Active Learning through a Collaborative Digital Learning Project Wendy Garnham and Tab Betts University of Sussex W.A.Garnham@sussex.ac.uk T.Betts@sussex.ac.uk

Students’ perceptions of independent learning (Hockings, Thomas, Ottaway and Jones, 2017) Used homework model as benchmark Felt “short-changed” Lacked self-organisation Anxiety about uncertainty No previous opportunity Anxiety about uncertainty =no right and wrong answers. Not sure what they have to learn. Lack of direction or instruction. Had become more dependent on teachers to get grades needed.

The Padlet Project Complete reading before attending Work in groups of 2 or 3 Produce either a consolidation or extension post using digital technology Upload this to the Padlet wall Comment on each others’ posts

These posts show some of the “consolidation” posts These posts show some of the “consolidation” posts. They show how students used the content of the reading to produce revision materials and to cement their knowledge of the key material.

These posts demonstrate “extension” posts – posts made by students who understood the basic reading and wished to extend their reading further. They explored the area widely and posted everything from their own research questions to videos and articles that related to the theme of the seminar.

Phase 2 – students requested reinstatement of discussion component and extension of 48 hour challenge to one week challenge to allow them to get to know how to use different apps such as animation apps. 10 minute discussion starter included. Number of apps used increased further. These are just a few of the apps used.

Did it have any effect on achievement? The module that the Padlet project was used on was the OSA module (Occupational, Social and Applied Psychology). Performance on this module was compared to a second core module (Health and Clinical Psychology) that was the same length, had similar assessments but used traditional seminar techniques. Both exams used the same structure, had the same number of questions and only differed in content. As the graphs illustrate performance was hugely improved on the OSA module. In the other module, performance declined over the spring term but in OSA, performance improved. Average improvement was 13 points for OSA but -10% for the HC module. 93% showed improvement in exam scores compared to 22% for HC module.

How about attendance? The “no place to hide” effect? Not clear why attendance is lower – perhaps because it is no longer possible to sit and do nothing so expect to have to work? If haven’t done reading, can no longer contribute so perhaps that puts students off attending?

Feedback from students Survey Focus Groups I read the papers more actively and critically to come up with ideas for Padlet It keeps me on top of my seminar reading I like the freedom to develop my learning and research in any direction I want It gives us a chance to explore further than just the seminar reading

The next challenge

https://padlet.com/tabbetts/padletproject Blog: http://activelearningnetwork.com Twitter: @ActiveLearnNTW https://padlet.com/tabbetts/padletproject Teaching and Learning Conference 2017, University of Sussex