Retro-Fitting WebCT – A Blended Approach Stuart Allan/Keith Jones University of Greenwich

Distance Learning Offered by the UoG School of Architecture and Construction (and its predecessors) since the early 1990’s Centres in Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Australia Trinidad comes on stream late 2004

Course Delivery Students are provided with –Course guide –Study guide –Relevant textbooks –Study schools –Library and information services including electronic journals collection

Why Go Online? Competition Increasingly fragmented market eLearning is part of the future of education Everyone else is doing it!

Research Methods A 20 credit course, compulsory for all students studying Built Environment masters’ programmes Delivered to distance learning students during study schools held at the various centres

Research Methods Rationale … designed to introduce students to the range of research methodologies and techniques of data collection and presentation that may be used to explore a given research topic. It is an essential course for a student to complete in order to write a dissertation.

eLearning Garrison, D.R. and Kanuka, H. (2004) Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education Internet and Higher Education 7 (2004) 95–105

A Blended Approach Birkbeck College defines “blended learning” as –…a blend of the use of ICTs alongside traditional face-to-face learning. Birkbeck College (2003) Glossary of terms (accessed online 11 June 2004)

Why Retro-Fit WebCT? Facilitates a blended learning approach for Research Methods –Offers a range of online tools –Doesn’t require anything from students other than an internet connection –Supported by the University

WebCT Course management software –WebCT's vision is to deliver innovative e-learning solutions to help institutions improve educational outcomes for students around the world. WebCT The WebCT Vision (accessed online 8 June 2004)

What We Did Using Ryan and Walker’s eLearning Approaches Grid, the Research Methods course was analysed This analysis indicated how eLearning could be applied to the course to achieve our intended “blended approach”

Research Methods Matrix A matrix was then produced focussing on the WebCT tools and the teaching process The matrix was used in a number of different ways Each WebCT tool was scored in terms of its perceived usefulness

WebCT ToolScore Syllabus12 Content Module15 Glossary5 Image Database4 Index7 Search14 Compile2 Resume course4 CD-Rom4 Discussions12 Mail9 Chat10 Whiteboard5 Calendar14 Student Tips9 Quiz4 Survey6 Assignments16 Student Presentation5 Student Homepages3 My Progress11 My Grades12 Language Selector1

Scoring WebCT Results come as no real surprise Communication and assignment tools scored highly Slightly surprised at the high score achieved by Calendar Couldn’t understand how Search scored so highly!

A Research Methods WebCT Course Initial focus on communication, calendar and assignment tools Course outline, information and study guides uploaded as Word files PowerPoint files uploaded into Study Material

Study Material Quickly became clear that PowerPoint slides failed to satisfy Accessibility Guidelines Decision taken to review material and develop HTML pages Not a serious problem since students are provided with this material during the Study School

Communication Time zones became an issue for synchronous communication tools (Chat Room) It was decided that communication between lecturers and students should be asynchronous, ie, Discussion Students would be encouraged to use Chat Room

Calendar More useful than originally anticipated Relationship between Study Schools and Assignments clearly illustrated Links between Calendar and Assignment difficult Would be useful to view year

Assignment Similarly proved more useful than originally intended Can require students to use specified submission arrangements Automatically receipt students on submission Copy of original submission held on server

Does it Work? We think so! A blended learning approach has been developed for Research Methods using WebCT We have tested it and it seems to work We will be trialling it this September with UK distance Learning Students

Issues WebCT –“Clunky” interface –Irritating to use –Creating hyperlinks within WebCT can be awkward –Expectations too high? Using existing material Support from senior management Time

The Future Build it and they will come. Field of Dreams But unless they have a good experience they might never return!