1

Information Society Studies in Practice - student needs and feedback in the NETIS

project

Chris Sadler & Tarmo Kalvet

NLC08 PresentationTues. May 6 2008

2

Our aim is to increase the knowledge and competence of students in Information Society studies by introducing a course on the Information Society in tertiary education institutions.

1 Needs and Expectations Study Survey

2 Curriculum Design Course textbook

Resource materials

Web site

3 Curriculum Trials Evaluation

4 Dissemination

3

Student Needs and Expectations

• Aim - establish student attitudes towards an Information Society course and requirements in respect of learning support materials. • Sample of 492 was drawn from institutions in Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. • Participants studying information technology, public administration, social sciences, humanities, business studies, economics and marketing. • No attempt made to make the sample representative.

4

Sexes were roughly equally represented

Mean age was 26.5 years - somewhat higher than expected although the distribution is far from normal.

The ‘tail’ of mature students mostly from public administration in Estonia, librarian studies in Hungary and a taught IT masters in England demonstrating the growth of ‘life-long’ learning.

A quarter of the students were first-year students

Demographics

5

Age

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

Demographics

6

The sample were experienced – computer users (average 8 years)

– Internet users (average 6 years).

Most Internet usage associated with social contact and entertainment (85% were frequent users), with learning and ‘satisfying curiosity’ cited as frequent activities by 75%.

Commercial transactions were low on the list of uses. Around 60% reported that they seldom enter chatrooms.

Experience

7

Most popular sources of information were – Internet (53% listed it as first or second choice)

– recommended textbooks (52%).

Only 32% listed their teachers as first or second choice (and 21% listed teachers as the least favourite!)

However75% would like to have online contact with their teachers.

62% would like online contact with their classmates.

Study preferences

8

A majority (60%) chose conventional lectures supported by online materials (blended learning).

A quarter opted solely for the conventional lecture course.

Only 4% would prefer an online-only course.

Preferred learning styles

9

For offline resources, 80% opted for lecture notes or a dedicated textbook as opposed to more general library or other resources.

Preferred online resources were revision notes or exam. hints (85%) followed by course information like pre-requisites and syllabuses. The least favoured online resource was chatroom facilities.

Preferred resources

10

What kind of online services do You need for better education?

85%

73%67%

45% 42%

16%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Themes ofexamination

Description ofassumptions

Online coursesyllabus

Student mail list Forum Chat

11

16%

89%

51%

84%

11%

49%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Would You pay to use online

tools (forums, chat,

documents)?

Would You use an online

course textbook?

Would You buy the printedcourse textbook?

Yes No

12

• The majority of our student sample are happy to use online resources to supplement the physical learning environment.

• Online materials were seen to be valuable in respect of convenience and currency.

• They expressed some doubts about access (“You can’t read it in the bus”) and the authority of Internet sources (“I don’t think it is reliable”).

• Little enthusiasm was shown for discussion forums and

chatrooms.

Conclusions

13

- institutions should teach skills in finding information and making connections

“The connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing” [Siemens].

E-learning 2.0

14

In order to monitor the curriculum trials, different instruments were employed:

(i) The Attitude Towards Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS) [Galotti et al.].

• Seeks to discover students’ attitudes towards and discrimination between connected knowledge and separate knowledge.

• Those who score at the connected knowledge end of the spectrum would be expected to respond well to any e-learning 2.0 elements of their course.

Curriculum Trials

15

(ii) The Reactions survey periodically asks students to reflect on their immediate learning experiences both in personal terms and group terms (via any discussion forum interactions).

Students who answer these surveys conscientiously should – give the project team insights into the manner in which each topic has been presented;

– show (through their interactions with fellow students) their development as improving e-learning 2.0 learners.

16

(iii) The Relevance survey (administered to students who have completed the online version of the course). Questions are grouped under six headings as follows:

• Relevance – of the course material.• Reflective Thinking – about various aspects of the

student’s experience.• Interactivity – two-way interactions with classmates.• Tutor support – in terms of encouragement and

stimulation.• Peer support – in terms of encouragement and

stimulation.• Interpretation – questions about the clarity of communications.

17

Eotvos Lorand University of Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences

Participants were 32 sociology students (3-5th years). started the course. Whole semester on the NETIS curr iculum, and almost entire course textbook covered. Students could have a free copy of the book in Hungarian (about half did). Registration in Moodle was obligatory, but using Moodle was elective. Students

mainly did not use Moodle. The course was ‘traditional’ with two student presentations for each topic (one

introduction and one critique) followed by a discussion. Some group work was organized. Feedback Most of the class disliked the introductory presentations (no added value) but liked the

critique presentations (where classmates had formed independent opinions). Some students would have preferred lectures from the teacher instead of student

presentations. Discussions were important for everybody - they enjoyed participating in debates,

hearing new arguments and sharing personal experiences. Students enjoyed the group work.

Curriculum Trials I

18

University of West Hungary (Sopron) The students

made extensive use of the interactive tools enjoyed engaging in knowledge creation monitored the growing entries in the course dictionary enjoyed sharing solutions with other students enjoyed creating ePortfo lios of their own.

But

knowledge exchange often confined to technical issues difficult to involve tutors and student groups from other institutions in a common learning organisation.

Curriculum Trials II

19

Curriculum Trials III

Alexander Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki, Dept of Informatics

A compulsory 6th semester course taken by 143 students. Three alternative modes of learning were offered, namely

traditional teaching/learning (1 hour lecture per week with final exams) [124]active learning (working singly or in pairs, students produce seven papers (chosen from a list of 35) written to conference requirements; they present the papers and take part in discussions). [15]Research-based (working singly or in pairs, preparation of an appropriate subject to be included as a ‘chapter’ in the NETIS course materials). [4]

20

Curriculum Trials III

Alexander Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki, Dept of Informatics

Traditional 22 / 124 Low attendance, poor results

Active 14 / 15 7 papers presented and discussed

Research 4 / 4 4 chapters written in English Difficulties

Academic writingDeadlinesProfessionalism / ethics (sources, references)English - some students wrote in Greek first

21

Curriculum Trials III

Alexander Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki, Dept of Informatics

Student Opinion

about content•The course is interesting

•Important themes are discussed

about teaching methodology•You learn more by doing yourself

•Different sources create an interesting basis

for discussions

22

Curriculum Trials IV

School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, UK

Elective coursework assignment for Discovering Interaction Design module (first year)

18 out of 32 students chose it.

Aim: Actively engage with the ‘Network’ side of Social Networks

•Some contextual study online and offline•Post own ‘social software’ sites on discussion board.•Construct network and find partner•Do some work with partner.

23

Curriculum Trials IV

School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, UK

Attitudes to thinking and learning

24

Curriculum Trials IV

School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, UK

Attitudes to thinking and learning

25

Curriculum Trials IV

School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, UKVirtual Social Network

Gross social software usage

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324252627282930

Particular social software items

No.

of

Stu

dents

usi

ng t

his

ite

m

Series1

26

My Network

27

PAIRINGS

Name S1 B1 I1 K2 A1 A2 G1 K1 O C E H S2 S3 G2 P B2 I2 S1 X O PR/C B1 O X PR C I1 PR X O K2 PR/C O X A1 C X O PR A2 O X PR G1 X O/PR K1 O/PR X O PR X O C PR O X E X O PR C H O X PR S2 X O PR S3 PR O X P PR X O PR G2 O X B2 PR X O I2 C PR O X

28

ConclusionEotvos Lorand class - collaborative, but not networked

Sopron class - networked but feedback limited

ATEI class - collaborative but not networked

- limited takeup of opportunities to collaborate (but ardent ‘converts’)

MDX class - networked but limited in scope

29

30

31

• Getting to know the information society• Technology and society in the information age • Innovation and competitiveness in the information society • Legal regulation of the information society• eGovernment in the European Union • e-Inclusion in the information society • Social networks and the network society• Digitalised culture and culture created on a digital platform

• Learning and Teaching in the information society.

eLearning 2.0 and Connectivism

Curriculum Design - the Text Book

32

– ICT: The state of play– Legal issues– Governance– Commerce– Culture and Heritage– Education

Curriculum Design - the ‘Country’ Book

33

Knowledge workers create new knowledge by combining existing knowledge from diverse sources and solve problems by association with solutions to similar or analogous problems. In a sense when somebody learns they are creating new knowledge internally.

However, connectivism holds that knowledge workers’ learning (called actionable knowledge) is an external rather than internal process.

Connectivism