Exploring international student satisfaction with online courses in acculturation and English language development Julie Watson Principal Teaching Fellow in eLearning eLanguages, Modern Languages 9 July 2014

Online courses: characteristics 2

Emerging themes of MOOC pedagogic design  the troubling of the cMOOC/xMOOC binary  the teacher role  tensions around learner participation  the meanings and implications of ‘massive’  tracing the boundaries between openness and control * Bayne & Ross, (2013) The Pedagogy of the Massive Open Online Course: the UK view. HEA Report. 3

Three online courses for international students  Prepare for Success open, self-paced, loose ‘course’ on UK academic culture for international students applying for UK HEIs  Get Ready for Southampton (GRfS) pre-arrival ‘massive’ course for all incoming and prospective UoS international students  Pre-sessional Boarding Pass (PBP) and Prepare for Pre- sessional (P4P) Closed, pre-sessional courses in EAP and study skills (discipline-specific & generic versions)  4

Tentative comparison Features/course PfS GRfSOnline pre-sess Open or closed?opensemi-open closed Teacher role?untutored tutored Fixed time slot? noSelf-paced between Apr-Oct yes Assessment? formative quiz yes Learning design? didactic; no peer contact didactic + connectivist with peer contact Size? massive 850K + ‘massive’ ? small c. 100 –in groups of

 Self-paced course of activity-based learning resources about academic life in the UK; includes video interviews with students and teaching staff  Students can chose study pathway through the resources by skill or topic and/or interactive FAQs about study in the UK  Blog and question wall responding to student questions 6

Student satisfaction measures  Student engagement /usage/ participation  Student evaluation of own learning / progress 7

How much of Prepare for Success did you use? (362 respondents) 8

‘I think Prepare for Success has helped me get ready for coming to study in the UK’ ( 368 respondents ) 9

 Online course: optional, not tutored, not assessed, focusing on student preparation and acculturation pre-arrival  Content focus: practical aspects of living in Britain + preparation for study at the University of Southampton + UK academic culture and study skills  Open for 5 months but study pace and length of use decided by individual student  Self-access interactive learning content with feedback (activity- based Learning Objects)  Community-building/personal contact through Social Wall and student-led Conversation Forum 10

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Students from Mexico : ) reunite LLM Law Students from Canada Students from Germany International students looking for house! Pursuing Economics with Actuarial Science MSC Web Technology Students from India for Southampton MSc in Nanoelectronics and Nanotechnology MSc in Governance & Policy (Research) Any Ugandan or East African heading to Soton MSc Corporate Risk and Security Management Students from Middle east and North Africa University Accommodation for MSc students Students from Greece Student from Iran Looking for a room mate to find a house Student-led Discussion Forum Students study foundation year MSc Aerodynamics and Computation Undergrad math students! Roomates to find a house MSc Global Politics MSc Transportation Planning & Engineering Students from China MSc Human Resource Management Contacts Hey everyone! MSc Systems and Signal Processing

How much of GRfS did you use? (537 respondents) 15

'I think GRfS has helped me prepare for Uni in the UK’ (543 respondents ) 16

'I think Prepare for Success has helped me get ready for coming to study in the UK’ ( 368 respondents ) 17

 First 5 weeks (online and pre-arrival) of a blended Pre-sessional Course (11 or 16 weeks)  With focus on academic writing and reading; study skills, vocabulary and grammar review/development  Provided learning content; weekly integrated reading and writing assignments; weekly formative grammar and vocabulary review tests  Web 2.0 tools: social wall ; tutor webcasts  Tutored (forum; chat; ) and assessed (1 tutor per 30 students) 18

How would you rate PBP course overall? (201 respondents) 19

How would you rate your own progress? (201 respondents) 20

What students value  Students report peer contact important for making friends (and building confidence) before they come  Student feedback indicates tutor guidance and personal feedback is very important on this course 21

Tentative conclusions  Online courses with peer contact add certain clear benefits (confidence as well as learning) but not essential for student satisfaction (see PfS)  Having a strong tutor presence and guiding role helps achieves aims and has other benefits for students (focus, personalised feedback etc)  Flexibility in course design may be a factor in use variation among students (GRfS)  MOOC design themes are reflected in other online courses 22

Thank you. Questions or comments?