Author: Shirley Bennett, s.bennett@hull.ac.uk

JISC e-Learning Activity Area: Learning Resources and Activities

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Sociology, Anthropology and Politics

This case study illustrates...an effect on learning, 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, an influence on policy, use of resources

Tangible Benefits

What tangible benefits did this e-learning approach produce?

The Master of Education in e-Learning is designed as a part-time, delivered entirely online from its first inception and offers significant flexibility of time, pace and place of study. Hence there is no previous traditional-delivery programme to draw comparisons with. The programme largely serves a student group who would not be able to follow a programme with this university except via the wholly online learning approach, and enables access to study for students around the world, the large majority of whom are studying alongside their professional lives, ensuring a symbiotic relationship between their study and work contexts. This enhances the learning experience for students and the teaching experience for staff, as is highlighted by typical student comments:

• 'The international dynamics of the group enabled a real development in my breadth of vision in relation to teaching and learning in general and, teaching and learning online.'
• 'During the course we were always encouraged to relate the learning to our work environment and I found the content helped me become more effective in my professional capacity.'
• 'Having access to professionals from other areas of education, with all the experience, know-how and information that they bring to the course not only makes the course interesting but gives me insights into my own ways of working.'

The direct relevance of the programme, the assessed projects, and the other learning activities, to work contexts, and the benefits individuals gain from the opportunity to draw on the experience of online peers within a range of sectors and to learn from the variety of experiences and expertise they represent, is evidenced by the fact that many students gain promotion at work, and/or secure new posts more directly related to the implementation of e-learning during the programme, as well as a result of gaining the Masters qualification.

The External Examiner for the programme has highlighted the particular benefits students derive from the inclusion of collaborative assessment tasks, and noted the positive impact on their achievement. The use of the Merlin Portfolio, increasingly in combination with external, largely Web 2.0, tools, facilitates and enhances the collaboration which is possible on the programme and ensures both secure submission of joint work, and provision for access to the complete moderation process, for programme staff and External Examiners, all within the same online environment. The personalised nature of the VLE in use on the programme has been important in enhancing group identity and creating a sympathetic learning environment and partnership in the learning and teaching process - this is especially important given the dispersed nature of the cohorts on the programme. The exploitation of the enhanced opportunities which online technologies provide for student engagement not only in collective working, but in iterative processes of critical peer review of coursework and exploration of different facets of academic and professional writing resulted in the fact that a number of students on the MEd in e-Learning have had papers accepted for conference presentation and for publication during the course of their studies.

The programme has had a positive impact on the wider institution. It has provided CPD for a number of academic and support staff in other areas of the university, both giving first hand experience of online learning and developing critical insight into e-learning and the relationships between learning theory and e-learning design which has influenced and enhanced their own development of online activities, modules and complete programmes. A new online Masters programme in the Faculty of Health will start in September 07, developed by a member of staff whose own understanding of e-learning was enhanced by participation in the MEd in e-Learning. As the first wholly online programme within the institution, the programme has been instrumental too in broadening the University's sense of the student identity beyond that of the traditional campus-based learner. Online students now benefit from a much broader range of online and e-resources (primary journal expenditure is in e-journals and books will be purchased in e-book format where available) and from the provision of a range of student services (e.g. study advice, counselling, careers skills) by email/website. Such developments do not solely benefit online students but enhance provision for the full range of student-types, whether full - or part-time and on traditional off-campus programmes.

A further tangible benefit from the programme, this time to the wider educational community, is the publication of the following book: Bennett, S., Marsh, D. and Killen, C. (2006) Handbook of Online Education, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. ISBN: 0826472966. Two of the authors were involved in the development of the MEd in e-Learning and teach on the programme. A number of the activities within the book are derived from the MEd in e-Learning programme and from positive responses to students. A review of this book can be found on the Escalate website at: http://escalate.ac.uk/3427

Did implementation of this e-learning approach have any disadvantages or drawbacks?

While the use of asynchronous communication enables significant flexibility of access, and enables students and staff alike to fit the programme around other aspects of their lives, there are accompanying problems such as on the one hand intrusion into work-life balance, and on the other, the challenge of self-discipline which flexibility itself brings. However, collaboration itself brings challenges which in many ways are similar to those faced in more traditional learning contexts, and at times, leads to frustration if all are not seen to contribute equally. These are often exacerbated by the time-factor inherent in asynchronous communication patterns, and students are not always as sympathetic to the needs and situations of their online colleagues as one would hope.

A major problem encountered with the approach is that the "market" differs from that of other programmes in the department, which largely serve the local or regional needs of teachers within the school sector. The established marketing and publicity processes are therefore inadequate for this programme and recruitment remains the over-riding challenge faced by the Med in e-Learning. Similarly, since the other programmes within the department use traditional modes of delivery, the distance e-learning students on the MEd in e-Learning do not have the opportunity to incorporate modules from other departmental specialities within their programme of study.

How did this e-learning approach accord with or differ from any relevant departmental and/or institutional strategies?

The e-learning approach on this programme accords with key aims of the faculty in which the programme is based, the Institute for Learning, contributing to provision for off-campus and work-based students and to the aspiration of "Accelerating the University's involvement in open and distance learning methodology, from the regional to the global scale". It complements the significant levels of blended learning within other programmes across the faculty, but differs in being wholly-online, without a face-to-face component.