making digital history: students creating online learning objects at the university of lincoln
TRANSCRIPT
Jamie Wood, University of Lincoln
T: @woodjamie99 and @MakDigHist
http://makingdigitalhistory.co.uk/
Our projectContext
What we did
Feedback, 2013-15
Creativity
Digital literacy in the Disciplines project (HEA/JISC): 2013-14
Developing students’ digital literacies
Xerte: Open Educational Resource (OER: http://www.xerte.org.uk/index.php?lang=en)
Institutional focus: students as producers (http://bit.ly/1ljWEDR), not consumers
HEA/ JISC focus: students as partners
Students create learning objects
Level 1, 2 and MA
Individual and group projects
Compulsory and optional use
All were assessed
All staff involved chose to continue using it
Core L1 module
Numbers of students 2013: ca. 100
2014: ca. 130
Work in groups of 3-5 to produce a Xerte object that teaches an audience (of their choosing) about a primary source we looked at in class
http://bit.ly/1lNNUGO
https://xerte.lncd.lincoln.ac.uk/play.php?template_id=2137
• Group-work
• Using a new technology
• Offline problems transferred online: • e.g. writing and presentation
• Digital literacies?
Competencies 2013-14
(n = 81)
2014-15
(n = 90)
Team working
Ability to find and use primary and
secondary sources
Knowledge of the subject
Ability to present information in a
concise and interesting way
Ability to use the Internet for
research
67
60
59
57
33
77
67
61
53
42
ECSTASI: Encouraging Creativity in Students Through Applied Student Inquirywith Drs Marie Griffiths and Maria Kutar, Salford Business School
Gathering data from students in 2013-14 and 2014-15Questionnaires (students and staff; pre- and post-surveys)
Focus groups
Analysis of ‘products’
‘person’s natural imagination’
‘ability to think of original ideas and concepts, not purely copying someone else’s work’
‘your own ideas’
‘think for yourself’
‘pushing yourself out of your comfort zone’
‘creating and working something different to everyone else to set yourself apart from them’
‘intrinsic to the individual’
‘you’re either a creative person or not, more born with it’
Person
is the student a creative
person and have their
learning experiences
developed their
creativity?
Process
is the process through
which the person
learnt or the product
was made creative?
Product
is the essay or other
piece of work creative?
Adapted from (Charyton et al., 2009)
Do you think of yourself as a creative person? Yes - 16
Positive (e.g. ‘a bit’) - 10
Negative (e.g. ‘not very’) - 4
No - 3
It has allowed me
to think in other
formats than just
an essay and made
me think more
about presentation
Not really, I think the
program was just
complicated and wasn't fair
that it was new and part of
the assessment. Don't
think that it was just me
that felt this
Thinking outside the box
more. Making more of an effort
to satisfy the audience’s needs
in creative/ interesting/
interactive ways
Yes maybe, I
could do a lot
more than I
expected
“Some of the students who had achieved mediocre results in more traditional forms of assessments managed to excel in producing
their digital objects.” (Staff response)
Yes: 11
Somewhat: 11
No: 2
Focus groupXerte +
offers ten different ways to approach a source, an essay is too structured to achieve the same scope
helped them see research as “like a tree growing”, starting from a central source and branching out.
“absolutely has potential to allow people to be creative”
Xerte - “very inaccessible […] “it seems like it’s still in development […] it seems unfinished.”
“not very simple to use”
more guidance needed
problems in working in groups
“we were creative with it because it enabled us to
explore quite an old document in a language none of
us can read and make it accessible.”
“It encourages them to think about the problem from an unfamiliar angle, with a view to presenting
their thoughts and conclusions in an unfamiliar format. The unfamiliarity was initially a little unsettling for some, but ultimately facilitated deeper and more effective reflection, as they
grappled with new ways of presenting information.” (Staff response)
How would you measure your creativity for the artefact on a scale where 1 = least creative and 5 = most creative?
Average response = 3.33
“group projects like the Xerte object will have to be creative to stand out from the rest”
Creative elements:Multimedia content (e.g. pictures, videos)
Varied methods of presenting information (e.g. ‘zooming in’) “we could have just written about it or done a poster about it, but it wouldn’t have had the impact.”
Encouraging creativity:Ability to reach a wider audience and application (e.g. essays just seen by author and tutor)
“[…] it helped (some of) the students to
think about how they present
information to others, to consider that
they might be producing material that
engages with an audience beyond the
teacher.” (Staff response)
Digital objects sometimes passive: “you can take as little or as much as you like”
“Definitely the most effective way to deliver a creative presentation that I’ve come across”
Xerte is more engaging, but essays can allow students to “be more creative with my ideas because you can extend and expand them more”
Key: not Xerte, but the pedagogy
Making (or creating) digital history developed range of skills Team working, using sources, subject knowledge
Less impact on digital literacy
Stress (e.g. of groupwork) aided learning?
Creativity developed across three areas, although with challenges Person – certain students think they are more suited to this
Process – problem solving and thinking in different ways
Product – thinking about audience