1. The Use of e-Resources in History, Classics and Archaeology Subject Centre Survey 2005/2006 Cary MacMahon e-Learning Project Officer JISC Distributed e-Learning Programme

2. e-learning according to the educationalists development of open, distributed, or distance learning new “learning spaces” being created student at the centre and potentially in control of the learning experience a “flexible form of learning delivery”

3. discipline-appropriate use the potential for enhancing student learning presented by digital resources in a discipline-appropriate manner

4. Two JISC-funded projects:  Project 1  Project 1: examination of use and sharing of e-learning resources in history  Project 2  Project 2: examination of use of e-learning resources on decentralised campuses in history, classics and archaeology

6. snapshot of the use of e-resources in history, classics and archaeology teaching in the academic year 2005/2006  Phase 1:online questionnaire -184 analysable responses from 48 HEIs  Phase 2:31 semi-structured telephone interviews with academics from 21 HEIs  Phase 3:2 focus groups – 10 participants from 9 HEIs

7. survey methodology survey methodology snowball sampling grounded theory: “…emerging analysis guides the collection of further data.” (Douglas Ezzy: Qualitative Analysis: Practice and Innovation (2002), 87) some methodological problems  ‘self-selecting’ sample  no monitoring over time  not contextualised within individual pedagogical structures

8. online questionnaire: quantitative and qualitative questions

9. ACCESSIBILITY 1. Our survey respondents have defined 'a resource which can be easily accessed by learners' as being the most crucial criterion when they select an e-learning resource. What do you feel makes an e-learning resource easily accessible to learners? SHARING 2a. Our survey respondents have, by and large, indicated that they would like to share more e-learning resources. If a colleague asked you what would be the best way in which to share e-resources, on the basis of your experience what advice would you give? OR 2b. Our survey respondents have, by and large, indicated that they would like to share more e-learning resources. If you would like to share e-resources, what mechanisms or structures would you like to see in place to assist you? If you would not like to share e-resources, can you expand on why you do not wish to do this? TEACHING & ASSESSMENT 3. Do you feel that using e-resources in teaching alters how students learn? Do you feel that using e-resources in teaching should alter the assessment process? SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION If using e-resources in teaching has altered how your students learn, has that alteration prompted you to make greater use of online learning materials? DISTRIBUTED CAMPUS 4. You have indicated in your responses that you feel that being located on a campus without easy access to main library facilities has affected the way in which you and your students use e-resources. Could you expand upon this? questions sent in advance to telephone interviewees

10. focus groups’ agenda Enhancement of Students' IT Skills How can we deal with variable levels of IT literacy amongst a student cohort? Should IT skills be taught separately at undergraduate level, or be embedded within subject teaching? Is the schools sector teaching pupils IT skills which are appropriate to the undergraduate curriculum in our disciplines? Enhancement of Students' Research Skills What particular research skills should we emphasise when directing students towards e- resources? How could an effective tutorial on the evaluation of websites be developed and structured? Does the use of e-resources encourage students to become more independent learners? Sharing of e-Resources What types of e-resources would you like to share within your own institutions and between institutions? How can teaching materials developed for one group of learners be effectively and efficiently re-purposed for other groups? What structures would you like to see in place to assist you in the sharing of e-resources? The Future of e-learning in History, Classics and Archaeology What developments would you like to see in e-learning in your disciplines and in the digital resources available to you and your students over the next five years?

11. themes themes which we investigated during the Survey  types of e-resources used in teaching and research  levels of teaching at which e-resources are used  alteration in pedagogy when using e-resources  sharing of e-resources  accessibility of e-resources to us and our students  use of e-resources in assessment  student skills – IT and disciplinary  institutional support  future developments in electronic teaching in our disciplines

13. subject breakdown of responses to online questionnaire

14. institutional support for e-learning in history, classics and archaeology

15. own institution websites other institutional websites other websites e-journals e-books digital archives software tools virtual learning environments online discussion groups email sound resources image resources powerpoint types of e-resources used

16. responses to question 1, broken down by disciplinary allegiance

17. comparison between ideal and real world use of e-resources in history, classics and archaeology 2005/2006

18. five most used e-resources the five most used e-resources 2005/2006 1.email (79% of respondents currently using this for teaching) 2.own institution’s website (72% of respondents currently using this for teaching) 3.powerpoint (70% of respondents currently using this for teaching) 4.e-journals (70% of respondents currently using this for teaching) 5.other institutions’ websites (69% of respondents currently using this for teaching)

21. 7 most under-used e-resources 2005/2006 the 7 most under-used e-resources 2005/2006 technologically, logistically, pedagogically more challenging?  sound resources  software tools  e-books  online discussion groups  digital archives  image resources  virtual learning environments

22. nb: value axis maximum 70%

26. disciplinary breakdown of student skill levels all disciplines include multidisciplinary sample

27. IT skills are the necessary skills being taught at school? mature students can be more, or less, competent disciplinary skills “They are just not learned enough to differentiate between the crap and the good stuff!” questionnaire respondent

28. Daniel J Cohen “…the medium of the web has not been exploited to its fullest if the best we can say about historians’ use of this highly advanced computer network is that it has become a giant, global fax machine, faithfully reproducing and distributing copies of historical documents (primary and secondary), related commentaries and professional missives. And because of the openness of the medium—and the always tenuous relationship between the professoriate and the large population of lay historians and the general public interested in history—many historians have found the web to be a mixed blessing: prolific but unmediated, powerful but untamed, open to all but taken seriously by few.”

30. the most, and least, important criteria when selecting an e-learning resource for use in teaching

31. disciplinary breakdown of accessibility of e- resources historyclassics archaeology all disciplines include multidisciplinary sample

32. accessibility =  physical access do students have access to computers and the necessary computing power?  usability are the learning materials easily downloaded and navigable?  special needs access can the learning materials be adapted for use by students with special learning needs?

33. distributed campus sample

34. disciplinary breakdown of distributed campus sample all disciplines include multidisciplinary sample

35. creation and sharing of e-resources

36. the benefits of sharing: it saves us time it allows us to access others’ disciplinary knowledge and expertise it allows us to access others’ pedagogical knowledge and expertise it’s what higher education is all about

37. the barriers to sharing: we don’t know what’s out there our learning materials need to be tailored to a specific learner group or specialised area we’re concerned about ownership of the learning materials we don’t have any incentives

38. nb: value axis maximum 60%

42. e-learning occasions an alteration in our teaching practice by  changing the ways in which we can deliver our learning materials  changing the learning materials we can deliver

43. “Modern historians wonder if it is still possible to have the kind of impact that such teachers as Socrates or Confucius had in their face-to-face conversations with students in a new world where the digital byte is king. This difficulty is all the more apparent when one considers that the majority of historians tend to use educational technology primarily as another delivery tool for traditional hard copy resources, whereas… …creating an effective online course or other interactive online materials demands that they learn to use the computer as a cognitive tool.” Deborah Vess

44. used well, e-resources can be “more than just an overhead projector for the new century” used well, e-resources can cause a re-examination of teaching styles and, on occasions, philosophy – sometimes for the better… for optimum usage of e-resources, the pedagogical justifications for and underpinnings of their use must be a starting point in planning disciplinary differences in core skills, values and attitudes must be acknowledged when using e-resources (e) learning