Balancing e-lectures with podcasts: a case study of an undergraduate engineering module

The work described in this paper is based on an engineering module that has run for six years (each academic year since 2004). The module is run online although the learners are campus-based students. This has provided an unusual opportunity to compare the same students’ experiences of on-campus and online courses. The course comprises a rich online environment including e-lectures, podcasts, video clips, website links, animations, background reading, formative quizzes, summative assignments and discussion boards. The e-lectures comprise a PowerPoint-like screen with a spoken audio track and other facilities, including a rolling transcript, video controls (for stopping, pausing and rewinding) and a search facility. Each e‑lecture is short (a maximum of ten minutes) and links to some of the learning materials (e.g. video clips and formative quizzes). The podcasts are mp3 audio files, each lasting approximately ten minutes, and are produced weekly and published through the virtual learning environment. This paper presents a pedagogical model that has been designed to develop a structure for combining these virtual learning elements and considers some of the opportunities provided by such innovative approaches for the enhancement of engineering teaching at undergraduate level. It presents research findings on student learning outcomes and provides suggestions for adopting the design for learning model presented in the paper

A renaissance of audio: Podcasting approaches for learning on campus and beyond

In this paper, we urge practitioners to consider the potential of podcasting for teaching, learning and assessment. Our perspective is drawn from research on IMPALA (Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation), which showed that there is a range of successful podcasting approaches for students on campus. After briefly surveying the background literature, we provide examples of three approaches, from three different universities: 1) helping students to prepare presentations and assessed work, 2) offering feedback from staff on students' assessed work, and 3) assisting undergraduates to make the transition from school or college to university. Finally, we would like readers to consider how podcasting approaches like these can be converted for distance education. On the evidence available to date from IMPALA and other studies, we feel confident in predicting that podcasting will be integrated more and more into distance education, to the immense benefit of the long distance learner

TRANSACTIONAL DISTANCE THEORY AS A FRAMEWORK FOR A QUALITATIVE EVALUATION OF DISTANCE LEARNER EXPERIENCE

The proposed paper reports on our research into the development of a qualitative research approach based on Moore’s Transactional Distance Theory to evaluate learner experience on two distance learning courses at the University of Leicester.Moore’s Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) [1] [2] is considered to be one of the early and influential theories of distance education (DE) that has contributed to our understanding of DE as a distinct field of education. In TDT, Moore captures what he calls the essential features of DE as three variables: ‘structure’, ‘dialogue’, and ‘autonomy’. For Moore, Transactional Distance is a psychological and communication gap that a learner can experience when he or she learns at a distance.Our full paper defines the concept of TDT, its three key variables, and how this theory has provided a conceptual tool for educators and researchers to develop courses and evaluate experience of what it means be a distance learner. A key contribution of the paper is the systematic literature review in which we foreground some of the limited but significant critiques of TDT (e.g., [3]) and consider how this concept can be modified to develop research tools, especially qualitative, as opposed to predominantly quantitative methods, to understand distance education offered by not only dedicated distance education institutions (e.g., UK Open University) but conventional campus-based institutions, and using the full range of the Internet-based technologies.Using the new research instruments, we have carried out an action research project on two distance learning courses at the University of Leicester. Our research participants were professionals working in educational institutions around the world. Data were collected from 18 participants using a combination of semi-structured interviews (40 – 90 minutes) and online methods. Interviews were carried out using Skype, Facetime or WeChat.The full paper will present the analysis of data based on themes derived from Moore’s original conceptualisation of the three variables of TDT: ‘structure’, ‘dialogue’, and ‘autonomy’. The in-depth interrogation of data revealed more nuanced picture of the students’ experience and appreciation of leaning at a distance on courses offered by a conventional campus-based university in which their learning is mediated through internet-based technologies and resources. Deriving from the data analysis, the paper also discusses a set of guidelines for designing courses to optimise the students’ learning experience at a distance. Finally we present our on-going work with the Open University of China for adapting the instruments and approaches to suit large scale distance learning institutions

School-Aged Students’ Sustainable Online Learning Engagement during COVID-19: Community of Inquiry in a Chinese Secondary Education Context

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread all over the world, many educational institutions have shifted to a full-time online teaching mode. Although online teaching has been widely explored, the unprecedented initiatives of mass-scale full-time online education at the secondary school level are yet to be unravelled. By using a qualitative approach and drawing on the conceptualisation of learning engagement and Community of Inquire model as conceptual frameworks, this study explored how secondary school students in China engaged with online education during the COVID-19 pandemic and what factors influenced their sustainable online learning engagement. This research examined the perspectives of twenty-four students and five teachers through semi-structured interviews and observations of online classes. Findings indicate that the students’ online learning engagement involved three inter-related categories: emotional, cognitive and behavioural engagement. Contextual factors influencing the sustainability of students’ online learning engagement were identified by the participants, including teacher presence, parental involvement, and a supportive learning environment/community. The findings in this paper have implications for teacher development, family support and establishment of e-teaching platforms in emergency remote teaching for young students. Finally, the study puts forward best practices for the sustainable development of the emergency remote teaching in the future public crises

AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION RESULTING IN THE USE OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING TO DELIVER COMMUNITY OUTREACH SOLUTIONS

The University of Leicester, UK has been supporting the Catholic University of Cuenca (UCACUE) in Ecuador to deliver its vision of ensuring that every student on every course is exposed to an authentic problem-based learning (PBL) experience. By doing so, it is hoped that students gain a deeper understanding of their subject while also developing and using high level research, professional, and 21st Century skills to solve real community, regional, or national health, environmental, societal, business, or economic problems.The project’s primary object was the training of 70 core academic staff, composed of teams representing departments from all 8 faculties of UCACUE . The resulting capacity building programme has required the participants to participate in a series of 5-day workshops designed to develop their expertise in the application of two structured models of PBL. Based on a four-stage model and a 5E learning cycle model, the training programme has provided the academic staff with high-level skills to develop their own problem-based learning units (PBLs), perform action research to evaluate the outcomes of using PBL with their own students, capacity build other academics within their subject teams, and carry out and publish research on the implementation of the programme at UCACUE.After completion of the second year of a 3-year project (2015 – 2018), this team of 70 core academic staff have capacity built a further 103 academics, overseen development of 53 new PBLs, helped engage 2,561 students in problem-based learning activities, and published 5 academic papers.This paper will provide an introduction to the two PBL models adopted by the project and approaches used to capacity build the core team of 70 academics. It will also introduce case studies detailing how students from different faculties have utilised PBL to address real community problems, the solutions they have developed, and the outcomes of extensive research carried out on the professional development of academic staff. Also presented will be descriptions of how these forms of PBL have impacted the student learning experiences in terms of their ownership of individual projects, motivation, knowledge retention, overall understanding, achievement, team working skills, communication skills, problem solving capabilities, collaboration outside the classroom, engagement in the learning process, and their development of critical and creative thinking skills.UCACUE places a high level of importance on community outreach and this paper will also explore the ways in which their adoption of PBL has allowed its academics to engage with external bodies in ways that have raised the institution’s profile in ways that were not originally envisaged at the project outset