Pathfinder Project Phase 1 S tudent E xperience of E -learning L aboratory ( SEEL )

1. Pathfinder Project Phase 1Student Experience ofE-learning Laboratory(SEEL)

2. Our e-benchmarking … …revealed that there was a widely held view that e-Learning was being used to enhance the student experience of learning. Investigations revealed that despite this belief, there was almost no systematic evaluation of the impact of e-learning on the student experience.

3. Results: student experience Less than 50% of students regularly make use of their University e-mail account. E-mail was the predominant tool used for every conceivable type of learning and teaching exchange. Research for assignments was mainly conducted through Wikipedia and Google.

4. Results: student experience There was some indication of a clear separation of technologies used for learning and communicating with teachers and the institution from those used for socialising, contacting family and friends and reluctance amongst some students to use these within formal learning contexts. However, those who advocated tutor use of MSN and Facebook said it would be more convenient for them, and enable “regular feedback” and that “it’s easier to get to know (tutors) on social sites”.

5. I use WebCT but I use email to send things to my tutor, to get some information. I use Facebook to communicate with my classmates, get some information to them like what about classes. When I am on the computer doing some work I like to open Facebook and MSN. When interviewed students said …

6. As soon as I wake up I the first thing I do is check my emails, see who is on line, come to Uni and start using it again doing coursework and researching. I just use it throughout the day. When interviewed students said …

7. I find I am not one of those people who can sit down at a computer and know what they are doing. It took me quite a while to learn how to do it. I have a mobile, an i-Pod, that sort of technology, I have got a Nintendo DS for the games as opposed to the actual learning. When interviewed students said …

8. For reference it is really hard to sift out over the Internet. If you go on to Google and type in something it will come up with one thousand two hundred million, most of them are complete rubbish. It takes forever to sift through it to see which ones are actually useful. When interviewed students said …

9. In China in the University the students can go to the tutor and ask him some questions, but here it is harder because the tutor has to rush to another lecture. When interviewed students said …

10. I heard … that we might be able to use the plagiarism thing so we can check that we haven’t plagiarised anything by accident. That will be a good idea as sometimes you’re not sure if you have just read something and taken it without realising until it’s too late. When interviewed students said …

11. … and I find being in a lecture, like a seminar, is much better, then you get the chance to ask questions and you can ask until you understand it, whereas with something on the Internet you can’t really do that. When interviewed students said …

12. I would say they (lecturers) should put more things up and give a bit more help on the internet. In some of the other subjects after we have done work they give feedback on-line on how the essay should have been written and what should have been in it. When interviewed students said …

13. If I have got an essay to hand in I go to the library. I like books more than I like computers. I am a bookworm. They are much easier to sift through and it is quite easy. Once you get a book you just have to look through the index, then that’s it the information is there … When interviewed students said … …and books can’t crash!