Many institutions encourage formative computer-based assessment (CBA), yet competing priorities mean that learners are necessarily selective about what they engage in. So how can we motivate them to engage? Can we facilitate learners to take more control of shaping their learning experience? To explore this, the Learning with Interactive Assessment (LINA) project, a small-scale study, trialed a selection of online, interactive question features designed to increase motivation, particularly of work-based learners, and to enhance learners' ability to self-regulate their own learning experience. We present initial findings on learner perceptions of: (1) a confidence indicator tool-for learners to indicate their confidence that their answer will be correct before answering a question; (2) a learning log-for learners to insert reflections or view system-recorded information about their learning pathway; and (3) question feedback-for displaying a range of author comments. Themes emerged relating to motivational, behavioural and cognitive factors, including risk taking and skills in self-assessment. A serendipitous finding highlights learners' frequently not reading onscreen feedback and presents perceptions on when feedback becomes most useful. Motivators and barriers to engagement and self-regulation are discussed in relation to principles of best feedback practice.
In the current digital environment, it is vital for learners to develop digital literacy skills. The UK's Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (HE) requires graduates to demonstrate digital literacy. Employers consider these skills essential. With the high cost of HE in the UK, learners themselves also expect university courses to demonstrate relevance to the workplace. Nevertheless, some learners may not fully engage in digital literacy skills development, instead concentrating on the subject-specific content of their modules. The Faculty of Health & Social Care (FH&SC) at the UK's Open University uses different approaches to digital literacy skills development, based on skills resources that are either 'generic' (usable by any FH&SC module) or module-specific. By exploring student experiences of digital literacy skills development, we aim to understand what motivates learners to engage with the skills content of their module. We collected data from online questionnaires and interviews involving learners from three modules and present findings from an analysis of the quantitative questionnaire data, supported by qualitative interview data, where relevant. We look at learner perceptions and engagement in relation to the demographic factors gender, age, previous education, disability and financial status and whether these factors influence individual learner preferences for learning design, such as use of generic resources versus contextualisation of skills activities within the module. We aim to identify good practice in learning design and what demographic factors need to be considered to support individual learners appropriately, and so optimise engagement.
In a highly competitive, rapidly changing higher education market, universities need to be able to generate pedagogical expertise quickly and ensure that it is applied to practice. Since teaching approaches are constantly evolving, partly responding to emerging learning technologies, there is a need to foster ways to keep abreast on an ongoing basis. This paper explores how a small-scale project, the Teaching Online Panel (TOP), used scholarship investigations and a bottom-up approach to enhance one particular aspect of academic practice – online learning and teaching. The experiences of TOP are useful for identifying: how a scholarship approach can help develop academic expertise its contribution to enhancing understanding of staff’s different roles in the University ways of developing the necessary supportive network for those undertaking such scholarship the effectiveness of staff development which is peer-led rather than imposed from above how practical examples can stimulate practice development the relevance of literature on communities of practice and landscapes of practice for scholarship the important role of ‘brokers’ to facilitate the dissemination of scholarship findings the benefits to the brokers’ own professional roles the challenges of sustaining such an approach and lessons learnt. This study has relevance for those involved in supporting scholarship or delivering staff development in Higher Education.
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