What a day! Great meetings and lots of running around! Tonight’s ALT 2021 session was presented by a team and entitled “We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm”: An exploration of the student experience of the shift to fully online teaching in response to the Covid19 Pandemic” with Rod Cullen, Emily Webb, Kate Soper, Phil Danby, Leanne Fitton and Jack Sutherst. The “boat” reference resonates today because it is similar to a comment made about our current situation right now… Cullen provided background on their institution: Manchester Metropolitan University with 38,000 students. Before the pandemic, most of the teaching was face-to-face with enhanced virtual learning experiences through Moodle. In response to the pandemic, they moved to the block delivery method with one unit at a time. They rolled out MS Teams and integrated it with Moodle. I would like to know more about this! The institution uses an Internal Student Survey (ISS) that was edited in 2020-2021 to include more free text responses. Cullen explained they developed a coding framework for thematic analysis to look at the frequency of particular comments in this student dataset. The team used “radar” diagrams to display the data with what students enjoyed/valued and the difficulties. I thought it was interesting that some students liked using their own devices, felt safe at home/remote working space, and could work effectively. However, some students expressed difficulties: “I felt safe but… there were lots of distraction,” ineffective work spaces, and inadequacies of devices. Cullen contrasted the social and inter-personal spaces that students enjoyed/valued such as spaces that helped them feel connected and empowered, provided self-paced/flexible work, and helped them develop skills in breakout rooms. However, some students felt isolated, confused… For some, the fast-paced chat and distractions were too much. Their experience and analysis of the student data was thought-provoking. While we have all learned about these considerations, the side-by-side comparison of student responses helped appreciate the variety of responses. Several audience members mentioned the block schedule, and Cullen described the challenges of re-designing a course to that format. I can appreciate the difficulty of the condensed format, though I also would like the opportunity of dedicated/uninterrupted time for a topic.
A similar session was entitled “Using institutional data on the student experience to inform teaching and learning practice” presented by Rob Higson and Laura Hollinshead from the University of Derby. They are both learning technologists. Hollinshead spoke about how institutional student experience data has been used. Their data from 2020/2021 corresponded to 11% of the student population, which was a larger than expected response rate according to Hollinshead. Barriers that students were facing online were similar to those mentioned at other institutions. Sixty one percent of students had problems with wi-fi. Their IT specialists suggested low-bandwidth solutions including asynchronous sessions. One question asked was “what options is the most useful” and students changed in their responses from 2018 to 2021. Videos were seen as very valuable. For help with online learning, students went to lecturers/tutors and peers. Hollinshead spoke about the strategic use of data to address the digital divide, training in digital skills, and more informed development of blended applied learning model. To share the data, the team made infographics to share with staff. They will do the survey again in December and have requested IRB approval for research use. I wonder how their data will compare to the results of Cullen?
