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Student expectations of E-Learning; Aaron Porter and Linda Creanor

A recent graduate from the University of Leicester, Aaron Porter presented a student perspective of e-learning. He spoke about student expectations of e-learning, which he suggested are becoming more defined with every year’s new intake. He reported that today’s students don’t see e-leaning as being discrete from the rest of their learning experience but embedded within it. Students now expect and demand a more flexible learning experience.

Aaron gave an interesting perspective on the omnipresent dissatisfaction with assessment and feedback. He reported that students feel the common modes of assessment and feedback bear no relevance to how students’ professional progress and attainment will be assessed once they enter the workplace (although this has never really been the case!). Another interesting comment was that students now expect a ‘tracking’ system for their coursework submissions and examinations – have they been received? Have they been marked? Is it ready for collection? Podcasts & videos are generally considered useful, and students are used to this media in their everyday lives. Virtual worlds such as Second Life are not generally viewed by students as potential educational tools at this time.

Students appear to be concerned about the future loss of face-to-face interaction – a point that was questioned by a number of delegates, who suggested that this could be a romantic notion rather than an informed opinion, and that once students have actually had an interactive online learning experience, they usually prefer it to more traditional teaching methods.

The issue of boundaries and appropriate levels of interaction with staff was raised. Aaron suggested that if staff presence is too strong it can stunt informal learning. Finally, he reminded us that students are increasingly seeing themselves as consumers, and they want a product that is tailored to their needs and wants, in terms of teaching style, curriculum and place/time.

Linda Creanor began the second half of this session by talking about current generations – Boomers, X, Y and Z – and the different ways they approach thinking, working and learning. Then she played that YouTube clip we’ve probably all seen by now – A Vision of Students Today (the viewer comments beneath the clip are always amusing).

Linda led the recent JISC-funded LEX project on learner experiences of e-learning. The project aimed to answer the following questions: What makes an effective learner in an e-learning context? How are learners using technology in their learning and outside? The study, which involved 55 second-year media policy undergraduates (70% female), concluded that effective e-learners:
• believe technology should be used only with the specific goal of enhancing learning
• are willing to engage & expect tutors to do the same.
• are able to deal with strong emotional reactions to technology
• are skilled networkers
• engage with the ‘underworld’ of digital communication – Text, IM etc

The study also found that students were using the following technologies:
• Wikipedia – 95%
• Social networking – 88%
• Blogging – 18%
• Second Life – 5%
• Del.icio.us – 3%

Linda is also involved with REAP – a project working on the redesign of assessment practices to incorporate student-regulated, technology-enabled assessment for learning. Many of the delegates I met at the conference, including Gilly Salmon, spoke very highly of this project, so their site is probably worth a look if you’re not already aware of what they’re doing.