Slides and learning

Thoughts provoked by: "To provide or not to provide course PowerPoint slides? The impact of instructor-provided slides upon student attendance and performance"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131515000433

A link to this article was recently posted in Twitter the day after I tried to add an Apple Keynote slide-show to the VLE for my online work-based undergraduate course for the first time in 17 years.

Firstly I was rather suspicious of the pedagogy given the use of "instructor provided' in the title. After reading the article it does sound like the slides they were talking about were used in the chalk and talk type approach with tutor instructing rather than facilitating learning. 

One of the problems seems to be tutors worried about sharing their resources with students. I thought that concern had disappeared long ago; open access gifting information to students and beyond seems a far better way to spread knowledge than exposing resources only during a lecture. I can't see why a competent tutor would want to restrict access to knowledge unless they are sharing information about research that is still in progress, is not fully verified and that they have not yet formally published or other information that has strong ethical or commercial reasons for confidentiality to be maintained. 

The article does not discuss slide-show design in much detail, reading between the lines there were either the poor practice type slides where a tutor reads loads of text, and often bullet points, off each slide while students try and absorb content while scribbling notes. There were some trials of more minimalist slides and slides with missing information. 

I did not see any reference to using media in the slides - an audio track with each slide and only key words, phrases or images on the visual part of the slide is a good strategy Lot's of folk seem to treat this kind of presentation software akin to chalk on a blackboard or the old acetate OHP approach where a visual element accompanies a talk about the visual content. 

Slide-show apps are presentation software; don't treat them as visual content display software. 

 Should a lecture really just be tutor talking to students about stuff on a screen with students then missing some of what is said while scribbling notes during the event? Seeing reams of text on screen, hearing it read out while simultaneously having to take notes about it is not a great pedagogical approach. I meet that approach time and time again in conferences I have to pay a lot of money to attend.

An audio track for each slide can mean that the dominant content is not the visual element. All sorts of media can be embedded, the one I will use this Saturday is only the second ever slide-show I have made, it has a short embedded video clip of a resource I will talk about, the post event version will have an audio explanation to accompany each slide.

Slides with audio or video from the tutor that are posted in a VLE can be opened then paused and replayed so allowing students to take more detailed notes and to check that their notes are accurate. Hearing the vocal cues in a tutors voice helps interpret conviction, uncertainty, and many other aspects that are not always clear in a text only resource.

Most universities now have some sort of digital learning environment with discussion tools often referred to as a Virtual Learning Environment - I think Digital Learning Environment or Online Learning Environment would be better as it is a very real place where real learning takes place, perhaps the "Virtual" element subliminally reduces perceptions about the potential value, however that is another argument for another post.

Using the 'VLE" rather than slide-shows during a lecture can be a useful way to increase student engagement in the VLE . Lectures are a very small amount of their learning time compared with the hours tagged for autonomous student led learning. A typical undergraduate 30 credit module might have 40 hours of tutor managed learning and 260 hours of independent study. If tutors can develop habits where students spend some of their independent study time in the VLE, and encourage the gift society kind of ethos, we have the chance of developing strong communities of practice. The sharing of professional/scholarly social media or website sources and good literature finds along with peer discussion about those and peer review of draft work can provoke deeper learning and trust and bonding within student groups. 

 Is it not better for students to do preparatory work in advance and to then be able to contribute to the lecture in which the tutor can then engage in academic / scholarly discussion about what they have learned, what sense making they are doing and what meaning they are constructing? Perhaps the term "lecture" needs to be committed to the archives of history as it does provoke perceptions about instructional gatekeeper of knowledge approaches.

Slide-shows that explain learning activities linked to assignment learning outcomes and provide links to published papers or online social media, websites, embedded YouTube or TED talks videos etc. can be useful if shared in advance with the expectation that students will access and review the content and be ready to discuss what they have uncovered/discovered during the subsequent lecture.

Lecture capture can avoid the distraction of note-taking during an event and enable deep focused concentration and interacting in the event. Students watching a video of a captured lecture retrospectively have time to make notes, to reflect on content and extend their conceptualisation of the learning. Such approaches can also help students understand good ways to make use of their independent study time. Students who do not deploy effective learning strategies during independent study time are unlikely to thrive.

I wonder whether it is the poor pedagogical practice that leads to weak learning rather than the use of a particular kind of software. I was about to say something about 'perhaps some innovative use of the software would help' but what I have discussed above is far from innovative it is just common sense. 

One problem I have to acknowledge is the time tutors have in which to work on preparation of resources. As education at all levels has been increasingly financially squeezed over the decades the potential of digital technologies has increased as has the expectations of the extent to which they are used. The relatively recent addition of a layer of email engagement on top of a working day with no extra time given in which to deal with it is a particular problem that that been well covered in publications re;eating to education and to the commercial sector. There is less time available to explore the potential of emerging and established digital tools and to create what is needed for delivering outstanding student experiences.

A timely Tweet was aimed at me from Steve Turnbull just as I published this post:

Steve went on to mention that when he started using slides he used lots of bullet points then realised why the audience looked bored. As I implied above - working out what not to do is just a matter of common sense, try something, reflect on it and improve.

A good how not to do slideshows video: 

A picky aside:
The article consistently uses "PPT" for the registered trade name 'PowerPoint®' I have little faith in peer reviewers and am not surprised they did not pick that one up, although I have to say I often leave the ® symbol off trade names in informal communications #blush.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/trademarks/usage/general.aspx

"When referring to Microsoft software and products, apply the appropriate trademark symbols in accordance with the list of current Microsoft trademarks. View the Microsoft Trademarks list."

Worthington, D.L. and Levasseur, D.G.2015. To provide or not to provide course PowerPoint slides? The impact of instructor-provided slides upon student attendance and performance. Computers & Education.Volume 85, July 2015, Pages 14–22 [Online] Accessed 26 Nov. 2015

BA LTR course aims, elements and impact.

The BA LTR course arose out of the Ultraversity project in 2003. It places the workplace as the key context of study, students focus on developing professional expertise relevant to their current workplace role and acquiring further skills that provide a platform from which to achieve career progression and / or access to post-graduate learning.

 Students learn about research strategies and apply them in the workplace to evaluate and enhance their practice. They explore entrepreneurship by prototyping new uses of technologies and exploring the design and management of innovations to personal and workplace practice. The course aims to develop students as adept 'knowledge workers', effective practitioners who are also critically reflective agents of change, able to manage their own learning and professional development, to generate new knowledge and contribute to organisational development within and beyond their own workplace. See Kamtsiou et al. (2007, pp, 7-12).


Summary of key aims of the BA LTR course:

1. To develop a personal philosophy of learning, the use of technology and research which relates to their own work setting
2. To acquire the ability to analyse and synthesise knowledge of practice so as to solve practical problems and situations
3. To maintain a flexible approach to change as a participant, and awareness of their own power to influence change
4. To appreciate the enriching nature of working collaboratively in communities of inquiry that share insights and perspectives
5. To develop a continuing concern for their own professional development and the appropriate strategies to achieve this
6. To provide an appropriate foundation in professional and technical understanding, and knowledge and skills on which they can build through continuous professional development
7. To develop the skills of action inquiry as an enduring capacity for lifelong learning and improvement in the workplace
8. Develop the capacity to communicate to a wider audience.

Key components include:

Learning that is process rather than topic driven. This places the acquisition and application of strategies for research and professional development at the heart of the course so allowing significant personalisation of learning by individuals. Typically in each module, theory is initially explored through a critical review of literature, then by practical application of the theory in the workplace followed by further review of the effectiveness and impact of this experiential learning. This provides students with significant expertise in applying professional processes for personal and organisational development; key skills that have proved attractive to employees when students start looking for employment progression. The approach also maximises the diversity of workplaces the course is relevant to and consequently the potential range of students that might be attracted to it.

Reflective Practice and Action Inquiry are core approaches that students find valuable and adopt as life-long and life-wide strategies as implied in this comment from a student:

"BA LTR has opened up a spirit of inquiry within the cohort and made individuals challenge their use of technology. It is curiosity and a willingness to experiment that will lead to change. If teachers do not experiment with, or try and work with, technology then they will never ever get close to being in a position to grasp its fitness for purpose and therefore the potential to add value to learning using technology in and outside the classroom.”

Professional Development Planning. A review of workplace competences in the first semester enables students to identify appropriate professional development targets that can be met through personalising course study foci. Professional development progression is reviewed annually using a reflective process to ensure effective integration of work-based learning needs into the individual program of study. This key theme culminates with a focused module in the final semester where students develop a systematic approach to preparing for future employment and further learning. They review their progress and create a graduate skills portfolio that evidences achievement and shows how they plan to further develop their work-based and academic skills. During this final module they also develop an evidence based impact study that shows how their activity had impacted on self, colleagues and the wider workplace. 

Flexible learning design. This is achieved in part by placing variety / flexibility within one fixed set of modules rather than achieving it via students selecting from a bank of modules. This requires negotiation of study focus between student and tutor to ensure personalisation of study is appropriate to meet the learning outcomes of any one module. This is achieved via module specific individual learning contracts or research proposals. The approach emerged from a cybernetic analysis of traditional learning design using Beer's (1985) viable systems analysis. The distribution of variety is shown in this diagram taken from a recent EdD paper:

This variety analysis approach was also applied to reduce complexity of module resources by breaking down the activities into a range of smaller patches that accumulate over the semester. These patches are 'stitched' together via a concluding self assessment of meta-learning in the form of a retrospective analytical commentary on the learning activities carried out in each patch. With work based study courses it is also important to allow some flexibility in the pace of study within a module as students may be faced with unexpected changes to their workflow that interrupt study. An insight into strategies for this can be read here.

Technology enhanced learning. Developing significant expertise in using current and emerging digital technologies is a key theme that is integrated throughout the course. Students learn how to locate, filter and retrieve online information - a key skill for today's learners and one that is critical to developing a professional knowledge base. The ability to 'locate, learn from and contribute to' relevant professional networks is another essential skill they develop; this enables them to participate in the knowledge society. 

Digital technologies are progressing at a rate that many workplaces find difficult to keep up with; they have become an essential professional tool and the progression is likely to continue with technologies becoming more ambient and all pervasive, figure 13 on this post summarises some potential medium and longer term developments as identified by the TELMap group at a meeting in Brussels 2013. 

Prestridge (2012), Wastiau et al. (2013), Donohue (2015) and Wheeler (2015), show there is a pressing need to deal with this complexity and discuss the value of integrating ICT skills development into learning systems. They and many others point out the need for adequate teacher competence, in particular the need for teachers to be able to make appropriate decisions about what, when and how to use ICT. Beetham, McGill and Littlejohn (2009) and Beetham and Sharpe (2010) argue that in the modern digital or knowledge society there is a need for all of society to develop strategies to handle the complexity of information and to incorporate emerging technologies into both life and learning. Over recent decades the provision of free at source social media has resulted in students and the wider public being able to progress from consuming media to creating and publishing their own media, Carneiro (2010) suggested that ICT enhanced learning requires new theories as the learning possibilities are more complex than those encapsulated by traditional theories such as behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. He offered the term ‘Generativism’ the ongoing derivation of new meaning through sense-making from experience and a shared body of knowledge. Students on the BA LTR course will recognise all of these concepts as part of their learning landscape.

Social learning and communities of practice.  The one-to-many and many-to-many opportunities provided by structured social discourse in online community software is critical to the success of this model. This evolved from the traditional distance learning model where a tutor would speak separately, but less frequently, to each individual and so often end up repeating the same message many times. 
The course deploys a largely asynchronous approach to course discussion, this is initially located in institutionally provided software but students often go on to self organise supplemental communities in a range of social media. The core communities are collaborative online communities of practice and inquiry with the module foci as the practice at the heart of the community and facilitated discussion as the glue that bonds the communities. The integration of community of Inquiry and Community of Practice concepts (Wenger )is discussed here.

Constructive alignment in review and feedback. In order to attain high level marks it is important that students are able to use constructive alignment strategies to self assess their work in progress against module expectations, module specific assessment criteria and generic standards of scholarly practice. The development of self assessment skills is supported by the facilitated peer review process where students are encouraged to offer objective and constructive commentary of draft work in the spirit of critical friendship. Although this is often done in text tutors model use of other approaches that can encourage students to develop more advanced strategies. 

Student comment on tutor use of audio feedback:

"I think it is fantastic that you use voice recordings as well as written feedback, it really enabled me to understand the context in which you were giving the information. It also gave me the ability to 'sense' whether I was on the right track or not."

Student comment on their own experience of peer review via audio:

“…we inadvertently stumbled upon gold when we decided to do it [peer assessment] using audio because immediately you could sense the hesitation in the voice of your critic, 'the humanness of the medium' was the phrase that I used whereas text can be very harsh because it has no tone no intonation its not organic. I think one of the reasons why video wasn't used for me is self consciousness, its nothing more not even vanity, you can see a lot in a voice…”

 As students progress through the course the peer feedback approach becomes a critical feedback loop with detailed discussions emerging via review and response to review. Tutors model and monitor this process and ensure that review comments are aligned with relevant criteria. The same criteria referenced constructive alignment is used by tutors when providing formative feedback on draft work and along with end of module summative feedback. The final module requires the construction of an impact study which is critically reviewed by peers. In this there is an element of presentation and defence of learning that is akin to the viva that concludes doctoral studies.

Assessment by online portfolio. Assessment of media rich portfolios amplifies the potential for students to express themselves creatively by using a range of digital literacies. Although a proportion of formal writing is required, students are encouraged to use alternative genre and range of appropriate media to present aspects of their assessment products. A portfolio will typically contain Word or PDF documents, PowerPoint, Prezi or other presentation files, academic posters, video and/or animations. Students are encouraged to explore the potential of hardware and software that is in use in their own workplace as well as emerging technologies that could be of use to support their study needs and may have future relevance in the workplace. All work for assessment has to be uploaded to the student's secure and private portfolio. It has to be made available in formats that can be readily accessed by the assessors, appropriate choice of file types is discussed and agreed during semester; compatibility testing of recently emerged technologies is also done during semester if needed. Given the university requirement for date stamping the submission, any work hosted live on the internet, such as on personal web-sites, is not accepted for assessment. 

Dissemination of learning processes and research findings in the workplace. The course embraces the concept of individuals being able to contribute to organisational learning no matter what level they are at within the organisational hierarchy. Students learn how to design small-scale practical research projects using action inquiry, Reflective practice or case study approaches to identify and implement changes for improvement of personal and/or organisational practice. Others in the workplace are often involved in this aspect of study via consultation, participation, as mentors or via workplace advocacy. Many students have found that they gain increased recognition and respect in their workplace quite early in the course. it is not unusual for this to result in increased responsibilities or even internal promotion during the first or second year of study.

 It can be argued that the research process is not completed until it is shared with a critical audience. In their final year students plan a dissemination event where the process and findings of their major project are shared with a small and carefully selected workplace audience who are invited to provide critical feedback. This event can lead to significant impact both on the recognition of the professional abilities of the student and in contributing to learning and change within the organisation. It is also not unusual for students to report that they have been subsequently asked to demonstrate and share their media skills with colleagues, line managers or even organisational leaders. This comment came from a Teaching Assistant:

 “My Deputy Head delivers several training courses at a School training centre. Following my dissemination event she asked me to look at her presentation on ‘Visual Supports.’ She stated that my PowerPoint had made a powerful impact and that the images were strong. I worked with my Deputy Head showing her how to adapt slides according to the theory I had learned and applied to my presentation. She then finished the presentation and forwarded to me for my thoughts.”

An insight into student perspectives on the impact of the course can be gained via this selection of student comments that have been aggregated here.

References.

Beer, S., 1985. Diagnosing The System for Organisations. John Wiley, London and New York, NY.

Bradshaw, P., Powell, S. and Terrell, I., 2005. Developing engagement in online community of inquiry: lessons for higher education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 205-15.

Carneiro, R., 2010. Spotlight Topic 3. Open Educational Practices and Generativism. Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. Slideshow Available at: [http:// cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/3827] 

Donohue, C., 2014. Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years: Tools for Teaching and Learning. Routledge, e-book

Millwood, R., Powell, S. and Tindal, I., 2008a. Personalised learning and the Ultraversity experience. Interactive Learning Environments, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 63-81.

Millwood, R., Powell, S. and Tindal, I., 2008b. Developing technology-enhanced, work-focused learning – a pattern language approach. Proceedings for TSSOL 2008, Technology Support for Self-Organised Learners. Austria. pp. 84-105.

Prestridge, S., 2012. The beliefs behind the teacher that influences their ICT practices. Computers & Education, 58, pp.449–458.

Wastiau, P., Blamire, R., Kearney, C., Quittre, V., Van de Gaer, E. and Monseur, C. 2013. The Use of ICT in Education: a survey of schools in Europe. European Journal of Education.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. and Snyder, W., 2006. Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press. 

Wheeler, S., 2015. Learning with ‘e’s: educational theory and practice in the digital age. Crown House Publishing.

Are you connected?

Siemens (2004) posited that extending personal networks leads to the amplification of knowledge and understanding and this is driven by the small efforts of many contributing to the larger efforts of a few and all contributing to the accumulation of shared knowledge. Downes (2012) asserts that knowledge lies within networks be they neural, human or machine, he identifies four mechanisms integral to this process: similarity, contiguity, feedback and harmony. In my experience these are powerful forces and in today's connected society social media such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook and Youtube is where much of today's knowledge is generated, communicated, challenged and affirmed. 

In my opinion Twitter is the key portal through which to access the cutting edge of connected knowledge. It is a vibrant hive of shared information and dialogue. If you follow the right people and tweet / retweet the right things you can rapidly develop a local and global footprint. I have been added to Twitter lists in Europe, Australia and the US. My activity is relatively minor.

I spend perhaps 15-30 minutes a day browsing Twitter in short visits, my phone pings when there is activity relating to my Tweets and I tend to respond straight away but that only takes seconds to do. High-level users will spend more time identifying a target audience and generating material likely to provoke follows from many thousands of people. I have seen educational accounts with over 100k followers, these are often manned by a team rather than being individual accounts. It is also possible to buy follows and interactions by the tens of thousands so it can be difficult to be sure who is influential and who is financing their social presence beyond its real sphere of influence.

 I also run several blogs and gain around 1000 views a month despite not really promoting them. On some days there are spikes where several hundred hits happen over a few hours. I know some of my learning journal blog posts are used on MOOCs and other courses as I have talked to some who have visited it. The graphic below indicates the geographical extent of my blog readership over the last 4 weeks. During the previous 4 weeks it was dominated by Eastern Europe. 

I created two public Twitter lists for personal research and for use by my students via embedding on the VLE. I add to them on a daily basis as I come across interesting folk. Students and people I don't directly know have contacted me to say how useful the lists have been to them.

https://twitter.com/iantindal/lists/education-leadership used on MBA Educational Leadership and Management 

https://twitter.com/iantindal/lists/outdoor-learning Primarily created for my research journal blog but also used on an Outdoor Play Experiences module and would be useful for any modules on outdoor play or learning as it currently links over 100 practitioners, organisations and academics in the field. 

In my experience journals are increasingly distanced from the heart of academic rhetoric, their readership is tiny and many argue that in a rapidly evolving world papers can be out of date by the time they are published. Trust in published sources is diminished as evidenced by almost daily accounts in the media of publications that were unreliable, some of these are based on research that was backed by commercial funding although that does not always mean output is not legitimate and objective. The unfounded proposed benefit of drinking a glass of red wine a day claim is a good example, others include the discredited learning styles theory, the discredited advice about avoiding dairy products, conflicting advice about the the role of salt, fibre, fruit, meat, sugars and a host of claimed antioxidants in our diet. The impact of such published research can be far reaching for producers and consumers, it is important that it is based on large scale, systematic and replicable study and carefully scrutinised. The acid bath stem cell publication 'Stimulus Triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency' peer reviewed and published in Nature then debunked and retracted 5 months later is another example. Only a small proportion of research appears to be replicable, this is understandable with contextualised social research but less so with scientific studies. 

Today's challenge appears to be to identify who is a reliable source and to check the social discourse about their ideas to see what other professionals make of them. In an open access online world peer review is public and can involve many in ongoing debate, this would seem more valuable than traditional journal peer review that is private and largely just from two reviewers who will not infrequently have limited expertise and sometimes provide directly contrasting views as to what is valuable and what needs to be developed in a draft paper. 

We live in an increasingly connected and altruistic academic world, if you are not using social media to communicate your knowledge and to engage in debate in your field then much of the world is missing out on what you are learning. Making use of such opportunities to become part of the connected and open society can only benefit your professional profile and long term career prospects.

Downes, S., 2012. Connective Knowledge Essays on meaning and learning networks. http://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf

Siemens, G., 2004. Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.  http://www.ingedewaard.net/papers/connectivism/2005_siemens_ALearningTheoryForTheDigitalAge.pdf

Distance Learning

I was reading this post on how to get the most out of a distance learning course yesterday and reflected on how negative some of the thoughts are. There are some valid points but much of it does not reflect the approach we have developed on the Anglia Ruskin fully online BA LTT course. Words in italics are from the article.

"If you don’t have to attend tutorials and you have the flexibility to study when you want it can be easy to not do as much as you need to...You may have access to a tutor, but it isn’t quite the same communicating via email as it is talking to someone face-to-face." 
As far as I am aware most f2f courses also offer optional tutorials, there is no compulsion to attend. Online tutorials via Skype, Facetime or the good old fashioned telephone are little different to f2f tutorials. Tutorials held via VOIP offer the potential for group tutorials and the advantage that the audio can easily be captured and listened to again and again to help students induct the learning and tutors review their approach.

"You therefore have to be extremely determined to take a distance learning course, as you have to be able to focus on what needs to be done." 
I am not sure 'extreme determination' is needed any more so than on a f2f course, on both you need to 'focus on what needs to be done', taught time on a f2f course is fairly minimal and autonomous study prevails unless you are on a course such as geology where a lot of field-work / lab time is built into the time-table. 

"If you’re having difficulty with reading or writing essays this may not be picked up on unless you actually get in contact with your tutor." 
I guess this can happen, however; in our online community of practitioners (Wenger, 2001) and dialogue based approach, students are required to participate on a weekly basis, tutors notice if a student is not participating. There is a requirement for students to read and respond to discussion posts, to share their work for peer review regularly and to offer peer review to fellow students. Tutors monitor peer review and intervene when needed to ensure that review comments are constructively aligned with assessment tasks and criteria. Tutors also provide digitally annotated reviews of work in progress. This makes sure that weaknesses are picked up at an early stage and appropriate support is in place. 


"Clearly, if you’re having difficulty understanding certain concepts you have to ask someone else, as it is better to ask for help than to give up your course because you can’t understand something." 
This is good advice, we open each module with a week where students are advised to read all course resources and raise any uncertainties in online community. They are encouraged to articulate what they think the resources are asking them to do, this in itself can help conceptualisation but also provides other students the chance to add their own interpretations and for tutors to affirm or clarify as needed. We also make sure they understand that there is no concept of  'A stupid question' and it rapidly becomes clear that other students either have the same question in mind or have the answer. This period of negotiating and clarifying meaning can be critical in developing community bonding. 

The notion of balancing work life and study is one that was identified in 2000 when I was working with North Thames Thoracic medicine students, online asynchronous learning was an emergent pedagogy at that time but very much appreciated. 

“You have the fabric there of exactly what we want; we want to go home, relax and when the kids are asleep, we can say this is the time to learn."

 Respiratory SpR. November 2000.

It was also identified as theme in our 2008 paper 'Personalised Learning and the Ultraversity Experience'. Most students manage to create a good balance fairly quickly. We provide a work focused course so a proportion of study is based in the workplace during normal working hours. A significant proportion of students reported that they were able to negotiate some study time with their employer, this ranged from a few hours to a whole day per week and varied during the course timetable with a greater likely-hood of time being given close to assessment points or at key points during the implementation of work based research projects. 
This extract from a paper, co-written by course tutors and a student provides an insight from a student that evidences the benefits of online learning and of work-based learning in helping her achieve a good balance between life, work and study:

One of the key features of the BA LTR was the autonomy that it gave me, autonomy to not only devise my own learning timetable but also the autonomy to judge where and when to apply my evolving research skills to real life situations in the work place.  Work based learning empowered me, with full support from my employers, to identify areas for improvement in the workplace, resulting in powerful impact on my academic, personal and professional development.

The action research led modules enabled a fusion of work and study, as a mother of two with an extremely busy life the ability to combine these two elements of my life so seamlessly was a significant contributing factor to the fact that I completed and committed to the course.  The sole reason that I had never undertaken a traditional degree course was my perception that I would need to carve up my time, redress my priorities and fit my life around study.  With the BA LTR course study fitted quite comfortably into my life. Whilst it was not easy and had high demands the way that it dovetailed my work allowed me to access higher education.
Arnold, Pickford and O’Dunne (2007)

Negotiation of study time with family can be critical to getting the balance right - the benefits of a higher qualified parent who is more likely to obtain a higher paid job are clear to partners and older children if they are overtly discussed and feedback from students indicates that negotiation is often successful. Balancing some quiet study time with focused family time can help younger children accept the change. We have since done some research into study patterns and identified a range of approaches to fitting in online study time outside of the study time at work.

1. Early birds - some students set a pattern of doing an hour or so of study every day in the morning before work or before family get up at the weekend. 
2. Evenings - a more common pattern is starting online study in the evening when family are settled, this may well be a fairly regular log-in to the online community between 7 and 10 pm.
3. Night owls - a significant proportion of students start their study in the late evening and make use of quiet time after children go to bed. Some will study over the 11pm - 2am period although this is a minority sport it is more frequent close to assessment points.
4. Weekends - Some students put aside a whole day at the weekend as the main study time and augment this with occasional forays into the online community during the week at convenient but not preset times.
5.  Random scatter - study is done as and when needed or when inspiration strikes. 

These patterns are not always adhered to strictly, students may have a dominant pattern augmented by opportunity or, as Julie articulates in the short video below, will log in when inspiration strikes.

Tutors also work flexible hours and it is not unusual for a tutor to be in the online communities anywhere from 6 am to 2 am on weekdays or at weekends. This flexibility is enabled by home working and allows tutors to make use of times when inspiration strikes. For example I woke early a few weeks ago with some new thoughts about how to convey the value of using an online learning journal and recorded, then uploaded, a podcast on the topic before 6 am on a Sunday. As the thoughts were fresh in my mind and I was fairly pleased with them the enthusiasm was also conveyed in a way that might not have been so apparent were I to have waited until the normal working hours to do my work.

"It can be tough to stick with a distance learning course, but if you use all the materials provided and make contact with your tutor and other students you will find that studying in this way is a rewarding experience." 
I totally agree with this statement, as with an on-campus course, participation is essential, students who have a light engagement during the earlier week of semester then try and cram it all in in the final weeks rarely flourish. Students who do not take an active part in learning, ignore the suggested learning schedule and hope they can wing it do not flourish. Fortunately we rarely have students like this and as mentioned earlier the community of practice approach makes participation visible. Tutors can also monitor attendance / interactions using the statistical trackers in the VLE software and will contact students if they have concerns about lack of attendance.

Below is one of our fairly recent 1st Class Hons students talking about her approach to study and some of the benefits of this kind of learning. Julie also gained recognition by the workplace during her studies and after graduation achieved promotion to the post of Business Operations Team Leader.





References

Arnold, L., Pickford, S., and O’Dunne, V. (2007) Real world research: Inquiry led undergraduate work-based learning in the virtual paradigm. Presented to the All Ireland Society of Higher Education Conference, Maynooth – 31st August 2007. Available at http://www.aishe.org/events/2006-2007/conf2007/proceedings/paper-02.doc

Millwood, R., Powell, S., Tindal, I. (2008). Personalised Learning and the Ultraversity Experience.Interactive Learning Environments, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp. 63 - 81. Routledge.

Wenger. E., 2001. Supporting communities of practice: a survey of community-oriented technologies. Self-published report available at www.ewenger.com/tech