1. Students and staff working together to enhance the vle experience
VLE in Partnership
Students and staff working together to enhance the vle experience

2. Students leading the way in VLE development: David Kennington - Yr1 BSc(Hons) Nursing - Adult Lorna Nicol – Yr2 BSc(Hons) Nursing - Adult Sharon Kaur – Yr3 BA(Hons) Social Policy Sascha Smith – Yr2 BSc(Hons) Midwifery Staff facilitating partnership: Mark Miller – Learning Technologist FHSCE Kate Outhwaite – Learning Technology Specialist ALT
Talkling about ideas related to interactivity and information exchange

3. Initial Findings Focus Group: Personal experience & anecdotal feedback from other students
Difficult to find information hidden in folders
Difficult to navigate due to unintuitive layout
Inconsistent population of VLE between modules
Visually unappealing / dated
Discussion boards hardly used
Focus group findings:
Maze of folders & sub-folders
Contents of sections not always clear
Staff interpretation of what should be included within each section (training needs replaced by simplification of site)
“90s retro” appearance. Very dated, especially compared to ARU smartphone app
Social network groups used instead of discussion boards
Survey results support the notion that VLE is not good for information exchange 1. S2S 2. T2S

4. Survey Results “it is hard to find what you are looking for…”
“each module is different. the organisation and way it's been used so these questions are a mixture across 3 different modules…”
“I have learning difficulties and find it a lot easier with pictures”
Though majority found it easy to navigate, 30% of participants did not feel that it was well organised
72% of participants felt that imagery and multimedia would improve the VLE, supporting FG findings
“It would make it more visually appealing”
“More visually stimulating “

5. Survey Results Low uptake on discussion board usage
“I didn't know you could”
As per FG, discussion boards not used, students preferring social networks. Inherent problems (privacy / marketing / exclusion)
notifications – Outcome of this phase of the project: not just changing the VLE to better suit student expectations, but marketing already existing benefits
“I did not find any student using VLE to communicate”
“…get a message/ every time the lecturer puts something on VLE”

6. VLE – STUDENT GENERATED RESOURCE SITES
Tutor Space
Learning Space
Learning Space
Learning Space
Student generated Resource

7. student generated resource site
Gilly Salmon (2011) Online socialisation is and essential stage in developing student engagement with information transfer.

8. Development of resources to better inform students of VLE tools
The implementation is to be student led through collaborative working with lecturers
Students will engage in providing peer feedback to further inform development
Implementation is expected to facilitate greater opportunity for student – staff partnership
Development of resources to better inform students of VLE tools
Each student has negotiated 3 modules to roll out template working in conjunction with th emodule leader and tutors of the chosen modules
Studnets studying the modules will be able to provideback to another student (No penalty – STUDENT STAFF STIGMA
Starting Point not end

9. Reference List
Salmon, G E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online. Routledge, New York.