Enhancing Personalisation of Learning and Improving Retention

CRA 8th Residential Seminar, Manchester

21 November 2008

Denise Oram, Senior Lecturer, Computing and Communications Technology, Glyndŵr University

Sandra King, Senior Lecturer, Business School, Glyndŵr University

d.oram@glyndwr.ac.uk

Chris Edwards, Lecturer, Centre for Outcomes-Based Education (COBE), Open University

s.king@glyndwr.ac.uk

c.h.edwards@open.ac.uk

About Glyndŵr University

• Formerly NEWI (North East Wales Institute)

• Member of the University of Wales

• Situated in Wrexham

• Close to the border between England and Wales

• Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Professional courses

About the Open University• Set up in 1969 – celebrating 40 years• Offers nearly 800 course modules• Around 180,000 students at any one time• The UK’s largest distance learning organisation• About 70 per cent of undergraduate students are in

full-time employment• More than 25,000 OU students live outside the UK

Origins of ELLI - Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory

• Developed over three years at the University of Bristol

• Project funded by the Lifelong Learning Foundation

• Identified seven dimensions of learning ‘that together describe the energy and motivation to learn’

• an online profiling instrument which provides a visual profile

Dimensions of Learning

• Knowledge, skills and understanding of the curriculum form one strand of learning

• Attitudes, feelings, dispositions and motivations form another strand of learning

• The seven dimensions of learning integrate these elements together

Seven Dimensions

•Being stuck & static•Data accumulation•Passivity•Being rule bound•Isolation & dependence•Being robotic•Fragility and dependence

•Changing and learning•Meaning making•Critical curiosity•Creativity•Learning relationships•Strategic awareness•Resilience

A Typical ELLI Profile

ELLI Claims – for Tutors

• Enables tutors to focus on learning and learners

• Describes the energy to learn in terms of seven dimensions of learning

• Provides a vocabulary and language to talk about learning

• Describes ways in which tutors release energy for learning in their classrooms

ELLI Claims – for Students

• Makes learning learnable • Takes the mystique out of the process of

learning for students • Enables students to focus on different

aspects of learning during tutorial sessions• Gives a focus to reflect on learning• Provides a way of celebrating

achievements in learning alongside curriculum success

Project at Glyndŵr University

Business and Computing Students

Undergraduate

Postgraduate International

Project at Glyndŵr University• ELLI introduced to 96 students:

– Business and Computing Year 1 – Business Year 3 multinational cohort– Postgraduate (MBA & MSc)

• Raised awareness of ‘Learning Power’• ‘Facebook’ groups used for communication• ELLI questionnaire repeated 2 months later with 46

students• Students interviewed in focus groups

ELLI Research Outcomes

• No significant difference in the pre-scores between computing and business students

• Resilience lower for international students

• Repeated survey:– Some students improved dimensions

– Raising awareness had prompted other students to recalibrate their responses to the scales, resulting in some lower scores

Empowering students to describe their learning potential

• Communication tool between tutor and learner• Dropped barriers• Provided a narrative of a student’s ‘Learning

Power’• Raised awareness of how to learn• Provided a learning language between

different cultures

• Identified strengths and development areas

Student Comments on ELLI• “ELLI created an awareness that I did not have

before about how to learn…it enabled me to focus on an entirely new way of learning”

• “the profile shows us where we can attempt to do something better and can create a personalised learning agenda”

• “It shows weaknesses in learning in a positive light and this is more motivating”

• “I realised that learning goes beyond university and that outside activities also contribute to my learning”

• “Definitely a worthwhile experience”

Outline

• Four groups of student participants.– first-year art students– first year technology students– third year arts students– third year technology students

• Intervention – undertaking, the ELOISE survey, and approximately 2 months of normal study

Questions

• Can ELLI support OU students in their learning?• Could it help prepare new students for study?• Can it enable and encourage student confidence?• Is it a helpful diagnostic tool for tutors and advisors?

Process for Participants

Numbers of Participants

Outcomes• Provides a framework to discuss ways of and

approaches to learning• Most value reported towards the beginning of study• Students often made links between the dimensions• Learning relationships dimension complex for OU• Students generally agreed with their profiles• OU students have highest resilience and• High in changing and learning, and critical curiosity

• ‘I think it would be a really good thing to do as an induction course and then ... maybe half way or a bit further along through whatever studies you’re doing ...’

• ‘It does make you sort of think, examine your learning from a different perspective cos I think especially when you’re in the midst of it, midst of doing a course, you don’t think about the larger picture of how you approach things.’

• ‘ ... because of my age, ... my learning has been spread over it seems like centuries. So I look back ... my comparison between school learning and today’s learning is totally different. I mean my school learning was all rote.’

• ‘You can really find out a lot more about yourself than you realise on this ...’

Leitch Review (2007) and the Burgess Report (2008)

• Inevitable change to recording achievement in HE

• Capture the range of experiences in HE• Describe a broader picture of

achievements• Tell the story of a learning journey to an

employer• Promote a culture of lifelong learning• Increase employability

Personalisation of Learning

• The ELLI Project aims to develop whole people and whole lives: what we think and feel and do in our learning for life

• Key activity for personal development planning

• Accessible to students of all disciplines

• Tells a story

• Fun Activity

• Improving retention