Nesting in, taking flight: Embedding innovation and inspiring new practice with distance Masters students in the DUCKLING project Terese Bird, Beyond Distance Research Alliance Enhanced and Transformed – University of Greenwich – 6 July 2011

DUCKLING: Delivering University Curriculum: Knowledge, Learning and INnovation Gains 3 distance programmes: – One MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL – Two MSc in Occupational Psychology Podcasting Wimba Voice BoardSony E-book readersSecond Life Challenges: - Engagement - Support - Flexibility and mobility - Reduce isolation - Enable transfer of theory into practice

Second Life Psychology – the oil rig activity Role-playSimulation Education – Observing English classes at languagelab Near-authentic environment Interaction

Ebook Readers £600 v £240How to convert documents :

“The nature of distance learning means you have to squeeze in study whenever you have time. Having textbooks and journal articles stored together so conveniently is much better than reams of paper on a packed commuter train in Osaka. “ I find that the e-book reader has become an integral part of my day in particular situations. …I sit and start reading the material I've loaded and take notes on what interests me. The reader, then, has given me more study time during the day. It's nice to have the corpus of material I am working on loaded onto a single device…and get a kind of "big picture" from doing this. I've also gotten into the habit of carrying my reader with me everywhere, and if I'm in a situation where I'm waiting for 20 minutes I will automatically open the reader. Ebook Readers: Students’ Comments

Podcasts: Nesting in

VoiceBoards: Nesting in

Post-DUCKLING Taking Flight Psychology: Draft Dissertation Feedback Podcasts Student: “I found the podcast useful because it was much clearer to me what the improvements were that I could make and it gave me more detail and specific examples than the written feedback. It helped me to identify the most important themes in the feedback which is also more difficult to do from the written feedback alone. “ Staff: “…not a single one of our dissertation students has needed an extension this year (this is unheard of and a very pleasant surprise!). All those who have not suspended have handed in their final dissertations on time. The only difference from previous years is that all have had access to the feedback podcasts on their draft dissertations. “

Post-DUCKLING Taking Flight Education: VoiceBoards, VoiceThread, Wikis, Web Conferencing Student: “ In Module 1 and 2 I read quite a bit. But this module, I read a lot more. Because I think partly I don’t want to come across not having read material on the voice board… I don’t know whether it’s a case of not wanting to look stupid because your voice is on the voice board.” Staff: “ I found this very stimulating. I really enjoyed hearing the voices of the students. Often this distance course feels quite remote because we are just in communication by writing. [But with the voice board] it sort of would come to life. We could often measure the degree of emotional involvement of some of the students.”

Onward and upward Challenges in curriculum delivery PodcastingSecond Life (SL)E-book readersWimba Voice Board Increase interaction  -  Improve learner engagement  -  Improve learner support  --  Need for mobility  -  - Need for flexibility  - Need for transferring theories into practice -  - -