fabio r arico - blended surveying

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From Blended Learning

to Blended Surveying

Fabio R. Aricò

HEA Surveys for Enhancement

4 June 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

UEA-HEFCE Widening Participation Teaching Fellowship

HEA – Teaching Development Grant Scheme

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PROJECT DEVELOPMENTS

Project Resources: https://sites.google.com/site/fabioarico/hea_tdg

Project Workshop: Wednesday 3 Sep 2014 - University of East Anglia

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ETHICAL REMARK

You will be presented with data collected during teaching sessions.

Students involved have given informed consent for me to analyse their responses and present the results of this analysis.

I can assist with ethical queries as well, please ask me.

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OUTLINE

1. Blended Surveying: the genesis

2. Principles of Blended Surveying

3. Applied examples from my own teaching practice

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1. Blended Surveying:the genesis

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Blended Surveying: a by-product of my TDG

My TDG “When Student Confidence Clicks”:

• Tackling student confidence anxiety over preparation; peer-pressure and competition; inability to self-assess and detect problems.

• The recent changes in HE practice exacerbate this problem the ‘student experience’ model targets support and satisfaction; students run the risk of being put ‘at the heart of the system’ as

passive receivers, rather than confident owners, of their learning.

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1) Re-visit the concept of Academic Self-Efficacy:

students’ confidence in their ability to accomplish specific academic tasks or attain specific academic goals (Bandura, 1997).

Teach students how to become confident & independent learners help them to self-assess and diagnose problems; enable them to seek appropriate forms of support; increase the rate of retention of widening access students; enhance employability skills all along the academic journey.


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2) Exploit the potential of Student Response Systems (SRS)to create an interactive learning environment.

Provide as much feedback as possible: not just on attainment (formative assessment); but on the process of learning as well; establish a 2-way dialogue in a large class environment; create a feeling of partnership.


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Blended Surveying: taking shape and autonomy

I found myself interacting with the students more and more:

I found out what students like and dislike with much finer detail I had chance to respond to their opinions in real time Sometimes it is just enough to explain why things cannot be done.

I found out that an ‘end of module’ questionnaire is not enough

Are we asking the right questions? At the right time? In the right way?

Students recognised this:

“Best thing: the support provided by all the lecturers, teachers and the amount of feedback that is asked for shows that the staff care a lot for our learning experience”

2. Principles ofBlended Surveying

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Principles of Blended Surveying

In a highly structured and diversified Blended Learning environmentwe need an equally sophisticated Blended Surveying approach.

Contact hours:lectures, small group seminars, large group workshops, office hours, and support meetings.

Modes of delivery:frontal teaching, seminar discussion, peer-instructed workshop practice, video-assisted individual study, VLE delivered material.

How can we assess the effectiveness of all this?

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1) SIMULTANEITY Evaluate the process of learning as it occurs.Students do not need to recall events: they just share their feelings in real time.

2) CONSISTENCY Assess teaching using the same devices according to which teaching is delivered.This enables simultaneity, and seamlessly blends teaching, learning, and evaluation processes.

3) CONTINUITY Use the process along the whole teaching period. Make adjustments. Detect change in opinions.

4) CIRCULARITY Close the feedback loop. Talk to the students.Acknowledge changes. Explain why cannot change.

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Break the boundaries between teaching and its evaluation.

Students should not feel that they are being ‘surveyed’; they

should feel that they are constantly involved in a dialogue

about their learning experience where engagement, attainment,

self-efficacy, and teaching evaluation all take place at the same time.

3. Applied examples frommy own teaching practice

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A Blended Learning Environment

Introductory Macroeconomics Level 1 – compulsory year-long module - 170 students

Lectures traditional frontal-teaching (10 per sem.)

Seminars small group, pre-assigned problem sets (4 per sem.)

Workshops large group, problem-solving sessions (4 per sem.)

Support Sessions non-compulsory drop-in sessions (4 per sem.)

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Blended Learning & Blended Surveying

Lectures interaction via clicker technology

Seminars revision questions + understanding questions

Workshops closing questions:

was the lecture enjoyable/interesting?

was the material difficult?

Support Sessions online report of clicking session + feedback

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Lecture difficulty indicator -66% (+8%).Please look out for additional resources coming online very shortly. Video tutorials about the IS-LM will be available shortly.

I would like you to reflect on the feedback asked on the IS-LM model and try to identify what are your OWN difficulties. If many of you are confident about understanding and mastering the material, we need to make this belief becoming a reality. For those of you who are not confident. Why is this the case? Come and discuss this with me.


Seminars preliminary Seminar Quizzes (paper-based)

Seminars 3-4 revision/understanding questions

Workshops 2 confidence/self-assessment questions

Sessions open-answer comments

Support Sessions online report of Seminar Quiz

- solutions and overall performance- individual performance available- response to open-answer comments

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Workshops peer-instructed flipped classroom approach

Seminars standard algorithm:

1. Quiz questions + Confidence questions (no solution)2. Peer-instruction learning3. Quiz questions + solutions4. Problem-set questions4. Feedback questions:

- what was the cause of mistakes/problems?- did you enjoy using clickers?- were clickers useful to your learning?

Support Sessions online report of clicking session + feedback

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Extra-Curricular Activities to promote engagement and Self-Efficacy

Seminars Module Facebook Page + Blackboard pages

- ‘challenges’ to encourage further study- interaction and participation

Seminars Voluntary in-lecture presentations (5 minutes)

- to exploit demonstration effects

Support Sessions Campus Vouchers (for engagement, not attainment)

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Interim Surveys paper-based or web-based

Seminars Feedback posted on VLE with detailed comments

Focus Groups Selection by attainment / domicile

Support Sessions “Willy Wonka” selection method (ethical framework)

Support Sessions insights about teaching methods, difficulties, feelings…

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SUMMARY

• Teaching protocol with interventions to assess/enhance Academic Self-Efficacy and self-assessment skills.

• Mixed-methods approach to disentangle the relationship between engagement, attainment, and academic self-efficacy using student demographics.

• The by-product is a blended surveying approach to blended learning well recognised by the students.

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PROJECT DEVELOPMENTS

Project Resources: https://sites.google.com/site/fabioarico/hea_tdg

Project Workshop: Wednesday 3 Sep 2014 - University of East Anglia

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fabio r arico - blended surveying

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