FROM BLENDED LEARNING TO BLENDED SURVEYING Dr Fabio R. Aricò @FabioArico UEA May 2017

YOUR PRESENTER Fabio R. Aricò Senior Lecturer in Macroeconomics School of Economics – University of East Anglia Research fields Higher Education policy and practice (widening access, student satisfaction) Technology Enhanced Learning (audience response systems) Academic Self-Efficacy (Student Confidence).

WHY THIS TALK? Student Voice NSS new questions & TEF Improving teaching in real time Evidencing our own excellence Pedagogical innovations

NEW NSS QUESTIONS Student voice [new section] 23. I have had the right opportunities to provide feedback on my course 24. Staff value students’ views and opinions about the course 25. It is clear how students’ feedback on the course has been acted on 26. The students’ union (association or guild) effectively represents students’ academic interests

AIMS & OBJECTIVES We are challenged to improve our engagement with the student voice, and this is the perfect opportunity to further improve our practice. Sharing practice  take home at least one idea! Inspiring research  from research-led teaching to teaching-led research Support developments at UEA  TEF is coming and it is evolving Support personal development  promoting and evidencing excellence.

BLENDED SURVEYING: a by-product of my TDG My TDG “When Student Confidence Clicks”: Tackling student confidence  anxiety over preparation;  peer-pressure and competition;  inability to self-assess and detect problems. The recent changes in HE practice exacerbate this problem  the ‘student experience’ model targets support and satisfaction;  students run the risk of being put ‘at the heart of the system’ as passive receivers, rather than confident owners, of their learning.

BLENDED SURVEYING: taking shape I found myself interacting with the students more and more: I found out what students like and dislike with much finer detail I had chance to respond to their opinions in real time Sometimes it is just enough to explain why things cannot be done. I found out that an ‘end of module’ questionnaire is not enough Are we asking the right questions? At the right time? In the right way? Students recognised that an alternative approach was is: “Best thing: the support provided by all the lecturers, teachers and the amount of feedback that is asked for shows that the staff care a lot for our learning experience”

PRINCIPLES OF BLENDED SURVEYING In a highly structured and diversified Blended Learning environment we need an equally sophisticated Blended Surveying approach. Contact hours: lectures, small group seminars, large group workshops, office hours, and support meetings. Modes of delivery: frontal teaching, seminar discussion, peer-instructed workshop practice, video-assisted individual study, VLE delivered material. How can we assess the effectiveness of all (each of) this?

PRINCIPLES OF BLENDED SURVEYING 1) SIMULTANEITY  Evaluate the process of learning as it occurs. Students do not need to recall events: they just share their feelings in real time. 2) CONSISTENCY  Assess teaching using the same devices according to which teaching is delivered. This enables simultaneity, and seamlessly blends teaching, learning, and evaluation processes. 3) CONTINUITY  Use the process along the whole teaching period. Make adjustments. Detect change in opinions. 4) CIRCULARITY  Close the feedback loop. Talk to the students. Acknowledge changes. Explain why cannot change.

THE MAIN MESSAGE Break the boundaries between teaching and its evaluation. Students should not feel that they are being ‘surveyed’; they should feel that they are constantly involved in a dialogue about their learning experience where engagement, attainment, self-efficacy, and teaching evaluation all take place at the same time.

HAVE YOU GOT ANY SUCCESS STORY?

MY TEACHING ENVIRONMENT Introductory Macroeconomics  Level 4 – compulsory year-long module - 250 students Lectures  traditional frontal-teaching (12 per sem.) Seminars  small group, pre-assigned problem sets (4 per sem.) Workshops  large group, problem-solving sessions (4 per sem.) Support Sessions  non-compulsory drop-in sessions (4 per sem.)

MY BLENDED SURVEYING APPROACH Module Event Tools Type of interaction LECTURES Clickers GoSoapBox Rate: difficulty and engagement Questions about material + suggestions SEMINARS Paper-based Seminar Quiz Formative Assessment Questions Self-efficacy Questions Open-ended dialogue box WORKSHOPS Rate: preparation, mistakes, pedagogy Ad-hoc SURVEYS GoogleDocs Rating pedagogies and teaching

FABIO IS (PEDAGOGICALLY) NAKED

LECTURE STATISTICS

AD-HOC INFORMAL SURVEYS Far too much of the academic practice literature is focused on whether students ‘enjoy’ their experience (student satisfaction)  is this really helpful (aside from NSS purposes)? I want to give more focus on the perception of learning:  1st lecture: introduced the concept of Peer-Instruction asked the students to share what they think of it.  each workshop: asked students to share their view on the session and whether they felt they learnt from each other.  informal end-of-module feedback: what was the most effective component of the blended learning environment mix within the module.

1st lecture: “‘Peer-instruction’ sessions (students teaching each other) are more effective than lectures (teacher teaching students)” No. Respondents = 82

Workshop feedback statement: “I have learnt more Economics by discussing answers with my classmates”

Comparing student opinion about Peer-Instruction as an effective pedagogy before and after exposure

End-of-module Feedback: What is the component of the Macro module which had the strongest impact on your learning?

CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP During polling sessions:  show results, talk to the students, encourage them;  use comparative-links, show them their progress;  explain what you are doing and why you are doing it. After polling sessions:  share session reports on your VLE and comment on these;  use mail-merge to send individual reports; Go beyond polling:  craft your own perfect pedagogical blend;  be aware of different student needs.

STAY IN TOUCH! F.Arico@uea.ac.uk @FabioArico “Promoting Active Learning Through Peer-Instruction and Self-Assessment: A Toolkit to Design, Support and Evaluate Teaching”, Educational Developments, SEDA, 17.1, 15-18.

FROM BLENDED LEARNING TO BLENDED SURVEYING Dr Fabio R. Aricò @FabioArico UEA May 2017