1. Is it necessary to assess it? Liz Bennett University of Huddersfield

2. Thesis  Widely held belief that you need to assess online activities to ensure that students participate in them.  Show of hands?  Or is it more complex?

3. What do we know about elearning and assessment  Students are largely strategic ie driven by assessment process  Assessment is critical to the success of online activities is widely stated precept ( see for instance McDonald and Twining (2000), McAteer and Harris (no date) McConnell & Lally& Banks (2004))

4. Dimensions of practice as a property of community (Wenger 1998 p73) What it is about What capability it has produced How it functions

5. (Hoadley and Kilner 2005)

6. Case study context  MSc Multimedia and E- learning at University of Huddersfield  Teachers in range of institutions  Theory and Practice of E- learning module

7. Analysis of MSc Two learning activities supported with dialogue facilitation tools (synchronous chat and discussion boards) via VLE (Blackboard)  Collaborative product  Technical Forum

8. Evaluation methods  Phenomenographic approach (Marton 1981).  Students’ learning journals recorded their views of the learning process.  Tutor’s observations.

9. Value of sync chat It [synchronous chat] didn’t feel like working – more like relaxing in the pub after day school. It gave everyone a chance to ask each other questions and talk about the mini projects, the Gilly Salmon paper in particular, in an informal and off the main curricular way. I finished the session feeling more confident in my ability to stay with the course…..

10. I felt that tonight’s session has been very useful indeed; we seem to be “bonding” as a social unit, swapping ideas and resources, putting forward our experience, thoughts and opinions in a relaxed and easy manner

11. Although we are all on the course to reach the ultimate goal of achieving a MSc in Multimedia and E-learning, at this early stage we have only met face to face once and I feel that the trust and mutual respect takes a while longer to earn, But later in the course the same student comments I now feel like part of a team with lots of encouragement and support at any time of the day

12. Individualised notion of learning I have found myself in the later group [those not contributing to synch chats] as it suits my foremost purpose of being on the course to increase my academic knowledge, gain the qualification and not to involve myself in new social structures within the time constraints I have available.

13. Skill barriers I felt a little uncomfortable at not being able to participate fully and with the easy casual familiarity (of the technology) of others in technical subject areas. One of the reasons I am on this course is so that I can develop greatly this area of my work and use it both in my teaching and self-development. Therefore these people seemed to “clique” together.

14. Synch chat tool  Supported informal learning  Supported building CoP (social aspects of learning and identity as part of the community)  was not effective for delivering discussion on content  was effective for sessions which lasted 45 mins (an hour felt too long)  Was effective for groups up to 10.

15. Is it necessary to assess it?  Activities which have a purpose which builds the individual’s identity and the feed the learner’s needs didn’t need to be assessed  Motivation waned after 3 months and design of activities needs to look at how to re energise the activities.  Synergy between various media’s affordances supported the success of the delivery

16. Policy and practice  Having a policy in place doesn’t automatically translate into practice to support elearning  Change agents are those working innovating

17. References Hoadley, C.M. Kilner P.G. (2005) Using Technology to Transform Communities of Practice into Knowledge-building communities SIGGROUP Bulletin Vol 25 No 1 p 31-39 MacDonald, J. Twining, P. (2002) Assessing activity-based learning for a networked course British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 33 No 5 p 603-618 Marton, F. (1981). Phenomenography—Describing conceptions of the world around us. Instructional Science, 10, p177-200. McAteer, E. Harris R.(no date)Computer-mediated Conferencing LSTN McConnell, D. Lally, V. Banks, S. (2004) Theory and Design of Distributed Networked Learning Communities Networked Learning Conference Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice Learning Meaning and Identity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wenger, E. McDermott R., Snyder, W.M. (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice Boston: Harvard Business School Press