The increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education has been explored largely in relation to student experience of coursework and university life. Students' lives and experience beyond the university have been largely unexplored. Research into student experience of ICT used a validated modelThe Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) -to explore the influence of work and social/leisure contexts as well as course study, on attitudes towards and take up of technology. The results suggest that usefulness and ease of use are key dimensions of students' attitudes towards technology in all three contexts but that ICT is perceived most positively in the context of work and technology use at work is an important driver for technology use in other areas. 3Introduction Educational leaders and governments have for more than a decade promoted the desirability of increased use of ICT in students' experience of study at university. This was one of the emphases in the 1997 Dearing Report in the UK, which recommended that 'all higher education institutions in the UK should have in place overarching communications and information strategies by 1999/2000 ' (Dearing, 1997.With the growth of the Web since then, and particularly the development of highly efficient search engines and social networking tools, entrants to university have increased their personal use of ICT, year on year (Caruso & Kvavik, 2005, Kennedy, Judd, Churchward, Gray and Krause, 2009). The impact of ICT on study and learning practices has generated research seeking to identify both the extent of ICT usage and the effects this is having on student experience at university more broadly (Conole, De Laat, Dillon and Darby, 2006).
The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as an integral part of the design of distance taught courses raises interesting challenges to our thinking about Where the learning group itself is a resource for study and personal development, it also becomes feasible to orientate courses and programmes towards local teams and communities. Online tutors play a key role and need to develop 'the technology of conversation' and expertise in the design of activities, as part of their facilitator role. Posing the QuestionOpen and distance learning (ODL) is characterised by a more diverse range of practices than ever before. Some of the traditional print and correspondence models are still viable and in use, while we have also developed the most advanced online environments to complement the more interactive technologies of CD-ROM and the Web. ODL feels like a radically different experience for those practitioners who can look back from the most advanced technologies of today, to review what we were doing 20 or so years ago (Cochrane, 2000).The purpose of this article however is to review the implications for how we conceptualise learner support of online-intensive and interactive forms of learning and teaching. The focus therefore is on courses where students have electronic access to resources and where they are expected to be in regular contact online with their peers and tutor(s). The key feature will be that they work in a virtual learning environment, which begins and ends with online interaction. Collaborative forms of learning where these are achieved provide a particularly demanding context for both tutors and learners and one which challenges our conventional models of learner support.In a context such as this, the substance and meaning of online activities is determined by the particular students who work together online. Their tutor may play a very direct role also, helping shape these interactions, sometimes designing
A B S T R AC T Reflective activities, in some cases quite extensive teaching material about reflection's role in adult learning, have been used within distance-taught courses at the Open University, UK for more than a decade. This article summarizes the outcomes of an evaluation of the use of reflection in the assessment of a second level technology course in the Open University undergraduate programme. Two questions are addressed: how effectively do students engage in reflection when required to do so in these circumstances, and what responses to their reflections do their tutors make? The evidence from student scripts is that students find some types of reflection more difficult than others, notably setting and applying criteria to their own work. More guidance on these types of reflection produced improvements, but evidence suggests that students still found the exercise challenging. Tutor comments were also improved in both quantity and quality, following additional guidance and support from the course team. The course experience demonstrates that reflection by students is more effective when supported by the substantive goals of the course and where the course team persist in and improve on their method of implementation of the strategy. K E Y WO R D S : assessment, course design, distance/open lear ning, feedback, lear ning, metaco gnition, reflection active learning in higher education
Distance-learning courses were classified with regard to their use of computermediated interaction and the degree to which such interaction was integrated into the curriculum and the assessment regime. This produced four groups of courses varying according to their use of interaction and integration. The impact of interaction and integration was investigated in terms of their effects on students' performance, their perceptions of academic quality and their approaches to studying. In all three respects, variations within the groups of courses proved to be more important than variations between the groups. Interpretation of these results suggests that the adoption of interactive environments within computer-mediated learning may not be enough in itself to lead to positive learning outcomes. We found no evidence for this assumption in terms of students' completion rates, pass rates, grades, perceptions of the quality of their courses or approaches to studying. Large variations in the measured indicators were found between courses, and these appeared to be largely independent of the effects of interaction and integration. Courses may differ markedly with regard to how they make use of computer-mediated interaction and how this is integrated into the curriculum and the assessment regime. A case study approach is suggested as being more likely to identify the impact of specific designs based on computer-mediated interaction and to bring together the diverse student responses arising from the use of such interaction in their studies.
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