Progress Setting up a Virtual HE Reading Group

1. Progress Setting up a Virtual HE Reading Group Paul Curzon Middlesex University p.curzon@mdx.ac.uk www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/staffpages/PaulCurzon Funded by SEDA, MU Center for Learning Development MU School of Computing Science School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

2. Overview • Background • What is a Virtual Reading Group? • Setting up the Group • Progress in the first few months • Conclusions and the future School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

3. The Problem • All new Middlesex Lecturer's now do a PGCHE • They also have very high workloads (especially in the first year) • finding time to read widely is hard • They generally have no background in educational research • it is hard to know which things are most worth reading • how do you get an overview of the breadth of literature? • You must provide evidence in the PGCHE portfolio of wide reading • what can be used as evidence? School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

4. Aims of Project • Share the benefits of each individual's reading • encourage wider reading • provide a long term resource School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

5. Background: Sources of Ideas • Research Reading Groups • a seminar where someone presents an influential paper they have read • The comp.risks newsgroup • subscribers send summaries of incidents reported in the media to a moderator who collects them into issues sent to a newsgroup • Annotated bibliographies • read a paper, write a paragraph on it (eg for your thesis) School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

6. Background: Restrictions • staff are spread over multiple sites across North London • meetings are hard to arrange and involve travel time • mail overload is a problem • there is little culture of using newsgroups School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

7. Solution: A Virtual Reading Group • 3 elements • a group of people • a moderated mailing list • a web-based archive • Members write summaries of things they read • only things they found useful/interesting • just a paragraph or two • include full reference, keywords • Summaries are submitted to the moderator • once per week sent to mailing list • no discussion on mailing list • 1 per term digest service also provided School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

8. Recruitment • Aim for 20 group members • A core of 4 people who read widely recruited to seed the group. • Write a "first issue" handout to illustrate the idea • Advertise via • mailing lists • University news sheet • in person at staff induction • in person at seminars • by word of mouth • Low volume emphasised School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

9. Recruitment Results • 50-60 people sign up • but only from personal contact • only a few want just termly digest • majority indicate willingness to write summaries • Backgrounds: • new lecturers (doing PGCHE) • existing lecturers from across the University • learning support staff • resource-based/multimedia learning material developers School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

10. Submission of Summaries • Started June/July 98 • with break over August • 16 summaries written to November 98 • approximately 1 per week • 7 different people wrote summaries • 4 were written by the organiser • none were written by the core recruited to seed the group • only 1 by a PGCHE student so far • Personal contact from / reassurance by the organizer was important to encourage submissions School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

11. Sources of summaries • Summaries have been written about: • books • chapters in books • journal articles • workshops attended • technical reports • web pages (learning resources/papers) • newspaper articles • popular magazine articles School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

12. Subjects of Summaries • Summaries have been written concerning: • peer tutoring • resource/multimedia based learning • assessment • cheating • student writing • gender issues • management in HE School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

13. Anecdotal feedback The following are paraphrased quotes: • "I hadn't thought there was any point reading educational literature as I have so much experience teaching, but the group has led to me reading more" • an experienced lecturer • "I read the summaries but I just do not have time to write them myself" • a recent PGCHE graduate • "The group is provoking discussion... some people were discussing one of the articles summarised" School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

14. Conclusions • So far the group appears to be successful • the idea is very popular • Personal contact is important • in recruitment, and • encouraging people to write summaries • the organizer must be someone who naturally does lots of networking • The organizer must read widely and write summaries to maintain momentum • Having a core to seed the group is useful • provided they are committed and have time to write summaries School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

15. The Future • Collect formal feedback • surveys in January, July • Provide tools to support submission and use of archive • Consider variations • add collected comments about previous summaries to the end of the weekly messages • integrate the group more formally with the PGCHE • hold campus based "real" reading group seminars • have "guest" summaries from leading educational researchers on papers that inspired them School of Computing Science Paul Curzon

16. More information • More information on the reading group, including access to the archive is accessible from www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/staffpages/PaulCurzon or contact p.curzon@mdx.ac.uk • Submissions of summaries on the paper that most influenced you to the above email address! School of Computing Science Paul Curzon