Activity 3
Read the article by Price et al. (2007), ‘Face-to-face versus online tutoring support in distance education’.
Make some notes in your blog on whether the evidence regarding online tuition in Price et al.’s paper fits your own experience of online communication in general and your own experience of online tuition on H800. With my own students I provide both telephone, email, conferencing and f2f tutorials. There is low participation in all of these but I would imagine if they had taken part in this study their responses would be the same. I think it may come down to personal expectations that students have about their tutor and how they feel tutorials should be carried out. For many their only experience is of years of traditional classroom learning whilst at school.
As a online student myself I prefer online tutoring to f2f and the discussion forums are a connection to my fellow students which is important for me.
Then check what other students in your tutor group have written.
Do you agree with Price et al. that online tuition is a pastoral activity and not a purely academic activity? I think it is both. Tutors facilitate the learning online by also supporting the student...they go hand in hand.
Do you agree that the absence of what the authors call ‘paralinguistic cues’ in an online environment can limit the effectiveness of online tuition? It can....I wonder what, if any, difference it would have made to the study if the online students were given a photo of their tutor at the start of the course? Perhaps they need to feel a visual connection to that tutor. My students will often say that its nice to put a face to the person on the end of the email or the telephone.
Activity 2
Read the article by Richardson (2005), ‘Students’ approaches to learning and teachers’ approaches to teaching in higher education’.
I didn't find anything new in this paper. I did however have problems with the terminology...what is it about people insisting papers are written in academic language that alienates half the readers....so unnecessary. What the heck does...'effects of contextual factors'.... actually mean?
As for using questionnaires there is no mention of how many actually filled them in comparison to the number of participants in the study. As an AL my students are asked to fill in a questionnaire towards the end of each course regarding their learning experience. Out of approx 20 students 5 usually oblige!!
Who were the students taking part in the research.....gender, age, demographics, reasons for studying, new learners etc???
Who were the tutors taking part....gender, age, new to teaching, first time teaching the course etc???
I would agree that the 3 predominant approaches used by a student are likely to vary during the course depending on the course demands.
Activity 3b
Almost all of the studies cited in the previous section measured impact, or the lack of it, according to marks obtained on standardised tests. Daniel’s criticism is also based on such findings. However, advocates of elearning would probably say that it conveys many other learning advantages, especially in the field of open and distance learning, which should also be taken into consideration.
These advantages could be grouped under the following headings:
- Access to more/better sources of information
- Greater flexibility in how/where/when one learns
- More collaborative learning
- New/better ways of learning using Web 2.0 tools
- Better/more tutoring
- Better assessment methods
Spend a few minutes considering your own professional situation.
Are these possibilities mentioned above being realised? I think most of these possibilities are in the process of being realised. Not sure you could claim that they are already being realised as all of these advantages are constantly changing and evolving.I
Do you think that open and distance learning is the main beneficiary? I'm a bit confused as to what this question is actually asking. If its that open and distance learning is the main beneficiary of these advantages then no. I've worked in FE using traditional f2f tutoring/facilitating and these advantages were in the process of being realised there. But maybe I've misunderstood the question.
Activity 1a and 1b
Quite often in these types of debate a vote is taken before the discussion. This did not happen here but I would like you to:
1. spend about ten minutes considering the proposition, given your current knowledge and beliefs
2. take notes on how you would vote and why.
I can actually see both sides of the arguement and feel they are both valid. My feeling has always been technology cannot increase the quality of education alone but that some technologies do work wonders. I think boh speakers did actually agree on this.
However reading the propostions Daniels was written well and I could relate to it. Kozma's was written in 'computer' language...what the heck was he on about.....he lost me in a sea of studies!! Therefore because of this I may be swayed to vote for Daniel......new technologies add little quality to education..however I believe that the right technologies used in the right way at the right time can add quality and so will vote for Kozma!!!
I'm now marking E123's TMA 03 and next week E124's is due in so that's 4 weeks of marking....yippee! Had ECA tutorials at Northumbria Uni all day yesterday for both groups....it was the last one for all of them as they will be completing end of May so won't see any of them again....aah! Just have the last tutorial to do on Wednesday night at the Jewish nursery. Told my boss on Friday that I couldn't apply for the new E100 course as I probably wouldn't be able to see it through due to moving to Ontario. She was really nice and there's a possibility of picking up a contract this October for those students who may still need to finish E123/E124....so all good!!Have to go to Milton Keynes at the end of May for an ECA marking day....thought I'd apply to mark this year and got the E124 marking!
Activity 6
The ‘OER Roadmap’ publication (Geser, 2007) is an essential information guide about OERs for individuals and institutions interested in providing or using open content. You might just want to take notes for yourself at this point.
Read the introduction to the OLCOS report on pages 12 and 13.
Read sections 3.0–3.2 (pages 20–24) and think of the ways in which OERs could be useful for different types of users.
Read the section ‘Creative Commons licensing is firmly established and increasingly used’ on pages 58 and 59 and reflect upon the advantages of using an open licence to provide and share content.
Ok not really sure why I put this in here as I'm not going to add anything to it at the moment...won't delete it as I may come back later!
After what I would say has been a bit off a rocky start to Block 2 (Block 1 wasn't exactly a bed of roses either!) I am loving Week 10. This is probably due to less activities so there's more time to concentrate and work on them. Also I've discoverd Delicious...how sad am I that I've been studying MAODE since Sept 2007 and only just fathomed out its use!!! Really like OpenLearn http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php ...as an AL I'm sure the OU will have directed me to this but I either didn't have time to look or didn't understand its use. There are actually resources for the courses that I teach....as far as I'm aware they've never been recommended in the AL discussion forums. Not much use now as the courses are ending this July and amalgamating into one starting this October.
Anyway I've atually jumped forward in the activities so I need to go back to Week 10b Activity 6 and read through the OER Roadmap. I'm aware that my time will be limited over the next few weeks as I have TMA's to mark for two courses, tutorials, CPD day (on Elluminate!!!) and ECA markers day at Milton Keynes!
