1. Students’ Perceptions of Student Produced Materials in Collaborative Blended Learning: A Case Study Heather A. Thornton, Allied Health Professions - Physiotherapy / Blended Learning Unit H.A.Thornton@Herts.ac.uk Students’ Perceptions of Student Produced Materials in Collaborative Blended Learning: A Case Study Heather A. Thornton, Allied Health Professions - Physiotherapy / Blended Learning Unit H.A.Thornton@Herts.ac.uk A third year module called Perspectives of Health Care Provision used was developed using collaborative learning. The module was structured to include keynote lectures, tutorials and weekly student seminars, where teams presented and then produced an electronic file. The cohort is split into groups (20-25 students) and then teams (5-6 students), there are four topics each week for the seminars, so there were four interpretations of each seminar presentation (one for each group) placed on Studynet (University of Hertfordshire’s Managed Learning Environment). Structure of groups, teams and topics for seminars. The use of carefully constructed teams, that are then empowered to set ground rules and create a team identity, has resulted in high quality student- produced, learning resources that are posted on StudyNet. Use of the disussion site was encouraged and an anonymous thread was set up to enable students to ask questions about assessment anonymously. During the 4 years of this module, an action research approach has been adopted. This poster principally relates to the most recent data collection period 2004/5. A questionnaire (anonymous) of mainly open questions was given to a volunteer group of 21 students, in addition discussion traffic on StudyNet was analysed. All data collection methods received ethical approval. A fundamental assumption of using StudyNet to support collaborative learning was that students were viewing student produced materials (seminar presentations and discussions threads) and using them for learning. Previous data suggests that students do value such resources in an early evaluation (Alltree and Thornton, 2004) 92% of students rated as ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’ student produced resources and this is supported by other studies (Hughes et al, 2004). This latest set of data analysed the particlar components of student resources, and found a similar percentage to previous years, suggesting that the underpinning assumption is sound. The most interesting percentage of the individual components is the number of students accessing other groups’ presentation of the topic that they themselves had presented - 76%. This was explored in the questionnaire. Common themes were identified by content analysis. Three main themes were identified by students: The first category largely relates to the discussion site. There were 71 discussion threads with 255 postings. Eleven students identified the discussion sites as being useful to deal with their concerns: “good to share concerns with other students” “to keep an eye on concerns and see if they are stuck on similar problems and if so answers to them.” Five students suggested that they valued the anonymous site in particular and would like this extended: “I like the anonymous thread as students can ask more questions without feeling silly”. “By putting allowing people to put things on anonymously. I know this would make me put things on more often. You are always worried you will look stupid or just get it wrong” These are full-time students, attending face to face tutorials yet it appears that allowing students an opportunity to ask questions in their own time online is valued. Although the anonymous thread was valued in particular, of the 54 responses on the anonymous thread only 15 postings had been made anonymously, on all the rest the students had posted their names (students have to press a button to request anonymous posting). The second category was the issue of having a source for future reference / obtaining a hard copy / printing off, this principally related to their peer group’s seminar materials. Students valued having their peers’ work in electronic format to aid reflection, an important part of learning: “So I could have copies for future reference” “To provide back up information to consolidate what was learned from the seminars” The third category related to students viewing other presentations, there were 23 comments in this category made by 17 of the students; this was the category with the most comments. Typical comments were: “further views/ opinions/ interpretations – broaden my own views” “to view their thoughts and ideas of the same question to help broaden knowledge” “felt having a look at other presentations / discussions it helped gain a broader insight into the topics, especially the ones that I had presented” StudyNet provides the opportunity for students to see diverse interpretations of the topics, with 76% of students viewing other students presentation of the topic they had presented. Collaborative learning facilitates the social constructivist model of learning, with students viewing their peers as a valuable resource to broaden their knowledge. This case study illustrates how a Managed Learning Environment can enable students to view peer produced resources when they want and view resources produced by students not in their group. Students then use these resources to support their learning. Background What are the students purposes in viewing student produced resources? Deal with concerns Use as a permanent resource Broaden knowledge Background Do students value their peers’ produced resources? Conclusion