0037 User-centred development of Sakai’s survey tool
Fawei Geng, Adam Marshall, Jill Fresen

This paper reports on a pilot project to test and implement the survey tool within an institutional VLE (Sakai).  The success of the project may be attributed to three factors: the development process was steered by the needs of a group of early adopters (around 40); participants were motivated by designing their own surveys with support from the project team; a survey to evaluate the pilot project itself was designed in collaboration with participants to allow them to experience effective survey design.

The project used a mix of methods: three face-to-face workshops, email communication prior to and after the workshops, a supporting site in the VLE, and the pilot project survey to capture structured feedback at the end of the project.  The workshops aimed to demonstrate how the tool worked, to observe how participants interacted with the tool, and to gather feedback (including reporting of bugs). All the feedback gathered was logged and acted on wherever possible and all reported bugs were fixed. The email communication allowed participants to ask specific questions when designing their real surveys in their workplace.

The project achieved not only its main aim: to develop an improved survey tool with features and functions requested by users, but also a number of benefits often neglected by IT pilot projects. Firstly, having an improved survey tool is a good start; but the ultimate goal of the project was to enable users to design effective surveys in practice. This was achieved by collaboratively designing the project survey during the workshops. Secondly, there was increased use of the Surveys tool: by the end of the project, 66 completed surveys had been delivered and more people have since started using the tool. Finally, the project encouraged broader use of the VLE, including exposure to and integration with the podcasting service.

The development approach used in this project may provide fresh thinking to similar IT pilot projects in order to engage and motivate users, and explore their needs.  In terms of limitations, the approach needs to be further explored due to the relatively small number of participants involved in this project.

0039 The space in the middle: neither VLE nor PLE
Shane Sutherland

Seemingly the virtual learning environment (VLE) is dead (Stiles, 2007), though its role in the ‘amplification of the dissemination of content’ (Johnson et al, 2006) appears unabated. Never-the-less, the intrinsic shortcomings of institutionally controlled learning technologies and the rise of Web2.0 and its social learning foot soldiers suggest that the transition to personal learning environments (PLEs) is simply a matter of time.

Drawing upon extensive action-research and case studies from over 30 institutions a picture emerges of a technology sharing some characteristics with the VLE and others with the PLE – represented as a Venn diagram this technology is the space in the middle: and the space discussed in this presentation.

Typically institutional technology is provided by the institution; content within it is both created and controlled by agents of the institution. Further, the institution controls who has access to the system and the content within. The PLE is an idiosyncratic collection of tools and services notionally owned by the learner, as is the content which is broadly under the learner’s control.

The technology in the middle, referred to here as a Personal Learning Space (PLS), is provided by the institution to serve certain purposes for which both the VLE and the PLE are unsuitable. For the learner the PLS provides structure and scaffolding to support the process of learning, whilst for the institution, the PLS supports large scale assessment of both process and product – whilst also supporting anonymity, peer review, iterative feedback and external moderation. All without undermining personal control.

Whilst the institution controls primary authorship on the system, visitors –internal and external – are invited by any users who own and control content they create. Other than by force of law the content cannot be viewed without the learner’s permission, and this permission applies to the smallest granules of content which can be shared with anybody, within or beyond the institution. Though sharing many characteristics with eportfolios the emergence of the PLS as a more sophisticated genre of personal learning technology is explored throughout this session.

The research suggests that the PLS works in sympathy with the VLE and the PLE; indeed most definitions would suggest that the PLS is a part of the wider PLE. However, some claims for the PLE cannot be resolved without the PLS; and neither can many of the strategic responses institutions are making to the seismic economic upheaval. This presentation then will conclude with a review of how institutions are drawing upon the PLS to service processes such as APEL, distance provision, placement learning, responsive curricula, employer engagement and cost reduction!

0239 Improving Student Employability using Active Portfolio – the GWizards Approach
Lachlan MacKinnon, Liz Bacon, Elaine Major

A major issue in current Higher Education practice is the development of employability skills within the graduate community. Reports from Sector Skills Councils, such as e-skills UK [1], highlight employer concern at the ability of new graduates to make an effective contribution in the workplace with any immediacy. Various projects have been developed looking at academic-employer engagement, internship schemes, and various placement models, all of which have had some beneficial effect. The University of Greenwich School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences (CMS) has developed a new vehicle for this activity, called GWizards, which seeks to re-engage the university with the local community. In particular, this involves working directly with all types of organisation to identify project activities of mutual benefit. This mutual benefit is determined by opportunities for students to gain experience in the workplace, organisations to gain practical technical help for little or no cost, and academic staff to gain project experience and publishing opportunities. To facilitate this process, CMS has developed credit bearing modules on its programmes that link to these employability opportunities, so students have the chance to follow directly relevant project work within their academic studies to earn academic credits for practical work, and also to be engaged in the management and control of these activities both internally and externally to the university within a student-run company structure. This company will operate within GWizards in a standard enterprise structure, run by a student executive board responsible for hiring and firing student employees and all enterprise operational activities, and will take on internal and external contracts on a professional basis. The information related to these activities will be reported and recorded in an active portfolio [2], maintained electronically by the student, who will also take the responsibility to collect evidence of their activities, in terms of customer report and feedback, prototype or service development reports, and academic supervisor feedback. This active portfolio provides the fundamental information for a technically detailed CV, describing the students’ knowledge and experience in terms of employability skills, while also providing the academic evidence necessary for the application of credits towards degree study.

0242 Using Asynchronous Video and Mobile Technologies to Enhance Learner Engagement with Formative Feedback
James McDowell

The opportunity offered for reflexivity is often cited as a key benefit of asynchronous text-based approaches in online learning communities (e.g. Garrison & Kanuka, 2004), however opportunities for reflexive discussions between learner and tutor within the framework of the assessment and feedback process are often limited (MacDonald, 2006), and, where feedback is summative, can lack the timeliness of formative feed-forward (Glover & Brown, 2006). Moreover, text-based modes of communication can place limitations on the engagement of learners within the creative and numerate disciplines, and can also act as a barrier to inclusivity for learners with dyslexia (Woodfine, Nunes & Wright, 2005).

Research exploring alternatives to asynchronous text-based approaches to enhance learner engagement with formative feedback has focused primarily on the use of audio (e.g. Ice, Curtis, Phillips & Wells, 2007; Doolan & Simpson, 2010), while technical considerations such as file-size and bandwidth have previously restricted the use of video. Technological developments mean that greater consideration can now be given to employing both video and mobile technologies to promote engagement with formative feedback within a conversational framework (Laurillard, 2002), facilitating opportunities for reflexive learning while retaining the benefits of those visual cues associated with face-to-face scenarios.

VERiFy, a teaching and learning project at the University of Huddersfield, is examining the emerging potential for asynchronous video to (i) enhance the assessment and feedback process through the integration of mobile technologies, (ii) encourage greater learner engagement with formative feedback, and (iii) offer greater inclusivity for learners with dyslexia.  Adopting an action research methodology, the introduction of a video feedback loop system has enabled the asynchronous exchange of video-feedback, facilitating a feed-forward conversation between learners and tutors around work-in-progress; a series of case-studies explores the learner and tutor experience of the intervention.

This short paper presents the findings from the evaluation of the first phase of the project, conducted with learners and tutors in Computing, concluding that while asynchronous video offers great potential as a mechanism for engaging learners with formative feedback, particularly those affected by dyslexia, there are still obstacles to overcome before even tech-savvy Computing students fully embrace mobile learning.