holistic Goodyear & Ellis

Peter Goodyear and R.A.Ellis (2008)

University students’ approaches to learning: rethinking the place of technology

Distance Education, 29, 2, 141-152

Uses the term holistic – but only in the Abstract – The article has implications for thinking about the design and management of learning environments in more holistic or ecological ways.

Refers to digital natives in the sense that  an interpretation of Prensky’s articles means that some expect them to arrive in HE with a set of established technological competencies that they will readily apply.

Students want to know the value of a technology JISC (2007)

P141

‘blended learning makes little or no sense to students.  It refers to a learning context ( arrangements for learning) rather than learning itself’

p142

research approach ‘an interest in comparison and replacement rather than by analysis and integration’  the drive to compare is ‘intellectual simplification’

what is foregrounded?

Some research may ‘ignore the work that students and others have to do to make the intervention what it is’ KRO e.g. group work

P143 ‘judgements are made about the success of education innovations without any serious attempt to unravel the factors shaping the outcome’

Draws a distinction between affected by rather than determined by – an interesting idea in the context of SEM modelling

P144

‘what to measure is open to judgement and contestation’

despite research approaches such as the open ended survey questions, ethnography, the possibility for students to tell us sufficient about their experience remains limited 

‘many management choices in educational evaluation are constrained by logistics, engrained practices, and lack of technical sophistication’

p145 quoting Selwyn 2007 ‘students need to be able to perceive gains from engaging with technology , KRO and group work

p147

‘students make a situated interpretation of the broader requirements of the study situation’ and this has implications for the outcome of their learning’.  Students interpretation of the task and the activities required to achieve the task are crucial

p149

‘their activity is a compromise between what they value for themselves and what they perceive to be the demands of the HE system in which they are working’

p149

‘taking a seriously student-centred approach means acknowledging the complexity of the work that gets done’

Burdett group work student experience

Making Groups Work: University Students’ Perceptions

Jane Burdett (2003)

International Education Journal, Vol 4, No 3, p177-200

P179

“According to Imel (1991) there is little empirical evidence that collaborative learning works as it relates to learning outcomes and in adult education. Homel an Poel (1999) express a similar cview that group work has been demonstrated to be far less effective than it should be in many cases and that students must be taught how to be effective group members’

‘Mutch (1998) also oberves, ironically, that the tension students experience as they work in groups often, in fact, foreshadows what they willl experience in the workforce’

‘group work can be hard work emotionally and intelectually’

The study

105 responses from 344 final year business degree students

Face-face, meet in small groups (2-10) to collaborate on a task.

Survey, 43 items in 4 sections

1. Demographics
2. Participant experience, group work processes, (11 items)
3. Competencies e.g.task management, problem solving, conflict resolution (8 items)
4. 3 open ended questions

Findings (relating to sections 2& 4)

Quantitative

P182 ‘ 57% agreement with statement that experiences have been positive’

‘63% statement that groups worked well’ these students were more likely to believe that ‘ the workload was fairly shared, they could not have achieved better outcomes when working alone, the marks awarded were generally fair ( all r p<0.001)

Qualitative

Responses to open questions were p183 ‘coded, grouped and categorized as connecting themes emerged’.

120 comments about the best aspects of group work fell into five main categories

generating ideas and sharing views (43%, 52 comments)

meeting people and building friendships (28%, 33 comments)

improved learning process (16%, 19 comments)

sharing of workload (10%, 12 comments)

improved grades (4%, 3 comments)

147 comments about the worst aspects of group work

unequal distribution of effort (59%, 86 comments)

difficulties of accommodating different work schedules for meeting times (37%, 55comments)

lack of staff support (4%, 147 comments)

104 comments about addressing group work issues

improving time management and communication p186 ‘ establishing effective ways of communicating with each other’ –“trying to get together physically [was] difficult”

better assessment practices

increasing arbitration by staff

more effective allocation of students to groups

allowing choice of group members

making group work optional restricting group size

p186 “Generally, the remedies suggested by participants were aimed at overcoming the frustrating and disabling inequities they associated with formal group work.

Conclusion

Recommendations

• Offer collaborative work online to get rid of frustrations organising face to face meetings
• Design of task and assessment
• P190 ‘Strategies to assist group interdependence’

)'Regan 2003

Kerry O’Regan

Emotion and E-Learning

Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks

Vol 7,3 78-92

Argues for the centrality of emotion whilst learning

Considers emotion from a variety of perspectives

Individual phenomena – experiential knowing is part of the human condition

· Darwin – mechanisms for adaptation and survival

· Behaviorist – states, elicited by ‘ the delivery, omission or termination of rewarding or punishing stimuli’ (Roll, E., The Brain and Emotion, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1984.) i.e. emotions as instrumental in influencing choices

· P79 ‘ emotion as some combination ( with various emphases and sequences) of physiological, psychological and psychomotor components.

Socio-cultural

· Goleman ‘things we catch from each other ‘as though they were some kind of social virus’

· Denzin (Denzin, N. On Understanding Emotion, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1984) ‘social acts involving interactions with self and interactions with others’ Averill ‘a transitory social role’

· Damasio P79 ‘ most recent developments are in the field of neurobiology) Damasio -emotions ‘ retain a primacy that subtly pervades our mental life ….. having a say on how the rest of the brain and cognition go about their business’

What is an emotion and what is not?

How to define a functional relationship between emotion and learning?

RQS

· What emotions are associated with studying online

· What are the teaching-learning contexts of these emotions?

· How do they relate to student learning

· What are the practical implications for teaching and learning online

Method

P82 ‘ explores in qualitative terms the lived experience of students learning online particularly in relation to its social dimensions

11 volunteers, 6, mature, studying a variety of online courses

interviewed , interviewer selected specific topics logging on, following instructions, accessing resources and they were provided with a checklist of emotions, which the interviewer referred to

Findings

Frustration ( all 11 Ps) – p84 ‘appeared as the most pervasive emotion’ cumulative aspect of minor things’ broken links, disruption to service, lack of clarity about navigation ‘ the instructions were quite simple, but the application of them seemed quite difficult’, locating oneself, p84 ‘ rambling or superficial nature of unmoderated online discussion’ ‘ I think a whole group of people who really don’t have a better understanding of the issues than you do, all offering up opinions and there doesn’t seem to be very much comes out of that’ p86 ‘ a general desire to get things done quickly with a minimum expenditure of unnecessary time’ ‘ I don’t know what they look like, where they live, who they really are’

Frustration –other workers

Hara and King p81 and 82 ‘ identify considerable frustration experienced by students with the technical aspects of learning online, with interpreting and following instructions and with managing the enormous amounts of email

Fear, anxiety, apprehension ( many Ps)

Submitting assignments – has it got through? – lack of control over process

Prospect of public exposure of learning work to people who were anonymous

Shame/embarrassment (many)

Online exposure inadequacies and mistakes there for everyone to see

Enthusiasm/excitement

P87 ‘ it was quite exciting that we were so technically advanced’, being able to learn with other people. Other commented that they had found f-to-f more exciting

Pride

In assignments well done and having peers compliment p88 ‘ in the online environment with its characteristics for publicness and permanence , the potential for pride is very great’

Conclusion

Makes a number of recommendations made for minimizing negative emotions

In terms of collaborative learning

P89 ‘processes are put in place for students to have an indication of the actual make up of the audience for any submissions they post online; provision is made for class members to become known to each other as real people with their own idiosyncratic interests and characteristics’

‘where possible, online communication is augmented with face to face meetings’ ( KRO why? Author did not say , KRO is it always appropriate?)