A case study of A Campus-Base Course Taught and Assessed Using e-learning John Fothergill

Optical Fibre Communications A module given to 2 nd years (level 2) and 3 rd and 4 th years (level 3) Slight differences between the 2 levels Engineering Department has a good mix of international backgrounds – good testing ground! Chosen as the technology has started to stabilise

Module Survey for EG3024 Optical Fibre Communication John Fothergill 23 June 2004

Survey composition (30 respondents, 38 in “class”)

Do you have use of a computer at your term-time address?

I accessed Blackboard:

Student accesses per hour of the day

User accesses per day of the week (assignments on Tues!)

In the virtual lectures, I liked...

Understanding lectures

Use of handouts

Use of quizzes

Worked hard on quiz before consulting solutions?

On-line assignments

Discussion Board Usage Read onlyAsked questions Did not use %%%%% %% 1 – 5 %%%%% %%%% %%%%% %% 5 – 20 %%%%% %% %%%%% %%%% >20 %%%%% %%%% %%%%%

Usefulness of Discussion Board

Video clips (£1.50 per student)

Technical problems?

Time spent on module (10 credits “should be” 6 hours)

Key best things (29 responses) Study at own pace (  9) No exam, more freedom (  3) Access lecture whenever (  12) Learning and assessment in sections (  5) Interesting material Quick response to questions on chat board (  2) Quizzes (  4) Videos – “real world” view Text accompanying lectures VLE style “relaxed” “fun” – being able to study at home (  2) Lecture notes in lots of formats and well presented Not entirely virtual

Key worst things (27 responses) Occasional mistakes in lectures (difficult to correct) University accommodation needs high-speed internet I preferred notes to lectures Not all learning material available at start of course Difficulty of assignments Some more “real” classes + real exam Costly to print notes Don’t need final report (  2) More animations/applets Vague final report topic Too time consuming Technical problems VLE sometimes goes down at 1 o’clock in morning

Other comments “Glad I did the course” “Good to see new way of lecturing” “Great course – new style yet effective” “Final report really did test understanding” “Report could have been group effort” “I really enjoyed the module” “Would like to thank staff involved for their effort” “very different... refreshing” “Good style of teaching” “Make the scrolling text bigger” “Would like (part of) more modules using this style”

Last Four Mark Distributions

So how long does all this take? Lectures All quite short and intensive Almost like reading from a book With diagrams, text etc., about 4 hours to write a lecture + about 1 or 2 hours to “produce it” – often done by PhD student 38 Lectures  220 hours

So how long does all this take? Quizzes These are quite quick. Need to use imagination (e.g. fill in the blanks, ordering for descriptions) Not much longer than writing a set of examples and solutions  3 hours So about 100 hours for the quizzes.

So how long does all this take? Course design This took a lot of thinking about! I should have gone on some courses.

Embedding e-learning good collaborative networks support for teachers to integrate learning technologies into courses departmental/faculty teams specialist learning technology teams student ICT skills modules pedagogical scholarship in departments (

A future for e-learning Changing roles Quality and standards New technology Meeting students’ expectations