Improving student learning using information technologies

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

Improving
student learning
using information
technologies
1

Why e-learning?
•
•

•
•

•

•

because it’s ‘cool’
to enhance the quality of
teaching
to meet the needs of millennials
to increase access and
flexibility
to provide the skills needed in
the 21 st century
© Tony Bates Associates Ltd
to improve cost-effectiveness

2

What is e-learning?
(Bates, 2005)

blended
learning

•

face- classtoroom
face
aids

no e-learning

distributed
learning

lapmixed distop
mode tance
pro- (less faceto-face + e- edugram learning)
cation
s
fully e-learning


3

Making choices

For any course or academic
programme:
Where on the continuum of elearning should this course or
programme be?
If blended or hybrid learning, what
should be done face-to-face and
what done online?

4

Deciding on the role of e-learning

e-learning a tool, not a panacea
need to identify where it will
bring most benefit
depends on type of students,
nature of topic
Taking account of
students/topics, need to design
course to make best use of elearning

5

Students

Three technology issues
regarding students:
• market and demographics
• technology access
• learner ‘psychology’: learning
styles, motivation, experience

6

Who are the students? Demographics

Who is your target group?
Demographics:
•
•
•

age
gender
location (where do they live;
where will they study?)
• part-time/full-time (working or
not?)

7

Who are the students?
Technology access

What technology can they access
on campus? When? Line-ups?
What do they own themselves?
Internet access from home?
How ‘literate’ are they in using
technology for study purposes
You need this information

8

Who are the students? Learner
‘psychology’

Dependent or independent
learners?
High ability or mixed ability?
Motivation
Preferred learning styles
(listeners, talkers, watchers)
Do your students need to be
actively ©engaged to learn?
Tony Bates Associates Ltd

9

Who are the students? Common
learner profiles

Novice undergraduates: 18-20;
straight from high school; fulltime; dependent learners; low
‘subject’ motivation; mainly
campus-based; demand high
‘personal contact’; computers
as a study aid

10

Who are the students? Common
learner profiles

Mature undergraduates: 20-25;
working part-time; relatively
independent learners; high
‘subject’ motivation; partly
campus-based; confident
technology users


11

S: Who are the students? Common
learner profiles

Mature graduate students: 25 40; working full-time;
independent learners; high
‘subject’ motivation; mainly
distance learners; heavy
technology users
Most courses will have a mix of
students – how to cater for this

12

Prior strategic decisions to be made

Same students as before or
reach out to new students?
mandate?
100% face-to-face or blended or
fully distant – or all three?
What technologies to use?
Who is to provide the technology
for students? Associates Ltd
© Tony Bates

13

Knowing your students

Who is the desired target group?
Describe the current enrolments:
demographics/technology
access/learner psychology

Is there a gap? Could technology
delivery help?

14

Students and the mix of teaching

Identify market:
Identify best delivery method:
Market
From
school/undergrad
Final year undergrad

f2f
70%
60%

online
30%
40%

Graduate: on-campus

50%

50%

Graduate: off-campus

10%

90%


15

Teaching functions

Link choice of technology to
desired learning outcomes
Choose best pedagogical
approach to achieve desired
outcomes
Two aspects of learning
outcomes:
• content

16

T: Teaching functions

Content (knowing):
•
facts/ideas/principles/relationship
s/formulae/problems/opinions
• choice of media: what is best way
to represent this knowledge?
• e.g. use of colour, graphics, animation

• media excellent for moving
between Tony Bates Associates Ltd
concrete and abstract
©

17

T: Teaching functions: skills

Skills (doing)
•
comprehension/analysis/synthesis
/ application/evaluation/critical
thinking/collaborative
learning/problem-solving
• choice of media: what
technologies facilitate the
required skills?
18

I: Interaction

Four kinds interaction:
•
•
•
•

instructor – student(s)
student – other student(s)
student – learning materials
reflection (student with himself)

Interaction = feedback +
hypothesis + knowledge
construction: ‘deep’ learning

19

I: Interaction

Cultural issues: will students
share/collaborate/discuss/challe
nge instructor?
Technologies vary in the way
they facilitate interaction
Design is important: interaction
can be ‘built in’ or can ‘evolve’

20

What teaching roles are suitable for
online learning?
What is best done online? What faceto-face?
• transmitting information
• collecting data/finding information
• preparation for lab work
• designing experiments
• doing experiments
• discussing best ways to do things
• problem solving…….

21

Group work

Identify
Identify

course
teaching activities

Activity

f2f
online

Information transmission
Lab exp.

x
x

Lab prep
Data collection

……

x


x
x
22

Meeting the needs of 21 st century
learners


23

Different economies

Resource-based: agricultural,
mining, fishing: land/sea-based,
local

Industrial: manufacturing: urban,
factories, hierarchical, economies of
scale, specialist skills

Knowledge-based: financial, biotechnology, ICTs, telecoms,
entertainment: ‘virtual’, global,
networked, multi-skilled

All three economies in parallel

24

Meeting the needs of 21 st century
learners

Main reason for using technology
in teaching:
• to develop the skills needed in a
knowledge-based society
• not just IT literacy: embedding
use of IT in teaching and
learning
• also developing knowledge© Tony Bates Associates Ltd

25

Skills of knowledge-based workers
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

• problem solving, critical
thinking
• communication skills
• computing/Internet skills
• independent learners
• entrepreneurial, initiative
• flexibility
• team-work/networking

26

How can we use information
technologies to develop the
skills needed by knowledge
workers?

27

Current proportion of different types of elearning in North America + Europe

Proportion of
courses
using
each
type of
elearnin <1%
g
No
technolog
y

56%

24%
10%
Classroom
aids

Laptops in
class

8%
Hybrid


Fully
distance
28

Current teaching models
Learning management systems
Commercial:
• Blackboard (includes WebCT)
• monopoly (patent)
• high licensing fees
Open source
• Moodle, Sakai
• ‘free’ (but operating costs)
Teacher/institutional controlled

29

The transmissive model of teaching

Predominant teaching model:
• lectures, seminars, lab classes
Students study by:
• listening in class, reading,
discussion
Assessment by:
• tests, essays, lab work

30

Current, dominant teaching
technologies

• Powerpoint/pdf
•
whiteboards/projectors/scree
ns
• lecture capture/clickers
• learning management
systems (Blackboard,
Moodle)

31

Transmission of knowledg

Technology is mainly being used
for transmissive model of
teaching
Learning management systems:
• instructor posts content (lecture
slides, readings, urls),
assignments, sets up
discussion topics

32

New technologies: 2005 -

user-created content: blogs,
YouTube
social networking:
MySpace/FaceBook
mobile learning: phones, MP3s
virtual worlds: Second Life
emerging publication: wikis, ePortfolios
multi-player games: Lord of the

33

What is Web 2.0?

Educational implications
• learners have powerful tools
• learners create/add/adapt
content
• personal learning environments
• power shift from teachers to
learners
• ‘open’ access, content, services
34

How to mobilise Web 2.0 in online
teaching

Within programmes:
• group work
• projects and cases
• outside experts and content
• field work
• language teaching
• multimedia assignments/eportfolios

35

Examples

•
•

•
•

History (web quests)
Business management (geo
positioning, Google)
Medicine
Education (e-portfolios)

36

Conclusions
•

•

•

•

Different students, different
educational outcomes
New tools give learners power
to create and demonstrate
knowledge
New designs and organization
of teaching needed
Only limitation: Associates Ltd
our imagination
© Tony Bates

37

Thank you!


38

Improving student learning using information technologies

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