Helen Walmsley-Smith Staffordshire University

* Rates * Open University research suggests graduation rates may be 22% * What impacts retention? * External factors * Academic and social (Tinto 1987) * Transactional Distance (Moore 1993) * Internal factors * Motivation (Bekele 2010), e.g. ARCS theory (Keller 2008)

* Constructivist theories of learning: * Learner-centred * Knowledge-centred * Assessment-centred * Community-centred (Swan 2005) * The e-Design Template for Online Distance Learning: * Activity choice (student/tutor managed) (Zimmerman 2002) * Question type (open/closed) (Andrews 1980) * Feedback (Hattie 2003) * Interaction (Bernard 2009)

Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7

1 open/closed2 Management3 Feedback4 Interactions 0 all closed 1 most closed 2 most open 3 all open 0 all tutor managed 1 most tutor managed 2 most student managed 3 all student managed 01 low stake 2 peer 3 high stake 01 content 2 tutor 3 peer

* Four convenience courses used for pilot: * LLM Business Law – International Trade and Commerce (level 7, 3 students) * Physical Activity and Mental Health (level 7, 47 students) * Money Advice Practice (DEMSA) (level 4, 109 students) * The Management of Database systems (level 7, 9 students)

Sample activities: 1.Read through the "lecture" slides and make notes 2.Tutorial – exercise e.g., given this information, answer the following: The table shows five transactions T1-T5 which act on database variables A-E. For each operation show the log entry and the values of the variables on disk. 3.[In answer for your portfolio] discuss how each transaction recovers from failure. Refer to the model answers 4.Discuss in the forum the purpose of "intercoms" and how a FAS contract works. 5.How does a FAS contract differ from a FOB contract?

* Raters were trained on how to use the e-Design Template * A sample activity completed and reviewed * Raters completed categorisation of 4 courses * Data analysed with Cohen’s Kappa to see level of rater agreement

Open/closed Learner/ teacher managed Feedbackinteraction Law Sport Advice Studies Computing

* Data presented as graph for review with online tutor

* Online learning designs are ‘messy’ * Representing learning designs is challenging * Learning design chart shows potential to describe and represent learning designs quantitatively * Learning design chart allows for comparison to retention and attainment data as well as to other designs * Learning design does not necessarily show what students/tutors actually do * Data visualisations allow opportunities for tutor discussion and development * Development is underway to create an improved chart that operationalises the learning activities