Author: Karin Bowie, k.bowie@history.arts.gla.ac.uk
Author: Dauvit Broun, d.brown@history.arts.gla.ac.uk
JISC e-Learning Activity Area: Technology-enhanced Learning Environments
Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: History, Classics and Archaeology
This case study illustrates...an effect on learning, an effect on exam results, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, an influence on educational research, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, a positive effect on recruitment, a positive effect on retention, an influence on policy, use of resources, modifications to learning spaces, management of learning assets, an effect on social equality
Background & Context
Why did you use this e-learning approach?
This case discusses the adoption of a Moodle VLE for a Level 1 and three Honours level Scottish History courses. Previously the courses either used a basic Dreamweaver website or had no internet-based support. We used a VLE because we had observed its usefulness in courses taught by colleagues. We used Moodle software because the university has selected this as its VLE of choice.
More specifically, the use of a VLE was intended to facilitate learning and teaching by:
- making course materials accessible to students anytime, anywhere, particularly course handouts, assigned reading for each seminar, and OHP/PowerPoint presentations used for each lecture, as well as supplementary material such as timelines and genealogies.
- improving communications between staff and students through the email functions for the class and seminar groups
- reducing photocopying costs by cutting the course document to a few pages of 'essential information'
What was the context in which you used this e-learning approach?
Characteristics of the courses
Scottish History Level 1 serves as an introduction to a period of Scottish history (1100-1707). The course has two lecturers and four Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). The course is designed to introduce students to working with primary material (in the form of extracts) and to the assessment of secondary literature. Contact hours are 30 lectures and 6 seminars over 12 weeks. The seminars are based on worksheets containing a general introduction, primary source extracts and discussion questions. One to three articles or chapters are also assigned to as background reading for each seminar. Making these readings available to a large class is a perennial problem.
The Honours Courses are interdisciplinary, taught by staff from the departments of Archaeology, Celtic and History. The courses are designed to introduce students to a variety of primary source material and historiographical issues. Contact hours are 15 class meetings (either lectures or workshops) and 5 seminars over 10 weeks. Every student is provided with worksheets for each seminar and sources and tasks for each workshop.
Composition of learner groups
Scottish History Level 1 attracts a diverse student body, numbering between 120 and 150. The course is open to all first and second year students in the university and is taken by a substantial number of students who do not intend to study History at the honours level. It also attracts overseas exchange students and mature students. The course has to be designed to cater for students without any knowledge of Scottish History or any previous experience of studying History at the university level, while offering sufficient depth to challenge more experienced second year students.
For the Honours courses, student numbers vary from around 20 to 35, although one course recently had 63 students. These include students from different disciplines (History, Celtic and Archaeology), a number of exchange students and some mature students. The course has to be designed to cater for students without any prior knowledge of the subject or the various disciplines involved in the course.
Situation before e-learning was introduced
Scottish History Level 1 was completely overhauled when e-learning was introduced with new seminar worksheets containing primary source extracts and assigned chapters/articles. There had previously been a Dreamweaver-based website that provided supplementary materials but this could be ignored by students without much adverse result for them. Neither lecturer knew Dreamweaver and had to rely on limited secretarial support to put anything on the website. The Honours courses did not have websites before the VLE was introduced.
Anticipated problems/challenges
- Lectures: Will the availability of the PowerPoint/OHP presentation for each lecture result in a drop in lecture attendance? Will those who do attend still feel that it is worthwhile? Might the availability of detailed notes be used by students to prepare for lectures? Will they offer a solution to the perennial problem of having too much material to cover in a lecture?
- Seminars: Will issues of digitisation costs and copyright limit the aim of supplying all seminar readings online?
- Communications: Will staff be overwhelmed by queries from students struggling with a new system?
What was the design?
The course Moodle sites were used to supply information and resources to all students on and off campus and to encourage communication between students. Seminar groups were created in Moodle to allow tutors and students to email each other and a general chat function was created for the class at large. Administrative information, essay reading lists and past exam papers were provided at the top of the Moodle site. Other materials were provided in weekly sections so that students could see when each item came into play during the course.
- PowerPoint/summaries of OHP presentations for lectures
- Worksheets for seminars and workshops
- Digitised secondary reading for each seminar (when available)
- Digitised annotated primary sources or links to sources on websites (when available)
It was hoped that the provision of lecture slides would aid note-taking and learning by allowing students to listen more and take notes more selectively. In addition, the department's student-staff committee had recommended the provision of lecture slides for the benefit of students with special needs. The provision of digitised readings was expected to relieve pressure on limited library resources and improve preparation for class. Moodle also offered a way to increase the depth of the course for more advanced students. More specialised information was provided for these students, such as timelines and supplementary primary source material.
The design was planned and completed by the course lecturers. Each took responsibility for their aspects of the course, loading lecture notes as the course progressed. The course convenor took overall responsibility.
How did you implement and embed this e-learning approach?
The modest scope of this e-learning approach meant that its implementation was fairly straightforward. The password and navigation to the site was given to students when they enrolled on these courses. Moodle enables staff to see which students have used the site, so it was possible at an early stage to identify which students had not registered. Those few students who had difficulties were then shown what to do.
An introductory session on Moodle for all GTAs in History was arranged. All but one of the tutors on Scottish History Level 1 used Moodle's group email function to communicate with their seminar groups. (One experienced GTA had no internet access at home and little enthusiasm for computers or Moodle training so his group communicated with him via the departmental secretary.)
Unanticipated problems
- Printing scanned files: The provision of scanned secondary literature in PDF files was an important achievement, but students had access to different versions of Adobe and many did not know how to manipulate files in Adobe.
- Printing costs for students: Some students have complained that they must bear the cost of printing out the assigned readings and lecture outlines.
- Internet access for all tutors: as noted above, not all course tutors were able, or willing, to access the Moodle site. This would be an issue if something more ambitious were to be attempted in future, such as e-discussions held before a seminar.
- Plagiarism: there was some concern that students would cut and paste from course files to their essays.
- Staff illness: on the Honours courses, staff absence meant that the provision of some lecture notes had to be abandoned for the final third of the course.
