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Implementation of computer assisted assessment: lessons from the literature
Get PDFThis paper draws attention to literature surrounding the subject of computer-assisted assessment (CAA). A brief overview of traditional methods of assessment is presented, highlighting areas of concern in existing techniques. CAA is then defined, and instances of its introduction in various educational spheres are identified, with the main focus of the paper concerning the implementation of CAA. Through referenced articles, evidence is offered to inform practitioners, and direct further research into CAA from a technological and pedagogical perspective. This includes issues relating to interoperability of questions, security, test construction and testing higher cognitive skills. The paper concludes by suggesting that an institutional strategy for CAA coupled with staff development in test construction for a CAA environment can increase the chances of successful implementation
Course developers as students: a designer perspective of the experience of learning online
Get PDFAcademic developers of online courses may not have experienced this mode of learning and teaching from the learner perspective. This article makes a comparison between suggestions for online course design from research literature and user perspectives from a focus group, responses to questions on the most and least effective aspects of online study and lasting impressions, and from reflective diaries kept by two of the authors while they were engaged in study from online courses. This direct evidence is used to highlight key issues in the literature from the viewpoint of the learner
Webs of activity in online course design and teaching
Get PDFIn this study, we followed three faculty members' experiences with designing and teaching online courses for the first time. In order to complete the activity, the faculty members had to work -collaboratively with others across the university. Activity theory provided a framework within which to study faculty members' collaborative activities with members of different activity systems that had different goals, tools, divisions of labor and accountabilities. In concordance with activity theory, such differences led to contradictions, disturbances, and transformations in thinking and work activities. The results of the study have implications for individuals and systems undertaking technology integration in teaching
What are the affordances of information and communication technologies?
Get PDFThe paper examines the notion that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have affordances that epitomize the features of our late modern age (Giddens, 1991) and explores whether these affordances (Salomon, 1993, p. 51) can be used to facilitate particular approaches to educational practice. It argues that a clear articulation of these affordances would enable us to understand how these technologies can be most effectively used to support learning and teaching. We believe that any one affordance can be considered to have both positive and negative connotations and the paper draws on social and educational theory to provide an initial taxonomy of these affordances
The development of accessibility practices in e-learning: an exploration of communities of practice
Get PDFThe UK's 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act has charged learning technologists with the responsibility of ensuring that electronic teaching materials can be accessed by disabled students. In an attempt to explore how learning technologists are developing practices to produce accessible electronic materials this paper will present a review of the accessibility literature and identify key issues that may influence the 'accessibility' practices of learning technologists. These emerging issues are interpreted using Wenger's theory of communities of practice, with a particular emphasis on the development of accessibility practices that may be shared by a number of related communities of practices and on how the focus of accessibility practices may soon shift from the product to the process of accessibility
Implementing a learning technology strategy: top-down strategy meets bottom-up culture
Get PDFUsing interview-based 'insider case study' research, this paper outlines why the University of Salford has adopted a Learning Technologies Strategy and examines the factors which are likely to lead to its successful implementation. External reasons for the adoption focused on the need to: respond to 'increased Higher Education (HE) competition', meet student expectations of learning technology use, provide more flexibility and access to the curriculum, address the possible determining effect of technology and establish a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) presence in this 'particular area of the HE landscape'. Internal drivers centred on the need to: continue a 'bottom-up' e-learning pilot project initiative, particularly given that a VLE is a 'complex tool' which requires effective strategic implementation, and promote the idea that learning technology will play an important role in determining the type of HE institution that the University of Salford wishes to become. Likely success factors highlighted the need to: create 'time and space' for innovation, maintain effective communication and consultation at all levels of the organization, emphasize the operational aspects of the strategy, establish a variety of staff development processes and recognize the negotiatory processes involved in understanding the term 'web presence' in local teaching cultures. Fundamentally, the paper argues that policy makers should acknowledge the correct 'cultural configuration' of HE institutions when seeking to manage and achieve organizational change. Thus, it is not just a question of establishing 'success factors' per se but also whether they are contextualized appropriately within a 'correct' characterization of the organizational culture
Evaluating a virtual learning environment in the context of its community of practice
Get PDFThe evaluation of virtual learning environments (VLEs) and similar applications has, to date, largely consisted of checklists of system features, phenomenological studies or measures of specific forms of educational efficacy. Although these approaches offer some value, they are unable to capture the complex and holistic nature of a group of individuals using a common system to support the wide range of activities that make up a course or programme of study over time. This paper employs Wenger's theories of 'communities of practice' to provide a formal structure for looking at how a VLE supports a pre-existing course community. Wenger proposes a Learning Architecture Framework for a learning community of practice, which the authors have taken to provide an evaluation framework. This approach is complementary to both the holistic and complex natures of course environments, in that particular VLE affordances are less important than the activities of the course community in respect of the system. Thus, the VLE's efficacy in its context of use is the prime area of investigation rather than a reductionist analysis of its tools and components. An example of this approach in use is presented, evaluating the VLE that supports the undergraduate medical course at the University of Edinburgh. The paper provides a theoretical grounding, derives an evaluation instrument, analyses the efficacy and validity of the instrument in practice and draws conclusions as to how and where it may best be used
e-Pedagogy: the pedagogies of e-learning
Get PDFThe aim of this research was to establish effective e-learning practice in higher education. This was achieved by looking at examples of different pedagogic techniques employed in several cases. The effectiveness of these techniques was established by looking at the students' outcomes on these courses. This study has adopted a sequential mixed methodology characterized by an initial phase of qualitative data collection and analysis, which was followed by a phase of quantitative data collection and analysis. The first phase of the study involved collecting a year of data from a postgraduate programme. A grounded approach was used to analyse one million words of online conferences or discussions, and led to the emergence of 29 pedagogic behaviours. These pedagogic behaviours were then developed into a coding instrument. The second phase, hypothetico-deductive analysis, confirmed their presence in three other cases, five million words of online interactions, and established their associations with students' learning and outcomes. The findings suggest seven clusters of pedagogies correlated with students' grades and the effect size calculation revealed an educational significance for all of them. This indicates that if they are employed in online classrooms they are likely to enhance students' learning and outcomes