A case study of A Campus-Base Course Taught and Assessed

Using e-learning

John Fothergill

Optical Fibre Communications

• A module given to 2nd years (level 2) and 3rd and 4th years (level 3)

• Slight differences between the 2 levels• Engineering Department has a good

mix of international backgrounds – good testing ground!

• Chosen as the technology has started to stabilise

Module Survey for EG3024Optical Fibre Communication

John Fothergill

23 June 2004

Survey composition(30 respondents, 38 in “class”)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

BEng C&E EnginYear 2

MEng C&E EnginYear 2

BEng E&E EnginYear 3

MEng E&E EnginYear 3

BEng GeneralYear 3

MEng GeneralYear 3

Do you have use of a computer at your term-time address?

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

No

Yes but no internetaccess

Unlimited slow internetaccess

Pay-as-you-go slowinternet access

Unlimited high-speedaccess

I accessed Blackboard:

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Always off campus

Usually off campus

Both off and on

Usually on campus

Always on campus

Student accesses per hour of the day

User accesses per day of the week (assignments on Tues!)

In the virtual lectures, I liked...

photograph/movie of lecturer

keyword search

high quality presentation

scrolling text

being able to jump toany slide

pause, play, rewindcontrols

ability to replay thelecture

Understanding lectures

0% 5% 10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

In (real) lectures, I sometimes have problems andI found these virtual lectures harder to

understand.

In (real) lectures, I sometimes have problems andI found these virtual lectures about the same.

In (real) lectures, I sometimes have problems andI found these virtual lectures easier to

understand.

In (real) lectures, I don’t have any problemunderstanding what the lecturers say.

Use of handouts

Did not use them

Downloaded but did not print

Printed them but did not write notes

Printed them and wrote notes

Use of quizzes

Used after lectures and before

assignments

Only used to prepare for the assignments.

I did not normally do the quizzes.

Used after the lectures to test understanding

Worked hard on quiz before consulting solutions?

Did not use solutions

0%

Gave up fairly quickly on quiz

7%

Just use solutions - not quizzes

7%

Worked a little on quiz first

17%

Worked hard on quiz first

69%

On-line assignments

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

I liked having assignments at the end of eachsection rather than just at the end.

I found that the assignments motivated me towork on this module.

I prefer “on-line” to “written” assignments.

I liked getting my mark immediately at the end ofthe assignment.

Discussion Board Usage

Read only Asked questions

Did not use %%%%%%%%%%%%%

1 – 5 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%

5 – 20 %%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

>20 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%

Usefulness of Discussion Board

I found the discussion board

useful occasionally. 41%

I didn’t use the discussion board at

all. 13%

I found the discussion board

very useful. 13%

I found the discussion board

quite useful. 33%

Video clips (£1.50 per student)

Did not watch them.7%

Not useful7%

Useful42% Useful, not worth

money37%

Very useful7%

Technical problems?

Resolved quickly40%

None50%

Never resolved7%

Resolved eventually

3%

Time spent on module(10 credits “should be” 6 hours)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

1 – 2 hours 3 – 4 hours 5 – 6 hours 7 – 8 hours 9 – 10 hours > 10 hours

Time spent/week

Key best things (29 responses)

• Study at own pace (9)• No exam, more freedom

(3)• Access lecture whenever

(12)• Learning and assessment in

sections (5)• Interesting material• Quick response to questions

on chat board (2)• Quizzes (4)

• Videos – “real world” view• Text accompanying

lectures• VLE style “relaxed” “fun” –

being able to study at home (2)

• Lecture notes in lots of formats and well presented

• Not entirely virtual

Key worst things (27 responses)

• Occasional mistakes in lectures (difficult to correct)

• University accommodation needs high-speed internet

• I preferred notes to lectures• Not all learning material

available at start of course• Difficulty of assignments• Some more “real” classes +

real exam

• Costly to print notes• Don’t need final report (2)• More animations/applets• Vague final report topic• Too time consuming• Technical problems• VLE sometimes goes down

at 1 o’clock in morning

Other comments

• “Glad I did the course”• “Good to see new way

of lecturing”• “Great course – new

style yet effective”• “Final report really did

test understanding”• “Report could have

been group effort”• “I really enjoyed the

module”

• “Would like to thank staff involved for their effort”

• “very different ... refreshing”

• “Good style of teaching”

• “Make the scrolling text bigger”

• “Would like (part of) more modules using this style”

Last Four Mark Distributions

Optical Fibre Communications mark distribution

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100Percentage of students with mark <M

Mar

k M

%

2004

1998

1999

2000

So how long does all this take?

• Lectures• All quite short and intensive• Almost like reading from a book• With diagrams, text etc., about 4 hours

to write a lecture• + about 1 or 2 hours to “produce it” –

often done by PhD student• 38 Lectures 220 hours

So how long does all this take?

• Quizzes

• These are quite quick.

• Need to use imagination (e.g. fill in the blanks, ordering for descriptions)

• Not much longer than writing a set of examples and solutions 3 hours

• So about 100 hours for the quizzes.

So how long does all this take?

• Course design

• This took a lot of thinking about!

• I should have gone on some courses.

Embedding e-learning

• good collaborative networks• support for teachers to integrate

learning technologies into courses• departmental/faculty teams• specialist learning technology teams• student ICT skills modules• pedagogical scholarship in departments(www.jisc.ac.uk/elti)

A future for e-learning

• Changing roles

• Quality and standards

• New technology

• Meeting students’ expectations