Rethinking the scholar: openness, digital technology and changing practices

This paper discussed the current landscape of science publication and the route from analogue to digital scholarship (Borgman, 2007; Holliman et al., 2009; Weller, 2011)

Is technology enhanced learning an interdisciplinary activity?

This paper describes an approach to working in educational technology informed by the recognition of the subject as a major current site for interdisciplinary activity. Currently the most popular term for educational technology embraced in the UK and in the EU is Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). We draw on the literature on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary working, contemporary rationales for interdisciplinarity as an imperative for meeting the challenges of knotty real world problems, and the experience of working in interdisciplinary teams in TEL. The purpose is to establish the particular features of this collaborative research effort. This perspective from literature and contemporary rhetoric around practice is supplemented with reference to several interview studies of TEL project teams. These studies outlined the advantages in terms of growth, multiple perspectives and design methodologies but also the challenges in terms of sustainability, career progression and publication, the benefits of technologies for communication within teams and distinctive working practices (Jordan et al. 2012, Conole et al., 2010, Scanlon et al, 2013)

Interdisciplinarity in Technology Enhanced Learning: An Interview Study

This paper explores the influence of the concept of interdisciplinarity on the work of educational technologists and others involved in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) research. There is a growing recognition of the need for interdisciplinarity in solving complex research problems in many areas of science. Technology-enhanced learning is a relatively young area of research adopting a multidisciplinary approach to investigating the use of technologies for learning. This makes it a field that is worthy of exploration in terms of how the ways of working developed by its practitioners inform our understanding of the challenges of the field as well as its benefits. This paper reporting on work commissioned by the Joint Research Councils’ programme on Technology Enhanced Learning provides a discussion of the growing literature on this topic, and a study of the working practices of academics in TEL research. An interview study of 18 participants was conducted as part of the project. The paper reports on the key findings from the interviews and concludes with some practical suggestions to help participants deal with the challenges posed by interdisciplinary working in TEL research

Enriching accounts of computer‐supported collaboration by using video data

This paper will discuss the approach to the evaluation of computer‐supported collaborative learning developed in our group over the past ten years. This approach depends on the collection of video data to allow the analysis of key features of problem‐solving behaviour within groups of students working on collaborative learning tasks. Our theoretical framework derives from two sources‐ the CIAOl framework for evaluating examples of CAL and an analysis of appropriate methods of evaluating computer‐supported collaboration. Our work in this area has been supported by developing the data capture facilities for the CALRG (Computers and Learning Research Group) at the Open University. We will draw on a number of studies to illustrate this approach and will present a brief case study from work done on a computer‐supported learning environment for statistics where we use video records of video‐mediated collaboration. This case study gives an example of the rich data that can be collected using video recording and analysed to increase understanding of computer‐supported collaboration

Active learning of statistics: A case study

Research at the Open University has investigated students’ learning of statistical concepts and how information technology can be effectively used to support this process. Previous empirical work has looked at psychology students’ misconceptions relating to correlation and how computer‐based learning environments can be used to address these. This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study that investigated students’ learning collaboratively from a multimedia application called ActivStats

Educational Technology: The influence of theory

In this paper we explore the role of theories in current practice in educational technology. We review a range of writings from the past 30 years on the nature of learning technology research. We discuss influences on learning technologies from the related fields of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). We identify two groups of theories which have been used. The first group are related to principled decisions about the design of learning materials. The second group influence the ways in which we frame our research on learning. Research in learning technologies in the future will need to draw on both groups of theories. In this paper, we draw on our own experiences as educational technologists and the purpose of the paper is to encourage other educational technologists to join with us in reflecting on their own use of theories

An Open Future for Higher Education

As the world becomes more open, universities have the opportunity to embrace openness in how they carry out their operations, teaching, and research. Open educational resources can provide the catalyst for different forms of learning, linking formal and informal aspects and splitting up the functions of content, support, assessment, and accreditation. Models from research suggest that an open approach is likely to encourage the crossing of boundaries between inside and outside the classroom, games and tools for learning, and the amateur and the expert. A new attitude toward research and scholarship is needed to work with the data of openness and to use it as an approach to gather evidence, share thoughts, and disseminate results

Introducing citizen inquiry

The term ‘citizen inquiry’ was coined to describe ways that members of the public can learn by initiating or joining shared inquiry-led scientific investigations (Sharples et al., 2013). It merges learning through scientific investigation with mass collaborative participation exemplified in citizen science activities, altering the relationship most people have with research from being passive recipients to becoming actively engaged, and the relationship between scholarship and public understanding from dissemination towards cooperation. Through the presentation of empirical studies, this edited volume introduces concepts and practices of citizen inquiry

Distance learning, OER, and MOOCs: some UK experiences

This paper discusses learning at scale from the perspective of two UK Universities engaging in technology enhanced learning. Three case studies are used to illustrate ways in which scale has been achieved. There is diversity in how scale is supported but also common factors. Openness and choice appear as enablers in all cases

Simulating chaos: An evaluation of the driven pendulum experiment

This paper reports on the use of the Driven Pendulum software as part of the teaching for the Open University course Discovering Physics and provides an account of some of the findings from its evaluation as part of the learning experience provided to students. A driven damped pendulum is a suitable instrument for experimental studies of chaotic motion. The main aim of the simulation was to allow students both to observe some of the generic features of chaotic motion, and to explore ways in which these may be represented graphically. This simulation formed the basis of a three‐hour experiment for students which provided them with a number of learning opportunities, e.g. the opportunity to build up state‐space trajectories for various types of pendulum motion, in order to appreciate the advantages of the state‐space representation for analysing complicated behaviour, and providing consolidation of ideas about oscillations, damping and resonance. An evaluation of the Driven Pendulum at the residential school in 1995 was conducted as part of a university‐wide project run by the Computers and Learning Research Group investigating computer use in learning science and technology, and developing evaluation methodologies. It was both formative in that the evaluation results were used to redesign the notes guiding students through the activities, and summative in that we were able to draw some conclusions about the role played by the simulation in students’ learning. The students were extremely positive about the contribution made to their learning by the program, and students’ performance indicated learning gains. However, the observation data suggested that students were unclear about the distinction between complex and chaotic behaviour