CETL-MSOR 2009 The use of synchronous online tutorials to provide numeracy support for technology students Frances Chetwynd, Helen Donelan, Hazel Heath, Karen Kear & Judith Williams This work was supported by the Open University’s Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

The Open University and Elluminate  The Open University ◦ Part-time ◦ Distance learning ◦ Virtual Learning Environment  Elluminate ◦ Audiographics conferencing ◦ Voice, whiteboard, video ◦ text chat, icons, quizes etc. CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

The Course Context  Level 1 course in ICT  ‘Networked Living’ (T175)  Students in groups supported by a tutor  5 tutorials over 9-month course  Face to face and via forums CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

Rationale for Elluminate  Attendance at face-to-face tutorials is low  Students have difficulties with numeracy aspects of the course  Online asynchronous ‘tutorials’ via forums have limitations  … Therefore piloted Elluminate tutorials with 6 tutor groups CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

Preparation  Training of 6 volunteer tutors  Familiarisation sessions for students  Course team developed tutorial resources for tutors  Tutors modified and used these as they wished CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

The Elluminate Tutorials  Optional, non-assessed  About an hour long  Practiced: ◦ manipulating equations ◦ calculations & substituting values  Used: ◦ audio, interactive whiteboard ◦ text chat, interaction icons (,,, etc.) CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

Evaluation  Tutors’ focus group via Elluminate  Feedback from tutors via tutor forum  Online survey of students  Tutorial sessions recorded via Elluminate  Not very high student participation CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

Students’ views It was very helpful - interactive brainstorming, clear presentation, audio, chat possibilities very good, online numeracy explanation was much easier to understand than when studying it alone from a book. I can see the whiteboard being useful for numeracy and with the addition of relevant symbols it could be good for other subjects such as electronics and engineering. Possibly more. CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

Tutors’ views  “.” On the student exercise part they all came up with different answers! We worked through the solutions and they all said they could see where they went wrong and had learnt from it. We worked through the formula triangles material quite quickly, and then had a look at some material in Powerpoint about probability and availability - the two students seemed to find this useful. [...] We finished by chatting about what they thought about Elluminate. Both seemed enthusiastic about its potential. CETL-MSOR Conference 2009

Tutors’ views on Elluminate CETL-MSOR Conference 2009 “It does feel very slow to me in comparison with a f2f tutorial, required a great deal of preparation and was quite tiring. I guess this is like any new tool and it should get better with practice.”

 As part of this project … ◦ Analyse the student survey responses ◦ Interview student participants ◦ Analyse the recordings of sessions  In the future … ◦ Investigate technical problems ◦ Integrate Elluminate tutorials into the course ◦ Link them into the assessment ◦ Carry out further evaluation