animation and sound, in an integrated way. Until the mid 1990s multimedia applications were uncommon due to the cost of the hardware required, but now nearly all personal computers are capable of displaying video, as well as style sheets, linked tables, animated menus, image maps, sound files and colour-coded indexes allowing

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The Challenge of the Paperless Thesis

information to be organized in non-linear ways.17 However, because of the storage demands of multimedia applications, the most effective medium is the CD-Rom, thus providing a convenient physical unit for the library storage and use of a thesis, that can now moreover easily include a practical component. There is also the possibility of hypertext links, which enormously expand the amount of information referenced in the main text. These new types of information display can be easily embodied in the work thus enhancing greatly the interpretive capability of the work. As the author of one electronic thesis wrote: “Hypermedia documents consist of a bricolage of ‘modes’, blocks of text, sounds and images composed, and to be read, in no specific order. In contrast to conventional texts (and perhaps especially conventional Ph.D. theses), there is no linear sequence in which a hypermedia documents pages are meant to be read and understood”. 18 If the paperless thesis is posted on the Web, comments by readers can be received and also posted, while the potential readership expands from possibly only several people (examiners), to a readership of potentially millions, thus extending the mission of the universities in a way completely in conformity with postmodern thinking. In contrast with earlier times when traditional print theses and dissertations would average only a few requests per year, some are now reported to be downloaded thousands of times.19 Theses and dissertations have been available on microfilm since 1938 when the American organisation University Microform Corporation was set up in order to provide an archiving service using this medium. Since 1997, UMI, the former University Microforms Inc., and now a division of Bell and Howell Corporation, has accepted electronic theses and dissertations in three categories: single file text document, compound document and CD-Rom. Single file text documents can be in Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Adobe Postscript or Adobe Acrobat (PDF). Compound documents contain text and other information available in and accessible through electronic format, and the CD-Rom dissertations contain both files and appropriate (licensed) software to enable access by readers.20 By 2000, UMI Dissertation Services could provide copies of over one million theses and dissertations, with more than 100,000 available as Adobe Acrobat files. After its receiving university has accepted it, the electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) is forwarded to UMI, which then creates an Adobe Acrobat version of the file, which it provides to the

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supplying university. Other users must pay a fee to download it or receive a paper copy.21 In 1987 the concept of the ETD was first proposed at a meeting between representatives of Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), UMI, the University of Michigan, Soft Quad and Arbor Text, agreed to finance the development of the first Standardized General Markup Language (SGML) Document Type Definition (DTD) for this purpose. The meeting agreed to investigate problems of producing, archiving and access, in collaboration with faculty representatives. In 1993, a working group was set up supported by the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SHRA) and the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) with the result that SGML and Adobe’s PDF were selected for the presentation and archiving of ETDs. The main goals of the ETD Initiative were to encourage students to learn about electronic publishing and digital libraries and to apply that knowledge in the preparation and submission of their own ETDs, and to encourage universities in the process of building digital libraries with a view to making intellectual property available worldwide. In 1996 US federal funding became available to assist the setting up of a National Networked Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertations (NDLTD) under the co-ordination of Professor Edward A. Fox, within the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. As well as $200,000 of federal funds, the project received $1 million from Adobe, IBM and Microsoft.22 As of February 2001, the NDLTD held 3095 ETDs available online and 691 withheld from all access and today has 185 members, being 161 member universities including 6 consortia and 24 other institutions, of these, 45 require (as distinct from accepting) ETDs.23 The institutional members include the Australian Digital Theses Program, the British Library, Dissertationene Outline (German National Project, UNESCO, and national bodies representing Belgium, Canada, India, Portugal, Sudan and Venezuela (link). In addition there are a number of study groups including the University Theses On-line Group (UTOG) of the U.K., Biomed Central, (an open access publisher), the CERN, (the European Laboratory of Particle Physics), and the University of Montréal Press (PUM) (subsidised by UNESCO the Fonds francophone des inforoutes, and Cyberthèses, a consortium of six Québec universities, with the collaboration of a university in each of France and Egypt.24 In addition to the NDLTD, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is another leading provider of EDTs with over 4,000 held online. Accessing the database of ETDs is most commonly through the NDLTD or UMI’s Pro Quest digital dissertations site which allow

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The Challenge of the Paperless Thesis

searching by keyword, author, title, school or subject. Pro Quest provides a 24-page preview of the ETD free of charge; while for the whole thesis or dissertation there is a charge of about U.S. $20.00. As well as the value of making the results of research available generally, the ETD has the special value of making them available to scholars in developing countries. This could help to overcome what has been called “…the systematic marginalization of (for example) Africa’s intellectuals and their academic agenda.”25 (Parentheses added). In this connection, Virginia Tech has assumed a special responsibility in a project which it has called Democratizing Access to Archives, and which facilitates access to unique contributions to American cultures and identities from South-eastern USA and Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.26 In scientific and health related areas this need is particularly pressing. Much motivation towards ETDs comes from Librarians who are not surprising attracted by the absence of a need for shelf space and physical handling, and the acquisition of content, free of charge. Thus the motivations towards ETD of comprehensive versatility including lower costs of production and archiving, training potential and infinite accessibility are thus ones that together lay down a powerful challenge that has captured the imagination of many administrators and librarians27 and some supervisors and students, but there are also some difficult issues to be resolved.

4.

Issues confronting the paperless thesis The most frequently raised issue is intellectual property: does the posting of a thesis or dissertation on the Web constitute prior publication, thus negating future publication by an established traditional publicity house or scholarly journal? The following journals, for example will not publish any paper already published on the Web: The Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine Science and Critical Inquiry; the following will consider a paper: The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, The American Journal of Political Science and Nature Medicine; while The Lancet and The British Medical Journal are considering the matter.28 With regard to learned societies, the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Microbiology have policies against accepting for publication ETD material. “A manuscript whose substance was included in a thesis or dissertation posted on a host computer to which there is

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access via the Internet is unacceptable for submission to an ASM journal on the grounds of prior publication.”29 The publishing policies of commercial publishing houses are variable, but some universities, such as Florida State, remind students that it is their individual responsibility to seek input from publishers. Where material in an ETD is patentable or proprietary students are advised to elect for the ‘No Access’ option available in most Digital Libraries. 30 One implication of the digitising of theses and dissertations is the prospect of sale by commercial organisations. Since 1965 the National Library of Canada has archived theses and dissertations, and in the 1980s this was contracted out to UMI who subcontracted the use of thesis and dissertation material to Contentville, an American company owned by NBC, CDC and Microsoft. The Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Canadian Association of Graduate Students have protested at the sale of theses for profit on a commercial basis, an implication of the wider distribution and access.31 In the U.K. and world-wide there has been media discussion of the use of a thesis by Ibrahim al-Marashi, which was published on the Web, as the basis for a joint Intelligence Committee dossier on which British foreign policy military intervention in Iraq in 2003 was partly based, the so-called ‘dodgy dossier’.32 The thesis is reported to have been directly copied, without acknowledgement, and including typing and grammatical errors.33 While this one incident does not of itself form a case against open access to academic material, it raises the question whether the author of a thesis would welcome this kind of attention, including possible plagiarism. Some concern has been expressed at the possibility of plagiarising charts and graphics; as a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin wrote, “unless students are careful to restrict access to their work, they may quickly find their charts, graphs and maps appearing all over the web.”34 The second major issue is archival stability. Archivists have always had a willing capacity to work with a variety of media: stone; bark; paper; celluloid; magnetic and digital. The problem with digital materials is their short durability and in fact many significant losses have already occurred including the first electronic mail message of 1964, part of the U.S. census of 1960, and the satellite observations of Brazil taken in the 1970s.35 The technical issues are the fragility of the medium and the incompatibility of software and hardware, and are generally solved by periodic refreshment where information is migrated from one hardware/software configuration to another. “Backward compatibility” is

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rarely available because of cost.36 In addition to the problems of obsolescence and decay through “benign neglect”37 and the process of disappearance of Web sites, known as link rot, there is the problem of deliberate and accidental corruption through viral infection. The technical problems are thus considerable, but are being solved by refreshment and critical fail-safe mechanisms, standardisation of formats, such as the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which are all initiatives under consideration by the International Standards Organization. These techniques require considerable inputs of resource, so that the technical problems are also organizational problems. Many graduate students and librarians have legitimate concerns over the long-term stability and they reasonably ask whether the ETD will be accessible even ten years in the future. Edward A. Fox of Virginia Tech has proposed that organizations such as UMI should be given some responsibility for technical sustainability. He also emphasises the need for the adoption of non-Proprietary Standards such as SGML, JPEG and VRML for the maintenance of ETDs. He has noted also that the problem of stability and sustainability is not exclusive to ETDs, but is a challenge to electronic journals and digital libraries and is therefore receiving wide attention. Kirschenbaum and Fox also argue that the author of the ETD should “play a major role in responding to these archival challenges…”38 A major ethical issue is whether electronic presentation and archiving with consequent world-wide diffusion is consented to by a major constituency: the students. Assessing the opinions of this constituency, which could number in excess of one million, presents a methodological problem. One could attempt a survey, review the policy statement of representative bodies, or take a qualitative approach and consider publicly expressed opinions. Qualitative interviews with postgraduate students in the University of Tasmania have found no great enthusiasm, nor have enquiries among supervisors. One recent graduate of a professional doctorate in education at another university noted that in their examiner’s reports, none of the three external examiners made any reference at all to the nine hour video thesis, choosing instead to base their reports entirely on the content of the 60,000 word written thesis. It is interesting to note that the University of Wales, Lampeter, would only allow one of its candidates, Cornelius Holtorf, to submit his PhD thesis on CD-Rom on condition that neither the examiners nor the library objected.39 The effect on the traditional publishing industry must also be included in the assessment of the issues raised by ETDs. Many smaller university presses are marginal operations, and their continued existence could be put in question by the widespread availability of ETDs.

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“The movement towards the electronic dissertation, or, more precisely, the electronics distribution of the dissertation, threatens to upset this delicate equilibrium (the survival of University presses) in ways the profession has only begun to imagine and thereby to force us to reevaluate the role and nature of the dissertation in graduate education.”40 (Parentheses added). Another extremely important issue but one not widely canvassed is the personal and intellectual maturity of the thesis writer. In the physical sciences, mathematics or logic this may not be an issue, and in this connection Einstein is said to have stated “(a) person who has not made his greatest contribution to Science by the age of 30 will never do so…” a proposition which research seems to confirm.41 However in the arts and social sciences this would not be true: the distinction between ‘early Picasso’ and ‘later Picasso’, and most other great artists is widely acknowledged. Some doctoral programs require personal maturity as a prerequisite, generally implicitly, but sometimes as a formal requirement, as in the case of Antioch Graduate School.42 While themselves arguing for a substantial contribution in a dissertation, Olson and Drew refer to a colleague who has argued that ‘most graduate students are not yet ‘mature’ enough to contribute substantively….’43 In some universities such as the Malmö Art Academy of Lund University, the award of the degree of doctorate is taken as an indication that a candidate has reached a certain level of ‘deepened artistic maturity’.44 While many established academics may privately (or even publicly) admit that their thesis may have lacked maturity, the level of exposure created by publication on the Web may be a discouragement. One scholar however argues that Web publication may be a qualitycentred mechanism: ‘One might conclude that research that does not measure up to peer-reviewed standards can slide by, as long as the results or that research are not exposed to wide audience via electronic distribution.’45 Apprehension at exposure on the Web may affect supervisors, examiners, schools and universities as well as candidates, and the possibility of access denial has been an important component in the protocols of EDTs that are emerging.

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The paperless thesis is a reality, but qualitative research by the present author indicates considerable reluctance by academics, librarians and postgraduate students to replace the physically substantial gold embossed bound document printed on acid-free paper, with a tiny, shiny CD-Rom or whatever even smaller physical object that is soon to become available. There is also a realization, however, that the paperless thesis will become standard practice, as many administrators, some academics and some postgraduate students (particularly those in fields requiring multi-media presentation of their work), may strongly wish. The process of transition will be influenced by the development of soundly based protocols which address the issues to the satisfaction of those considering involvement. 5.

Protocols for the paperless thesis

The technical standards for ETDs are an issue that appears near to resolution. An international standard for books, document type definition, has been created by the International Standards Organisation (ISO 12083) and this presents a standardized general markup language (SGML) which has been refined to Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML allows a limitless number of DTDs but the needs of composition and archiving are different.46 Another standard is that developed by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), which together with that of the ETD project of Virginia Tech, provides a choice of DTD. Each system has its particular qualities, and it is interesting to note that while the Australian Digital Thesis Program has selected and refined the ETD Virginia Tech DTD,47 Montreal University Press has selected the TEI Lite DTD as that which best responds to their needs.48 The metastandards for ETDs are those proposed by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative49 which is a metadata element set intended to facilitate the composition and archiving of electronic resources. There are already protocols in place designed to address the issue of access, one of the major concerns “Today, faculty fears and publishers’ threats require that for an ETD initiative to succeed, there need to be levels of access ranging from completely available to entirely hidden”.50 While the paperless thesis already exists and has many enthusiastic proponents among students and supervisors who rejoice in its multi-media capability and its worldwide capability of diffusion, the many grave issues confronting its development – forgone publication, excessive

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exposure and unwelcome attention, and archival stability – mean that its development is slow. The current development of excellent technical administrative and legal protocols will help this process but a large task of persuasion remains before the paperless thesis can become the standard regime. Notes 1

Nairn, G., (2003) ‘CUN, Spain: Moving Towards a Paperless Hospital’, Financial Times, 21/05/03 Available at (accessed 10/07/03): http://www.picis.com/html/news/article_navarra_ft.html

2

Beaudry, G., & Gauvin, J.F., (2000) Rapport de la Phase Pilote du Project de Publication et de Diffusion Electronique des Thèses de Doctorat Presses de l’ Université de Montréal p.4 Available at (accessed 10/07/03):

http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/theses/RapportThesesUdeM.pdf 3

Spurr, S.H., (1970) Academic Degree Structures: Innovative Approaches New York: McGraw Hill p. 117. 4 Phillips E.M., & Pugh, D.S., (2000) How to get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors 3rd Edition Buckingham: Open University Press p. 20. 5 Cullen, D.J., Pearson, M., Saha, L.J., & Spear, R.H. (1994) Establishing Effective PhD Supervision Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service p. 13 6 Phillips E.M., & Pugh, D.S., (2000) p. 20 7 Northern Territory University (2002) Faculty of Education, Course Information: Doctor of Teaching. Darwin: Northern Territory University pp. 5-6 8 Shivers, O., (2003) ‘Dissertation Advice’ Available at (accessed 10/06/03): http://www.ai.mit.edu/_shivers/diss-advice.html 9

Linguistik, (2003) ‘PhD and Licensiate Program’ Available at (accessed 10/06/03): http://www.ling.gu.se/forskarutbildning/PhD_program.html 10

Phillips E.M., & Pugh, D.S., (2000) pp. 63-64 Olson G.A., & Drew, J., (1998) ‘(Re) Reenvisioning the Dissertation in English Studies’ College English, 61, 1 p. 56 12 Olson G.A., & Drew, J., (1998) p. 56 13 Pearson M., & Ford, R., (1997) Open and Flexible PhD Study and Research Canberra: Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods, The Australian National University p. 115 14 Northern Territory University (2002) pp. 6-7 11

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15

Brennan, M., (1995) ‘Educational Doctorates: reconstructing professional partnerships around research?’ Australian University Review, 2 p. 21 16 Lang, S., (2002) ‘Electronic Dissertations: Preparing students for our past or their future?’ College English, 64, 6 p.686 17 Moxley, J.M., (2001) ‘New-Media Scholarship: A call for Research’ Change November/December p.63 18 Holtorf, C., (2003) ‘Hypermedia Theory’ Available at (accessed 10/07/03): http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/CITDPress/Holtorf/3.9.html 19

Moxley, J.M., (2001) p.38 Lang, S., (2002) p.685 21 Tennant, R., (2000) ‘Accessing Electronic Theses: Progress?’ Library Journal May 15 p. 30 22 Young, J.R., (1998) ‘Preparing Theses in Digital Form: the first year at Virginia Tech.’ The Chronicle of Higher Education Available at (accessed 14/07/03): 20

http://chronicle.com/colloquy/98/thesis/background.htm 23

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, (2003) Available at (accessed 13/06/03):

http://www.ndltd.org/ 24

Beaudry, G., & Gauvin, J.F., (2000) pp.26-2. Yankah, K., (1995) ’Displaced academies and the quest for a new world academic order’ Africa Today, 42, 3, p. 7 26 Digital Library & Archives, (2003) VT University Libraries, ‘Democratizing Access to Archives’ Available at (accessed 14/06/03): 25

http://www.iassistdata.org/publications/iq/iq23/iqvol231finke.pdf 27

McMillan, G., (2002) ‘ETD and Libraries’ Online Computer Library Center, Inc White Paper of the Information Habits of College Students, June Available at (accessed 20/05/03):

http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/etd/index.shtm 28

Guernsey, L., & Kiernan, V., (1998) ‘Journals Differ on Whether to Publish Articles that have Appeared on the Web’ Information Technology 17 July Available at (accessed 15/05/03): http://web.polmeth.ufl.edu/45a02701.htm 29 Young, J.R., (1998) p. 30 30 Florida State University, (2003) Electronic Theses and Dissertations Available at (accessed 27/05/03): http://etds.fsu.edu/ip.htm 31

Canadian Association of University Teachers, (2000) ‘The Business of Thesis Selling’ CAUT Now! 2, 7, 24 August 32 Wintour, P., (2003) ‘MPs Call Campbell over Iraq Dossier’ Guardian Unlimited 20 June Available at (accessed 12/07/03):

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,981374,00.html 33

Jones G. & Williams, G., ‘Real Authors of Iraq Dossier Blast Blair’ Mirror.co.uk Available at (accessed 14/07/03): http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12620001&method=full& 34

Perramond, E.P, (1998) ‘Letter to the Editor’ The Chronicle of Higher Education 27 March Available at (accessed 24/07/03):

http://chronicle.com/colloquy/98/thesis/07.htm 35

Task Force, (1996) Preserving Digital Information. Report on the Task Force of Archiving of Digital Information. Commissioned by The Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group, Inc. Available at (accessed 05/06/00):

http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/ p. 2 36

Exon, M., (1995) Paper presented at 2nd National Preservation Office Conference: Multimedia Preservation – Capturing the Rainbow, Brisbane, 28-30 November Available at (accessed 05/06/00):

http://www.nla.gov.au/niac/meetings/npo95me.html 37

Exon, M., (1995) p. 4 Kirschenbaum, M.G., & Fox, E.A. ‘Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the Humanities’ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Papers Available at (accessed 20/05/03):

38

http://www.cs.queensu.ca/achallc97/papers/p037.html 39

Durham, T., (1999) ‘Paperless Thesis transports past into a potential future’ Times Higher Education Supplement 8 January Available at (accessed 20/05/03): http://citdpress.utsc.utoronto.ca/Holtorf/Paperless_Thesis.pdf 40

Lang, S., (2002) p. 684 ABC Science Online, (2003) ‘Marriage and children kill creativity in Men’ 11/07/03 Available at (accessed 18/07/03):

41

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_900147.htm 42

Antioch Graduate School, (2003) ‘Recommendations for Doctoral Study’ Available at (accessed 18/07/03): https://www.applyweb.com/apply/antiochne/recommendation.pdf 43

Olson, G.A., & Drew, J., (1998) p. 56 Malmö Art Academy, (2003) ‘The Doctorate Programme’ Available at (accessed 18/07/03):

44

http://www.khm.lu.se/english/utbildningen/forskarutb.html 45

Lang, S., (2002) p. 687 Hicks, T., (1998) ‘Should we be using ISO 12083?’ The Journals of Electronic Publishing 3, 4 June Available at (accessed 04/07/03):

46

http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-04/hicks.html 47

The Australian Digital Theses Program (2003) Available at (accessed 27/05/03):

http://thesis.anu.edu.au/ 48

Beaudry, G., & Gauvin, J.F., (2000) p. 32

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49

Dublin Core Metadata Institute, (2003) Available at (accessed 20/05/03):

http://www.dublincore.org/. 50

McMillan, G., (2002) p. 15

References ABC Science Online, (2003) ‘Marriage and children kill creativity in Men’ 11/07/03 Available at (accessed 18/07/03): http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_900147.htm

Antioch Graduate School, (2003) ‘Recommendations for Doctoral Study’ Available at (accessed 18/07/03): https://www.applyweb.com/apply/antiochne/recommendation.pdf

Beaudry, G., & Gauvin, J.F., (2000) Rapport de la Phase Pilote du Project de Publication et de Diffusion Electronique des Thèses de Doctorat. Presses de l’ Université de Montréal Available at (accessed 10/07/03): http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/theses/RapportThesesUdeM.pdf

Brennan, M., (1995) ‘Educational Doctorates: reconstructing professional partnerships around research?’ Australian University Review, 2 Canadian Association of University Teachers, (2000) ‘The Business of Thesis Selling’ CAUT Now! 2, 7 August Cullen, D.J., Pearson, M., Saha, L.J., & Spear, R.H. (1994) Establishing Effective PhD Supervision Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service Digital Library & Archives, (2003) VT University Libraries, ‘Democratizing Access to Archives’ Available at (accessed 14/06/03): http://www.iassistdata.org/publications/iq/iq23/iqvol231finke.pdf

Dublin Core Metadata Institute, (2003) Available at (accessed 20/05/03): http://www.dublincore.org/

Durham, T., (1999) ‘Paperless Thesis transports past into a potential future’ Times Higher Education Supplement 8 January Available at (accessed 20/05/03): http://citdpress.utsc.utoronto.ca/Holtorf/Paperless_Thesis.pdf

Exon, M., (1995) Paper presented at 2nd National Preservation Office Conference: Multimedia Preservation – Capturing the Rainbow, Brisbane, 28-30 November Available at (accessed 05/06/00): http://www.nla.gov.au/niac/meetings/npo95me.html

Florida State University, (2003) Electronic Theses and Dissertations Available at (accessed 27/05/03): http://etds.fsu.edu/ip.htm

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Guernsey, L., & Kiernan, V., (1998) ‘Journals Differ on Whether to Publish Articles that have Appeared on the Web’ Information Technology 17 July Available at (accessed 15/05/03): http://web.polmeth.ufl.edu/45a02701.htm Hicks, T., (1998) ‘Should we be using ISO 12083?’ The Journals of Electronic Publishing 3, 4 June Available at (accessed 04/07/03): http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-04/hicks.html

Holtorf, C., (2003) ‘Hypermedia Theory’ Available at (accessed 10/07/03): http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/CITDPress/Holtorf/3.9.html

Jones G. & Williams, G., ‘Real Authors of Iraq Dossier Blast Blair’ Mirror.co.uk Available at (accessed 14/07/03): http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12620001&method=ful l&

Kirschenbaum, M.G., & Fox, E.A. ‘Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the Humanities’ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Papers Available at (accessed 20/05/03): http://www.cs.queensu.ca/achallc97/papers/p037.html

Lang, S., (2002) ‘Electronic Dissertations: Preparing students for our past or their future?’ College English, 64, 6 Linguistik, (2003) ‘PhD and Licensiate Program’ Available at (accessed 10/06/03): http://www.ling.gu.se/forskarutbildning/PhD_program.html

Malmö Art Academy, (2003) ‘The Doctorate Programme’ Available at (accessed 18/07/03): http://www.khm.lu.se/english/utbildningen/forskarutb.html

McMillan, G., (2002) ‘ETD and Libraries’ Online Computer Library Center, Inc White Paper of the Information Habits of College Students, June Available at (accessed 20/05/03): http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/etd/index.shtm

Moxley, J.M., (2001) ‘New-Media Scholarship: A call for Research’ Change November/December Nairn, G., (2003) ‘CUN, Spain: Moving Towards a Paperless Hospital’, Financial Times, 21/05/03 Available at (accessed 10/07/03): http://www.picis.com/html/news/article_navarra_ft.html

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, (2003) Available at (accessed 13/06/03): http://www.ndltd.org/

Northern Territory University (2002) Faculty of Education, Course Information: Doctor of Teaching. Darwin: Northern Territory University Olson G.A., & Drew, J., (1998) ‘(Re) Reenvisioning the Dissertation in English Studies’ College English, 61, 1

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Pearson M., & Ford, R., (1997) Open and Flexible PhD Study and Research Canberra: Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods, The Australian National University Perramond, E.P, (1998) ‘Letter to the Editor’ The Chronicle of Higher Education 27 March Available at (accessed 24/07/03): http://chronicle.com/colloquy/98/thesis/07.htm

Phillips E.M., & Pugh, D.S., (2000) How to get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors 3rd Edition Buckingham: Open University Press Shivers, O., (2003) ‘Dissertation Advice’ Available at (accessed 10/06/03): http://www.ai.mit.edu/_shivers/diss-advice.html

Spurr, S.H., (1970) Academic Degree Structures: Innovative Approaches New York: McGraw Hill Task Force, (1996) Preserving Digital Information. Report on the Task Force of Archiving of Digital Information. Commissioned by The Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group, Inc. Available at (accessed 05/06/00): http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/

Tennant, R., (2000) ‘Accessing Electronic Theses: Progress?’ Library Journal May 15 The Australian Digital Theses Program (2003) Available at (accessed 27/05/03): http://thesis.anu.edu.au/

Wintour, P., (2003) ‘MPs Call Campbell over Iraq Dossier’ Guardian Unlimited 20 June Available at (accessed 12/07/03): http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,981374,00.html

Yankah, K., (1995) ’Displaced academies and the quest for a new world academic order’ Africa Today, 42, 3 Young, J.R., (1998) ‘Preparing Theses in Digital Form: the first year at Virginia Tech’ The Chronicle of Higher Education Available at (accessed 14/07/03): http://chronicle.com/colloquy/98/thesis/background.htm

CHAPTER SEVEN ‘I’m a virtual lecturer but I need real help’ Loykie Loïc Lominé Abstract This chapter addresses the worries, concerns and possible misconceptions of academics that are new to online teaching. It identifies the professional challenges and pedagogical opportunities pertaining to virtuality in higher education. It provides advice, approaches, references and ideas useful to both staff and personal development. In order to reflect the process and appearance of online asynchronous work, this article does not follow the traditional form of academic papers. Instead it is designed as a series of messages posted onto an online discussion board. The chapter can be appreciated at several levels. However a special emphasis is placed on e-teaching, which enables us to be creative, not only in terms of teaching, but also in terms of scholarship, knowledge production and knowledge dissemination. Keywords: online teaching; e-teaching; knowledge production; knowledge dissemination; online course; online student 1.

Introduction My fictional yet realistic scenario is centred on a certain Dr Bloggs who has been asked to deliver one of his undergraduate modules online. Dr Bloggs is worried and consequently he has posted a message asking other academics for help and numerous contributors have kindly replied. Their messages show their different personalities, experiences and opinions, but more importantly they problematise and illustrate the emerging pedagogy of e-teaching. Most contributors are fictitious but some are real, or at least they bear the names of real people, and the last contributions are based on the Oxford 2003 Global Conference ‘Virtual Learning and Higher Education’, where a first version of the article was presented in an interactive way. 2.

Discussions AOL (Academics On Line) Discussion Board Message posted by: Dr Bloggs (10 June 2003, 10.30am) Title: Real help needed by new virtual lecturer!

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Colleagues, I have just been asked (or rather: told!) to deliver one of my undergraduate modules online next year – but that’s totally new to me. Sending e-mails and surfing the Net is one thing, but teaching online is another! Where and how would you recommend I start? Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations? I am a bit worried... Thank you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Prof. Hercule Poirot (10 June 2003, 11.43am) Re: Real help needed by new virtual lecturer!

Dear Dr Bloggs, E-teaching is a relatively young area of scholarship, but it already has its concepts, models, gurus and key texts, as well as its conferences and areas of disputes. There is already a plethora of good texts on the topic, from the second edition of Laurillard’s seminal book ‘Rethinking University Teaching’ to Sloman’s book on the E-learning revolution – most titles actually seem to juggle with the same keywords (technology and/in/for education, online teaching and learning...) and authors probably struggle to come up with original or differentiated titles (Check Stephenson’s ‘Teaching and Learning Online’, Jolliffe’s ‘Online Learning Handbook’, and Murphy’s ‘Online Learning and Teaching with Technology’). For that mere reason, the most original title of Katz’s ‘Dancing with the Devil’ deserves some credit! In Britain, the most commonly quoted reference is probably Gilly Salmon’s work on e-moderating – she is often mentioned for her five-step model of online asynchronous teaching, but on page 40 in her first book (called ‘E-moderating’) you will find a synthetic table identifying the characteristics and competencies of good online lecturers (she calls them ‘e-moderators’ but you do not have to adopt her phraseology). Ranging from online communications skills to content expertise, that framework can definitely help you both reflect upon your current abilities and analyse your developmental needs in order to teach online efficiently and professionally. In a previous study, which is almost a classic reference, Mason makes the distinction of the three responsibilities of online tutors (at social, organisational and intellectual levels) can equally be useful in terms of staff development and PDP (personal development plan) if this is what you need.

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Like for any piece of research, dear Dr Bloggs, I think you need to start with a substantial literature review to understand the theoretical underpinning of online pedagogy – as always, solid books and strong articles are a ‘passage obligé’, an unavoidable pathway. The texts I have mentioned, amongst many others, offer a possible gateway, and their bibliographies can direct your further reading, depending upon the books available in your institution’s library. Yours sincerely, Professor Hercule Poirot ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Prof. Sally Brown (10 June 2003, 9.12pm) Re: Real help needed by new virtual lecturer!

Dear Bloggs, I agree with Poirot that the literature on online teaching is rapidly expanding and has already provided some interesting theorising/modelisation, but please do not confine yourself to traditional sources esp. printed books: there are many resources available online (and only online) which are excellent too. Don’t disregard them under the pretext that they have not been validated by the traditional double-blind peer review scheme so many academics regard as a professional warrant of quality and excellence. That kind of Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) inherited attitude cannot fully apply to e-teaching which is still an emergent area of scholarship. Best practice, the most useful papers and the most stimulating authors are not necessarily tied up to a few conventional journals where slow and lengthy processes would result in obsolete publications negating the principles of instant eclectronic information sharing and online knowledge creation which constitute the very basis of e-teaching. At the ITLHE (Institute of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education), we commission and publish the type of straightforward, reader-friendly, practical papers you may be looking for if you are new to e-teaching – for example we have recently added a brilliant presentation of good practice in e-teaching by Mirabelle Walker and a most useful lexicon of the language of e-teaching by John Roscoe. Those papers and many others are available to ILTHE members on the ILTHE website (one more good reason, if any, to join the ILTHE). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Message posted by: Ms Jane Marple (11 June 2003, 5.22am) Title: Re: Real help needed by new virtual lecturer! Embarking on an exploratory reading on the topic of online teaching and learning is most laudable, but in my opinion you will not necessarily find the most valuable tips and ideas in articles produced by academics from other institutions who may be working with software, systems, students, courses and approaches very different from yours, from your own environment, from your own context. For online teaching, like anything else for that matter, you should start by looking around you, in your close vicinity: ask people in your own institution – you are likely to find colleagues who are either in the same situation or just one step ahead. The former ones can help you reflect upon your collective needs as a group of neophytes (for instance to have staff development workshops organised for you all); the latter ones will be worth listening to, for three reasons: firstly, you will thereby ensure that you use the same terminology as your colleagues, which otherwise could be quite confusing for your students; secondly, the problems your colleagues may have encountered and the mistakes they may have made can be valuable lessons for you; thirdly, it seems a good opportunity to meet colleagues with whom you would not normally interact, as nowadays the academic dynamics of most institutions tend unfortunately to isolate staff rather than making them meet, talk and work together as one close intellectual community. Ms Jane Marple St Mary’s Mead College of Higher Education ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Sir Max Mallowan (11 June 2003, 7.06am) Re: Real help needed by new virtual lecturer!

Bloggs, My two cents’ worth, a lesson learnt the hard way: online teaching (be it synchronous through audio/video conferencing systems, or asynchronous like this forum and comparable discussion boards) is very different both from F2F (face-to-face) and from text-based distance education. It is a steep learning curve and it is not because you are a good classroom lecturer that you will straightaway be a good online lecturer (or e-tutor, e-facilitator or e-moderator if you prefer fancy words). What worked best for me was to join an online course as a mature student – and every single person I have spoken to, who experienced being an online

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student before becoming an online lecturer, highly praised that approach (not to mention the fact that having to write contributions and to submit assignments will always give you more empathy with your own students). You then really discover what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an online course – it is practical and empirical, some might say it lacks theoretical underpinning but it really worked for me– you do not need all the nice theories and models, at least not at first, they’d just confuse you or remain too abstract if you cannot relate to any hands-on practice. Yours truly, Sir Max Mallowan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

A. Hastings (11 June 2003, 9.15am) Re: Real help needed by new virtual lecturer!

A brief contribution – I happen to have in front of me the DfES official 2002 Strategy Task Force Report called ‘Get on with IT: the post-16 Elearning strategy task force report’ (quite a mouthful!) – let me just copy for you their definition of E-learning (page 2): ‘Learning with the help of information and communication technology tools; these tools may include the internet, intranets, wireless networking, PC (personal computer) based technologies, handheld computers, interactive TV and also e-technology to support traditional delivery for example using electronic whiteboards and video-conferencing’. Folks, don’t forget that, behind all developments in HE in Britain, there is always the shadow of the government, through the DfES, through HEFCE, the QAA, the RAE... And I am sure that it is the same in other countries, as we never teach in a political vacuum, do we… Moving towards a learning society, comrades?! Regards, Arthur Hastings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Dr Bloggs (11 June 2003, 10.43am) Yes, but is it for me?

Colleagues, Thank you very much for your contributions – most useful – of course I see how I could (easily?) learn about online teaching, but you see I am not too sure that it is for me... For at least three reasons: My subject

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does not seem that suitable, my IT skills are not good enough and my students do not need it anyway... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Dr Loykie Lominé (11 June 2003, 11.59am) Re: Yes, but is it for me?

Dr Bloggs, your situation is most symptomatic of the three common problems with online teaching (though by no means the only ones): -

-

-

More often that not, it is not done for the right reasons, i.e. the development of online learning and teaching is not pedagogically driven but financially or politically driven. More often than not, tutors do not really know nor understand why they have to teach online, let alone what it will mean and imply at a practical level. More often than not, students are not consulted when the ecourses are being designed and developed – which is most paradoxical as the move to online learning and teaching is often presented as a tenet of student-centred pedagogy.

Yet I have to disagree with you when you justify your negativity and hesitation – what you refer to are misconceptions and myths – last year I wrote an article identifying and illustrating common myths heard from academics reluctant to discover and engage in online teaching and learning: ‘Online learning and teaching is not for me because my students are very happy with the way my course runs’, ‘Online learning and teaching is not for me because I do not understand the jargon’... If you are interested, that paper is still available online through the website of my Learning and Teaching Support Network (www.hlst.ltsn.ac.uk/johlste/index.html) but just to briefly address your three misconceptions: (1) You believe that your subject is not suitable, but reports by academics, case studies used to share and disseminate good practice and books like Murphy’s ‘Online Learning and Teaching with Technology’ tend to show just the opposite: all fields and subjects, from music to business and from dentistry to languages, seem to lend themselves quite well to online teaching and learning – now you did not say what your own area is, but I doubt very much that it could be totally and irreversibly impervious to web-based learning and computer assisted instruction. Remember that online work can take many forms, from collaborative

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learning on discussion boards to research on the internet via online quizzes and numerous other activities (many of which still remain to be invented!) (2) You argue that your IT skills are not good enough, but in my opinion the notion that online teaching requires a high level of IT literacy is a myth readily perpetuated by some tutors desirous to be admired as if they had mastered highly complex and specialised IT skills. There is a growing number of commercial software applications created for online education – an increasing number of institutions are buying and adopting WebCT and Blackboard, but many prefer to have their own in-house systems. Either way, the designers are well aware that their target market is not composed of IT specialists, but of tutors with understandably limited IT abilities. The programmes they produce are increasingly user-friendly and make it quite easy to set up a discussion board for students to post messages, or an online quiz to test their knowledge and prepare for their exams. Learning to use these programmes is not more challenging than learning to use PowerPoint or Excel. It is certainly a learning curve: the first hours and the initial tasks may be comparatively difficult, but the more you practice, the easier it gets. As PowerPoint and Excel offer sophisticated functions many people are unlikely to need and master, online teaching software will contain elements beyond first-timers´ grasp, but this is not a valid excuse in the refusal to start. (3) You think that your students do not need it anyway, but how can you be so sure? It is difficult for students to evaluate the quality and potential of any change they cannot necessarily test or imagine. Students’ opinions of online learning and teaching certainly reflect the spectrum of opinion of their tutors: a progressive minority are likely to be extremely interested and willing to work with computers as much as possible, while a conservative minority will be very reluctant, almost by principle. The majority will be somewhere in the middle, happy to give it a try (because it is new and different) but a bit anxious too (precisely because it is different, and also because computers often retain an aura of technological complexity). That attitude towards change and technology is human and predicable, yet there is a strong argument in favour of online work, based on the increasing importance of computers all around us. Again, I do not know which career paths are open to your students, but I doubt very much that improving their IT skills could be detrimental to them. Feel free to contact me if you have any question/comment: [email protected] Best, Loykie

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Russell Butson (11 June 2003, 1.13pm) Re: Yes, but is it for me?

Lominé seems to think that this forum is a good site for selfpublicity, so here we go: I too recently published an article most relevant for that discussion – in BJET (the British Journal of Educational Technology) – a purposefully provocative article in which I critically denounced the current and ill-founded technology hype that surrounds us. As I wrote, we are caught up in a technologist culture and if I were you, Bloggs, I would resist as much as possible against that misguided belief into the benefits of online teaching and learning. Best, Russell Butson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: 3.15pm) Title:

Dr Tuppence Beresford (11 June 2003, Re: Yes, but is it for me?

Dear colleagues, My recent experience can help illustrate some of the abovementioned points and further develop the discussion. I have been working as an associate lecturer for the Open University for a couple of years and one day last year I was told that for its’ next run my course would be supported online, instead of the standard classroom sessions we had on a regular basis. I did not think it was appropriate, useful or necessary and I can definitely recognise the three fundamental problems outlined by Loykie Lominé. Most of my closest colleagues felt the same, except for a couple of technophiles, or “techies” as we call them – but then such early adopters and innovators will always exist. We only had some basic training and were told to practice together. Just before the first sessions, we were all quite nervous, anxiously waiting from feedback from one another and living on reciprocal support. What if the system crashed, what if the technology did not follow, what if the students did not follow, what if we tutors did not follow either? Now I cannot rationally say that a technological or educational miracle took place, but everything went very well for all of us, despite a few minor occasional hitches (which have their equivalent in classroom sessions anyway, like when the OHP does not

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work or the room is too cold). Three main reasons seem to account for that success: -

No matter whether it is for a classroom session or an online one, being thoroughly prepared as well as student-centred and supportive is always the key to ensure a successful session (and with hindsight we were so anxious we were all over-prepared). After a few months I am now a better online teacher and I will gradually make more progress, identifying better ways to use the technology. Of course you can read the books and online articles mentioned by previous contributors, of course you would benefit from joining an online course yourself (if you have time!) but a little secret is empathy: take your students’ viewpoint and perspective. They too will be anxious and you need to guide them, to reassure them, to support them (like you facilitate their learning).That cannot be just improvised, you need to carefully prepare your sessions (and gradually you too will develop more confidence) with your objectives, material, procedures, activities...

-

Technology can go wrong (and of course sooner or later it will) but there is nothing you and I can do about it, and that’s not something we need worry about. As teachers we are expected to teach: there are other people who are responsible for the technological side of things, it is their job and they are as keen as we are to have everything work smoothly, the connection, the interface, the communications...

-

Despite our initial doubts, we tried to be as positive as possible, and believe me it worked -- not to mention the fact that it also helped the students become more positive: enthusiasm is contagious, and so is the faith in the advantages of online teaching and learning. Being negative is too easy, and indeed those colleagues who started too reluctantly did not make as much progress as those of us who accepted the challenge. A challenge it certainly was, both professionally and pedagogically – and it still is. Initially we would all have preferred to teach in the traditional classroom-based way we were familiar with, but in the end it really proved fun – both for us and for our students.

Although we were all rather unsure and unconvinced at the beginning, most of us have gradually discovered and appreciated the benefits of online teaching – and some of us now even prefer teaching that way… So

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good luck Dr Bloggs; who knows, in a year’s time you too might be a convert! Best, Tuppence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

A. Hastings (11 June 2003, 5.03pm) Re: Yes, but is it for me?

I wonder, Tuppence, whether your experience isn’t somehow biased by the fact that you were using teaching material specifically written for online purposes – which is presumably not the case for Dr Bloggs and certainly not the case for most other academics who have to do it on top of all other commitments (teaching, research, administration…) In my faculty, one of my responsibilities is to oversee quality, so I am very aware of the issues pertaining to the suitability of the material used for online teaching. A constant problem (articulated by most staff I have spoken with, and regularly mentioned in the literature on online teaching and learning) is the fact that it takes a lot of time to prepare material and activities to teach online (usually longer than anyone anticipates!) A recent article by Kewell and Beeby published in ‘Teaching in Higher Education’ illustrates how staff in a university business school had to design learning resources for online use – they realised that it proved much more difficult and time-consuming than expected, even for staff with very high IT skills. This is a comment (or rather: a complaint!) I keep hearing, even from academics that are most enthusiastic about online teaching. Appropriate resources are rarely allocated, be it in terms of staff, training opportunities or even time (if not cash and salary levels!). When they are mentioned, opportunity costs (e.g. the time taken away from research or working with more familiar systems) tend to be underrated, which is why I strongly believe that online teaching is not just an issue for academics or even staff developers, but also (and critically) one that managers need to address. Regards, Arthur Hastings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Ariadne Oliver (12 June 2003, 2.26am) Title: One step further...

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Dear all, I must say that I have really enjoyed reading all your recent messages. I have learned so much, I feel like I should contribute too like to give something back, I don’t want to be just a lurker/sponge/freeloader! In my view, what took place here since Bloggs started this discussion by posting his first ‘please-help-me’ e-mail is paradigmatic of online teaching and learning, both in terms of knowledge creation and in terms of knowledge dissemination: - In terms of knowledge creation, we have had a perfect example of collaborative learning as a joint discursive process (which is an ideal outcome of asynchronous e-pedagogy) which also illustrates the collective dimension of e-teaching – what could be called ‘collective wisdom’. An increasing number of tutors indeed have, if not expertise translated into RAE-rated publications, at least valuable experience and enriching ideas about e-teaching, about problems they have encountered, about solutions they have designed, implemented, tested, rejected or even modellised on a very small scale. This wealth of emerging knowledge on the pedagogy of virtual environments is highly personalised and individualised (some would say anecdotal and idiosyncratic) but unfortunately many academics, because of their training, background and habits, do not believe in personal anecdotes as a source of knowledge. That the personal may be pedagogical is anathema to them; they do not (yet) accept the value of the collective wisdom on online learning and teaching – yet speaking with colleagues who are already teaching online is a most valuable source of knowledge and inspiration, both at a theoretical and at a practical level, even if those colleagues have not formally written on the topic... maybe because they are too busy improving and developing the courses they teach online! - In terms of knowledge dissemination, we have a perfect example of how this emergent area of scholarship can enable us to be creative and innovative. I, for one, wouldn’t have read a standard article on the topic, but reading all your contributions was most entertaining, interesting – and most educational too! On the topic of online teaching and learning we all have different ideas, experiences, views and preferences, as illustrated by those messages. I would argue that writing a synthesis (in the standardised if not hackneyed form of an article) would be an unnecessary academic exercise (in the worst sense of the term ‘academic’): let us celebrate the fact that we can collectively learn from each other and that several voices can coexist – we could call that

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polyphony, many-voicedness, multi-vocality, or we may even risk the Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia.... So with this e-heteroglossia, are we in the process of conceptualising a new form of knowledge dissemination, transfer, transmission, most suitable on the topic of online pedagogy because of the implicit reflexivity, but possibly useful for many other academic discussions as well? Any reaction/comment/suggestion? Ariadne ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

Dr Loykie Lominé (15 Sept. 2003, 9.13pm) Re: One step further...

Dear Dr Bloggs (and colleagues), Inspired by Ariadne Oliver’s comments about collective wisdom and knowledge creation, I went to an international conference on virtual learning and higher education at Mansfield College (Oxford) last week, where I told the participants about this online discussion of ours. Keen to make use of the expertise present in the room (lecturers, research fellows, managers from Italy to Israel and from Iran to Ireland), I spoke about Dr Bloggs’ concerns about starting to teach online. I gave everyone a sheet of paper with just your initial message, Dr Bloggs, asking them what they would advise you. The anonymous answers were most interesting as everyone completed the task seriously (needless to say that I am most grateful for that!). Rather than copying all recommendations here, let me briefly analyse them. Many topics have already been covered in the previous replies to this discussion forum, notably regarding the importance of institutional support as well as the pedagogical rationale for the learning tasks set for the students (well structured group activities, appropriate levels of interactivity). Most participants wrote about the importance of speaking with colleagues to learn from their own experiences, pitfalls and successes, which shows that collegiality and communicating best practice are critical elements of the pedagogy of e-teaching (possibly more so than for classroom teaching?). As someone wrote: ‘Dear Dr Bloggs, don’t panic: lots of good advice is available’. It is true that in higher education we often tend to work in relative isolation: our colleagues may be close friends of ours, we may discuss research together, we probably complain

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together about institutional procedures or internal politics, but how often do we discuss our teaching? And when we do so, is it mainly about students’ attendance, progression and achievements, or more deeply about students’ learning experience and about our pedagogical approaches and principles? Unexpectedly, e-teaching may well be the big topic that will lead us to communicate more together in our universities and colleges. On their paper, one of the participants wrote: ‘Just do it, Dr Bloggs! The IT revolution won’t go away. When you’ve done it, you will feel fantastic: a new skill, a new experience, a new dimension’. There is no denying that e-teaching is here to stay, and most governments are keen to see IT fully embedded in education, including higher education. It is important that we academics do not disregard that as a threat to our values and traditions, or as a political challenge to our intellectual integrity. It is much rather an opportunity to shape the Academia of the 21st century, and however daunting it may seem at first, it can be a genuine source of satisfaction, both at a professional and personal level. Those two poles need to be stressed: e-teaching is not just a professional practice, it has a personal dimension, offering a different way to relate to our students, a new skill, a new experience, as that participant wrote. There is one more contribution from the Oxford Conference I would like to quote for you, Dr Bloggs, and for the benefit of everyone else: a participant who just had three words to say, like a most succinct but most convincing recipe for e-teaching: (1) Chill, (2) Consult, (3) Collaborate. In my own field (tourism management) we love mnemonic models of that sort (as exemplified by the 7 Ps of the marketing mix: Product, Promotion, Price, Place, People, Process and Physical evidence, or the 4 Ss of beach tourism: Sea, Sun, Sand and Sex) so I am particularly sensitive to that 3 Cs model: Chill, Consult, Collaborate. If I was writing an academic article and not a cyber-message for an online discussion board, I would probably try to claim that with the 3 Cs we have created (or at least proposed!) a pedagogical model for staff development with specific reference to e-teaching! Best, Loykie ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Miss Lemon (16 Sept. 2003, 3.01pm) Title: Re: One step further... Dear all, I wanted to outline another benefit of e-teaching – a rather selfish one, which may be the reason why no contributor has mentioned it so far.

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In my institution, being one of the first tutors to adopt e-teaching has enabled me to get promotion quite quickly. I also rapidly got involved in staff development, training and supporting colleagues who had to teach online, which was a new (and unplanned!) turn in my academic career. I enjoy teaching students (which is why I became a lecturer) but I now enjoy even more teaching my colleagues! Besides, in most places, eteaching is still new enough to enable us to have an impact on its pedagogical future within our institutions. In mine, we are just drafting an e-teaching strategy, and with my modest but real experience I can contribute, I have things to say, I am listened to. That too is an unexpected benefit of e-teaching. Dr Bloggs, in turn and in due time, you too may well become a specialist of e-teaching, and next year you may well be the one people will consult and respect – good luck! Yours sincerely, Miss Lemon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Message posted by: Title:

David Johnson (18 Sept. 2003, 11.30am) Re: One step further...

Folks, Last week in Oxford I attended that conference (organised by Inter-Disciplinary.Net and Learning Solutions) where Loykie told us about Dr Bloggs and made us pen down suggestions and recommendations we then add to discuss in pairs – quite an unorthodox way to present a paper at a conference, but I must say that it proved so dynamic and successful – I loved it! That, I want to add, is a perfect illustration of the originality and creativity that online teaching gives us. Are online tutors more creative than their classroom counterparts? As a director of distributed education technology constantly working with all types of academics, I’d say yes, definitely. Because of its relative novelty, because of its enthusiasts who tend to be forward-looking, risk-taking individuals, e-teaching is a very dynamic pedagogical universe and embracing it is a most rewarding experience. Creativity makes the world go round – and e-creativity is like a cycle: it does not stop with e-teaching and with the design/dissemination of e-scholarship (represented by Loykie’s approach); its benefits also fall back onto more traditional forms of teaching. Over lunch and during the coffee breaks at the conference, many people told me that e-teaching has led them to reconsider and enhance their classroom practices, because it obliges them to focus on the learning and not just on the teaching, as tutors often run the risk of doing.

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E-teaching makes teachers better teachers, that’s my conclusion! Warmly, David, your man in West Virginia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ References Bakhtin, M., (1983) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, Austin: University of Texas Press Bates, A.W., (1999) ‘Restructuring the university for technological change’ In Brennan, J. et al (Eds.) What kind of university? International perspectives on knowledge, participation and governance, Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press Burnett, C., (2003) ‘Learning to chat: tutor participation in synchronous online chat’, Teaching in Higher Education Vol. 8 No. 2, pp.247-261 Butson, R. (2003) ‘Transcending the Flatland’, BJET, vol.8 (3) pp.447451 DfES (2002) Get on with IT: The post-16 E-learning Strategy Task Force Report, London: Department for Education and Skills Garrison, D. R. & Anderson, T., (2003) E-learning in the 21st Century: A framework for Research and Practice, London: Routledge Jolliffe, A. et al (2001) The Online Learning Handbook, London: Kogan Page Katz, R. N., (Ed.) (1999) Dancing with the Devil: Information Technology and the New Competition in Higher Education, San Francisco: JosseyBass Kewell, B. & Beeby, M., (2003) ‘Student and lecturer responses to the introduction of computer assisted learning (CAL) in a university business school’, Teaching in Higher Education Vol. 8 No 3 pp.413-430 Kahn, B. H., (Ed.) (1997) Web-based Instruction, Englewood Cliffs: ETP Latchem, C. & Lockwood, F. (Eds.) (1998) Staff development in Open and Flexible Learning, London: Routledge Laurillard, D., (2002) Rethinking University Teaching, 2nd edition, London: Routledge Lominé, L. L., (2002) ‘Online Learning and Teaching in Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism: Myths, Opportunities and Challenges’, Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 1(1): pp.1-7 Available through the LTSN website: www.hlst.ltsn.ac.uk/johlste/index.html

Lynch, M. M., (2002) The Online Educator: A Guide to Creating the Virtual Classroom, London: Routledge

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Mason, R., (1991) ‘Moderating Educational Computer Conferencing’, DEOSNEWS (Distance Education Online Symposium) 1(19) McKinnon, G. R., (2000) The dilemma of evaluating electronic discussion groups, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33:125-129 Morris, P., (1994) The Bakhtin Reader, London: E. Arnold Murphy, D, et al (2001) Online Learning and Teaching with Technology: Case Studies, Experience and Practice, London: Kogan Page Palof, R. M, & Pratt, K, (2000) Lessons from Cyberspace Classroom : Realities of Online Teaching, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Roscoe, J., (2003) ‘E-learning in Higher Education: the language of Elearning’, ILTHE Resources Available through www.ilt.ac.uk (members resources) Rosenberg, M. J., (2001) E-learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age, London: McGraw Hill Salmon, G., (2000) E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online, London: Kogan Page Salmon, G., (2002) E-tivities: the Key to Active Online Learning, London: Kogan Page Sanders, W. B., (2000) Creating Learning-centred Courses for the World Wide Web, Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon Sloman, M., (2001) The E-learning Revolution, London: CIPD Stephenson, J., (Ed.) (2001) Teaching and Learning Online, London: Kogan Page Walker, M., (2003) ‘Lessons in E-learning’ ILTHE Resources Available at www.ilt.ac.uk (members resources)

CHAPTER EIGHT Plotting Virtuality: dimensions of E-learning space Peter J Williams Abstract: The term E-learning enjoys wide currency, but is loosely employed. A lack of clarity as to its nature accompanies a lack of understanding as to its applications and appropriate use. These are important issues, as political, educational and commercial policy-makers need an informed frame of reference from which to make decisions regarding the employment of E-learning alongside or in the place of existing methods of education and training. There is also a need for accurate description of E-learning products for the clients who might use them. This chapter seeks to provide contextual and internal analyses of Elearning as an initial stage in the process of creating such a frame of reference. Firstly, E-learning is located within a variety of education and training contexts so as to delineate its boundaries, and an overview is made of ways in which it is employed at higher education level within private, corporate and state-funded systems. Secondly, earlier conceptual models for E-learning are examined and a model is proposed comprising four dimensions of virtual space: course utility, study flexibility, delivery technology and learning paradigm. A graphical representation of the dimensional model is used to profile the different contexts for E-learning explored earlier; this method of visualisation affords ready comparison of the variety of ways in which E-learning is employed. Thirdly, a rationale is advanced for these dimensions, which are then discussed in relation to typical learning activities. Finally, consideration is given to how the dimensional model might be applied in the areas of learner appeal, course marketing, educational-systems design and course quality evaluation. Keywords: E-learning, theoretical model

1.

Contextualising E-learning For the purposes of this chapter, E-learning is defined contextually as embracing a variety of methods and practices in education and training in which electronic systems are employed. Usually – but not necessarily – this includes communication online: between learners and between learners and tutors. The territory is a large one, extending from the training of vocational skills in commercial and corporate environments to the study of traditional arts and humanities in universities; moreover,

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the territory is expanding. The Department for Education and Skills for England (DfES) and Wales has declared E-learning aims for schools together with financial incentives and an infrastructure1. At the higher education level there was substantial government funding for a UK eUniversity2 and, at the time of writing, a draft consultation document defining a national E-learning policy for further and higher education3. However, according to Drucker4, traditional universities are in deep crisis and we should not expect to see campuses in their present form in thirty years’ time. Crisis is a term used by many commentators to describe how E-learning in its various forms is associated with impacts upon traditional values and practice in higher education (HE).5 Figure 1 summarises a number of economic, technological and political drivers. British universities no longer enjoy what Hague described as a cartel arrangement with the state funding body6, and now have to face a burgeoning demand – against a falling unit of resource – for increasingly vocational courses related to the information economy; and all this while in competition with each other in national and international markets7 in which HE is becoming commodified and branded8. Some applications of E-learning include support for the megauniversities9 and virtual universities, which are entirely online. The economies of scale and infrastructure afforded by these means of delivery seem an attractive ‘techno-scientific’ solution10 to the managerialism which has taken hold of national and institutional policy-makers11. Not yet in direct competition with state-funded higher education are the corporate universities, developing considerable experience in the development of Elearning materials for vocational purposes, and likely to become a threat to universities in the near future12. The emerging technology of ‘learning objects’ extends opportunities for E-learning and could further undermine traditional HE. The disaggregation of learning materials into standardised bite-sized pieces and their storage in semantically-indexed and meta-tagged repositories13 enables new combinations to be assembled to meet the needs of individual learners, as assessed by intelligent profiling software14. Stephenson envisages that: Courses, as organizing structures for learning – with fixed syllabi, predetermined outcomes and assessments, and strictly timetabled activities imposed by programme managers – will give way to frameworks or shells of support materials surrounding loosely defined fields of study, generalized outcomes and activities pursued by the learners.15

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These possibilities for ‘learner-managed learning’ bear interesting similarity to postmodernist predictions of the demise of traditional campus universities as part of a wider rejection of cultural heritage, and which see the new digital media as playing a key role in this overthrow. Lister et al. describe digital media in: “…a sense of being the technological correlative of postmodern thought. Speed, flexibility, digitality and hypertextuality have all been posited as characteristic of new media and of postmodernity” 16 This ‘techno-romantic futurism’ is also evident in the views of Raschke, who talks of ‘hyperlearning’ as being: “...not so much about the command of established, educational 'content' as about the capacity to birth new content. ... The internet is not just another resource for learning. It is fast becoming the incubator of knowledge.” 17

2.

Earlier conceptual models for E-learning An early typology of teaching approaches in regard of distance education was advanced in 1987 by Boot and Hodgson. This identified two pedagogic orientations on the basis of a commitment to ‘Dissemination/Instructional’ and constructionist principles18. ‘Development/Constructionist’ orientations were contrasted in terms of, inter alia, teaching assumptions made about knowledge, learning, the purpose of education, the tutor’s role, course structure and the nature of assessment. While this model identified some key issues, it was essentially a broad typology from the perspective of the teacher rather than the learner. Also, it was delivery-independent and could have been applied equally to face-to-face as to distance teaching; and – in 1987 – it was preWorld Wide Web. A more recent model, and one created specifically for Web-based learning & teaching, is the ‘Online Paradigm Grid’ devised by Coomey and Stephenson in 2001 and presented in Figure 2. The authors undertook an analysis of one hundred published accounts of Web-based learning & teaching, and from this identified four common features: dialogue, involvement, support and control. They note that: Most ‘lessons learnt’ focused on the importance of structuring the learning activity and designing the materials in order to promote dialogue, secure active involvement of the learner, provide personal or other

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support and feedback and enable the learner to exercise the degree of control expected. 19 These four features were then related to each of the quadrants of the Online Paradigm Grid, resulting in rich descriptions of the four paradigms In addition an advice list was generated for each paradigm on the basis of the lessons learnt. The north-west quadrant proved to be the most populated, as this most resembles traditional face-to-face teaching and requires the least amount of reworking of existing methods and materials for use in the online environment; the south-east quadrant was the least populated, for opposite reasons. The authors stress the importance for materials designers to have detailed awareness of the characteristics of their chosen course paradigm, warning that: “Students used to clear instructions and narrowly-defined tasks, for instance, will need considerable help with online learning in any sector other than the north-west.” 20 Coomey and Stephenson’s model possesses many positives. It differs from Boot and Hodgson’s, in giving some consideration to the learner as well as the teacher’s perspective – although these are not explicitly related to an epistemic educational stance – and it is purpose-independent, where Boot & Hodgson do consider practical relevance and course utility. Like Boot & Hodgson’s model, it is delivery-independent in that it also could be applied to wholly face-to-face courses. Neither model takes account of the variety of preferred learning styles which students might adopt. For example, in the continuum model of cognitive styles devised in 1977 by Witkin et al, learners range from ‘field-independent’: serialists / splitters / ’logical theorists’ to, at the other end, ‘field-dependent’: holists / lumpers/ ’imaginative divergers’.

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Postmodernist drivers Traditional university

academic collegialism

university bureaucracy

academic professionalism

pedagogic autonomy

critical stance

liberal education values

face-to-face teaching & learning

canonical status of knowledge

techno-romantic futurism learner as author

vocationalism

information economy Educational

mega-universities virtual universities corporate universities systems theory blended learning

peer-to-peer Elearning learning objects (interoperability & reusability)

technocracy & technological determinism

EC & UK Government agendas globalisation market deregulation transnational corporations

HE access & wider participation McDonaldization public funding of HE

scalability learner-managed learning

hyperlearning

Economic, Technological and Political drivers

demand for HE

institutional inertia

provisional status of knowledge

managerialism & corporatism

Figure 1 – E-learning Contexts

commodification of HE technological development

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Specified tasks Teacher controls task and process (traditional pedagogy translated to online formats)

Teacher process

controls

task

but

not

Learner managed Process

Teacher Controlled Process

Learner controls task but not process

Learner controls task and process (radical departure from traditional pedagogy) Open ended, strategic

Figure 2 – Online Paradigm Grid Adapted from Coomey and Stephenson21

Given the rapid take-up and shifting sands of E-learning, the greater commodification and branding of learning resources and the signs of a growth in learner-managed learning, there is a continual need for the academic community to review and revise its conceptual models. It is important to maintain an informed and up-to-date frame of reference from which policy-makers in political, educational and commercial milieu can make effective decisions about whether and in what forms E-learning might be appropriate. Potential customers in the new E-learning market also need clear and reliable advice about not only content, but also the methods and modes of delivery of the products they might buy.

3.

A proposed four-dimensional model The model proposed here is oriented towards the learner’s perspective, so stands in contrast to the two described above. It consists of four dimensions of virtual space: course utility, study flexibility, delivery technology and learning paradigm. Each is conceived as independent of the others, comprises three strands and is represented on a four-point scale. Course Utility (Table 1) is concerned essentially with the entry ticket that utilitarian courses provide to enable students to attain extrinsic goals (e.g. vocational qualifications leading to better-paid jobs) and relate to students’ general orientations to education22. At the ‘0’ end of the scale is

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the type of liberal arts course in which the important outcomes are experiential rather than extrinsic. Between these extremes is, for example, a degree course undertaken out of personal interest, but which carries some vocational credit. Study Flexibility (Table 2) comprises three indicators of the overall flexibility of a course. At the ‘3’ end of materials and sources would be Stephenson’s “frameworks or shells of support materials surrounding loosely defined fields of study” discussed above. The tasks strand is the same as the vertical dimension of the Online Paradigm Grid. Delivery Technology (Table 3) considers the types of E-learning activities from the learner’s perspective: from a computer-centred type of course to one in which there is a high degree of face-to-face interaction with teachers and peers. The intermediate blended learning category shares components from both extremes of the dimension. Learning Paradigm (Table 4) includes the ‘control’ strand, which is the same as the horizontal dimension of the Online Paradigm Grid; however, it is broader than this. ‘Interaction stance’ incorporates the notion of hyperlearning and intensive peer interaction, which relate also to an active constructionist orientation. ‘Cognitive style’ is an important descriptor for potential course clients seeking activities to match their own preferred learning orientations.

Strand

-0-

Purpose

‘liberal education’

Outcome

intrinsic, experiential

assessment

Credit accumulation unimportant

Strand materials

-1-

-2-

e.g. traditional arts or humanities degree

-3vocational, utilitarian extrinsic, transferable credit accumulation crucially important

Table 1 – Course Utility (CU) -0-1-2predetermined,

sharing some of the

-3indicative, loosely-

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Plotting Virtuality: dimensions of E-learning space

and sources

tightly-defined

scheduling

lockstep, sequential

flexible, variable

Tasks

specified

open-ended, strategic

defined

components of 0 and 3

Table 2 – Study Flexibility (SF)

strand Media

-0technologysupported faceto-face learning

-1-

-2-

-3online only

blended learning

communication

technologysupported faceto-face

online, asynchronous

support

Face-to-face only

online only

Table 3 – Delivery Technology (DT)

strand interaction stance

cognitive style

-0passively receiving ‘accepted wisdom’

field-independent

-1-

-2-

sharing some of the components of 0 and 3

-3contributing actively and collaboratively to new knowledge field-dependent

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teacher controlled

learner managed

Table 4 – Learning Paradigm (LP)

The four-point scales are now employed to compare different applications of E-learning. For the sake of illustration three hypothetical scenarios have been categorised. The first – called ‘blended’ – is an example of technology-supported learning within a traditional university in which a virtual learning environment is used to follow up activities initiated in conventional lead lectures. The second – called ‘corporate’ – describes a vocational training course delivered by a corporate university to moderately-skilled employees to train them in new work procedures. The third – called ‘active’ – is not a formal course but an ongoing process of research and development undertaken by a group of ‘blue sky’ researchers based in universities across three continents and communicating through a variety of sophisticated technologies. Table 5 shows how these have been rated according to the four-dimensional model; Figure 3 presents this data in a graphical form in which the profiles of the three scenarios may be more readily compared.

Scenario

CU

SF

DT

LP

Blended: technologysupported face-to-face module in a traditional university

2

0

0

2

Corporate: vocational training in a corporate university

3

1

3

0

Active: flexible and collaborative learning by a globally-distributed research group

1

3

3

3

Table 5 – Comparison of Scenarios

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Plotting Virtuality: dimensions of E-learning space

The model appears an attractive and simple way to summarise and relate the complexities of the many different purposes and implementations of E-learning. However, much needs to be done in moving from this initial conceptual model to a workable inventory which might be applied in practice. For example, the extent to which the fourpoint scales are true ordinal measures as distinct from nominal ones needs elucidation. For the purposes of graphical representation this is not a crucial issue; what is more important is that each point-category is supported by valid and reliable descriptors. An empirical grounding is needed in order to construct each of the four dimensions in terms of current and emerging practice; in this way, the inventory could be both a discriminating instrument and a close reflection of praxis.

4.

Employing the E-learning model If it proves possible to develop a workable inventory then the model has the potential to present – from the standpoint of the learner – a more finely-grained summary description of an E-learning course than the earlier models described above. What a potential client might want to know in comparing different types of E-learning courses is answers to questions such as: x Is this course going to be useful for my career? (CU) x Will I have the time to fit it in? (SF) x Have I got the necessary technological access and skills? (DT) x Will it suit the way I like to learn? (LP). The simplicity of the model could also be effective in helping to convey to policy-makers the idea that E-learning is not a unitary entity which can be simply ‘bolted on’ to existing forms of education and training, and that detailed decisions need to be made about which types and styles of teaching and learning should be adopted. In this situation, policy-makers might ask: x Is there a market for my course? (CU) x Will it be practically feasible for my target clients? (SF) x Will they have the necessary technological access and skills? (DT) x Will it appeal to the variety of their preferred learning styles? (LP) Similarly, educational systems designers could find use for the model to inform their decision-making process. It might best be used alongside existing instruments for content and course needs analysis and the profiling of target learners23.

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Finally, the model could be of service in the course validation and quality assurance process. Here, there may be a need for non-specialist and lay assessors to appreciate that E-learning courses should not be judged with the same criteria and expectations as conventional courses (for example, the issues of study flexibility (SF) and delivery technology (DT) are much more significant).

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Plotting Virtuality: dimensions of E-learning space

3 2

CU SF

1 0

DT Active Corporate

LP Blended

Figure 3 – Profile Comparison of Blended, Corporate and Active Scenarios

5.

Conclusion This chapter has identified the need for an up-to-date and accurate conceptual model for E-learning. Existing models have been analysed and a possibly more appropriate and practicable model has been proposed. Although very much at the prototype stage, this model has the potential for development into a detailed and workable instrument which could be of benefit to all participants in this increasingly important aspect of education and training. Notes 1

Aims for the use of ICT and E-learning in schools are set out in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) documents Transforming the Way We Learn (2002) and Fulfilling the Potential: Transforming teaching and learning through ICT in schools (2003). Free E-learning credits for the purchase of DfES-recommended educational software are issued to schools through the Curriculum Online scheme. 2 The UK eUniversity (UKeU) was created in 2001 in an attempt to compete with private virtual universities for the burgeoning business

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education market in South Asia. It has subsequently ceased trading and was put up for sale in 2004. 3 Key outcomes of the Department for Education and Skills (2003) consultation process led by Towards a Unified E-learning Strategy are currently under implementation. 4 Peter Drucker has written extensively on the difficulties of organisational adaptation to the pressures of the information economy. 5 For example: Preston, (2001); Hayward & Hedge, (2002); Raschke, (2003). 6 In Beyond Universities, Douglas Hague (1991) argues that British higher education institutions should be able to survive both as competitors and complements of the knowledge industries. 7 Trinidade (1996) has written extensively on transnational aspects of online learning. 8 In Ritzer’s (2000) book The McDonaldization of Society, online learning is identified as a ‘McDonaldizing’ force in higher education. 9 In Mega-universities and Knowledge Media John Daniel (1996) defines ‘mega-universities’ as distance education institutions of over 100,000 students. 10 Managerialist issues in higher education are examined in David Seth Preston’s (2002) Virtual Values: The University in E-Crisis. 11 These matters receive extensive commentary by Neave (1988), and Clarke & Newman (1997). 12 See Prince and Beaver’s (2001) examination of the move from collegiate to corporate values in higher education 13 These ideas are detailed in the CETIS website (Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards). 14 For example, Dickinson and Stewart (2001). 15 In Stephenson (2001) Teaching and Learning Online: pedagogies for new technologies p.223. 16 In Lister et al (2003) New Media: A Critical Introduction, p.192. 17 In Raschke (2003) The Digital Revolution and the Coming of the Postmodern University p.38. 18 Constructionism is explained in Tenenbaum et al., (2001) 19

Coomey and Stephenson, (2001), pp.40-41

20

Ibid

21

Ibid

22

In Improving Your Students’ Learning: Reflections on the Experience of Study, Alistair Morgan (1993) identifies students’ general orientation to education as a major factor in their subsequent success.

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23

These issues are examined in depth in the books by Terry Evans and David Rowntree (1994). References

Beller, M. & Orr, E., (1998) The Crossroads between Lifelong Learning and Information Available at (accessed 01/09/04): http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue2/beller.html Boot, R. & Hodgson, V., ‘Open learning: meaning and experience’ In Hodgson, V., Mann, S., & Snell, R., (Eds.) (1987) Beyond Distance Teaching – Towards Open Learning Buckingham: SRHE/UO Press CETIS, Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards Available at (accessed 01/09/04): http://www.cetis.ac.uk Clarke, J. & Newman, J., (1997) The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare, London: Sage Coomey, M. & Stephenson, J., (2001) ‘Online learning: It’s all about Dialogue, Involvement, Support and Control - according to the research’ In Stephenson, J. (ed.), (2001) Teaching and Learning Online: pedagogies for new technologies, London: Kogan Page Daniel, J., (1996) Mega-universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education, London: Kogan Page DfES, (2002) Transforming the Way We Learn, Department for Education and Skills, London: The Stationery Office DfES, (2003) Fulfilling the Potential: Transforming teaching and learning through ICT in schools, Department for Education and Skills, London: The Stationery Office DfES, (2004) Curriculum Online, Department for Education and Skills Available at (accessed 01/09/04): http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk DfES, (2003) Towards a Unified E-learning Strategy, Consultation Document, Department for Education and Skills, London: The Stationery Office Dickinson, D. & Stewart, V., (2001) ‘Towards an andragogy for living in an information society’ In Stephenson, J. (ed.), (2001) Teaching and Learning Online: pedagogies for new technologies, London: Kogan Page Drucker, P., (2004) ‘An Interview with Peter Drucker’ In Beller, M. & Orr, E., (1998) The Crossroads between Lifelong Learning and Information Evans, T., (1994) Understanding Learners in Open and Distance Education, London: Kogan Page Hague, D., (1991) Beyond Universities: a New Republic of the Intellect, Hobart Paper 115, London: Institute of Economic Affairs

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Hayward, L. & Hedge, N., (2002) ‘Global Distance Education and the Idea of the University’ Conference papers, The Idea of Education, University of Oxford, July Inter-Disciplinary Net Available at (accessed 01/09/04): http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ioe1s5.htm Hodgson, V., Mann, S., & Snell, R., (Eds.) (1987) Beyond Distance Teaching – Towards Open Learning Buckingham: SRHE/UO Press Lister, M., Dovey, J., Giddings, S., Grant, I. & Kelly, K., (2003) New Media: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge Morgan, A., (1993) Improving Your Students’ Learning: Reflections on the Experience of Study, London: Kogan Page Neave, G., (1998) ‘On the Cultivation of Quality, Efficiency and Enterprise: an overview of recent trends in higher education in Western Europe, 1986-1988’ European Journal of Education 23 (1988): pp.7-23. Preston, D., (2001) Technology, Managerialism and the University, Fife: Glenrothes Publications Preston, D., (2002) ‘Virtual Values: The University in E-Crisis’ InterDisciplinary Net Available at (accessed 01/09/04): http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/Preston%20Paper1.pdf Prince, C., & Beaver, G., (2001) ‘The Rise and Rise of the Corporate University: the emerging corporate learning agenda’ International Journal of Management Education No. 1 Raschke, C., (2003) The Digital Revolution and the Coming of the Postmodern University London: Routledge Falmer Ritzer, G., (2000) The McDonaldization of Society (New Century Edition), London: Pine Forge Press Rowntree, D., (1994) Preparing Materials for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning, London: Kogan Page Stephenson, J. (ed.), (2001) Teaching and Learning Online: pedagogies for new technologies, London: Kogan Page Tenenbaum, G, Naidu, S., Jegede, O. & Austin, J., (2001) ‘Constructionist Pedagogy in Conventional On-Campus and Distance Learning Practice: An Exploratory Investigation.’ Learning and Instruction 11 pp.87-109 Thompson, M., (Ed.) (1996) Internationalism in Distance Education: A Vision for Higher Education ACSDE Research Monograph No.10, Pennsylvania State University, USA Trinidade, A., (1996) ‘Globalization of Distance Education: Setting a Trans-Atlantic Policy for Collaboration”. In Thompson, M., (Ed.) (1996) Internationalism in Distance Education: A Vision for Higher Education Witkin, H., Moore, C., Goodenough, D. & Cox, P., (1997) ‘FieldDependent and Field-Independent Cognitive Styles and their Educational Implications” Review of Educational Research 47 pp 1-64

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CHAPTER NINE Computer Aided Learning in midwifery: Panacea or Pandora’s box? Jenny Prior Abstract This chapter is the result of expansion and development of earlier work1 of the author. Reasons behind developing a computer aided learning package for a midwifery curriculum, its subsequent development and evaluation will be considered. Keywords: Computer aided/assisted learning (CAL); E-learning; Computer-aided/ assisted instruction (CAI); Virtual learning environment (VLE); Managed Learning Environment (MLE) and Reusable Learning Objective (RLO).

1.

Introduction and background

The continued debate around the delivery of biological sciences in nursing and midwifery curricula ignited the use of computer-aided learning (CAL) in an academic division of midwifery at a university in the East Midlands of England. The reduced input of biological science education in nursing and midwifery curricula nationally has been as a result of political, professional and educational reasons2,3,4,5. In addition the widening entry gate for nursing and midwifery education has not prepared students well for self-directed learning or for direction from lead lectures. This of course is true of other academic courses6. Until recently the fact that the previous professional body also decided that biology specifically is not a requirement for nursing and midwifery education, however bizarre, means that some students may consider mathematics as their "science" subject. This situation changed in 2004 when the universities will decide entry criteria for nursing and midwifery education rather than the new professional body (Nursing and Midwifery Council)7. However the current students on our programmes of education are therefore very different from previous traditional university students. This has led to other educational tools and strategies being sought to deliver course content not just reduced by timetable constraints and clinical practice time, but in order to further clarify difficult biological concepts.

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In addition to this, drives from Government, higher education and the nursing and midwifery professions have almost demanded that information technology (IT) be explicitly included in the learning and teaching arena8, 9,10,11. In the context used here, IT includes other terms such as CAL, computer aided/ assisted instruction (CAI), E-learning, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Managed Learning Environment (MLE) and Reusable Learning Objectives (RLO). This can be very confusing for those teachers who have had no previous interest in IT or are having to make rapid changes in the way they deliver course material as a result of university requirements and drives. Universities are now not only developing and implementing their own individual strategies, but also collaborating with other universities to deliver E-learning projects, making them web-based with the potential for global access. As yet such collaboration in technological philosophies for the provision of CAL does not extend to the sharing of produced materials as prevent tutors currently have ‘reinvent the wheel’ with their own material. Whilst the former is seen as multi-institutional collaboration the latter is seen almost as industrial espionage, with the issues of copyright and intellectual property being frequently raised.

2.

Literature search

Prior to undertaking the production of this first CAL package an extensive literature search was undertaken to look at the pros and cons of all aspects of development. These issues are addressed below. CAL can provide flexibility for both learning and teaching. Improvement in IT allows simulation of previously expensive laboratory demonstrations to take place12. Such opportunities to simulate reality can facilitate experiential learning, a key element of Kolb's learning cycle13. It also negates some of the health and safety issues, which may arise as a result of students working in confined laboratory spaces, moving and handling of equipment, and accidents. Dwyer et al suggest that the establishment of the development and use of the Internet and World Wide Web alongside their associated software such as web browsers have made possible simulation in the everyday teaching of physiology. CAL in addition to facilitating learning about the specific subject area can also assist in the acquisition of key skills14. A number of universities are incorporating into their learning and teaching strategies the validity and transferability of NVQs in the work place. This is underpinned by key skills development15. Sinclaire and Gardener also argue that nurse education should prepare practitioners for all aspects of their eventual exposure to IT throughout the health service. The NHS

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executive have also added to the debate stating that nurses and midwives should be competent in the use of IT to improve care provision and professional development16. The use of CAL in nursing and midwifery institutions has met with much resistance from staff 17,18. Such resistance has been reported as far back as the 1980s in the medical arena19. This is not just a UK-wide phenomena, other countries report similar problems.20 Stiles states that time should not be wasted on such individuals as over a period of time they will either leave the institution, carry on with their own desired delivery of course material or eventually switch to IT use in their teaching21. Universities are now actively employing lecturers with some degree of IT literacy and confidence. Universities are now including statements in their IT strategies about promoting staff development in this area. Alas, what is not clear is how universities address the issues of staff being given time off or protected time to develop CAL or even how staff can be rewarded for such activities. Only a few universities have considered rewarding staff for IT educational initiatives, such as use of CAL, by providing scholarships or pay scale adjustments. This is a major step forward particularly for those traditional universities where extra reward in the past has been confined to those attracting research funding. Until the process of embedding E-learning alongside appropriate financial remuneration is resolved the use of CAL will remain somewhat ad hoc. In the past authoring systems with rigid frameworks and the inability to import graphics restricted CAL development22. Since the late 1980s there has been a convergence of and controlled integration of technologies. These new ‘authoring systems’ that can now import graphics and provide interaction to allow a higher level of cognitive functions are less linear than their predecessors. Overbaugh suggested “that growing popularity of easy to use authoring systems may encourage many educators to develop courseware”23. Previously, enthusiastic teachers with an interest in IT have incorporated CAL into curricula. Not all universities have a strategy that requires significant numbers of teachers to be trained in such technology in education, or for all modules intending to use CAL to be scrutinized by an IT committee24. It has been argued that in regard to full scale multi-media authoring, institutions should decide whether academics on non-technical disciplines have the competency and diversity of skills required for CAL provision and production25. Despite the enthusiasm of teachers interested in IT, their inexperience and naivety in producing CAL packages has led to some of the problems identified above. Previously CAL has been said to be linear, two dimensional with limited interaction. Indeed Heath argues the term ‘interaction’ has been distorted in CAL26. True interaction in the humanistic sense involves a

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symbiotic relationship with the learner and educator each responding verbally and with body language to each other. Such interaction also depends on the individual’s previous experiences and values. Davies and Crowther express the fear that some students may become proficient at interacting with IT but less so with real people27. This human interaction is obviously important with health service personnel. Furthermore in the past problems have also been noted with the presentation of CAL packages. Overbaugh focuses on a three-staged process, which by predetermined needs will lead to sound computer-based courseware28. The three stages considered are lesson design (including teaching strategies), student performance (assessment and feedback) and computer specific design issues. Student centered learning, a component of the Humanistic theory of learning as expounded by Rogers29 is said to be the main impetus behind learning and teaching in the 1990s and new millennium. Overbaugh readily admits that his three-staged approach is pedagogical in nature. Therefore one might ask, is this form of learning appropriate when taking a humanistic and student-centered approach? However one could argue that the decision whether to access the material or not is in itself student-led. Rogers suggests that the student-centered approach can encourage educators to consider all teaching styles, which will affect learning, this should obviously also be applied to CAL. Lowry and Johnson30 offer the opinion that CAL enables students to study at a pace best suited to their own ability and experience. As Bromage suggests student learning styles may also have an impact not only on how CAL is used or accessed but also on the level and degree of learning that is achieved31. CAL can be useful for short-term memory storage, but like other modes of learning can only become part of long-term memory through repetition and application. This is important for student midwives who are required to bridge the theory practice gap and transfer CAL into the clinical environment. In the study undertaken by Bromage, students predominantly used the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to read and download learning materials. They also liked “having everything in one place”. The danger is that IT becomes a dumping ground for existing material with students becoming overwhelmed thus engendering only “surface learning”32. Consideration also needs to be given to the efficiency of student learning. Davies and Crowther argue that poorly designed CAL packages may require more time for students to reach the same level of comprehension than from a taught session33. A framework for teaching strategies with regard to CAL package design can be adopted for use from Gagne's "Nine Events of Learning"34.

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Reeves and Overbaugh have considered the principles for use in courseware development and CAL production respectively35, 36. Gagne's framework as described by Overbaugh, considers learning, teaching and assessment of students. This allows the CAL developers to include elements necessary for student-centered learning, reflection, transfer of learning and quality assessment37, 38, 39. All are requirements of the national body for nursing and midwifery and of the Quality Assurance Agency40.

3.

Obstacles and lessons learned

As a midwife teacher the author had little knowledge or experience of computer programming. Therefore the author decided to use the full facilities provided by the university’s teaching enhancement office CAL group. This service offers not only funding for the development of CAL packages, it also includes the use of specialist CAL package programmers and graphic designer's time, input to support staff in the production of such packages and also promotes and encourages staff development at an individual level. As module leader for biological science modules the author provided the content, was involved in the design and production and was nominated subject specialist. A close working relationship developed between the author and the team (the programmer and graphic artist) to produce the package. The author was naïve in initially believing the package could be produced in isolation. The time required to produce such a package was severely underestimated. Hamilton, Furnace, Duguid, Helms and Simpson estimated between 232 and 446 hours as the typical number of developmental hours required41. From the initial formulate of a concrete specified idea to the implementation our CAL package took approximately nine months to produce. The CAL package was to include three topics: the general adaptation syndrome (GAS), shock and oedema. The shape of the CAL package was developed using a storyboard, similar to those used for the production of magazine and short story formats in the media. This was further developed using a flow diagram to link all scenarios and different pathways together. From this the author produced new or reformatted existing text in an appropriate sequence. This was then imported into the Authorware system. This reduced the amount of time duplicating and inserting text from initial paper storyboards. Spaces were left in the flow diagram where graphics and tables were to be inserted.

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4.

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Developing CAL using Gagne's nine events of learning

Further consideration to this CAL package's development was taken from Gagne's nine events of learning: A.

Gaining attention of the student

A title screen was produced as a visual and graphical description of the content of the three-topic package. Explicit directions for use of the package were identified. The package was menu-driven facilitating students' selecting of and sequencing through the programme. Gwinnet and Massey also used this approach in their design42. It was also explicitly expressed at the beginning of the package that students should seek other forms of learning and may wish to use lectures, textbooks, videos and journals. This allowed for different styles of learning that students may have had and the way individual learning needs and styles need to be identified43. Motivation is an important consideration of effective teaching. Motivation relies on students' expectations to be able to complete the task44. In addition to graphics and interactive elements, ease of use and navigation facilities helps the process of motivation. It is important that students possess some IT skills in order to complete the package. Prior to undertaking this package all students had basic IT sessions. Some students owned their own PCs and all had used them in the clinical environment. The major influence over motivation is the actual quality of content material rather than the actual package. B.

Informing the learner of the objectives CAL is predominantly associated with the cognitive domain of learning as expressed by Bloom45 and it is suggested that informing learners of expectations helps to activate learners' mental states, allowing them to assimilate new information. Maddison cited by Howard classifies CAL in several different ways, one of those being of the 'educational paradigm'. In this paradigm the computer enhances learning through a number of aspects: instructional (drill and practice), revelatory (discovery learning), conjectural (What if..?), emancipatory (electronic servant) and by psychological theory. Information is thus given as instruction by the computer and it is revealed as the programme is used to present the subject. The conjectural paradigm is addressed where the computer enables the student to test out hypotheses in a safe environment, the student concentrating only on the problem at hand. According to Clayden and Wilson this framework originates from the work of Kemmis, Atkin and Wright46, 47. Such use of IT allows students to create their own internal

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knowledge, known as 'active learning'. To address these issues, learning outcomes were displayed to the students at the beginning of each topic. This allowed them to progress through the package testing out their knowledge in safety. Providing learning outcomes orientates the student to the subject in preparation for learning. Students were shown the expected learning outcomes at the beginning of each topic of the CAL package. All learning outcomes should be Recordable, Understandable, Measurable, Behavioural and Achievable (RUMBA)48. Objectives, which are particularly achievable and manageable, should also promote feelings of value within the student and help them achieve "unconditional positive regard"49. This serves two purposes: primarily in reducing anxiety which may facilitate learning50. Providing learning objectives ensures that the student knows what is expected by proceeding with the package51. Secondly, seeing the objectives allows students to assess whether the learning outcomes are achievable and hence worthwhile. Anticipation of success, for example success in reaching the goal increases motivation52 Informing learners of general and specific outcomes may also encourage students to review major points. This is particularly relevant to the midwifery and nursing arena as reflection is paramount in applying theory to practice in the clinical environment 53, 54. The mental stimulation of visualising learning outcomes can also allow students to recall previous learning, again a good exercise necessary for the reflective practitioner. C.

Stimulating recall of prior learning

Ausubel stated that "The most single important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach accordingly"55. Recollections of previously learned material or experiences in the clinical arena are essential. Recall can focus the student and it provides a baseline from which new material can be added and later learned56. Students bring different levels of knowledge to a session and providing a CAL package to suit all may seem to be an onerous task. For this package it was known that the student midwives and student nurses all had specific knowledge from previous learning experiences set into the curriculum. Abelhamid suggests that when students generate information themselves future recall is better than if the material was read57. Therefore this CAL package included various tasks which would stimulate their recall memory and hopefully allow them to answer appropriate questions with confidence. Short-term memory retains immediate interpretation of events, as this area of the brain is busy its capacity is limited. Long term memory however appears to have a vast capacity58. Once knowledge is

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entered into the long- term storage area it may be stored until death. Such ways of instilling knowledge into the long-term storage area include repetition, visual association such as writing a list, and breaking the material down into manageable lots. Abdelhamid suggests that visual images, like acoustic stimuli, will be lost from memory unless attention is given to it for a period of approximately thirty seconds. If the image placed in the short-term memory is not rehearsed through attention then it will not be transferred into the long-term memory. It is far easier to remember smaller components. Therefore during this package students were required to type in their answers. Correct answers were provided for the students. They could reveal them if they chose, immediately or after initially answering incorrectly. Having recalled information and answered, the students were then directed to apply that knowledge to new situations and build upon what they originally knew. This promotes higher levels of cognitive function and enables students to analyse and synthesise the content material. The package also included the ability to determine the absence of knowledge. When an incorrect answer was given the programme initially informed the student that the answer was incorrect and then proceeded to instruct the student to try again. Answers were embedded into the programme. This continued until the student achieved the correct answer. Once this occurred the programme confirmed the correct answer. Where a multiple-choice answer was required the programme was used either to highlight an incorrect answer or to confirm a correct answer. In both instances the student had the option to re-attempt certain questions. This allowed the student to have control of the programme. D.

Presenting stimuli with distinct features Through modern media students are used to excellent quality animation and graphics. In comparison amateur-designed CAL graphics may be disappointing for students and not hold their interest59. Text formatting such as underlining, flashing text, shading, use of arrows are helpful and can be directional if not over-used. Persistent use of one colour can minimise its effect and has been shown to hinder high achiever learning whereas low achievers can be helped by colour cueing60. Many bodies (e.g. British Dyslexic Association) now provides guidelines for web site design61, 62. Movement on screen can be useful to show for example fluid flow through vessels, movement of hormones. Such visualisation helps fix the information in the long-term memory storage area, as deeper levels of processing are promoted63. Abdelhamid suggests that the use of pictures must also improve recall functions. Dwyer et al also comment on

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physiology being a science lending itself to learning via demonstration. Graphics can appear cluttered if careful consideration is not given to their display. Useful techniques such as gradual overlaying with additional information allow the student to build up the picture in their mind and simplify an otherwise busy diagram. It is also important to note that background graphics can make text difficult to read for say dyslexic students64. However gradual overlaying does facilitate examination of individual layers of a system. To produce the graphics incorporated into this package various diagrams from anatomy and physiology texts were researched. The majority of editors represented the whole GAS as a single diagram or divided it into its two phases. This is a lot of information to take in, assimilate and store. The quantity is too much for long-term memory storage47. The information therefore, needed to be broken down into smaller components and given the appropriate application to the clinical environment. The deeper levels of processing as expounded by Craik and Lockhart and cited by Mooney et al are also promoted by thought about the meaning of the information and context65. We chose a whole female body on which to overlay further graphics. The body was deliberately of the female gender. Students must feel that work is relevant to them in order that they feel motivated to learn. As this package was primarily produced for student midwives it would have been inappropriate to use a male body. The presentation of material in the CAL package incorporated several different types of stimuli and graphics. A balance must be struck between making it interesting and facilitating learning. Is the student concentrating on the gimmicks in the package or the content material? There are now even more sophisticated tools, which can now model aspects of anatomy in 3D format66. Such tools would allow students to manipulate images, and could help bridge the practice theory gap. Navigation throughout the package was consistent. Design of the buttons formed part of the general aesthetics of the programme. Careful consideration was given to appropriate positioning of the buttons on each page. A glossary in alphabetical order was provided for each topic. Words of significance were highlighted and students were given the definition immediately. The programmer was not a subject expert in physiology and the author was not an expert in computer programming or graphics. Editorial control remained with the author as subject specialist, however negotiation with the programmer and graphic artist existed at all times. Communication had to be very precise regarding the biological principles By the end of the project it is fair to say that the author gained a smattering of knowledge in computer programming and the programmer and designer

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were familiar with a number of biological terms. Gwinnett and Massie have noted this collaboration as highly advantageous in terms of the speed and validity of the final product67.

E.

Providing learning guidance Blooms taxonomy identified various levels in the cognitive domain and it has been long been noted of importance that students have requisite lower levels of learning upon which to base their subsequent learning68. There have been various portrayals of Blooms original taxonomy, its components include: recall, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, with increasing difficulty of cognition being placed on each level. Accomplishment at each level must be achieved to continue with the learning process from superficial to deep learning. Knowledge using recognition and recall is the base from which to build69. Some authors suggest that previously CAL has only focused on the first four of the above components70. They argue that without synthesis and evaluation, there is little to foster deep understanding of the subject. Davies and Crowthers' expectations of CAL are unrealistic. One cannot expect a CAL package like any other educational tool to address all elements of Blooms taxonomy and to ensure full understanding of a subject area. Lowry and Johnson, state that when used in an introductory sense71 the CAL package will allow building on existing knowledge, and enable the student to explore the higher levels of Blooms taxonomy at a later date with an experienced facilitator. This will increase understanding and development of the topic. CAL packages can help those students who do not achieve despite learner control. Based from a pedagogical stance and from student performance, advice can be incorporated into a package. This can help the student work through the task by showing the ideal pathway. Low achievers tend more readily to follow advice offered. Students could follow the directions in this package to guide them through all of its content. Bloom did not develop his taxonomy to include the psychomotor domain, but others such as Dave have devised such theories. Reece and Walker depict Dave's taxonomy of the psychomotor domain, which shows five domains of learning (see Fig.1)72, 73.

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Fig 1: Major categories in the Psychomotor domain.

In this taxonomy, levels of attainment increase with difficulty from imitation where students observe and try to repeat the exercise, to manipulation (performs skills according to instruction rather than observation). Precision then follows (students reproduce a skill with accuracy and is performed independently of the source), then articulation (combines several skills in sequence with harmony and consistency) and finally naturalisation (where completion of one of more skills is easy and automatic). Indirectly, through use of IT the students were using psychomotor skills relevant to their use in technology. These are essential key skills required to perform effectively as a midwife or nurse in the clinical environment74. The psychomotor skills are those key skills, which are required to be transferable as identified by Tolley and Murphy75. This CAL package enables learners to practise using IT and to develop keyboard skills and functions. These key skills allow students to practice such information handling and retrieval in a non-threatening and non-pressurised environment, away from the clinical ward area. There are three basic instructional strategies required to direct student learning when designing courseware material requiring different levels of cognitive function. These are elaboration, inquiry learning, and discovery learning, the latter requires the most cognitive processing. Elaboration, the most simple of cognitive processes can be achieved through instructional sequences which teach concepts at a basic

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level initially and then progresses to more complex aspects. Subject matter will determine which elaboration sequence, of which there are four, to use. This CAL package adopted the most universal type that of "simplecomplex sequence". Inquiry learning includes the posing of questions and such strategies increase student curiosity and learning. This CAL package only included these two instructional strategies due to the environmental constraints imposed. F.

Eliciting Performance and assessing performance

Computer based assessment enables students to evaluate their learning. Mooney, Bligh and Leinster have classified computer assessment techniques into levels of interaction76. They have categorised ten computer based assessment techniques. CAL packages may include a variety of these assessment techniques whilst actively engaging students as they work through the package. Such techniques include animation, 'drag and drop exercises', filling in blank spaces, interpreting and applying data, multiple choice and true/false questions. This package incorporated all these elements to varying degrees. Drag and drop exercises according to Mooney et al are visually stimulating and can be used to access a wide range of knowledge. Asking students to fill in blank spaces allows the students to think for them selves and promotes higher levels of learning in the form of analysis and synthesis. Some areas of the package test the students' clinical knowledge and in other parts it assesses their ability to apply underlying physiology to the clinical practice. This helps also to bridge the practice theory gap in midwifery and nursing arenas. The assessment was formative and the student could assess their own progress continually as answers were revealed following their own insertion of answers. Both Claxton and Holt cited in Overbaugh both intimate that self-assessment reduces fear of failure and anxiety. Feedback was immediate and obviously personal to the student sat at the computer. Where a series of multiple choice questions were undertaken, the student was given feedback on the amount of correct answers and an indication as to whether they ought to repeat that part of the CAL package in order to understand the material. All questions related to recall of previous knowledge, the material content of the package and its application to the clinical arena. This elicited recall from both short and long term learning situations. Successful completion of the CAL package ensured that the students met the learning objectives stated at the outset of the package topics at the time of use. The learning outcomes were again displayed after completion of each topic area. This allowed students to self-assess.

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The package was only able to assess knowledge of the cognitive domain. This was formative and on a personal, informal basis. Students were allowed to take as much time as they required over the assessment. Navigation enabled students to jump in or out of the package at any frame. This is useful when students only want to access certain parts of the package for revision purposes. G.

Providing feedback

Feedback should always be in a positive manner. The CAL package included several feedback formats: "yes you are correct" or "sorry you are wrong" for simple multiple-choice questions. For more complex questions feedback was lengthier in nature, explaining why the answer was wrong or confirming a correct answer. Mooney et al argue that packages with such feedback mechanisms fail are limited as feedback should ask students to discuss why an answer is correct or not, and should guide the student to the correct solution. Feedback throughout the package was immediate preventing delay in students having to either re-read /visualise and understand concepts in order to learn the new material. Keller would argue that it also motivates students to maintain the quantity of responses.77 H.

Enhancing retention and learning transfer

Learning is not merely the taking onboard of information. It requires relevant practice. The student is required to demonstrate the application of that knowledge in the future. It is therefore essential that the student learn material prior to practice. If practice is delayed then there is little re-enforcement or opportunity to put the knowledge into any application or context. The beauty of CAL packages is that the student can return to the content at any time in the future, to serve as revision or to deeply embed concepts as they are practising in the clinical arena. Universities and NHS Trusts are encouraged to work in collaboration to ensure that both students and qualified staff have access to information in the workplace though the results of this action are somewhat patchy. 5.

Piloting the CAL package

Once the package had been completed copies were distributed to members of the biological sciences committee (all nurse teachers teaching biological sciences or biologists/physiologists teaching on the diploma of nursing course), and some midwife teachers for comment. Feedback included comments regarding content material, navigation, grammar,

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syntax and clarity of diagrams. Following constructive feedback from the teachers, amendments were made to the package prior to it being made available for use. Such generally positive feedback ran contrary to other work regarding CAL development. The package was then made available via the university Intranet and CDROM distributed to libraries.

6.

Study and Methodology

Shortly after the CAL package was launched a cohort of student midwives was asked to evaluate it. Long and short-term learning was evaluated, comparing the CAL package with an interactive teaching session. However, it should be pointed out that numbers are too small to be of statistical significance and further research on a larger scale is needed in this area. The cohort gave permission for the study to look at the short and long term learning following either traditional interactive lecture format or CAL. A matched subjects design approach was used. The two groups were as equally weighted as possible looking at age, previous qualifications prior to nurse qualification, previous work undertaken since nurse registration before coming on to the midwifery course. Previous IT experience was also taken into consideration. Despite this latter category all students had received a short tutorial on how to use the PC as part of the course. What wasn’t taken into consideration and should have been was the learning styles of each student. Individuals were put in the CAL or interactive taught session (control group) on a random basis. Both groups were given the same module objectives, learning outcomes for the specific session and reading lists. All students undertook the session on the same day. Students who were in the taught session were asked not to use the CAL for the time duration of the study (6 weeks). Learning was assessed by asking topic-specific questions at various stages: prior to the session to assess current knowledge, forty-eight hours after to assess short-term learning, and six weeks after the session to assess long-term learning. Students in both groups were given no instructions on how to revise or if and when to revisit the material. The CAL group worked in the computer suite with a teacher present to facilitate IT issues only. The CAL and the interactive session groups consisted of six and four members respectively. Anonymity was given to all students on the course and all of the question papers were marked ‘blind’ and on the same day using a pre determined marking grid to allow for consistency.

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Results and evaluation

Learning for all students appeared to indicate an immediate increase in short term memory recall and learning. There also appeared to have been transfer of content into long term memory. The control group appeared to fair better at six weeks than the CAL group, however two of the four students in that group admitted to revising the night before they were due to have the last questionnaire, thus retaining a lot of information again in their short term memory. Unfortunately this was unavoidable, as there was no time in the timetable to test the students so this final questionnaire was sent to their home to be completed and handed in two days later. It can also be argued that some of the other students also revised prior to completing the final questionnaire but declined to admit this fact when asked. It is interesting to note that none of the CAL group physically returned to the package for revision purposes. Learning diaries indicate all had taken written notes alongside undertaking the package and had revised from these. The evaluation of the CAL package revealed some interesting points, some of which are discussed below. Students enjoyed the flexibility of the package which allowed them to work at their own speed, however all complained of some degree of headaches and eye problems such as dryness and visual disturbances with prolonged use. A teacher was present to facilitate any IT issues to limit any technological hindrance to student learning and acquisition of knowledge. The IT problems that the students encountered were often small with the student able to work those issues out themselves, which conforms other evidence78. The students felt they did want interaction with a teacher to explain biological science concepts and give analogies and explanations to areas they hadn’t understood. Students also would have liked to access the package from home. 8.

Developments since the study and the future

Since this study was undertaken students comments have been taken on board and the CAL session now occurs in the computer suite with the author present to give advice not only on biological science principles and concepts but also to address any IT issues which may arise. Students are encouraged to take regular breaks and work in groups as this also provides interaction and provides a forum for safe discussion, recall of information and its application to the current CAL package. Although the package does include examples of the knowledge related to the clinical environment the author can also add to this and help bridge the theory practice gap.

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Following reassurance that students can benefit from CAL and also that enjoy variety in the delivery of course material, the use of IT in the biological science modules has increased. With regard to comments about students wishing to access the CAL package on line from home, further developments of the biological science modules have enabled this to happen. The biological science modules have been Webct-enabled and therefore accessible via the Internet. The Webct includes: basic module administration, study guides and links to other associated biological sciences web sites. Other CAL packages previously only accessible via the University intranet have also been incorporated, alongside simple word documents. Links to Reusable learning objectives (RLOs) have also been added to Webct. A learning object as described by Wiley as “a small instructional component that can be used and reused a number of times in different learning contexts”79. Collaboration with the School of Nursing has proven very useful they have experienced these in their post registration modules in various degrees. The future is exciting with other CAL packages being considered using video and audio input in addition to animation. As can be seen CAL is not a panacea. CAL by itself is an excellent tool either as a stand-alone instrument or when used in conjunction with other learning and teaching strategies to deliver diverse, flexible programmes of education. It is misuse, poor design and misapplication that causes the problems associated with it. Notes 1

Prior, 2000

2

Drew, 1988

3

Courtenay, 1991

4

Trnobranski, 1993, 493—499

5

Wynne et al, 1997, 470-474

6

Stiles 2002 Virtual and Higher Education conference, Oxford.

7

NMC, 2003

8

Dearing, 1997

9

UKCC, 1999

10

Department of Health, making a difference 1999

11

Department of health, The NHS Plan 2000

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12

Dwyer, 1997

13

Kolb, 1984

14

Sinclair & Gardener, 1997, 372-376

15

Tolley & Murphy, 2000

16

UKCC, 1999

17

Dearing, 1997

18

Lowry & Johnson, 1999, 521-526

19

Florey 1988

20

Polyakov et al, 2000

21

Stiles, 2003

22

Paddison 1988, 254-255

23

Overbaugh 1994

24

Stiles, 2003

25

Hamilton 1999, 298-305

26

Heath, 1995

27

Davies & Crowther, 1995

28

Overbaugh, 1994

29

Rogers, 1961

30

Lowry & Johnson, 1999

31

Bromage, 2003

32

Chambers, 1992

33

Davies & Crowther, 1995

34

Gagne, 1975

35

Reeves, 1986

36

Overbaugh, 1994

37

Eraut et al, 1995

38

University of Nottingham, 2000

39

Teaching enhancement office, 1997

40

ENB, 1998

41

Hamilton et al, 1999

163

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42

Gwinnett & Massey, 1987, 7116-7119

43

Howard 1990, 145-150

44

Davies & Crowther, 1995

45

Bloom 1956

46

Clayden and Wilson 1988, p456-467

47

Kemmis, Atkin and Wright, 1977

48

Dennick, 1998

49

Hamilton, 1999

50

Maslow, 1970

51

Hannafin et al, 1985

52

Keller, 1983

53

Schon, 1983

54

Benner, 1984

55

Ausubel, 1969

56

Reece and Walker, 1997

57

Abelhamid, 1999

58

Reece and Walker, 1997

59

Park, 2000

60

Hatvia, 1988

61

British Dyslexic Association

62

Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 2001

63

Mooney et al, 1999

64

British Dyslexic Association

65

Craik and Lockart 1972

66

Guttman 1999…abstract

67

Gwinnett & Massey, 1987

68

Eraut et al, 1995

69

Kolb, 1984

70

Davies & Crowther, 1995

71

Lowry & Johnson, 1999

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72

Reece and Walker, 1997

73

Dave, 1975

74

NHS Executive, 1999

75

Tolley & Murphy, 2000

76

Mooney, Bligh and Leinster 1998

77

Keller, 1983

78

Draycott, Cook, Fox & Jenkins 2000

79

Wiley 2000

R eferen ces

Abdelhamid T.M. (1999) The Multidimensional Learning Model: A novel cognitive psychology based model for computer assisted instruction in order to improve pearning in medical students. Med Education on line 1999. Available from URL http://www.Med-ed-Online.org Accessed: 21 November 2003 Atherton, J.S. (2003) Learning and Teaching: Bloom's taxonomy [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~jamesa/learning/bloomtax.htm Accessed: 21 November 2003 Ausubel, D.P. (1969) Educational Psychology: A cognitive view. 2nd ed. Holt, Reinhart and Winston, New York Benner, P. (1984) From Novice to Expert. Addison Wesley, Manlo Park, Ca. Bloom, B.S. (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives. Book 1 Cognitive domain. Longman, London Bloom, B.S. (1971). Taxonomy of educational objectives, Book 2 Affective domain. David McKay Co. Inc., New York. British Dyslexia Association (2003) Dyslexia Style Guide [on line] available: http://www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk/main/information/extras/x09frend.asp Accessed 17/11/03 Bromage, A. (2003) The relationship between students’ orientations to learning and their use of and feelings about VLE. Paper presented for: "At

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the Interface - 2nd Global Conference on Virtual Learning and Higher Education", 12th - 13th September 2003, Mansfield College, Oxford. Chambers, E.A. (1992) Workload and the quality of student learning. Studies in higher education 17, pp.141-153. Courtenay M. (1991) A study of the teaching and learning of thebiological sciences in nurse education. Journal of advanced nursing. 22, pp.405-406. Clayden, G. & Wilson, B. (1988). Computer assisted learning in medical education. Medical Education, 1988, 22, pp.456-467 Craik F.I.M. & Lockhart R.S. (1972) Levels of processing a framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Leaning and Verbal Behaviour. 11, pp.671-684. Cited in: Mooney G.A., Fretwell R.F. & Bligh J.G. (1999) Cognitive process modelling: computer tools for creative thinking and managing learning. Medical Teacher, Vol. 21, No.3, 1999. Dave R.H. (1975). In Armstrong R.J. et al(Eds.) Developing and writing behavioural objectives. Educational Innovators Press, 1975. Cited in: Reece I. & Walker S. (1997). Teaching, Training and Learning-- a practical guide. (3rd ed.) Business education Publishers Ltd., Tyne and Wear. Davies M.L. & Crowther D.E.A. (1995) The benefits of using multimedia in higher education: myths and realities. Active learning 3, Dec 1995 CTISS publications. Dearing R (1997) The National Committee of inquiry into higher education .HMSO, London Dennick R (1998) The Teaching Improvement Project. University of Nottingham Medical School, University of Nottingham. Department for Education and Employment (2001) The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) HMSO, London. Department of Health (1999) Making A Difference Health, London.

Department of

Department of Health (2000) The NHS Plan: A plan for investment. A plan for reform. Department of Health, London. Draycott T, Cook J, Fox R, &Jenkins J (2000). Information technology for post graduate education: survey of facilities and skills in the South West Deanery. Comment in the British Journal of Genecology Jan 2000, 107 (1), pp.144-145, discussion 145 Drew (1988). Devaluation of biological knowledge. IMAGE. Journal of Nursing Scholarship: 20(1), pp.25-27

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Dwyer T, Flemming J, Rendall J & Coleman T (1997). Teaching physiology and the World Wide Web: electrochemistry and electrophysiology on the Internet. Advances in physiology education. Vol. 18, No.1, Dec 1997. English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (1998) QAA Manual ENB, London 1998 Eraut, M. Alderton J, Boylan A & Wraight H. (1995) Learning to use scientific knowledge in education and practice settings: An evaluation of the contribution of the biological, behavioural and social sciences to preregistration nursing and midwifery programmes. English National Board for Nursing and Midwifery, London. Florey, C du V (1988) Computer assisted learning in British medical school. Medical education, 1988, 22, pp.180-182 Gagne, R.M. (1975) Essentials of learning for instruction. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York Guttmann, G.D. (1999) Spilling the beans on JAVA 3D: a tool for the virtual anatomist. Anatomical Record 257 (2), p73-79, Apr 15th 1999 Gwinnett A & Massie S (1987) Integrating computers into the curriculum (2): transforming a concept into a working too. Nurse Education Today 7, pp.116-119. Hamilton N.M, Furnace J, Duguid K.P., Helms P.J., & Simpson J.G. (1999) Development and integration of CAL: a case study in medicine. Medical Education 1999, Apr: 33 (4), pp.298-305 Hannafin M.J, Garhart C, Riebe L.P. & Phillips T.L. (1985) Keeping interactive video in perspective: Tentative guidelines and cautions in the design of interactive video. In E. Miller & M.L. Mosely (eds.) Educational media and technology year book (pp. 67-92): Litttleton, Co. Libraries Unlimited Hatvia, N. & Teper, A. (1988) Differential effectiveness of three color treatments in learning geometric concepts via computer-guided teaching. Journal of Educational Computing Research 4 (3) pp.303-20. Cited in: Overbaugh R (1994) Research based guidelines for computer based instruction development. Journal of Research on Computing in Education 27, No.1. Heath J (1995) When interactive media is not truly interactive. Active Learning 3, Dec 1995, CTISS publications.

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Health and Safety Executive (1992) Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992. Accessed via Internet, URL: http://www.hse.gov.uk/hsehome.htm. Accessed on 12/07/2000 Howard B (1990) Nurse education and convergent information technologies. Nurse Education Today 1990, 10, pp.145-150. Keller JM (1983) Motivational design of instruction. In: CM Reigeluth (Ed.) Instructional- design theories and models. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey. Cited in: Overbaugh R (1994).Research based guidelines for computer based instruction development. Journal of Research on Computing in Education 27, No.1. Kemmis S, Atkin R & Wright E (1977). How do students learn? Working paper on CAL Occasional paper No.5, Centre for applied research in Education, University of East Anglia. Kolb D.A. (1984). Experiential learning---experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall. Lowry M and Johnson M (1999) Computer assisted learning: the potential for teaching and assessing in nursing. Nurse education today;19, pp.521526. Maslow A.H. (1970) Motivation and personality In: Kenworthy N and Nicklin P (eds.) Practice---an experiential approach. Scutari Press, London. Mooney G.A, Bligh J.G. & Leinster S.J. (1998) Some Techniques for computer-based assessment in medical education. Medical Teacher, Vol. 20 No.6 Mooney G.A, Fretwell R.F & Bligh J.G (1999) Cognitive process modelling: computer tools for creative thinking and managing learning. Medical Teacher, Vol.21 No.3 NHS Executive (1999) Learning to manage health information; a theme for clinical education. Commissioned on behalf of NHSE Enabling People Programme NHS Information Authority (2002) Strategic plan for 2002-05 Crown Copyright, NHS Information Authority. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2003 "Interim NMC Circular: General Entry Requirements for pre-registration education: Guidance for Higher Education Institutions and associated partners in selection and recruitment". ) NMC Circular 18/2003. 22 September 2003.

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Overbaugh R (1994).Research based guidelines for computer based instruction development. Journal of Research on Computing in Education 27, No.1 Paddison J (1988) So you want to use Computer Assisted learning? Midwives Chronicle & Nursing Notes. Aug. 1988, pp.254-255 Park N (2000) Personal Interview in :Behind the scenes of Aardman productions . BBC1, Omnibus, shown 28/06/2000. Polyakov A, Palmer E, Devitt P.G & Coventry B.J (2000) Clinicians and computers: friends or foes? Teaching and learning in Medicine 12 (2): pp.91-95. 2000 Spring Prior (2000) A critical analysis of the design and development, and the pilot evaluation of a computer aided learning package. University of Nottingham, unpublished dissertation for Mmed Sci/Clin Ed. Reece I and Walker S (1997) Teaching, Training and Learning - a pracical guide. (3rd ed.) Business education Publishers Ltd., Tyne and Wear Reeves T.C (1986) Research and evaluation models for the study of interactive video .Journal of computer based instruction, 13(4), pp.102106 Rogers C (1961) On becoming a person. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, USA. Sch n D.A (1983) The reflective practitioner. Basic Books, New York. Sinclair M & Gardener J (1997) Nurse teachers' perceptions of information technology: a study of nurse teachers in Northern Ireland. Journal of Advanced Nursing 1997:25, pp.372-376 Stiles, M.J(2002) Strategic and Pedagogic Requirements for Virtual Learning in the Context of Widening Participation, Paper for: "At the Interface - Virtual Learning and Higher Education" Conference, 10th 11th September 2002, Mansfield College, University of Oxford Available from: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/Stiles%20Paper.pdf Accessed 17/11/03 Stiles, M.J (2003) Embedding E-learning in a Higher Education Institution, Keynote Paper for: "At the Interface - 2nd Global Conference on Virtual Learning and Higher Education", 12th - 13th September 2003, Mansfield College, Oxford Teaching Enhancement Office (1997) HEFCE Assessment of the Quality of Education. Guidance notes for depts to be assessed between Oct 96 and Sept 98. TEO, Nottingham University

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Tolley H and Murphy R (2000) The Validity and Transferability of NVQs in the workplace. Centre for Developing and Evaluating Life Long Learning (CEDLL), School of Education, University of Nottingham. Offprint from a report for the DFEE. Trnobranski (1993) Biological sciences and the nursing curriculum: a challenge for educationalists. Journal of advanced nursing. 18, pp.493-499 United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (1999) Fitness for Practice. The UKCC Commission for nursing and midwifery education. Chair: Sir Leonard Peach. UKCC, London. University of Nottingham (2000) Information Services Strategy 20002002 Nottingham University. Wiley D.A. (2000). Connecting learning objectives to instructional design theory: A definition, a metaphor and a taxonomy. In Da Wiley (Ed.), The Instructional use of Learning objectives: Online Version http://reusability.org/read/chapters/wiley.doc Accessed 17/11/03 Wynne N, Brand S & Smith R (1997) Incomplete holism in preregistration nurse education: the position of the biological sciences. Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 26(3), Sept 1997

CHAPTER TEN Authenticating E-learners and Virtual learning systems Godfried Williams & Hossein Jahankhani Abstract This chapter discusses the security implications of virtual learning (VL) as a form of E-learning. It examines the authentication issues and methods appropriate for ensuring the integrity, confidentiality and availability of resources that supports e-learners, VL systems and tools. It is the view of the authors that security issues have not been previously been given due importance when considering either the authentication of e-learners or within the theory of selecting appropriate VL systems. The chapter is organized in four main sections: an introduction to E-learning and VL systems; the reasons and justifications for the need for authenticating both e-learners and VL systems; a description and examination of methods used in authentication; and a summary of proposed security methods for e-learners and service providers. Keywords: E-learners; Authentication; VL systems; Integrity; Confidentiality;

1.

E-learning and VL Systems Security awareness by both developers and users employing and deploying E-learning technology is poor. This is demonstrated in the much of the literature which gives it very consideration. Rosenberg for example suggests E-learning is based on three fundamental criteria: networking, internet and a broad view of learning1. Whereas Owston considers that VL should be defined as an approach to teaching and learning that makes use of network technologies in order to communicate and collaborate in an educational context. It includes the support of traditional learning methods with a web based component which is enabled on-line on the Internet2. VL could also be defined as a learning experience gained from a real learning environment via virtual reality. This defines a learning forum which has no boundaries. It thus needs effective management and control in order to ensure that standards designed to provide support for both traditional and virtual, are upheld.

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According to Mazoue the key players in VL are: learners, faculty, support staff and administrators though this definition seems to use terminology suited largely to the education sector3. Considering say the training sector there could of course be many more. Stakeholders ethically must have a joint goal that ensures that the vision of E-learning in any virtual environment comes to fruition. The ethos of this goal is achievable if there is trust amongst stakeholders. The element of trust within the framework of this goal could be achieved via employing an intelligent agent. 2.

Authentication The security of E-learners using VL systems and tools should revolve around the following three sequential processes: authentication, approval and answerability4. Among these three the most crucial is authentication. This is because throughout human history people have had the need to prove beyond reasonable doubt who they claim to be. This has been the first norm in effecting any form of transaction with financial returns between people, companies and countries. It also assures the parties involved in the transaction that the entities participating in the business transaction are the rightful signatories. Approval and answerability are worthier if authentication is positive. In other words get the first right or get all wrong4. It is our view that approval and answerability are outcomes of authentication. In other words authentication is the critical aspect of assessing the security of e-learners. In the world of e-service providers and users there is the need to authenticate or certify both providers and users of these services. This is to ensure that services received by anyone are of the appropriate standards and also provided by a body or organisation certified by a third party. The purpose of this process is to ensure integrity, confidentiality and availability of resources which constitute the fundamental goals of security. Integrity is an important goal of security. Integrity simply means wholeness and honesty. Our view is that both wholeness and honesty complement each other and as such integrity is thus very important. How do e-learners as end-users authenticate the sources of the services they receive? This is a question that has not been answered in the literature. Later we will highlight how digital certificates are a viable means that elearners could use as a way of confirming the authenticity of the source of their service and service provider. Service providers also stand the risk and danger of being undermined by e-learners. For instance, how do service providers know that a learner will not allow other unauthorised users to utilise facilities which they are not permitted to use? This problem if not addressed is

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likely to lead to the corruption of data, affecting availability which is an important goal of security.

Confidentiality essentially is concerned with privacy. How do service providers ensure that personal details of e-learners are protected from unauthorised persons? These are issues that need to be addressed. Personal data could be abused by intruders if not properly secured. Most discussions on the protection of personal data seems to be centred on the banking and medical sectors. It is however important to note that intruders are not particular about how and where they obtain personal data. The approach used by intruders in obtaining personal data is to look for RAS (Risk Access Spots) and vulnerability is sytems5. Availability is ensuring that the resources deployed on any technology supporting E-learning, is always available to learners. Elearning as a concept for developing knowledge in the digital age must be sustainable and maintainable. Security attacks such as masquerading and brute force could be used to prevent e-learners from gaining access to resources that support their learning. For instance availability could be affected by the abuse of data. This suggests that integrity of data and availability as goals of security are strongly related. Impersonation means to masquerade, pretend to be like, a form of imposture with intent to deceive. Service providers stand the risk of being exploited and bullied by these forms of attack. There are several RAS that could be utilised in order to launch this attack. This is a security issue which when E-learning booms, service providers will have to contend with in order survive. 3.

Methods in Authentication in VL systems This section classifies authentication into three categories: human to human (H2H), human to system (H2S) and system to system (S2S). These are the most common methods applied and current trends in authentication that affect the transactions we make through electronic means. They are also suggested as methods and technologies that should be critically assessed before implementing virtual and E-learning systems. Mutual authentication is when two people or a person and a system engage in an electronic communication in order to verify the identity of the other. An example that shows person to person or person to system is the customer and bank relationship. A clerk at the bank will ensure that a customer possesses identification, which is consistent with the information held about the customer by the bank. This information could either be the date of birth or mother’s maiden name. VL systems

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often use similar personal details of an e-learner before the system grants approval and access to learning resources. Appropriate virtual and E-learning standards, using internet technologies should be in place and communicated to users as a means of educating e-learners. One of the problems associated with this form of authentication arise as a result of the exchange of personal information through remote terminals and computers sometimes across national boundaries. The internet as the main technological infrastructure that facilitates such learning activities has limited technologies that could effectively support this new concept of learning and knowledge transfer. As a result, personal details from e-learners could be eavesdropped from the internet using for instance specialised ‘sniffing’ software tools. Improper encryption procedures could cause an eavesdropper to eavesdrop information created by an e-learner who sends information across the Internet. Information obtained via this means could be used to effect an Internet transaction by adopting the profile of the victim whose personal details were eavesdropped. Advocates of secured Internet communication layers seem to have a different view. The view taken is that current security methods provide adequate security for most applications that use the Internet. Notwithstanding this view, it is however believed undoubtedly that there are security gaps when it comes to ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of personal details sent across the Internet. Digital certificates are used in the authentication of a person’s or organisation’s digital identity during an electronic transaction. This could be used in enhancing E-learning transactions. It is usually combined with various cryptographic technologies. It is mostly between individuals or organizations. However it is effectively implemented by the inclusion of a third party who confirms the legitimacy of the parties involved. A digital certificate is one way of ensuring security in systems. However certification must be one that could be dependable. Government sponsored certification is preferable. There are two leaders in this area, TCSEC (Trusted Computer Systems Evaluation Criteria) in the USA and ITSEC (Information Technology Security Evaluation and Certification) in Europe. Both the US and Europe are trying to develop reciprocity in certification but there are serious problems with the concept of common criteria6. This implies that all security products including E-learning and VL software products brought to the information technology market must be subjected to certification. Unfortunately that is not the case. Most products that come to the market bypass certification. Although there are no tough regulations pertaining to this, we take the view that it is the responsibility of government certification groups to create awareness in industry sectors in order to verify whether all systems implemented have

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passed certification tests. If a particular security system supporting VL has not gone through certification, then it will be appropriate for potential customers to reject that product. By customers doing that, they help the schemes set up for security standards to work effectively. TCSEC is commonly known as the Orange Book standards, originally published in 1985. The C2 classification in the orange book is best known probably because it is most likely to be relevant to personal computers. It is however important to note that C2 is often described as merely the recommended minimum security standards7. In Human to System (H2S) there is a unique identification used by humans to identify them to personal computers, computer networks and multiple networks or distributed platforms. It could be in any form; however it is more logical to use names that have some personal relation to the user of that system. The common form of username is the first name of the user. It could also be some family related name or a nickname. It is important to realise that it is part of the authentication process and should be accorded some degree of importance as any form of authentication. User names and identifications should not be publicly accessible or seen by third parties. Making them accessible by other unauthorised persons weakens the processes of authentication in the layers of security8. The obtaining of user names and identification by unauthorised persons is one step forward in adopting a victim’s profile. It provides a basis for masquerading, where one entity pretends to be a different entity9. Masquerading could take place a VL environment. Unauthorised users could informally obtain details of e-learners’ profile and use it for criminal activities. A password is a series of characters which when combined with a username or identification authenticates the user of a system. The password should be handled with high importance. Any good security system will encourage users to change passwords periodically. This is because passwords could be guessed based on probabilities and also an understanding of the profiles of computer system users. For instance, a person with very deep interest in religious matters is likely to use adjectives and nouns such as holy, law, love, prophet, preacher etc. A politically minded person might use words like justice, election, government, policy or vote. This is at the primary stage. A secondary stage will be a combination of these words and some form of pneumonic. The most advance stage is a word that depicts the direct opposite of the interest of such persons. It should be understood here that password systems as a means of authentication are not only applied in the context of Human Computer Interactions. Most E-learning systems such as WebCT and Blackboard demand a form of password when a student or learner attempts to access resources available in supporting their learning. The

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password chosen will usually originate from the user. Virtual and Elearning systems adopt this principle for designing password systems. Although this system is in place, password systems could be abused and passed on to illegitimate users, due to the nature of VL. Profiling is a research technique that has been used in a number of applications and disciplines ranging from computer user interface design and customer profiling in the retail industry under the disguise of user modelling10. A major application area is adaptive systems. This area of research applies profiling in the personalisation of individuals by demonstrating how it could be applied as part of the authentication process in electronic transactions. It also shows that it could be employed as a tool in computer forensics by unveiling the hidden identities of persons who use the Internet or any form of global electronic communication device. Although some authors classify profiling under the study of biometrics, we believe it is better classified under the category of a behavioural science rather than physical one. This suggests that the various definitions given to biometrics should be reassessed. We consider that biometrics in its simplest definition is the study of the measurements of the physical attributes and characteristics of living organisms rather than the attributes and characteristics of behaviour of these organisms. Thus measurement of physical attributes of a person is biometrics. The physical attributes are normally derived from the following features; fingerprint; facial geometry; iris pattern; retina; hand geometry; finger geometry; vein structure of back of hand; ear form; voice; DNA; odour or gait etc. The physical characteristic of a person is usually captured; the information captured is input in software that creates a template of the characteristic captured; the template created is secured in a repository. This could be an electronic chip or a smart card. A life scan of the captured information is matched unto the stored biometrics feature; a matching score is derived based on the criteria specified for identification and verification whilst an audit trail is used to occasionally verify the reliability of the system. The implications of using this technology are enormous; these are related to cost and versatility of the technology. The problem of versatility relates to the ability to move the technology around just to satisfy a few individuals who want to effect a transaction. This could also affect for instance company staff that might be carrying out transactions on behalf of their companies globally regardless of geographical locations. This is because making biometrics information available on distributed platforms has risk implications. We believe that biometrics is the technology that is most likely to provide answers to key questions regarding the authentication of e-learners.

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System to System authentication (S2SA) is also commonly referred to as end to end or node to node authentication. Two popular types of S2S authentication are CHAP and Kerberos. Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is a Point to Point Protocol (PPP). The objective of CHAP is to ensure that end to end systems that communicate with each other are authentic and legitimate. The main object of CHAP is to ensure that computer or end systems on any network are qualified to be part of a particular communication process within the network11.

(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii)

The phases in CHAP are: The node or an end system asks the authenticating server if it can use CHAP. The authenticating server replies, telling the end system that it can use CHAP. The authenticating server sends a challenge message to the end system. The node replies with a value that has been calculated with a hash function. The authenticating node receives the reply and checks it against its own calculation of the expected hash value. The authentication sends a new challenge to the node in a sparing manner throughout the entire network. The receiving node or end system should then responds to the challenge

Masquerading, spoofing and traffic analysis could be used by attackers and hackers of the system to make the authentication process vulnerable. These are issues that have to be dealt with on a global scale. Unless the technologies for supporting authentication processes are opened to developing and advanced economy computer system platforms, transactions will be vulnerable to threat, from a global perspective. Kerberos authentication process was designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We now examine some of the assumptions of Kerberos, rather than looking at the technical details how it works. The reasons for this approach are that the underlying assumptions are a good basis for assessing the areas of danger and threat in the technology. The most significant assumption is that Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are not built into the system therefore are not prevented. DoS is a direct attack on the services of network. This is when an attacker prevents the services of a network reaching its customers or clients. It can be very costly. It is not every security system that could prevent denial of service,

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as a result using Kerberos authentication is equally subject to danger. This assumption also suggests that there should be some level of personal responsibility in ensuring security of any authentication process during any form of communication during E-learning. A second assumption is that password guessing is handled by the system. The profiles of learners could be used as a means of breaking through the security barriers of existing E-learning systems. This implies that there should be a level of personal responsibility in ensuring that the system is secured. A further assumption is that passwords must be kept secret. The evaluation of password systems shows that password systems in VL systems could be abused. This is because they could be passed on from one learner to another. This is something which even occur in traditional learning environments, where students pass on their passwords and user identifications to fellow students in order that they gain entry to existing systems. The Kerberos authentication process in this context will not be an adequate measure in securing the resources of the service provider. In addition it is assumed that all network devices physically connected to the network are secured. One would have thought that a better way of providing security for a system is to rather assume that network devices physically connected to a network are not secured. This could help an authentication process such as Kerberos to facilitate intrusion detection. Intrusions could be detected at access points of network devices that are not well secured. The inverse of Kerberos assumption will handle both secured and non-secured part of the network. Figure 1 provides a tabular review of our findings in this section. Types of Authentication Mutual Authentication Digital Certificates User Identification and names Passwords Profiling Biometrics Token allocation CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) Kerberos Intelligent Agents

H2H ¥ ¥

H2S ¥

S2S

¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥

Figure 1 – Categories of authentication methods12

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4.

Conclusions In this section we summarise the security methods useful in ensuring the authenticity of both e-learners and virtual learning systems. The views taken after the assessment of the common methods of authentication is that, certain methods could be hybridised or combined in order to achieve a more comprehensible and optimised solution to the issues and problems discussed. For instance Kerberos and Biometrics methods could be synchronised to achieve a much more effective security system. This is because Biometric information such as finger prints and voice could be integrated to address the problem of confidentiality, integrity and resource availability for both learner and service provider. Learners may be required by an E-learning system to identify themselves by passwords, finger prints and voice at the user computer interface level. This should be synchronised and continuous as the e-leaner will be required to use a keyboard, mouse or voice recognition input throughout the interaction process. It will be quite difficult to violate such a system. It is therefore strongly advocated in this chapter that Biometrics could be the most feasible technology in managing the authentication of e-learners. The authentication of service providers could also be addressed and managed by digital certificates recognised and approved by stakeholders of this new approach to providing knowledge in a virtual community. Digital certificates are proposed to be the most feasible means of authenticating service providers of VL. E-learners and end-users should insist on seeing the digital certificates issued by third parties. This will ensure that users are confident about the sources of services they receive. The above proposal is highly recommended to all stakeholders involved in this new concept of learning in virtual environments. A summary of the overall proposed security methods for e-learners and service providers extracted is given in Figure 2. Authentication methods & Stake holders Digital Certificates User Identification and names Passwords Profiling Biometrics CHAP(Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) Kerberos

E-learners

Figure 2

Service Provider ¥

¥ ¥ ¥ ¥

¥

¥

¥

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Notes 1

Rosenberg M.J. (2001) E-learning, strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age McGraw-Hill: London

2

Owston R. (1997) “The World Wide Web: A technology to enhance teaching and learning” Educational Researcher, Vol. 26 No.2

3

Mazoue J.G. (1999) “The essentials of effective online instruction” Campus-Wide Information Systems Vol.16. No.3, pp. 104-110

4

Williams G. (2004) Synchronising E-Security Kluwer: Amsterdam

5

Ibid

6

Townsend K. (1997) IMIS Journal July 1997. 22, 23

7

Ibid

8

Williams G. (2004)

9

Stallings W. (2003) Data and Computer Communications Prentice Hall: London 10

Webb et al (2001) “Machine learning for User Modelling” User Modelling and User Adapted Interaction 11: pp. 19-2

11

Campbell et al. (2003) Cisco Learning Institute Security + guide to network security fundamentals Thomson Course Technology: London

12

Williams G. (2004)

Bibliography

Campbell et al (2003) Cisco Learning Institute Security + guide to network security fundamentals Thomson Course Technology: London Mazoue J.G (1999) “The essentials of effective online instruction” Campus-Wide Information Systems Vol.16 No.3, pp. 104-110 Owston, R (1997), “The World Wide Web: A technology to enhance teaching and learning” Educational Researcher Vol. 26 No.2 Rosenberg M.J (2001) E-learning, strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age McGraw-Hill: London Stallings W. (2003) Data and Computer communications Prentice Hall: London Townsend K. (1997) IMIS Journal July 1997 Vol. 22, 23

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Webb et al (2001) “Machine learning for User Modelling” User Modelling and User Adapted Interaction 11: pp.19-29 Williams. G (2004) Synchronising E-Security Kluwer: Amsterdam

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CHAPTER ELEVEN Invisible Barriers: Understanding Women’s Experiences in Computing and Information Systems in a Distance Education Environment Lynda R. Ross, Peter Holt and Julia Johnson Abstract Like other post-secondary institutions in North America, Athabasca University (AU) – Canada’s Open University – has not been successful in either recruiting or retaining women into its Computing and Information Science (CIS) programme. Recent reports indicate that in Canada women earn approximately 22% of all undergraduate degrees in computing science. While women represent close to 40% of the enrollments in introductory computing and information science courses at AU, by the fourth year, women’s representation in upper level courses drops to just below 25%. Over the past few decades, women’s participation in other traditionally male dominated careers has steadily increased. However, not only are women under-represented in computing science post-secondary education programmes, but in addition their numbers are actually gradually declining. Published reports attribute this decline to the masculine ‘culture of computing’ dominating classrooms, pedagogy, and curriculum in traditional university environments. There is, to date, no research on how this male culture may have insinuated its way into open, online, and distance learning environments, in which students – both male and female – are removed from traditional classroom contexts and where instruction and interactions between students and faculty and between peers, occur primarily in ‘cyberspace.’ Using in-depth semi-structured interviews, this project explored factors that might be responsible for reproducing the ‘culture’ in distance and open learning environments. The overarching goal of this study is to recommend ways in which CIS courses and the accompanying learning environment might be adapted to facilitate women’s needs in the distance delivery of a computing science education. Keywords: Distance delivered education 1.

Athabasca University

AU’s mission is to provide lifelong, open learning opportunities to a variety of students through reducing barriers to post-secondary education. Generally students enrolled at AU can take courses at times

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and in places convenient to them. AU offers over 550 undergraduate courses across 60 undergraduate credentials/majors and serves about 25,000 undergraduate students a year. Undergraduate courses can be entered on the first day of any month throughout the year, after which students have six months to complete all of the course requirements. The majority of AU's undergraduate students study part-time while balancing full-time employment, family responsibilities and/or studies with other post-secondary institutions. The university also has five graduate degrees, serving about 1,500 students annually. Unlike its undergraduate courses, most of AU’s graduate courses are paced and have fixed start-dates. 2.

The Centre for Computing and Information Science

A.

Undergraduate programme and courses The Centre for Computing and Information Science (CCIS) offers four undergraduate credentials: a one year Computing and Information Systems Certificate; a three year Bachelor of Arts (BA) concentration in Information Systems; a four year BA major in Information Systems; and a four year Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Systems. The curricula have been shaped both by the professional requirements of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and student needs. All of the credentials offered by CCIS are somewhat more applied than those offered by traditional computer science programmes. Most of the 1,500 undergraduates studying in the department are part-time generating about 2,300 course registrations per year in the 24 undergraduate computing science courses offered each year. In their first year of studies, students can enroll in an Introduction to Computing and Information Systems course, a programming course, a data structures course, and/or a web development course. The senior courses – years two through four – include standard offerings on operating systems, networking, systems analysis, systems design, database, and human computer interaction with a special emphasis on software development. CCIS credentials also include elective courses in systems administration and user support. B.

Graduate programme and courses The most recent credential offered by the department is a Master of Science in Information Systems (MSc IS). The programme is directed at information technology professionals who are currently working in the field. The MSc IS began during the year 2000 and currently has about 150 students enrolled, generating about 400 course registrations per year.

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The degree is based on the ACM Model Systems curriculum (2000). Foundation courses in hardware and software topics are designed to remedy shortcomings in student credentials and experience. Core courses in areas such as database and networking are designed to advance student knowledge and skills in the basics of information systems. An elective career track component allows students to choose either a technology specialization or an integrative, course-based route to programme completion. C.

Course development and delivery CCIS operates using a team-based model. A programme director is responsible – in conjunction with a programme council – for the development and maintenance of the curricula. Course coordinators manage individual courses. Subject matter experts create courses and tutors provide academic support. Editors, multimedia designers, programmers/analysts, XML/HTML typesetters, and other specialists participate in course design and development as required. AU students are distributed throughout Canada, North America, as well as worldwide. In the past, students’ separation from the institution diminished the effectiveness of distance approaches to education. Informal peer support and group work efforts were particularly restricted, with students sometimes feeling lost and isolated. Now computer technology provides a new approach to open learning. E-mail, computer based conferencing, structured hypertext and the virtual reality technologies have changed the nature and enhanced the quality of distance education1. Beginning in the mid-90s, CCIS converted all undergraduate CIS courses from the traditional telephone support and mailed correspondence to World Wide Web (WWW) delivery2. Students at home and at work are now supported with e-mail, chat, and computer conferencing. Curriculum and course design in CCIS is learner-centered3. Most courses still include a printed text, with all other materials provided online. The WWW is the beginning of the virtual environment that is used to support all types of media and communications technology. The goal in CCIS has been to create a body of electronic instructional support tools, curriculum content, and design strategies, from which the materials for particular courses or modules can be selected. Using this model, it is possible for learners to continue to work at a distance, interacting with tutors, their peers and the dynamic course materials to bring courses to fruition. In the future, courses will be conceived of as multimedia social learning experiences, not simply as packages of learning objects. Despite the rapid advancement of technology, a variety of technological and social barriers still confront the lifelong learner. CCIS

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has tried to involve students in curriculum and course development plans in an effort to overcome some of these obstacles4. In this study we are attempting to address some of the difficulties women face in their efforts to successfully participate in computing and information technology education. 3.

Women in AU’s CIS programme Our interest in women’s participation in distance delivered computing science education began several years ago with a comprehensive evaluation of one of CCIS’s courses – Introduction to Computer Programming (JAVA) – an object oriented programming course. At the time of the review, completion rates for this course were approximately 40%. While there were no significant differences in the overall percentages of men and women who received credit for the course – about 30% in each group – there were substantial differences in the number of women, compared to men, who had initially enrolled in the course. Of the 1,100 yearly course registrations, less than 30% were accounted for by women. At the same time as this evaluation was being conducted, there was a literature emerging focused on the problems associated with both recruiting and retaining women into post-secondary computing science programmes. The concern we saw in the literature and the poor representation of women in our own courses, at least as evidenced by participation rates in the JAVA course, prompted a further exploration of the situation in CCIS at AU. In reviewing all of the course enrollment figures, it became evident that, as with other institutions, CCIS has been unsuccessful in both recruiting and retaining women in its programme. While women do represent close to 40% of enrollments in the Introduction to Computing and Information Systems course – designated as a pre-requisite for all courses following – by fourth year, women’s representation drops to less than twenty-five percent. (See Figure 1)

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50

Percentage

40 1st year 30

2nd year

20

3rd year 4th year

10 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Registration Year

Fig. 1

Female Course registrations

4.

The AU Distance delivery and Females project The project discussed in the remainder of this chapter was designed to assess factors affecting women’s choices to participate in a computing and information systems education at AU. While there have been a number of studies looking at similar recruitment and retention issues in traditional post-secondary education settings, we have found no literature describing women’s experiences with the distance delivery of a computer science education. One of the primary goals of this project was to highlight, from women’s perspectives, problems they may have experienced during their studies. Based on our participants’ understandings, we hoped to be able to develop strategies that could be implemented to increase women’s retention in CCIS.

A.

The literature on women and computing Computers are ubiquitous in contemporary society. Unlike increases seen in the numbers of women in traditionally male dominated career arenas (e.g., engineering, law, medicine) women continue to be under-represented, particularly at the higher levels, in careers related to computer technology. Moreover, in the past decade women's involvement in computer science education has been steadily declining. Several reasons have been proposed to account for this decline. In addition to the masculine culture of computing, there are a number of other factors that contribute to women’s under-representation in this academic domain. In

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regards to this decline in female participation, Camp and colleagues have coined the phrase ‘the incredible shrinking pipeline’5, 6, 7. Figures indicate that in the United States in the 1998/9 academic year women earned approximately 27% of all undergraduate degrees in computing science8. In other parts of the world, figures range between 10% and 40% of undergraduate degrees being earned by women9, 10. Whilst in Canada women’s representation in university computer science programmes has decreased from one in four students in 1982, to one in five in 1999 11. Early efforts to increase women’s participation were directed at informing and motivating women to choose non-traditional careers. These efforts were based on notions that women feared computers, were avoiding mathematical related subjects, or lacked the confidence to pursue careers in computer science12. Webster, like others, has suggested that in order to understand issues of access and retention “...we have to examine the culture of computing and its alienating effects upon girls and women.” 13 Mahoney notes that even as women were amongst the first and most significant programmers “…programming quickly became a hard-drinking boys club.”14. In traditional educational settings the computing culture has come to be defined predominately by its male inhabitants, the ‘hackers’ or as others have described them the ‘keypressers’ and ‘computer-nerds’15 There is a wealth of evidence to support the notion that women’s under-representation is largely a result of the cultural development of the field. Men have colonised science in general and computing science in particular16. Feminist researchers suggest that the high-tech culture is a place in which masculinity is deliberately and actively reproduced and expanded into a system of inequitable gender differences17, 18. Where some researchers assume the computer-nerd mentality – defined by a lack competence in the social and interpersonal spheres – is a prerequisite for membership in the computing culture, Cringley suggests that these traits are actually adopted by its members as part of an intentional statement about ‘personal priorities’19. Whether the ‘culture’ is deliberate or inadvertent, it is generally perceived as masculine and one that does not appeal to a majority of women in either educational or workplace environments 20, 21 Typically women have been seen as more empathetic, creators of harmony as opposed to hostility, and cooperative rather than competitive22. There is a vast body of evidence highlighting relational differences between men and women including for example, differences in expression of intimacy 23, 24; verbal and nonverbal communication patterns 25,26,27,28,29 and care-giving patterns30. Many gender differences tend to parallel cultural prescriptions for femininity and masculinity. Women appear to be better at developing and maintaining positive relationships and tend to score higher in terms of moral virtue; whereas

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men tend more towards higher levels of persuasiveness, dominance, and capacity to withstand stress31. Women tend to be better questioners and listeners, more supportive, polite, and respectful as well as more able to motivate and encourage participation in colleagues, and more willing to empower others by sharing information and power. These strengths are often perceived as antithetical to the masculine computing environment32. Whilst culture and socialization factors have been used to explain women’s absence in the field of computing, other factors have mitigated against women’s success in computer science education. Women come into computer science programmes with significantly less computing experience than do men which affects, at least in traditional institutions, the number of women who are admitted into computer science programmes as well as the women’s success and comfort with first year computing science courses33. Poor pedagogy – inexperienced teachers, gender insensitivity – has also been found to have a disproportionate affect on women’s retention in computer science programmes. Curriculum that places technology in the context of its real-world uses – situating technology in realistic settings, exploiting connections between computer science and other disciplines, diversifying problems and adopting teaching methods to appeal to a wide variety of learning styles – have stronger effects on female, compared to male student success and retention 34. B.

Project rationale Although the computing culture may be less overt in a distance delivered education compared to a traditional environment, the culture may invade virtual and distance classrooms through, for example, tutor/instructor expectations, poor pedagogy, gender biased materials and attitudes, and in peer-to-peer conferencing. Of equal importance, distance delivered educational environments remain subject to the same curriculum challenges faced by traditional computing science programmes. Whether or not women are making real choices to stay out of computing careers or whether there are in fact barriers to women’s participation are important issues. Along with lost opportunities for women resulting from non-participation in computing science education, there is also a concern about the deleterious effects on the discipline that results from women’s absence.

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5. A.

Procedures of the AU Project Sample Overall, the project will interview 24 women who have been enrolled in AU’s computing and information systems courses, with a small subset of four women who have been accepted into the Master in Information Systems (MIS) programme but who have declined entrance. Eight women represent the successful programme/course completers – those students who have graduated or who are currently enrolled in fourth year CIS courses. Another eight students are labeled as unsuccessful programme/course completers – defined by women who dropped-out of second and third year courses. Finally, four women who are currently enrolled in the MIS programme were interviewed. To date we have completed only eleven of the interviews. The analysis and discussion are based on these eleven narratives. B.

Method We followed standard interview procedures and had received approval from the Research Ethics Board at AU before carrying out this project. Information letters describing the study, the interview schedule and a consent form, were sent out to a target sample. The same semistructured interview schedule we sent to prospective participants was used to gather detailed information from the women about their experiences with the courses, programme and services they received. The interview schedule was adapted from a protocol developed by Margolis and Fisher36. Our interviews were conducted over the telephone, taped and were later transcribed. Interviews ranged from between one to one and a half hours in length. We are in the process of analyzing the transcripts using a grounded theory approach36. As such, we are looking at the data for concepts, categories and the properties of categories as well as relations between categories and concepts, with the goal of developing theory to explain women’s lack of participation in distance delivered educational computing science programmes. We are in the early stages of analyses and while some interesting concepts and categories have emerged, theory is still in development. 6.

The findings of the AU Project A primary question put to the women we have been interviewing asked if they could describe an atmosphere or environment that they may have experienced while taking their computer science courses at AU. An additional question allowed the women to expand on this concept of environment, by relating any experiences they might have had which they discerned to be specifically tied to their gender. Additional questions asked them to reflect on possible reasons why

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women, in general, do not appear to be interested in computer science and to suggest ways in which women could be attracted into studying computer science and working in computing careers. We assessed the atmosphere, or culture, to see if AU was somehow creating the same kind of gendered learning environments as those described by many women studying in traditional universities. Our initial assumption, based on previous studies, was that AU was doing just that. After reviewing the data from this first set of transcripts, it became clear that our assumption was not wholly correct. A.

Defining the culture All undergraduate CIS courses are offered in an individualized study mode, in an online format. As noted earlier, what this means is that students can register at any time throughout the year and their progress is self-paced. As such, students do not really have a peer cohort going through the courses with them. Although all students have the opportunity for scheduled weekly telephone contact with a personal tutor, most student-tutor contact occurs via e-mail. Also, although virtual conference boards and chat rooms have been set up to enable students to interact with one another, for a variety of reasons there is very little online interaction between students. With the exception of e-mail, students work to a large extent in isolation from their instructors and from one another. The women we interviewed had some difficulty describing any kind of an atmosphere. For the most part women spoke about the atmosphere in CCIS as either being non-existent or being very individual, suggesting that “It’s what you make it.” and “It’s just you and your computer.” Many of the women suggested that because “atmosphere is a measure of interaction’’ and since most of these women felt quite “unconnected” it was impossible for them to describe an environment within the department. This was not seen as a problem or a major issue for the women we interviewed. On the contrary, descriptors like “friendly”, “positive”, “feels very good”, “no frustration”, “happy with the courses” were the rule rather than the exception. We probed descriptions related to atmosphere a little further by asking directly whether or not, at any time in their studies, they felt that being a woman in the programme was an issue. Women’s responses were unanimous. They presented no evidence or examples of sexist treatment, discriminatory practices, or prejudice. For most of the women, it never crossed their minds, prior to our asking the question, that their gender would be an issue in their studies. Gender was not seen as an obstacle or a disadvantage and most felt that their experiences in the department could be no different than men’s experiences. As one women said:

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“I would say that the fact that I am a woman doesn’t really change how my experiences have been at Athabasca. My overall experiences with taking computer courses and other courses has been very positive.” Many mentioned that the course materials – study guides, textbooks, assignments – were gender neutral; that the tutors and instructors, although mostly male, were “open-minded”, “friendly” and “encouraging”. Some of the women commented that the online environment naturally tended to eliminate the potential for gender bias because they were often unaware of the gender of the person they were interacting with. As one woman noted: “Because it [the online environment] is gender neutral, you’re removed from it [discrimination]. You never stand out because you are female.” Overall, the women we interviewed mentioned no overt evidence of a male computing culture and as such, it did not appear to be a factor deterring women already registered in the programme. We will come back to the issue of interaction when discussing possible solutions to women’s under-representation in CIS degree programmes. We will also re-visit subtle notions of the male culture and how it tended to emerge when our participants were asked to propose solutions to problems of retention. B.

Reasons for women’s under-representation The next thing we asked these women was their views on why women generally are not drawn to the discipline. All of the women we have been talking with so far are quite committed to computing science in particular and studying at AU in general. In an effort to gain these women’s insights into the problem, in many ways we were asking them to step outside of themselves and their own experiences and to separate themselves from the majority of women who do not choose computing as an area of study. Differentiating themselves from others was evident throughout many of these women’s narratives. It was most noticeable when they talked about their own backgrounds and interests in science and how they felt their upbringing was not typical of the ways many other women had been brought up. As one of the women we talked to said: “I’ve never had any difficulty using computers. I don’t know if that’s because I started experiencing them at a young age or if it’s just because I’ve always been allowed to. I’ve never been restricted. I’ve always been encouraged to do what I want to do.”

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Most of the women we have interviewed had strong backgrounds in sciences or in computing and they all mentioned that as young women they were encouraged in these pursuits. Most of the women seemed very confident about their approaches to the discipline and their ability to succeed in computing. The women with strong science backgrounds were also most likely to be among the successful group. The reasons our participants gave for other women not being drawn to computing science were largely based in stereotypes revolving around gender differences in cognitive skills and abilities, learning styles, communication patterns, and social needs. For example, our participants suggested that other women would find computing too hard; that other women tended to gravitate towards less substantial careers; other women tended not to understand mathematical concepts; other women tended to be less logical, more emotional; and others needed more communication and social interaction. All of these factors, they felt, would mitigate against women’s involvement in CIS. Typical of the women’s responses, one of our participants noted: “I think at a very basic level, women tend to be more social, outgoing. I think women seem to look for interaction with people more.” Also the women we interviewed acknowledged that the male domination of the discipline discourages some women from pursuing degrees and careers in computing for a variety of reasons, including what they described as the “image problem” associated with the discipline – men interacting only with their computers – and a fear that because computing remains a male dominated area, women will be unable to secure positions once they graduate. Importantly, a number of the women we interviewed suggested that the reason few women study computing science is because women are not willing to put up with the commitment and volume of work that is required by a number of the courses. They acknowledged that while women are capable of doing the work, they simply choose not to engage such unrealistic workloads, because of the many other responsibilities they carry in their lives. In discussing the number of hours required by some of the courses, one of our participants stated: “Well, quite frankly I don’t think anybody should be that committed, and perhaps women have some sense when they avoid it. [They’re] doing themselves a favour. I have behaved that way, but that’s the exception. I refuse to allow it to become the norm. I do believe in having a healthy, well balanced lifestyle.”

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It would seem that women perceive that a career in CIS will make it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain balance in their lives. Indeed this was a central reason given by our participants for women’s reluctance to engage in a CIS career. C.

Solutions to female under-representation When our participants were asked to pose solutions to the problem of women’s under-representation their responses fell into two broad categories – those addressing issues of recruitment and those of retention. Most acknowledged that the problem of recruiting women into CIS was a broad societal problem and could only be solved – in the longer term – by preparing young women academically through encouraging the early pursuit of mathematics and science. However, the participants in this study also felt that in order to increase women’s interest in the discipline, the image and content of computing needed to be changed and that the industry itself has to adapt to women’s realities. In terms of solutions to retention issues a number of suggestions were made. Some of these suggestions were again based on the notion that other women’s needs are different from their own and their recommendations mainly revolved around the stereotype of women as generally being more social and practical than men. While most of the women we interviewed had very little interaction with their fellow students, the suggestions for increasing women’s retention involved facilitating communication and developing a sense of community spirit within the department. In this regard, our participants suggested establishing a newsletter that could be used to highlight women’s accomplishments in the field. Interaction and community could also be created by enhancing the profile of the existing online conferences through mandatory participation; instituting more team work in the courses; creation of study groups both online and off-line; and by incorporating one or more weekend face-to-face conferences for students in upper-level courses. A number of students suggested setting up a mentoring system, one that would pair new students with women already established in the programme. They also recommended that CCIS hire more female tutors. As well, participants suggested the need for women faculty involvement in course development, as evidenced by the following comment: “If you took a look at them [the courses], I bet the text books and the courses were all created by men. Try having women set the course up, and see whether or not more women get interested.” Another category of solutions to retention issues were reflections of these women’s own experiences – things that would have made their

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own studies in the programme more appealing. The women we interviewed emphasised an overall need to adapt the curriculum and courses to reflect their interests and realities. From this perspective suggestions focussed on adapting the context in which many of the current courses are offered. Context changing suggestions included making courses and assignments more socially relevant through, for example, encouraging links between computing and inter-personal relationships and through the promotion of team work; by changing applications and examples to focus on women’s interests; by offering more courses dealing with the social and human aspects of computing; and by offering a greater variety of upper level courses focussed on women’s interests. Some women were more interested in the multimedia aspects of computing applications. Some of our participants suggested that CIS would appeal to larger numbers of women if it were to be offered as part of split-degree programmes that would encourage women to apply their computing knowledge in creative ways to other academic contexts (e.g. Business Administration and Systems Design; Accounting and Database Management; Psychology and Web-space design). All of these suggestions revolved around ideals of making CIS more useful and relevant. As previously mentioned our participants felt that in order for CCIS to retain women the workloads associated with individual courses need to be revised and made more realistic – in effect tailored to meet the multiple roles that women studying at AU are carrying. 7.

Conclusion Many of the women in this study saw culture as a global problem, as evidenced by the following quote: “It’s still very difficult to be seen in the industry as a woman that knows anything.” Although these women reported no overt evidence of a male culture in their courses or in the programme, the focus of their suggestions to increase retention almost all revolved around the need to adapt the programme to better fit with women’s interests and realities. So, while we said earlier that there was no overt evidence of the negative effects of a male computing culture in CCIS, the impact of the culture remains presents, albeit in more subtle ways. Based on these preliminary findings, discussions with CCIS should shortly be underway. There are a number of changes that could be made in this department, within a relatively short period of time and with reasonably low costs to the institution that would begin to remove some of the barriers women face in pursuing a computing science education at a distance. These changes could include constraints to ensure that CIS courses do not exceed the normal workload for 3-credit courses (e.g. 150 hours). In this way, the programming courses could be made less arduous.

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There is already an ongoing effort in this direction. One or two new courses could be developed to offer more multimedia content. Furthermore, setting up a mentoring system for women could be a subset of a more general system for increased peer help and social interaction. Finally, collaborative degrees or even degrees housed in other Academic Centres at AU could be designed to attract and retain greater numbers of women students. The problems and solutions described by the women in our study coincide with what many other researchers, addressing the issues in traditional university settings, have been saying 37, 38. Clearly, the convergence of findings from our project with studies carried out in traditional post-secondary institutions, confirms that the problem is farreaching but one that with conscious intent and effort, we can be begin to remedy.

Notes 1

Harasim, L. (1993)

2

Holt, P., Fontaine, C., Gismondi, J. & Ramsden, D. (1995)

3

Norman, D. & Spohrer, J. (1996)

4

Holt, P. et al (2001)

5

Camp, T. (1997)

6

Camp, T., Miller, K., & Davies, V. (1998)

7

Davies, V., & Camp, T. (2000)

8

Moskal, B. (2002)

9

Craig, A., Paradis, R., & Turner, E. (2002)

10

Galpin, V. (2002)

11

Dryburgh, H. (2002)

12

Turkle, S. (1998)

13

Webster, J. (1996) p. 37

14

Mahoney, M. (2001) p. 170

15

Rasmussen, B., & H pnes, T. (1998)

16

Woodfield, R. (2000)

17

Ibid

18

Glastonbury, B. (1992)

Lynda R. Ross, Peter Holt and Julia Johnson

19

Cringley, R. (1992) p. 21

20

Woodfield, R. (2000)

21

Margolis, J & Fisher A. (2002)

22

Woodfield, R. (2000)

23

Reis, H. (1998)

24

Wright, D.H. (1998)

25

Acitelli, L. (1992)

26

Dindia, K., & Allen, M. (1992)

27

Gottman, J.M. & Carrere, S. (1994)

28

Johnson, F.L. (1996)

29

Macoby, E.E. (1990)

30

Wood, J.T. (1994)

31

Stake, J. (1992)

32

Woodfield, R. (2000)

33

Cringley, R. (1992)

34

Ibid

35

Margolis, J & Fisher A. (2002)

36

Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1998)

37

Roberts, E., Kassianidou, M., & Irani, L. (2002)

38

Townsend, G. (2002)

197

References Acitelli, L. “Gender Differences in Relationship Awareness and Marital Satisfaction Among Young Married Couples” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 18 (1992) pp.102-110 Camp, T. “The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline” Communications of the ACM 40(10) (1997) pp.103-110 http://www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/cacm/paper.html [Accessed 15 November 2003] Camp, T., Miller, K., and Davies, V. “The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline Unlikely to Reverse” 2000 http://www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/newstudy/new-study.html [Accessed 15 November 2003]

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Craig, A., Paradis, R., and Turner, E. “A Gendered View of Computer Professionals: Preliminary Results of a Survey” Inroads: SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2) (2002) pp.101-104 Cringley, R. Accidental Empires: How Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley 1992 Davies, V., and Camp, T. “Where have Women Gone and Will they be Returning: Predictions of Female Involvement in Computing” The CPSR Newsletter 18(1) 2000 http://www.cpsr.org/publications/newsletters/issues/2000/Winter2000/da vies-camp.html [Accessed 15 November 2003]. Dindia, K., and Allen, M. “Sex Differences in Self-Disclosure: A MetaAnalysis” Psychological Bulletin 112 (1992): pp.106-124 Dryburgh, H. “Learning Computing Skills’ Canadian Social Trends (Statistics Canada Cat. No. 11-00) Spring (2002) pp.20 – 24. Galpin, V. “Women in Computing Around the World” Inroads: SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2) (2002) pp.94-100. Glastonbury, B. The Integrity of Intelligence: A Bill of Rights for the Information Age Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 1992. Gottman, J.M., and Carrere, S. “Why Can’t Men and Women Get Along? Developmental Roots and Marital Inequities.” In Communication and Relational Maintenance, edited by D.J. Canary and L. Stafford pp.203227 NY: Academic Press, 1994 Harasim, L. “Collaborating in Cyberspace: Using Computer Conferences as a Group Learning Environment.” Interactive Learning Environments 3(2) (1993) pp.119-130 Holt, P., Abaza, M., Brehaut, W., Lin, O., Jelica, G., Stauffer, K., Leung, S., Shata, O. and Wang, H. “Towards a Multimedia Distributed Learning Environment.” In Proceedings of The Seventh International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems (DMS 01) pp.32-41 2001. Holt, P., Fontaine, C., Gismondi, J. and Ramsden, D. “Collaborative learning using guided discovery on the Internet.” In Proceedings of International Conference on Computers In Education (ICCE 95) 206213, 1995. Johnson, F.L “Closeness in the Doing: Women’s Friendships” In Gendered Relationships: A Reader, edited by J.T. Wood pp.79-94. Mountain View CA: Mayfield, 1996. Macoby, E.E. “Gender and Relationships: A Developmental Account.” American Psychologist 45 (1990) pp.513-520. Mahoney, M. “Boys’ and Women’s Work: Feminism Engages Software.” In Feminism in Twentieth-century Science, Technology, and Medicine,

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edited by A. Creager, E. Lunbeck, and L. Schiebinger pp.169 - 185. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001 Margolis, J. and Fisher, A. Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2002 Moskal, B. “Female Computer Science Doctorates: What Does the Survey of Earned Doctorates Reveal?” Inroads: SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2) (2002) pp.105-111 Norman, D. and Spohrer, J. “Learner-Centered Education” Communications of the ACM 39(4) (1996) pp.24-27 Rasmussen, B., and Håpnes, T. “Excluding Women from the Technologies of the Future” In Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender and Technology, edited by P. Hopkins pp.381 - 394. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998 Reis, H. “Gender Differences in Intimacy and Related Behaviors: Context and Process.” In Sex Differences and Similarities in Communication: Critical Essays and Gender Interactions, edited by D. Canary and K. Dindia pp.203-231. London: Earlbaum, 1998 Roberts, E., Kassianidou, M., and Irani, L, “Encouraging Women in Computer Science.” Inroads: SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2) (2002) pp.84 - 88 Stake, J. “Gender Differences and Similarities in Self-Concept within Everyday Life Contexts. Psychology of Women Quarterly 16 (1992) pp.349-363 Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. London: Sage Publications, 1998 Townsend, G. “People Who Make a Differences: Mentors and Role Models.” Inroads: SIGSCE Bulletin 34(2) (2002) pp.57 - 61. Turkle, S. “Computational Reticence: Why women Fear the Intimate Machine.” In Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender and Technology P. Hopkins pp.365 - 380. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998 Webster, J. Shaping Women's Work: Gender, Employment and Information Technology. London: Longman, 1996 Wood, J.T. Who cares? Women, Care, and Culture. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994 Woodfield, R. Women, Work and Computing Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000 Wright, D.H. “Toward and Expanded Orientation to the Study of Sex Differences in Friendships.” In Sex Differences and Similarities in Communication: Critical Essays and Gender Interactions, edited by D. Canary and K. Dindia pp.41-63. London: Earlbaum 1998

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Notes on Contributors Simon Bates is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Physics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. As well as active research interests in the computer simulation of liquid mixtures, he is the course organiser and developer for the first year undergraduate course at Edinburgh "Foundations of Physics" taken by 250 students each year. Over recent years, this course has evolved to incorporate the best elements of face-toface traditional teaching, supplemented by imaginative and innovative uses of technology and E-learning methodologies. Audrey Blenkharn is a Senior Lecturer within the Faculty of Health & Human Sciences at Thames Valley University in London. She is programme leader for the Certificate of Personal and Professional Development in Intensive Care and pathway leader for the BSc (Hons) in Professional Practice with Cardio-respiratory Care. With a keen interest in E-learning, Audrey developed the first clinical nursing programme for delivery via distance learning. . Adrian Bromage has an academic background in Psychology and Cognitive Science. Currently based at Coventry University Centre for Higher Education Development in England, he has recently worked on two major education research projects, the ESRC-funded ‘ETL Project’, a national research project exploring undergraduate learning and teaching, and an evaluation of Coventry University's 'Learn Online' initiative. He has assisted in the development of a new pedagogic research network and is developing a new line of research into engineers' ways of thinking and practicing, focussed upon the ontology of the discipline. William Bostock is a Senior Lecturer in Government at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has a research interest in higher education policy and practice and is currently Post-Graduate Co-ordinator for the School of Government within his University. David Catterick is a lecturer in Applied Languages at the University of Dundee, Scotland. His research interests include the support of international students in online learning. He is currently undertaking a longitudinal study of the support needs of international students on an online MBA program. David currently teaches on a Masters in International Professional Communication and contributes to an MSc in Globalization program. He is also partnering in a transnational project focusing on the design of professional language training for online delivery being funded by the European Union.

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Judy Hardy is a project manager at EPCC (the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre) in the School of Physics at the University of Edinburgh. She is course organiser for an undergraduate course "Computer Simulation" and for a Masters level course "Fundamental Concepts of High Performance Computing". In addition to her work related to high performance computing, her research interests include the tools, techniques and pedagogy of E-learning. Peter Holt is a Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University in Canada. Previously he was a Director of Academic Computing Services and an Independent Consultant focusing primarily on evaluative research. His interests in human computer interaction include individual and cultural differences, the application of computer networking and multimedia distance education, models of human cognition, planning computer systems, and the development of learning materials. Hossein Jahankhani is a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London, London, UK. A chartered physicist Dr Jahankhani has publications in many journals in the field of physics especially in semiconductor physics. More recently he has developed material and written widely on E-learning and e-commerce. Julia Johnson has a background in psychology, urban and regional planning, and social and health care programme evaluation. She has been involved in diverse areas of research for over fifteen years covering such topics as housing for seniors and developmentally challenged individuals, social and health care program delivery, electronic media and the hard of hearing, Alzheimer's Disease, volunteer recruiting, personnel dynamics within educational institutions and non-profit organizations, and database design for program evaluation applications. Loykie Loïc Lominé teaches Arts Management at the University of Winchester. He has substantial experience working with a range of technological tools for distance learning, in both synchronous and asynchronous modes, and he is involved in several professional development programmes with regards to training academic staff to use technology for educational purposes. Besides online teaching, Loykie has published on a range of pedagogical topics, from inclusive assessment strategies to integrating multiculturalism in the curriculum. For more information, see www.loykie.com

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203

Justin Macklin is a Principal Lecturer and Information Systems Project Manager within the Faculty of Health & Human Sciences, Thames Valley University in London. Recently Justin has been working on university wide web and database projects, but previously he developed the technical solutions and E-learning models used for various courses within the Faculty. Tuan Hoang Nguyen is a doctoral student at the University of East London. His research interests include: web-based systems that facilitate teaching and learning; computer system security and networking. In addition, he has teaching experience in all his research interest areas. David Seth Preston has degrees from the universities of London, Loughborough and Sheffield. He is currently Reader in Information Ethics at the University of East London and is Director of the BRG consultancy firm. He is editor of many books and papers including four earlier volumes in this Rodopi series. His interests are in the ethical and social issues raised by technology. Jenny Prior has a long distinguished career in midwifery, initially as a practitioner and later as an educator. Her practice involved spells in Nottingham and Orkney. She has both traditional and on-line qualifications from the universities of Nottingham and Dundee respectively and remains interested professionally in on-line training. Jenny is currently a member of the faculty of The University of Nottingham were she is a midwife teacher with many responsibilities including linking with external medical bodies. Lynda Ross manages the Educational Media Development Department at Athabasca University (AU) in Canada. In addition Professor Ross teaches Women’s Studies in the Centre for Work and Community Studies at AU and has authored several open and distance learning courses, including a course in Gender, Culture, and Technology which she currently teaches to both the graduate and undergraduate students. Mark Stiles is Professor of Technology Supported Learning and Head of Learning Development and Innovation at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom. He would like to acknowledge the contribution of all his colleagues to the work discussed in this chapter, and particularly that of Dr Jennifer Yorke, Steve Outram Ed Clarke and Sam Rowley.

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Godfried Williams is currently Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing & Technology within the University of East London, UK. He is also Visiting Professor in Computer Security at University of Brandenburg in Germany, Reading Member of CRCS within Harvard University, Visiting Scholar at the University of Louisville, Kentucky in USA. Peter Williams is Lecturer in ICT and E-learning at the Institute for Learning within the University of Hull in England. Previously a deputy headteacher and local education authority advisory teacher, he has worked in higher education teaching social studies, business education, teacher education, CPD and staff development. His research interests and publications include ICT in schools, policy-making for E-learning, and the design of interactive E-learning environments.

Index

A Authentication, 171, 172, 173, 177, 178, 179

B Blackboard (VLE), 6, 19, 72, 78, 175

C Computer-Aided/Assisted Instruction (CAI), 147, 148 Computer-Aided/Assisted Learning (CAL), viii, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162 COSE (VLE), 3, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23

D Distance Learning, 24, 63, 78, 79, 145

E E-Learning, 1, 2, 59, 71, 171, 172, 173, 179, 180

M Managed Learning Environment (MLE), 1, 7, 8, 9, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 147, 148

O Outram, 2, 3, 4, 5, 21, 22, 25, 203

P Paperless thesis, 99 Preston, David Seth, 203

R Reusable Learning Objective (RLO), 147, 148

V Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), vii, viii, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 44, 48, 59, 63, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 85, 147, 148, 150

W WebCT (VLE), 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 43, 85, 86, 87, 175