Author: Alison Wride, a.e.c.wride@exeter.ac.uk

JISC e-Learning Activity Area: Technology-enhanced Learning Environments

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Economics

This case study illustrates...an effect on learning, an effect on student personal development, innovation in learning and teaching, staff satisfaction with e-learning, a positive effect on recruitment, a positive effect on retention, use of resources, an effect on social equality

Lessons Learned

Summary and Reflection

We believe that this approach has been largely successful. Where students have fully participated in the assessments their learning has been enhanced and their achievement has been high. We suspect that the students who did not complete the exercises would in the past have been the non-attenders at classes, although this is a subjective view. In 2007 we will be talking to students on modules using e-assessment, emphasizing the benefits and explaining the process in the light of our previous experience. We will also show them the anonymised data from the previous cohort that relates the proportion of e-assessments completed to the final exam mark, although we will also make it clear that the conclusions are not robust.

The approach works in terms of our institutional strategy and has informed the school strategy that is currently being developed for implementation from 2008.

For 2007/8 we will be introducing a similar approach into our year 1 economics module; this has over 400 students on it and has consisted of three lectures per week, one whole module workshop and optional help classes. These will be retained but will be supplemented with compulsory weekly online assessments. We will be asking each department within the school to look at the resources provided by publishers and to consider whether these could be used to enhance student learning. From 2008 all modules within the school will be based within WebCT, at present this happens for around 25%, and we see that in the future there will be a core of e-learning through all our programmes.