[ElizabethECharl]

Ali – liked your blog on this subject and thought your review of both the Rheingold talk and JISC digital literacies project website was spot on.  I always feel that my one session with learners gives them some of the necessary skills and some attributes but as to how that is carried over into the rest of their module I am not sure. You might find the following resource that I have been curating of use at Information and Digital literacy .

[ElizabethECharl]

Ali -Thank you for your feedback.

It is surprising to me how liberated and uninhibited adult learners become when told that it is okay to share experiences of when things didn’t work.  It is at these instances that I see a real breakthrough when other students suggest what might have helped and how they acquired their knowledge under similar circumstances.  I try to always begin these discussions with the following: “… even though you think your query/question may be too easy or silly please ask because you will be helping another person in the group who may not have the courage to ask or speak up.”  Having established this safe environment for them to do so, they then do not focus on their vulnerability but the fact they are helping somebody else in the group. My not being their lecturer/tutor whom they put in a position of authority, allows them to be honest without feeling it might have repercussions and or how they will be perceived having revealed this.

I added relevant new resources to Diigo  OCTEL group on diglit and adult learning.

[ElizabethECharl]

SairaAkhtar,
I don’t think any of the questionnaires touched on that last issue of maintaining motivation during a less interesting module/topic during a course – even more essential in online learning.  I agree that it really should be there – or are we to assuming that this will be covered in some additional support material elsewhere. Along with the please introduce yourself to other particpants on the course you could have a ‘share your technique for getting through’ such an occurrence.

[ElizabethECharl]

MmMouton,
Perhaps if this happens every semester it would be worthwhile exploring the possibility of  prefacing the semester with a 1 or 2 weeks “clinics” that would provide the opportunity for those skills to be aquired? Of course that does assume that they will realise that they would benefit from this in the first place and participate.

[ElizabethECharl]

Hi Sue,

You are right about the lead up time being required to get familiar with said tools and to use them confidently. The jumping in and engaging is a great approach, however when dealing with some mature learners who are pressed for time they tend to make value judgement as to what is worth spending their time on. It could also be the final deciding factor if a learner has already taken the readiness questionnarie and found that they are not as prepared as they thought they were being faced with not enough time before the course starts. Ideally some time possibly two weeks or more should be given over to self- assessment and then steps to address any gaps. I might even suggest that one way of engaging quickly would be to use gamification – where the skills are acquired whilst the focus is on a more engaging superficial level hmm… I wonder if any existing OER could go some way to addressing this? I don’t have much experience in that area but it would enable the learner to bridge that gap.

[ElizabethECharl]

Helen – I shared it with Eleni Zazani and as you mentioned her in the webinar today you can see that she made use of it.  She found it very informative and is already thinking of how she can best introduce it to the researchers that she works with.

[ElizabethECharl]

Hi Sandra,

I found the following that might be of interest, looking at readiness:

Title: The role of readiness factors in E-learning outcomes: An empirical study
Author(s): Keramati, Abbas; Afshari-Mofrad, Masoud; Kamrani, Ali
Source: COMPUTERS & EDUCATION  Volume: 57   Issue: 3   Pages: 1919-1929   DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.04.005   Published: NOV 2011
 

Title: Distance Students’ Readiness for Social Media and Collaboration
Author(s): Poellhuber, Bruno; Anderson, Terry
Source: INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING  Volume: 12   Issue: 6   Pages: 102-125   Published: 2011

 
 

[ElizabethECharl]

Thanks – I’ll note that for future reference.

[ElizabethECharl]

I just want to echo Sue’s comments about your questionnaires Helen. Very encouraging and positive I scored highly on all areas including the digital scepticism.  I would like to share these with a colleague of mine who is also interested in self-assessment about preferences and areas for development. 🙂
 

[ElizabethECharl]

David this was raised by a member of my group and bearing in my mind your response and reasoning I think we will stick with the current set-up.

Many thanks

[ElizabethECharl]

Sue,I totally agree that the questionnaires should be a point  on a continnum that identifies gaps in skills that may be necessary and having identified these gaps should in an integrated manner take the learner to support material or training to fill the gaps; and then return them to the questionnaire.   As just one element in a support package of testing the readiness of the learner I think the questionnaire works well, on its own it is as effective as the learner’s ability to understand how critical certain questions and their answers may be in determining their abilit to naviagate the online learning mode of study.

[ElizabethECharl]

Hi Sandra,

It is interesting that you have picked up on a similar issue that Sancha @GraphDesProject  raised in response to my post – the issue of whether students completing the questionnaire would act on the feedback advice and suggestions made.  Her suggestion was to follow this up with a hang-out or webinar where personal interaction with the tutor might underscore the need to act on the advice.  The questionnaires’ tone is gentle rather than strident and this can be difficult to pitch correctly.  In answer to your points about the validity of the surveys and how these are further used by the institution to support the student; in the further reading Study of McVay Questionnaire this is addressed.

I would hope that with any of these questionnaires that this would be used as a device/tool to have further discussions with the student as to their skills set and readiness for this mode of study.  Almost like a self-assessment and then a detailed follow-up for those areas that were flagged as areas of concern.

[ElizabethECharl]

Sancha

I am glad that this is the case with your f2f course and it is clearly stated right at the beginning and that getting the balance right can be difficult. I agree that students can be blasé and without any additional impetus will probably ignore the advice suggested in the feedback from the questionnaire.  I love the suggestion of a hang-out event or webinar in conjunction with the questionnaire feedback. That would provide that personal interaction that is sometimes needed to underline and explain in more detail why acting on the advice is necessary and important.  If the hangout took place well in advance of the course starting that would allow the opportunity to acquire necessary skills etc., without concerns of falling behind in the course.  A social event or webinar where this issue and previous experience could be discussed amongst participants in groups of 2/3 would also facilitate the students starting to get to know each other at an early stage.  The assumption is that the student is already self-directed and knows and understands the important differences in this mode of study. That would probably be true of quite a large number of online students but if this was a student straight from school – I think the difference would be the same as moving from high school to university and sometimes just as scary.

[ElizabethECharl]

Sancha – thank you for that link to this resource – really useful.

[ElizabethECharl]

Welcome – I am sure we have space for one more!

The scenario you present is something I am sure that we have all experienced – and some of us may still be experiencing it.  I too am hoping along with finding an answer to my big question, that by the end of the course I will be able to make some informed suggestions to the team of subject librarians I work with who have ‘lost their enthusiasm’.

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