What our students have to say about VLEs Palitha Edirisingha, Richard England & Mike Lovell University of Leicester, UK rwe5@le.ac.uk

Supported by the University of Leicester Teaching Enhancement Fund

Department of Geology Student profile c. 70 students per year taking a variety of first degrees in Earth Sciences 15 % mature (22+) students 60% male 40% female

Lectures ‘Traditional’ teaching Practical classes Fieldwork Technology based science

Project Aims Provide Blackboard resources for all modules Assess student use of Blackboard and their views of e-resources Questionnaire (44/52) Interviews/discussions Target use of e-resources to meet student and staff perceptions

Student access to and use of technology All students have access to a computer but not all have an MP3 player

Internet use

“you have photo documentation of what you did, and where you went and physical evidence of what you saw. And you’ve got it and can actually print it out and put it in your reports or within your notes, so that it links… to get a bigger relationship.”

MP3 players and phones From interview: “…are interested in using MP3 players and phones to upload audio and visual media for revision”

Uses of Blackboard

Communication Bb Discussion forum “It takes a while to find some things… …I suspect it might get used a bit more.”

Communication Most students see each other every day

Summary Students value Blackboard - particularly for revision Students are using the internet for exchanging photos and discussion Scope for using discussion facilities in Bb - Dept needs to make this more accessible - but students see each other regulary VLE is not a substitute for face to face communication

Action Students are using Flickr – include similar online resources into Bb modules Develop module/topic specific wikis – student led learning environment? ? Develop online communication – it might be used if it were more accessible (Bb page design)