Maths Apps index #maths4us Project Report

This report provides an overview of the Maths Apps index project led by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) as part of the maths4us initiative during 2012/13

Research in Learning Technology - Info card

Information regarding the transition of Research in Learning Technology to an Open Access journal

Changing the Learning Landscape

Changing the Learning Landscape is about enabling higher education institutions in England, including colleges of further education providing higher education, to bring about change in their strategic approaches to technology in learning and teaching. This project is led by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education in partnership with ALT, Higher Education Academy, JISC and the National Union of Students. All five partners were involved as a team in authoring this publication

Consultation on open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework

This document gives the ALT response to the current consultation on OA policy for the REF post 2014. The consultation document can be found at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2013/201316/name,82765,en.html HEFCE had previously consulted on the wording of the consultation. Most of ALT’s suggestions have been taken on board. Overall our message is one of general approval for the direction and most of the detail. We suggest strongly however that any exceptions should be case by case rather than having percentage targets for each discipline/ set of disciplines. This would mean more work for the funders initially but should lead to a cleaner result faster. We also suggest that having large quantities of non-available work should have an effect on impact funds in a formulaic way

Is there a net generation coming to university?

This paper reports the first phase of an ESRC funded research project to investigate first year students' use of technology in relation to the idea of young people born after 1983 forming a distinct age cohort described variously as the Net generation or Digital Natives. The research took place in five English universities in the spring of 2008. The research found a far more complex picture than that suggested by the rhetoric with student use of new technologies varying between different universities and courses. Some of the more discussed new technologies such as blogs, wikis and virtual worlds were shown to be less used by students than might have been expected. The Net generation appears if anything to be a collection of minorities with a small number of technophobic students and larger numbers of others making use of new technologies but in ways that did not fully correspond with many of the expectations built into the Net generation and Digital Natives theses

A taxonomy of podcasts and its application to higher education

In this paper we address the uses of podcasts in higher education and we propose a taxonomy for podcasts. We describe results obtained within a study that is being conducted at the University of Minho, in Portugal, focusing on the use of podcasts and their implications towards learning in higher education. The project involves 6 lecturers from different scientific domains – Education, Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering and Biology. These lecturers created 84 podcasts in order to support their undergraduate and master courses during the 1st and 2nd semesters of 2007/ 2008 and the 1st semester of 2008/ 2009. A total of 479 students - 372 undergraduate and 107 master students - were enrolled in 20 courses. Some students were not only podcasts listeners but they also had the challenge and the opportunity to create their own podcasts (34 episodes). Podcasts were classified in different types (Informative, Feedback, Guidelines and Authentic materials), styles (formal or informal), length (short, moderate or long), purpose and medium (audio or video), according to a taxonomy proposed by the authors. The majority of podcasts was Informative (76), followed by podcasts with Feedback (30), Guidelines (9) and Authentic materials (3). Most podcasts were short (102), mainly in informal style and only 21 were vodcasts. Students´ reactions about podcasts implementation in higher education revealed their acceptance of this new tool and their receptiveness to podcasting in other courses. The majority of students found podcasts a positive resource in learning, although they did not explore one of the main advantages of this technology – portability. Lecturers also found podcasting a useful resource for learning and recognized its great potential as a pedagogical tool but stressed that it is too time consuming

‘Unfettered expression of thought’? Experiences of anonymous online role play

Advocates suggest that anonymity allows all learners to have an equal voice in a learning environment, and that it encourages participation. This paper explores tutors’ and learners’ experiences of an anonymous, synchronous role play activity conducted using online discussion forums. A qualitative study was undertaken to investigate the experiences of five groups of learners and four tutors. Data were obtained from an online questionnaire and interviews with students and tutors. The findings reveal a huge diversity in responses to the activity. Learners’ emotions before the activity ranged from ‘confident’ to ‘panic’. Afterwards many stated that ‘anonymity’ was the best thing about the activity, suggesting that it ‘loosened inhibitions’ and allowed ‘unfettered expression of thought’. At the same time, some respondents admitted trying to guess the identity of participants, and played their roles with varying degrees of conviction and engagement. Some participants may even have refrained from playing any part in the activity, hiding behind their anonymity. For tutors issues of control were significant and issues of facilitation were raised, although inappropriate behaviour was rare. This study has revealed the diversity of learners’ responses to online role play, and the generally positive attitude towards anonymity. It also highlights the potential for anonymity to contribute to inequality in participation and raises the question of whether genuine anonymity can be useful or achievable. Key findings with significance for future implementation of similar role play activities are presented here