Date post: | 14-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | douglas-stear |
View: | 214 times |
Download: | 1 times |
Developing and Supporting Online Learning in a Traditional UK Polytechnic
University:A view from the middle
Rachel Forsyth, Learning and Teaching Unit, Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
• approx. 31,000 students • 60% undergraduate, 40% postgraduate • 66% full-time; 34% part-time• 40% of full-time students >21 when they
begin• 2000 staff, of whom about 1200 teaching staff
(mostly full-time)
MMU: Mission
“to provide high-quality learning opportunities for all our students and establish a reputation
for the provision of excellent, varied and innovative teaching and learning”.
Learning and Teaching Unit
Responsible for implementation of Learning and Teaching Strategy
Established September 2000 (Head: Professor Fred Lockwood)
3 members of academic staff
1 web developer
First online steps at MMU
• First online course 1996 (Certificate in Open and Distance Learning)
• In-house system for bulletin boards, student home pages, assignment submission etc
• Excellent for small numbers of students and one or two courses at a time
WebCT
• 1998: 3 courses• 1999: 90 courses (most in development)• 2000: 165 active courses, 170 in
development• 2001: (projected) 300 courses managed by
160 academic staff
Use of WebCT at MMU since 1998
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Sep-98
Mar-99
Sep-99
Mar-00
Sep-00
Mar-01
Sep-01
Mar-02
Sep-02
Mar-03
Sep-03
Mar-04
Sep-04
Mar-05
Sep-05
Date
Nu
mb
er
Course Areas
Staff Developing Course Areas
WebCTWebCT
Reasons for Growth
• internal project: fellowship• ‘zeitgeist’ - the time is right• lack of foresight
Online Fellowship Scheme
• eight weeks, full-time online learning innovation • 24 lecturers over two years• awarded by application and interview• intensive support before, during and after• funding dependent on beginning, completing,
implementing and evaluating.
Open system for access to WebCT
• any lecturer can obtain a “Development Area”• supported by online course and other
materials• internal WebCT developers mailing list• technical support mailing list• developed courses emerge from Development
Area after a quality check
Overview of WebCT usage
9th August 2000 - 18th June 2001• 1.8m pages requested (average 5,778 per
day)• 3.9m data item requests• busiest month: January (317,800 requests
for pages)
How is WebCT used?
• 69% of requests from on campus
• 31% of requests from off campus– requests from 28 international domains
How far have we come?
• 6,000 students, 100 developers• increasing interest from course teams,
moving away from the “individual enthusiast” paradigm
• most staff development takes place online• all technical support via email
Problems: our unit• 1.5 academic staff (2 from
1 September) with other tasks
• 0.4 technical staff • No hardware/software
budget • Academic staff doing
technical jobs
Problems: institutional
• No institutional policy on online learning
• No institutional resources for online learning
• Seven campuses, seven faculties• No integration with management
information systems • Not enough emphasis on student
learning
Strategy
• Persuade the Directorate to adopt a strategy• Put hardware support into central information
systems• Devolve training and technical support to
faculty level• Reorganise existing resources (us)• Work towards a managed learning
environment
Staff Development Online
1998/99: same workshops offered in two modes:
• face to face - typically one full day (113 participants)
• online - typically one hour per week for six weeks (96 participants)
Outcomes
• face to face: – no change, everyone who turned up completed
everything
• online: – 15% completed everything– 70% completed most tasks– 15% ‘attended’ once then never again
Typical demands: what are your daily priorities?
• Marking• Course administration• Teaching• Paper to be written• Staff Development
• Student with problem• Institutional
administration• Colleague wanting to
discuss something
New Course Design
• 6 hours over 2 days• Compulsory ‘meetings’ at 10am and 2pm
each day• Structured activities• Group work