Virtual learning
4 May 2009
The educational environment is changing. As new technologies are developed and traditional teaching strategies are refined, new learning opportunities are arising.
Theresa Anderson
Second Life, podcasts and video clips may not be immediately associated with higher education. However, some academics are looking at how these tools could be used to increase learning outcomes for time-poor, technology-savvy students.
Senior Lecturer with the Creative Practices group in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Theresa Anderson, began using podcasts in her classes at UTS two years ago, as part of an Institute of Multimedia Learning (IML)-sponsored pilot.
Last year, she went a step further, replacing a third of the weekly lectures in a large, first-year subject with a series of podcasts. The idea arose after Anderson noticed a drop in lecture attendance, after the mid-semester break.
Having successfully used podcasts while teaching an online subject for the University of Washington in the United States, Anderson thought it was a good opportunity to try the technology here.“It was a subject about communication and using new media, so it seemed to justify the idea of rethinking the traditional classroom approach,” she says.
Anderson set about replacing the final five weeks of lectures with seven, 25-minute podcasts relating to the students’ final essay project. Available via UTSOnline, the podcasts were complemented by a biography of the presenter, readings, activities and questions that were later discussed in organised, face-to-face group meetings.
“There’s an expectation that everyone will be ready to take in the same information at the same time, in the same way, at the same place. What I love about podcasting is that you allow a student to chose when, where, how and how often they hear that material,” says Anderson.
Fran Rogan
According to Lecturer in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Fran Rogan, “It’s an issue of being responsive to students’ learning styles.”
Rogan and Senior Lecturer with the English Language Study Skills Assistance (ELSAA) Centre, Caroline San Miguel, collaborated in the development of an additional resource for the established Clinically Speaking program. Instead of using podcasts, the project involved developing iVocs – digital audio files available for download from iTunes.
The aim is to help students, particularly those from non-English speaking backgrounds, develop their use of professional terminology and succeed in their clinical placements. The iVocs enable students to see a word, hear it being pronounced correctly and, where relevant, see a picture of it too.
“It’s giving them support, language support, which is very important,” says Rogan. “Given how important communication is in nursing, it’s absolutely fundamental in assisting their professional development to be effective communicators in a clinical setting.”
Effective communication is also vital for students undertaking International Studies.
Ilaria Vanni
In 2008, Head of the Cultural Studies Academic Group, Ilaria Vanni, carried out a pilot project called Second Italy, for her In Country Studies subject. For this subject, students spend a year in a partner university in Italy, working on their own research project.
Second Italy involved Vanni building a virtual island in Second Life – an online, multi-lingual, virtual world – which she used to hold regular meetings with the students she was supervising in Italy.
Rather than spending days or weeks communicating with individual students via email, Second Italy allowed Vanni to talk to every student at the same time and in the same online space, even though they were all in different geographical locations.
“Being in a shared virtual place allows you really to teach in a way that is almost like discovering together,” says Vanni. “So it’s not just me giving them information or content, it is an analysis of that content being done together.”
Enabling users to communicate online via voice or text – which can also be recorded and reviewed at a later date – Second Life also offers Language and Culture studies students the chance to “go and talk to people who were speaking in authentic Italian,” says Vanni. “So they could hear different accents if they were using voice and they could learn different ways to type words.” All without getting on a plane.
Using these flexible learning modes, Anderson, Rogan and Vanni believe they have been able to engage students in unprecedented ways.
However, that does not mean these new technologies will be replacing traditional modes of teaching. At least not any time soon.
“There’s still a need for variation,” says Anderson. “It’s not like one size fits all.”
Yusuf Pisan
For Associate Professor in the School of Software in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Yusuf Pisan, going ‘back to basics’ is an important part of developing tomorrow’s innovators.
“I teach a subject on game design and I’ve been doing it the old fashioned way,” explains Pisan.
Rather than having students in his game design class get on the computer and start programming straight away, Pisan has them creating physical prototypes like card and board games, to develop a better understanding of design concepts.
When “students started working on a computer game very early on they would end up focussing too much on making things look pretty. So they would focus on the graphics part of it and they would get tangled in some of the programming aspects,” says Pisan. “I really wanted students to push the boundaries and not repeat what is already out there and for them to be able to think more deeply about design.”
According to Anderson, the discussion surrounding the use of old and new technologies “really emphasises the multi-modality of the learning environment and essentially the world in which we operate.”
With a background in researching emerging technologies, Anderson believes the future of teaching “is less about new things coming along and it’s much more about new ways of working with a whole manner of things so the old can become new.
“So again mixing the new technologies with an old practice,” says Anderson.
To perfect the mix, Anderson, Rogan and Vanni, agree more research and student feedback are needed.
Last year, using a grant from the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund, Anderson began undertaking an extensive evaluation of the podcasts. This involved collecting and analysing student feedback to improving the content and delivery of podcasts at UTS.
In the last 18 months, student feedback has led to changes in physical learning spaces – like the renovations on level 4 of building 2 and in building D at the Haymarket campus, as well as the addition of 100 computers in the library and an increase in the number of wireless study areas around campus. With such a strong track record, it is hoped student feedback may have a hand in shaping the learning spaces of the future too.
Fiona Murray
Marketing and Communication Unit
Photographer (F Rogan): Fiona Murray
Photographer (other profiles): Joanne Saad
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