SUPPORTING COMPUTING STUDENTS AT RISK USING BLENDED TECHNOLOGIES Brendan Riordan
John Traxler
Senior Lecturer – University of Wolverhampton 35/49 Lichfield Street Wolverhampton WV1 1EL
[email protected] www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/brendan
Researcher – National Centre for ICT University of Wolverhampton Priorslee Campus, Telford, TF29NT
[email protected] www.scit.wlv.ac.uk to-one support in literacy, numeracy, and other basic learning skills “in-house”, through the Learning Centre and on-line. This project aimed to encourage and evaluate targeted take up of a radically enhanced version of these services using a blend of mobile technologies and increased networked resources.
ABSTRACT There is currently little research on the application and blending of m-learning technologies to elearning within higher education. There is clearly a case for exploiting the complementarity between, for example, WAP, SMS and networked learning systems such as VLEs. Recent small-scale studies have shown that undergraduates use SMS text promptly and effectively. These students prefer SMS text to email and notice boards for course admin. They also prefer email to notice boards as a back-up to SMS and this also argues for a redundant and blended system.
2. OBJECTIVES The objectives of the project were to develop, deliver and evaluate blended learning that exploited the different potentials of SMS text, WAP and VLEs. The focus of the content was on support for basic skills and literacy for HND computing students and on the process of reversioning existing material for the different media involved.
The University has its own VLE and this is potentially a major vehicle for supporting Computing subjects and generic academic skills, such as study skills, numeracy and referencing. Its size and complexity are currently deterrents to weaker students needing access to specific types of support. The study aims to address these various issues.
The proposed target groups for the project were HND students within the School of Computing and IT identified as being “at risk” due to poor literacy skills as shown by coursework. The proposed project sought to improve and evaluate their access to literacy support using a blend of mobile and networked learning. This group was chosen because of the established WAP site and because its students are often weaker in literacy than BSc students. Those students that pass the course usually transfer very successfully onto the final year of the BSc programme.
Keywords m-learning, SMS, support, blended technologies, SMS Texting, Student Retention
1. INTRODUCTION Retention and progression are important areas of concern. A number of methodologies have been used to improve both. These have been both technology-based, and non technology-based. Amongst the technology-based methodologies, the School currently uses a WAP site to support its HND course and has WAP experience with some of its BSc modules. The School already provides one-
3. METHODOLOGY The key to the project was interventions targeted at students identified as “at-risk”, meaning unlikely to progress on currently known exam and/or assessment marks. The interventions took place in semester 2. These interventions took place when the students submitted coursework for those modules identified as failure “hot-spots” and immediately before exams.
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SMS Texting software was installed on a PC, and an account was opened with a company who provided a bulk SMS service. Test messages were sent out from the PC in order to gauge the effectiveness of SMS, and the level and timeliness
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of student responses to the test messages were noted. The second set of text messages were in the form of feedback, after assessments had been marked and moderated. This was followed by revision tips prior to the exam.
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end of year focus groups
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VLE forms and asynchronous forum
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paper questionnaire
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SMS text questions using Likert scale
The SMS interventions were short, personalised and focussed, directing students as appropriate into both WAP and VLE material, and in-house support. Timeliness and appropriateness were key features of the interventions – catching learners “at-risk” before irreparable damage was done to their academic careers.
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Statistical analysis of retention figures
6. REFERENCES [1] Alsop, G., Briggs, J., Stone, A. and Tompsett, C., “M-learning as a Means of Supporting Learners: Tomorrow’s Technologies Are Already Here, How Can We Most Effectively Use Them in The E-learning Age?” Networked Learning 2002, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on e-Learning in Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, Sheffield, March, 2002
Literacy and basic material were already available via the University’s VLE. The proposed project reversioned some of these materials for the Web and used this material to then direct students into VLE-based material and face-to-face help within the School. WAP was not used due to the reluctance of students on financial grounds.
[2] Garner, I, Francis, J. and Wales, K., “An Evaluation of a Short Message Service (SMS) to Support Undergraduate Student Learning”, Mlearn 2002, Proceedings of the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning, Birmingham, June 2002
Unpublished research by LDSA shows mobile ‘phones are near universal amongst the target group and are currently under-exploited within higher education. Most Wolverhampton students use off-campus dial-up facilities for VLE access. NUS figures show some 80% of undergraduates have near-full-time jobs. This project intended to enhance the notion of “anytime/anywhere” learning for weaker students in Computing by providing direction and motivation when face-to-face contact is problematic.
[3] Stone, A. and Briggs, J., ”ITZ GD2 TXT – How To Use SMS Effectively In M-Learning”, Mlearn 2002, Proceedings of the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning, Birmingham, June 2002 [4] Salmon, G, e-moderating – the key to teaching and learning online, Kogan Page, 2000
4. BENEFITS
[5] Traxler, J. “Evaluating m-learning” Mlearn 2002, Proceedings of the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning, Birmingham, June 2002
The project aimed to link and exploit cheap and widely available generic resources in order to address the most pressing problem in Computing departments in Colleges and new Universities, the problem of poor retention and progression due to lack of timely and appropriate intervention.
5. EVALUATION The evaluation of this project is the subject of a separate paper by the same authors. This project was evaluated using several complementary strands:
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