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Institution H5

8 Impact of networked learning on teaching, learning and assessment

The university strategy emphasised the importance it places on teaching and learning. It was also clear that the respondents supported this emphasis with aspects of teaching and learning being referred to on several occasions. Interestingly the respondents focused more on students and their learning rather than on teachers and their teaching, suggesting that the university may promote a student centred approach. This might be related to the emphasis placed on supporting the development of an understanding of pedagogy noted in the section on staff support.

Teaching and learning

The questionnaire responses suggest that teaching and learning have changed as a result of the growth of networked learning. All respondents agreed that this was the case and two examples of supporting written comments are given below.

I think that it has helped increase students’ awareness of the range of learning resources at their disposal. It has in some cases helped staff to rethink how they are supporting learning and teaching. I think students are expecting a more flexible approach to teaching and learning and this is one way to support that. (H5I2 questionnaire)

Opportunities for more interaction, and over time as well as space, with tutors and with other learners. (H5I3 questionnaire)

Blended learning

The university’s mission statement emphasises that teaching and learning is campus based, and the respondents’ comments in interview support the position that campus based learning and teaching could be supported by technology, but could not be replaced by online learning.

… the majority … it’s there to bolster what they do anyway in their teaching, it’s kind of an adjunct to what they do which is fine. (H5I2)

I think it has always been seen as complementary to face to face, traditional teaching. I don’t know that there are many places here at [name] that would think it would ever replace it, I think it is seen as another string to the bow, a complementary thing. (H5I1/6)

I think the majority of people here, because it is a campus based university and students meet face to face, see the online [learning] as a supplement rather than an alternative if you like. (H5I5)

Changing role of teacher

The respondents did not appear to feel that the teacher’s role was changing as a result of the growth in networked learning, and one respondent expressed the view that student centred, interactive learning had always been a part of the university’s approach to learning and teaching.

… it has always been a part of what we do here and we’ve always tried to do things in interesting and what we believe are learner centred open approaches to learning… the kinds of learning and teaching, the kinds of pedagogical beliefs that underpin that programme have been central to the kind of ways that we try to do things here … (H5I3)

Development of teaching materials

The way in which teaching materials are developed was mentioned by two respondents, their comments suggesting that this is regarded as an individual responsibility; this does not appear to have deterred people from producing new materials, since one of the respondents pointed to the great increase in the number of courses making use of the technology.

… we would set up web sites for people but we don’t actually help them produce teaching materials….within departments really, or faculties, most faculties have IT people that they can call on… (H5I5)

Yes, but how that happens is, that’s part of the [university] pattern in the way that people bring course proposals forward. You would have an individual academic who might be asked by the Head of Department or more likely would think in terms of their own research area that they would like to put on a particular undergraduate module or postgraduate module, Masters module say, in a particular area and that particular academic might think that he could use e learning and they would construct that course module around the technology and their own enthusiasms. …When they do their annual review of the teaching they might notice that they’ve now got half a dozen courses like this whereas five years ago they may have only had one or none. (H5I1/6)

Impact on pedagogy

The impact on pedagogy was not discussed to any great extent, but one respondent expressed the view that networked learning was only one part of a successful teaching approach.

Oh yes, a tremendous amount [of successful teaching]. But once again I think it’s part of a range of things. You’ve got somebody who is interested in teaching, it won’t just be them thinking of e learning, they’ll be thinking of different ways of teaching their students and they might have a whole range of things and e learning might be one of them … (H5I1/6)

Discussion and interaction

It was very clear from all respondents that the university had a strong commitment to collaborative and interactive work, and that networked learning was seen as a way of supporting this.

[Name] has always been committed to students taking part in small group work, all undergraduate students.

… successful aspects [of networked learning] I would see would be associated with being able to use and being the use of online environments, network learning environments to support collaboration in learning because that kind of fits with our pedagogical beliefs, or certainly my pedagogical beliefs about the way we ought to be supporting learning but the successes with network learning have been around collaborative learning and that would be, that kind of pleases me because the kind of way that we wanted these things to develop and that’s where the successes have been and that has changed the way that we support teaching and learning in terms of moving away from transmitted, more didactic forms of teaching. (H5I3)

The growth of networked learning is seen as a natural extension of the university’s emphasis on collaborative and interactive teaching and learning approach. The lack of emphasis on the development of teaching materials could be seen as a consequence of this approach, where particular teaching materials are less important than discussion space. Blended learning appears to be viewed as most appropriate for the campus based teaching and learning focus of this university.

Changes in assessment practices

The documentation notes that the university is currently involved in a project aimed at improving assessment with a view to to identifying the formative and summative assessment practices which address the issues of over assessment, assessment at too small a unit of learning and those which are not closely linked to intended learning outcomes, three respondents discussed this briefly, as illustrated by the example below.

Now while network learning does not, in and of itself mean that we can teach much more efficiently, some aspects can be so we have a whole series of experiments running on online assessment and that is a pedagogical change for some departments that have previously been rather hostile to the idea of testing of that kind, they call it testing of that kind. But the number of departments getting interested in it enough to run experiments so there are, there’s going to be an evaluation of them later. (H5I4)

Student experience

Three respondents referred to aspects of networked learning that they believed would enhance the student experience: the easier access to teaching materials and lecture notes, greater opportunities for interaction with tutors and peers and increasing familiarity with skills that would enhance their later employment opportunities.

From the students perspective I think it’s good because they’ve got easy access to all their teaching materials and the notes from the lectures. They can actually interact with their lecturer … and with their peers as well…(H5I5)

… employers expect their employees to be familiar with networking, not necessarily as applied to learning but as applied to computer supported collaborative work for example. The sorts of skills, familiarities that students will gain in network learning, we increasingly believe are a major part of their employability. (H5I4)

Summary

The teacher’s role does not appear to have changed as a result of the growth in networked learning; student centred, interactive learning seems always to have been a part of the university’s approach to learning and teaching, as exemplified by the current project to improve assessment. The development of teaching materials for networked learning seems to be an individual responsibility; this does not appear to have deterred people from producing new materials, in view of the increasing number of courses making use of the technology.

The student experience was thought to be enhanced by the easier access to teaching materials and lecture notes, greater opportunities for interaction with tutors and peers and increasing familiarity with skills that would improve their later employment opportunities. It was clear from all respondents that the university had a strong commitment to collaborative and interactive work, and that networked learning was seen as a way of supporting such work.

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