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Part A: Justification:
The Social Research Companion is an eLearning module that has been specifically designed for postgraduate sociology students to improve their review writing skills. It is intended that this exercise be implemented as a co-requisite or ‘companion’ to curriculum involving sociological research. The module design is based on Biggs’ (1999) theory of Constructive Alignment. The intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for the student are determined at the inception of the exercise, hence, the pursuing activities are designed to gradually take the student through the educational processes deemed necessary to achieve the learning outcome.
The exercise is constructively aligned to engage students in actively applying their learning to practical applications, which then result in an assessable exercise. By taking a single component from a wider program, that is, review writing skills required for sociological research, the module attempts to define the learning outcomes and select learning and teaching activities that are likely to enable the students to achieve the outcomes. In completion of the exercise, the teacher is able to assess the students' resulting outcome and grade the students learning. “The key to success is a balance between applying useful older concepts about learning and the implementation of innovations using the best of networked technologies.” (Salmon, 2002: 1).
Although this eLearning module is academically assessable, it does not consist of tests or exams, so it cannot be accomplished by any means of memorisation. Instead, it offers students the opportunity to identify, explore, and apply their learned skills in useful applications such as in this case, researching and reviewing literature. This helps the student to develop and improve their sociological writing techniques. The student consequently becomes engaged in physical research in order to adequately review the disciplinary subject.
Both formative and summative assessments are employed to ensure a comprehensive learning outcome. It involves constructivist and formative activities that propose to highlight the student’s strengths and weaknesses and to help improve on their deficiencies. “Diagnostic tests, delivered early in the learning process, determine which content and level is needed by which student. Assessment of students’ learning is based on reproduction, comprehension and critique.” (Salmon, 2002: 2). Students are involved in practical applications in which they share a collective authorship and also learn to pool resources. There is a discussion board where the group can integrate ideas and share thoughts and notes with other students and the tutor. The comment panel for tutor’s feedback on reviews is an ongoing process throughout the course, that is, adjustments and revisions are made by the student and the tutor adds new comments to assist the student to focus on their weak points. The tutor constantly observes the progress of students and provides personalised feedback to the students regarding their involvement, contribution, and participation. Formative activities such as those mentioned above enable the tutor to identify the strengths and weaknesses of students through a progressional module.
The summative activities are intended to ultimately grade their final contributions. The results are determined by grading certain elements such as quality and extent of research, analysis and level of understanding, written expression, academic style and technique. These activities are intended as a technological complement for the physical classroom. In other words, the online medium is used simply to engage students in the activities required whilst maintaining a physical relationship between the tutor and students. This is done by establishing a unit of study in which classroom activities are minimised, yet not discarded altogether. As Salmon (2002: 2) points out, “online learners do not wish to do without their human supporters”.
The intended learning outcome for the exercise is stipulated as follows: Upon completion of the module, students will be able to refine their research techniques, critically evaluate sociological material, improve their academic writing skills, learn to collaborate with other researchers, reflect on compiled works for future reference or research.
The learning resources are taken from web2.0 applications. LibraryThing, which is a collecting and cataloguing application, can be found on the ‘sacred cow dung’ site, which is available at the following address: http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/allthingsweb.html. LibraryThing searches the Library of Congress, all five national Amazon sites, and more than 60 world libraries. It incorporates its own Wiki feature which is utilised in the collaborative review process. A blog will also be set up for student reflection and journaling purposes
Part B: Reflection:
The scope of teaching and learning practices is clearly one that is changing along with the developments in technology. While some teaching programs are incorporating learning and teaching technologies into their curriculum as an additional or complementary feature, some units of study are being completely turned over to its technological counterpart. In other words, traditional teaching and learning methods are rapidly being configured to suit the requirements of learners in the 21st century. According to Salmon (2002: 2), “Flexibility and instantaneousness are the keywords.”
To better prepare for the possibilities, Salmon (2002) considers the elements of teaching and learning technologies. She introduces some examples of envisioned scenarios that clearly depict a range of implications for the future of education. The various scenarios Salmon presents appear to describe a space beyond the physical planet in which we live. This space ultimately refers to the virtual realm in which new teaching and learning technologies are utilised. For example, “On Planet Cafélattia, learning is built around learning communities & interaction, extending access beyond the bounds of time and space, but offering the promise of efficiency and widening access…The medium of communication- human language- has become even more important than on Earth.” The Nomadict Planet on the other hand, provides learning to a mobilised society. There are few physical classrooms left; terrestrial universities and corporate training facilities have disappeared and new e-universities are now the customary means of education. Salmon’s scenarios, of which only two have been introduced above, are a descriptive forecast for future possibilities to learning and teaching. They display the various implications that learning and teaching technologies may present in the progressive world of online education.
With this eLearning module, I have tried to implement a complementary training program that is intended to engage students in practical applications that are related to the physical unit of study, which in this case, is sociological research and review techniques. The reason for this particular feature being presented as an eLearning exercise is to ensure a collaborative process that is not easily attainable in a physical classroom setting. This eLearning environment is built on the foundation of learning communities & interaction in which collaboration and communication are imperative, similar to the scenario of Salmon’s Planet Cafelattia.
The module enables instant commentary and feedback from the tutor on style, technique, structure, and form. The student is then able to improve on their shortcomings without having to rewrite the entire review and resubmit it. The wiki feature in the editable panels is thus used to add, retract, and reorganise as necessary. This also helps the students to reflect on their previous attempts and identify their weak points even more clearly, for alterations are not discarded, but rather, included in the viewing area. In other words, this feature makes it easier for the students to see exactly where they have been making errors and then to consciously correct them. The student’s end result thus becomes a reorganised and revised version of their original work.
The concept of LibraryThing was deemed suitable for this project due to the efficiency of cataloguing and reviewing features that were available on the site. As mentioned in the onset of the module, ‘Sociology is a discipline that requires a lot of reading and thought’. What better way to incorporate both reading and thought? The module assigns the students readings, which the students find in the library and then they are asked to review the books. LibraryThing offered the convenience of collecting and cataloguing as well as publishing a written review. The editable regions on the LibraryThing interface allowed for instantaneous feedback from teachers and students. They also help create a collaborative learning environment. Comments from the tutor on reviews are intended to expose the student’s strengths and weaknesses. Students then alter or rewrite their reviews that consequently enable them to identify and compare their own styles and techniques, which are intended to result in improved academic review writing skills.
References:
Biggs, J. (1999). Teaching for Quality Learning at University: Assessing for learning quality: II.practice (pp. 165-203).
Salmon, G. (2002). Future learning encounters, Keynote presentation, Eurocall 2002. Centre for Innovation, Knowledge & Enterprise.
