A New Semester

Here is a brief summary of the JISC project and the eComms FdA development

Summary of Progress of JISC Project to date.

During this reporting period the Widening Participation through eLearning project has kept to the original project plan and there has been no change to the budget plan, apart from a minor reallocation of funds to different budget headings. This budget change was proposed by the project and agreed by JISC earlier in the year.
The first semester of the Online eCommunications FdA began on 18 February 2008 and finished on 30 June 2008. Social software was used extensively in the delivery of this degree and by students in their individual and collaborative work. The use of this social software and the pedagogical implications of its use remains the main focus of this project. Two modules were fully delivered: Approaches to Communications and The Social Web. One module was partially delivered: Professional and Personal Development. This last module is delivered over three semesters and will finish in June 2009.
28 students enrolled and began this FdA and 23 students completed this semester. All the work has been marked and all the students have provisionally passed both of the completed modules; an exam board will take place on 10 September 2008 where the external moderator will give a final decision on student achievement. Data has been collected on the following:-
Staff views on the implementation of a social software solution for the degree. To gather this data, two reflective practice meetings have been held on staff experience of the trialling of this technology. One meeting was minuted by an external, competent minute taker; the second meeting was taped and transcribed.Student views and experience of using social software. To gather this data two online questionnaires were conducted using surveymonkey. One before the course started and one on completion of semester one. The second questionnaire focussed on the use of the course wiki, as this is the tool being investigated for this seminar. In seminar two blogs and forums will be investigated. Data was also collected through a face to face minuted meeting with 8 of the students. Additionally data was collected from the student activities where they were asked to reflect on their experience of using social software during the semester.
Initial evaluation of this data has been completed. Work is now being undertaken on more detailed evaluation and the preparation of further questionnaires and the drafting of interview questions for future meetings.
A justification for this choice of technology and the implementation of a blog, wiki and forum solution has been produced.
The choice to use an eportfolio solution hosted in an instance of sheffcol, the content management system for TSC, remains unchanged.

Activities and Progress

Workpackages

Work has been completed on:

Workpackage 1: Project management
Financial statements have been completed and included in the half yearly reports.Quarterly Steering Group Meetings. These have been held regularly. The last meeting was held on 21 April 08.

The next meeting of the Quarterly Steering Group will be on 21 November 2008.

Three weekly Implementation Group and Quarterly Implementation Group Meetings. These meetings have been held more frequently, often weekly and sometimes twice a week. Sub groups of the PIG have also been set up (subPIGs). Agendas and minutes have been used for all of these meetings and minutes circulated to the full Implementation Group.

Three Weekly Highlight Reports to the Steering Group. It has not been necessary to produce these reports due to the frequency of the minutes that have been circulated following the regular, often twice weekly, Implementation Group meetings. The Half Yearly report has been used to report back to the Steering Group. Additionally a short report has been circulated to all relevant TSC staff giving brief details of important information, issues and changes.

Workpackage 3: Half Yearly Reports
Half Yearly Report a (Sept 2007). Half Yearly Report b (Jan 2008).
Half yearly Report c (July 2008).

Initial report have been produced for the following:
Workpackage 4: Justification for choice of technology to be embedded in the course.
Workpackage 5: Implementation of a blog solution.
Workpackage 6: Implementation of a wiki solution
Workpackage 7: Implementation of an eportfolio solution
Workpackage 8: Implementation of a forum solution
Workpackage 9: Trialling of the chosen technology.
I
Workpackage 11: Dissemination
The project website can be found at: http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/ This website is password protected. Relevant members of the community will be given access to this site. Two in-house dissemination activities have been held at The Sheffield College.
Additionally, work is underway for Workpackage 10: Evaluation of Project, as all the work undertaken for the other workpackages contributes to this final evaluation.

Evaluation

There are eight factors to evaluate, each linked to evaluation questions. These remain unchanged from the Project Implementation Document. These are:

How students anticipate that the specific technologies being evaluated might be beneficial to their learning: What are the specific benefits that students anticipate?

How tutors anticipate that the specific technologies being evaluated might be beneficial to their learning: What are the specific benefits that tutors anticipate?

How students respond to specific uses of the technologies eg a blog: What is the accessibility, responsiveness, adaptability and functionality of technology?

How tutors engage students' interest through the use of the technologies eg a blog: What is the accessibility, responsiveness, adaptability and functionality of technology?

Student experience of the technologies (eg a wiki) in aiding and changing learning eg a wiki: What is the accessibility, responsiveness, adaptability and functionality of technology?

How tutors orientate students towards the technologies eg a forum: What is the accessibility, responsiveness, adaptability and functionality of technology?

How students motivation changes in relation to the use of the technologies eg an e portfolio: What is the accessibility, responsiveness, adaptability and functionality of technology?

Whole Project: How successful has the project been for learners, tutors and stakeholders? What lessons have been learned? What has been the impact of using the technology?

There are specific methods of data collection for each of these evaluation areas and as stated in Section One, several of these have already been undertaken.

There have been several changes in the method of data collection.
Data has been collected from student activities where they were asked to reflect on their experience of using social software during the semester. Reflective blog entries have been especially useful here.

It has been found to be easier to design questionnaires that while concentrating upon one specific tool, such as a wiki, which was the original intention, also cover questions on other tools as well.
It was decided to replace the questionnaire to tutors with two reflective practice meetings; these have already taken place. (This last point was reported in the Jan 08 interim report).

To date the main focus of the data collection has been on the student and tutor experience of using the course wiki, although, as has been stated, other, relevant data has been collected.

Future data collection will focus on the student and tutor experience of using reflective blogs and the course forum. Work has already began on designing further evaluation tools to address this.

Outputs and Deliverables

Minutes from the following meetings are available from the project website:

Quarterly Steering Group Meetings.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/Project+Steering+Group

Three weekly Implementation Group and Quarterly Implementation Group Meetings.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/Project+Implementation+Group

Three Weekly Highlight Reports to the Steering Group.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/JISC+Progress+Reports


The following reports and initial reports are available from the project website:

Short reports circulated to all relevant TSC staff giving brief details of important information, issues and changes.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/Where+we+are+now


Workpackage 3: Half Yearly Reports
Half Yearly Report a (Sept 2007). Half Yearly Report b (Jan 2008).
Half yearly Report c (July 2008).
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/JISC+Progress+Reports
Workpackage 4: Justification for choice of technology to be embedded in the course.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/Implementing+a+Social+Software+Solution

Workpackage 5: Implementation of a blog solution.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/social+software

Workpackage 6: Implementation of a wiki solution.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/JISC+Project+Reports

Workpackage 7: Implementation of an eportfolio solution.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/ePortfolio

Workpackage 8: Implementation of a forum solution.
http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/social+software


Workpackage 9: Trialling of the chosen technology.http://ecomms-tsc.wikispaces.com/Trialling+of+the+chosen+technology

The Exam Board

Our first Exam Board went well. All the provisional grades of our students were verified. All our students passed the two modules that were presented.


Semester Two: Feb 08 Cohort

The first cohort of students have now moved into their second semester. They are in the fourth week of study and settling in well. They are engaging with the course materials, although one or two are a bit slow to start on the forum activities. An issue that might be emerging here is the make up of the learning sets and whether we have got a correct balance and number of learners in each set. There well may be genuine reasons that explain students not posting onto the forum topics. This will need to be monitored over the next few weeks and the online eComms FdA team have agreed to review this issue mid semester.

Semester One: Sept 08 Cohort

Our new cohort of 28 students are also settling in well. They are currently in week 6 of the semester; this cohort began their studies on 15.09.08, the Feb 08 cohort began on 29.09.08. There has been quite a lot of rewriting of the content, especially in the Approaches to Communications and the PPD modules. A key change is the introduction of eNotebook activities that we hope will engage the learners but also lighten the stress as these activities are not assessed.

These students have completed an initial questionnaire on their experience and knowledge of social software.

Authoring of the remaining modules

Popular Culture and the Internet is nearly ready to place on mysheffcol. Meetings are taking place to discuss the other modules.