àËÅöÊÓƵ

About the Project

This project aimed to investigate the impact of the teaching, learning and assessment framework (Track C) applied to the MSc in Professional Accountancy (MPACC course), to establish early signals of impact on student retention and inform potential further developments.

A study focusing specifically on students’ engagement with online tools was undertaken, with data collected via a questionnaire survey to MPACC students and individual semi-structured interviews to a subset of the respondents.

The second part of the study looked at user data, as a means of investigating how the students used the online tools and the extent to which these tools enhance or support their learning and performance.

Principal findings:

• Most users have prior knowledge of using a VLE, and therefore a certain level of expectation of usability.
• There is variability in the way students use the online tools and this is influenced by factors such as time available, prior experience in using online tools and the extent to which they understand and value the tools.
• Users have clear ideas on what would improve their experience of using online tools; for example, tools with features that allow some form of feedback.
• Data systems need to be designed to allow for links between different data sources, so that a coherent digital picture of users can be captured.
• Some direct correlation is evident between user and performance data.

Funding

The project was funded through a grant from the àËÅöÊÓƵ Centre for On line and Distance Education (CODE).

Project team

• Jon Gregson, SOAS, Centre for Development Environment and Policy (CODE Fellow)
• Christine Thuranira-McKeever, RVC (Project Lead, CDE Fellow)

Time frame

July 2017 to February 2018.

This project is now completed.

Outputs and resources

• Download: Impact of Track C on the Student Experience report.

Key words

Student experience, online tools, student retention, student performance, learning analytics.

Feedback from disabled students on the àËÅöÊÓƵ Worldwide Programmes

About the Project

This project aimed to explore three areas of the disabled student experience in the International Programmes:

1. Students’ experience of International Programmes study and their consequent retention.
2. The challenges, benefits and disadvantages of their studies compared with conventional students.
3. What factors they take into account when choosing to study - are they different from conventional students?

Principal findings

1. Disabled student experience in the International Programmes is reassuringly positive, although further research should be undertaken with dormant or dropped/withdrawn students. Further analysis should also be made of the retention of disabled students in the Programmes, especially as evidence from other institutions suggests their dropout rates may be markedly higher than for non-disabled students.
2. The challenges of students’ studies are very varied and depend on the very different disabilities experienced by students.  A number of students experience more than one disability which increases their challenge even more.  The benefits of distance education are the flexibility and ability to study from home without needing to travel.  The disadvantages are their isolation from other students and their teachers and the institution itself.  It would be helpful if UoLIP could find ways of diminishing that isolation.
3. Around 20% of disabled students state that their disability was the main factor in choosing the International Programmes.  But even for them the brand of àËÅöÊÓƵ University and the choice of appropriate courses were still very important.

Recommendations

1. Recognition of disability by students and staff
1.1 Proactive contact.  It is important to ‘recognise’ disabled students and the problems they face more clearly, through more regular proactive contact.

1.2 Awareness raising for staff. There may be a need to raise the profile of disability in the University and help staff ‘buy into’ the needs of students, especially around the topic of exams.

2. Promotion and recruitment
There is very little reference to disability at the front end of the UoLIP website.  There should be encouragement to increase the numbers of disabled students which appear to be considerably lower in the Programmes than at the UK Open University (UKOU) and in UK higher education nationally.

3. Ongoing support
3.1 Materials - there should be disability support materials on the UoLIP website for the most common disabilities, particularly dyslexia.

3.2 Teaching support - there should be more video and audio recordings of lectures with subtitles.

3.3 Support from other students - UoLIP should look at ways of delivering more personal support to disabled students via mentors.

3.4 Support from Teaching Institutions – Disabled students have concerns about lack of support from their institutions.  There may be a case for investigating whether teaching institutions could give better support to disabled students.

3.5 Exam support – arrangements work reasonably well but there may be a case for making the criteria and procedures clearer.

3.6 Exam centres - work well on the whole but the links between UoLIP, teaching institutions and exam centres need speeding up in some cases.

3.7 The VLE - this appeared to be well-designed for most disabled students although there may be ways in which its use could be encouraged more.

3.8 Families and Friends - it might be useful to explore ways in which families and friends of students could be involved in the support of ‘their’ students.

3.9 Other forms of support - students suggested an out-of-hours phone line, lists of tutors available for private support and a specialised learning advisor for the most common learning disability, dyslexia.

Funding

This report was commissioned by the àËÅöÊÓƵ Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE) on behalf the Inclusive Practice Panel of the àËÅöÊÓƵ Worldwide.

Project team

Ormond Simpson - Former CODE Fellow. Author of 'Supporting Students for Success in Online and Distance Education’ (Routledge).

Time frame

January - March 2018

This project is now completed

Outputs and resources

Confidential

About the project

As the title 'Student Learning Hours and Learning Strategies' suggests, the aim is to investigate how students engage with different types of UoLW content and learning activities, both solo and collaborative, with the overarching goal of enhancing programme design and operation to maximise opportunities for student success. Specifically it addresses three research questions:

RQ1. How do student study hours and study patterns compare with programme team expectations?
RQ2. How and why do students engage with different types of content and learning activity?
RQ3. What role does peer interaction play in student learning?

Data collection methods were:

1. Online survey across a range of programmes and subject types
2. Learning Diaries completed by volunteer students
3. Remote interviews of volunteer students (via videoconference)

Funding

This project is funded through a grant from the àËÅöÊÓƵ Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE).

Project team

Professor Stephen Brown (CODE Fellow)

Dr David Baume (CODE Fellow)

Janet Wong (Student Research Fellow)

Naraesa Francis (Student Research Fellow)

Time frame

October 2019 - September 2020. This project is now completed.

Outputs and resources

The study generated a number of interim reports covering all four programmes in the study:
1.Student study hours
2.Student responses to study guidance
3.Student responses to learning activities and resources
4.Student study strategies and learning behaviour
 

The findings from the interim reports are drawn together and discussed in the final report.

Additionally there is a journal publication:

Brown, S. and Baume, D. 2022. ‘Not another group activity!’: Student attitudes to individual and collaborative learning activities, and some implications for distance learning course design and operation. Innovations in Education and Teaching International.

Summary of findings:

1. Students often find the amount of material to be studied is more than they expected. For many, the amount of time it takes to work through the material is a significant challenge in the face of other demands on their time. 
2. Study behaviours revealed by the learning diaries vary considerably from quite weak to very strong. Weaker study patterns focus in not very organised ways on reading and memorising content.  Stronger patterns display greater awareness of requirements, personal progress, planning, strategic allocation of resources and personal knowledge construction. 
3. Overall, we see here a strong preference for learning content over learning activities, particularly collaborative activities.
4. The four programmes covered by this study are satisfactory, or more than satisfactory, for students who are experienced, sophisticated, learners. 
5. Less mature learners may need more help to engage them more actively and strategically in the process of learning and in a learning community. 

The report suggests a number of issues for consideration by programme teams.

About the project

The On-Boarding project aimed to create a template for student on-boarding in under graduate and post graduate distance learning programmes administered by àËÅöÊÓƵ Worldwide (UoLW). More precisely, its aims were to:

1. investigate what mechanisms are available to Distance Learning (DL) providers to entice and nurture continuing student participation in DL programmes
2. identify best practices and lessons learnt from their application so far
3. prioritise the most appropriate mechanisms of on-boarding for UoLW, short and longer term
4. create and user test a template for the application of these mechanisms within UoL Worldwide.

The template was tested within the UoLW . This course provides all students at the UoL Worldwide with an overview to study skills and acts as a more generic study guide.

Student feedback indicated that they found the core study skills course useful and engaging, they thought the template was easy to navigate and were satisfied with the quality of the content.

Students' feedback and recommendations about future improvements highlight their need for more course-specific content and support elements.

The survey findings also highlighted the need for constant monitoring and updating of the core study skills guide in order to ensure that all links and resources are accessible.

Funding

The project was funded by the CODE.

Project team

• Professor Helen Xanthaki (Principal applicant) UCL, Fellow, CODE
• Dr Anastasia Gouseti, Lecturer in Digital Education, UoHull
• Dr Alan Parkinson, Deputy Director (Education) and Principal Teaching Fellow, UCL School of Management, CODE Fellow
• Lynsie Chew, Senior Teaching Fellow and Programme Director, MSc in Professional Accountancy, UCL School of Management, CODE Fellow.

Timeframe

The project was completed on time, at the end of December 2018.

Outputs and Resources

• Download the CODE On-boarding Project report.

About the project

This project set out to identify, and assess the feasibility, of approaches to mitigate against student drop out from the àËÅöÊÓƵ International Programmes.  It looked at three undergraduate programmes offered to students in the UK: Laws, EMFS (LSE) and English (Goldsmiths).

Principal findings

Student retention is highly contextual and contingent on institutional and student aims, expectations and conceptions of how ‘success’ is defined.  Interventions at key annual transition points might have significant impact on retention rates and the first year of study is where potentially the biggest impact can be made on student retention.

The full project report (below) suggests a set of questions to help course teams to reflect on retention in the first year of study.

Funding

This project is funded through a grant from the àËÅöÊÓƵ Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE).

Project team

Alan Tait (CODE Fellow)

Daksha Patel (CODE Fellow, LSHTM)

Pete Cannell (CODE Fellow, Consultant)

Time frame

March 2018 - February 2019 

This project is now completed.

Project Outputs

• Download: Supporting Progression and Completion Final Report

About the project

It has long been agreed that retention in online courses requires online interaction. The UoL PGCert. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education was designed to maximise student engagement online to support retention and to model good practice to these participants many of whom will be online tutors and/or designers of distance learning. The initial module Supporting, Learning, Teaching and Assessment, was designed to support both peer engagement and reflection on learning. In the module, learners are prompted to write about their current teaching practice and ways in which they can develop their practice in a reflective journal which they complete throughout the module. The final summative assessment – a portfolio of development and achievement in teaching theory and practice - explicitly rewards awareness of personal learning gain by including the ipsative (learning gain) marking criterion. This research project aimed to answer two questions about this module:

1.What is the relationship between the quality of engagement with online learning tools throughout the module and a) final overall attainment, b) attainment in relation to personal learning gain?
2.How far does giving feedback to and receiving feedback from peers influence attainment in the two assessments?

Principal findings:

1. Engagement with the discussion forum on learning content is not a very good predictor of completion and success, except that unsurprisingly no engagement or at all predicts non-completion.
2. Engagement in peer review, and especially giving feedback to peers, is a good predictor of success. Students who engaged moderately or well in the peer review were successful despite low discussion forum posting. However, early drop out from peer review led to incomplete submission of assessments.
3. Different learners might use different tools for success, for example, either posting in the discussion forum or engagement in peer review. Spending time on task in either the forum or the peer review (or both) was linked to high or moderate performance.

This study suggests a number of avenues for tutor development in online learning to encourage retention of professional learners that might also apply to other distance learning programmes.

• Include a variety of online tools especially peer review activities that are time bound and well organised. This will encourage different learners to spend time on task.
• Reflection is cumulative and builds. Look for sustained engagement/disengagement beyond the first few sessions to predict success and warn for non-completion/failure.
• Design assessment that includes criteria for developmental progress as well as outcomes criteria. Such assessment needs to be supported by peer review and early tutor feedback to develop student self-regulation.

Funding

The project was funded by the CODE alongside other projects on progression and completion in distance learning.

Project team

• Gwyneth Hughes, CODE Fellow, UCL Institute of Education, UCL

In consultation with members of the learning support team from àËÅöÊÓƵ Worldwide.

Time frame

The project ran from April to October 2018.

This project is now completed.

Outputs and resources

The findings were presented at the Supporting Student Success conference run by the CODE in October 2018 and at a seminar for the University College of Estate Management, Reading in January 2019.

See the Final Report for full details of the project rationale, approach and results.

About the project

This Student Research Fellowship is an initiative whereby àËÅöÊÓƵ distance learning students are given the opportunity to gain transferable skills through collaborating with CODE Fellows on current projects funded by the Centre. Typical topics include:

• Educational research
• Development of student support material
• Project or resource evaluation
• Focus group and other data gathering activities.

There is an opportunity for CODE to conduct research on the benefits and impact of this initiative on the experiences of the students involved in the project. The aim of this project (five days in total) is to explore the extent in which CODE can develop ‘student researchers’ at a distance by involving them and collaborating with CODE Fellows on projects by which students themselves negotiate the kinds of research skills they wish to gain from thein involvement.   In this project, student researchers as participants will be invited to develop a brief portfolio which will have details of their reflective accounts during each of activities they undertake (3 expected sessions with the CODE Fellows) in their student fellowship. They will also answer a brief questionnaire and will be interviewed about their experiences. 

Funding

This project is funded through a grant from the àËÅöÊÓƵ Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE).

Project team

Dr Jonathan San Diego (CODE Fellow)
Dr Ashley Cox (CODE Fellow)
Dr Linda Amrane-Cooper (Director of CODE)
Huw Morgan Jones (UoL)
Amardeep Sanghera (UoL)
Hazel Stevenson (CODE Student Research Fellow)

Time frame

October 2022 - September 2023

Outputs and resources

A report about the project will be published on the website. The result of the research will be published in an education journal.