1,721,092 research outputs found
Combining international student social and academic transition online
No full textThe social and academic acculturation of a large number of newly arrived international students challenges even the most prepared of UK higher education institutions. How best to facilitate students’ social need to form new friendships with that of formally preparing them for the often unfamiliar academic demands of a different educational system? This paper will present a pre-arrival online course delivered to over 2,000 international students each summer, which combines student-centred socialisation with institution-driven academic preparation. From the initial data, it will draw some tentative conclusions about how far this approach could help facilitate students’ transition in advance of their arrival
Many from one: repurposing learning objects to meet discipline-specific needs
No full textInteractive online learning materials designed as reusable Learning Objects (LOs) offer scope for use in different teaching and learning contexts and ease of repurposing to meet the specific needs of different student user groups. At the University of Southampton, collaborations between an eLearning research and development group within Modern Languages and subject specialists from a range of different disciplines have generated discipline-specific LOs using a pedagogic template for the design of LOs and an authoring tool developed in–house. By repurposing generic LOs, LOs focusing on study skills with discipline-specific content have been made for students of Music, Archaeology, English Literature, and Modern Languages. With reference to the pedagogic design of the LOs, the authoring tool and the crossdisciplinary collaboration processes involved, this paper will seek to show how a simple model for crossdisciplinary collaboration can be used to plan, develop and embed relevant and meaningful project output directly into teaching and learning contexts
A case study: developing learning objects with an explicit learning design
No full textMany ‘learning objects’ or digital resources intended for learning and teaching, impress immediately through their use of attractive high tech animations. Less evident is the underpinning pedagogic approach or learning design on which they are based. With an ever greater drive towards technologically enhanced learning (TEL) it is important that the development of an effective pedagogy for their use online is not left behind. An effective model for designing for learning can be found in Laurillard’s ‘Conversational Framework’ for teaching and learning in higher education (Laurillard, 2002) and this has informed the design of a resource set or ‘toolkit’ of learning objects in study skills and English language development for international students. The contents of the toolkit cover the range of academic skills needed for effective study in higher education especially those relating to academic writing. They have been selected from a larger bank of reusable learning objects, and in addition to an explicit pedagogic approach, they share a set of general design features. Their design facilitates their use by students as independent online learning resources, as well as in teaching contexts, both inside and outside the classroom. This approach to learning object design is also being used to develop discipline-specific learning objects for students in a range of subject areas and the learning design is being incorporated into a learning object authoring tool for teachers, which both supports pedagogically and allows teachers to produce learning objects without help from technologists. This case study will firstly review some approaches to learning object design before presenting the development of the toolkit and its learning objects. It will explain the pedagogic approach that has been taken, illustrating with examples from the toolkit. It will also present research findings about how the learning objects are received by students and teachers<br/
Designing a self-access website of pre-arrival learning resources to support international student mobility
No full textIncreasing student mobility has highlighted the challenges students face adjusting to new academic cultures when studying overseas. International students often become aware of differences in modes of study and academic expectation only after experiencing academic culture shock first-hand. This paper offers an insight into the design of a unique website which provides versatile self-access learning resources to help international students prepare for the academic skills they will need for study in the UK. Developed with the aid of government funding through the UK Council for International Student Affairs, Prepare for Success is an open website hosting multimedia learning resources, which are designed for self-directed use by students, and for blended use in teaching by institutions. The paper will firstly provide an overview of the pedagogic design of the website, and then present the findings from an evaluation of how the website is being received and used by different user groups
The virtual path to academic transition: enabling international students to begin their transition to university study before they arrive
No full textInstitutions receiving international students for postgraduate study are now committing time and energy to the development of online transition resources to enable students to prepare for the demands of a different academic culture before they arrive. Important questions underlying such initiatives are identifying what kind of digital resources will both engage international students and be of most use to them in preparing for this transition, and how to effectively reach students. Current institutional initiatives are taking several forms. A popular model is to offer browsable advice/tips or FAQs about life and study at a particular institution together with, for example, video clips of other international students describing their experiences there. These may be open and web-hosted or accessible through a password protected area on an institutional website or VLE. Less commonly found are video and other media embedded in learning resources developed in the form of ‘learning objects’ which have been designed to offer key information through structured interactive learning activities supported with answers and feedback. Importantly, these also offer opportunities for language improvement at the same time since they are supported by help, feedback and transcripts. This case study focuses on a project to develop and deliver a pre-arrival online course of interactive learning resources for all incoming international students to one UK institution. Building on five years of experience in delivering pre-arrival, tutored online courses to pre-sessional course international students, the project team developed institution-specific learning objects and incorporated open resources from the website, ‘Prepare for Success’, developed by the same institution. The project seeks to deliver a self-access online course with three strands to it to address students’ concerns and needs. These are to prepare international students for the location in which they will be living and studying (the city of Southampton - its key features and amenities); to introduce them to practical aspects of British life and culture (e.g. setting up a bank account, shopping in a UK supermarket) and to familiarise them with key study skills and other aspects of UK academic culture which may present challenges for them (e.g. academic writing conventions; dealing with course reading lists). This paper will be of value to institutions embarking on similar ventures. It will describe the rationale for the online course; refer to the pedagogic approach taken; showcase course content, and report on the first phase of its delivery which begins in late spring 2011 <br/
Integrating podcasts and learning objects in an online course for international students
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‘Sizing up’ the online course: Adapting learning designs to meet growing participant numbers
No full textOnline course design has experienced an upheaval recently with the arrival of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), turning the model which underpins many online courses on its head. In contrast to MOOCs, conventional online courses have usually been designed for small private groups of participants, giving access to closed content and online tutors able to cater for individual needs and provide personalised feedback on tasks. What principles and practical considerations underlie these different design approaches? The development of a pre-arrival online distance learning course for international students offered by an elearning unit in Modern Languages between 2005 and 2014 illustrates interesting aspects of this evolution. This course, focusing on English language development and transitions to UK academic culture, reflects an historical design shift from accommodating small tutored groups of 25 to an open student-driven course for over 2500 participants which exhibits features of emerging MOOCs. This paper will describe the evolution of this course design to allow a flexible response to needs in a changing learning context. Specific features of the learning design which have changed or remained constant will be identified and adaptations made to ‘size up’ the course and cater for growing numbers of participants will be highlighte
MUVE, Moodle and a microblogging tool: blending technologies to prepare international students for language and life in the UK
No full textM3, a project blending a MUVE (Second Life) the Moodle VLE and a Microblogging tool (Twitter) , set out to explore the use of emerging technologies within the context of a pre-arrival online course for international students coming to live and study in the UK. The objective was to create an immersive learning experience for students by adapting and extending some of the Moodle course activities ( ‘learning objects’, vidcasts and discussion offered through the VLE) for use in the virtual world environment of Second Life. The project also aimed to gauge the educational potential of the microblogging service, Twitter, in linking students together during the course for both social networking and vidcast discussion purposes.A technical aspect of the project was to develop Twitter plug-ins or ‘blocks’ for Moodle allowing students to view a Twitter feed from within Moodle. Work was also needed to adapt existing course resources and activities for in-world use in a designated course area within Second Life. The M3 project then explored the combined use of Moodle, Twitter and Second Life with three separate sets of learners/users. These were: a group of students - professional and experienced teachers from countries outside the UK - learning about the educational use of new technologies on a face-to-face Masters course at the University of Southampton; international students on a pre-arrival course delivered wholly online through Moodle, who were preparing to come to the UK ; an external group of educators and practitioners taking part in JISC Emerge conferences.During and after user engagement in the project, data was gathered from questionnaires, interviews and observations. A number of practical factors impacted on participation levels of different groups but the affordances offered by these new technologies were widely appreciated even if the technologies themselves can still present challenges for new users unless significant levels of support are given. Their scope for enhancing social presence within a learning context was found to complement students’ interest in meeting people and sharing pictures and personal information, and reflects their own use and interest in Web 2.0 technologies. The developed Twitter blocks for Moodle and Second Life learning resources are being taken forward and future projects building on these outputs are planned. This presentation will present the M3 project and its findings. The Moodle online course and Second Life learning resources will also be demonstrated
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