College of Sciences and Technology

CST Teaching and Learning Showcase 2005

E-Learning Initiative Presentation Abstracts

A dilemma in the strategic move towards blended learning: balancing bottom-up with top-down approaches
Mary Peat, College of Sciences and Technology
Presentation

The University of Sydney set up an eLearning Support initiative in 2004 to enhance student learning and provide sustainable learning technologies which would promote research-led, active, innovative approaches to learning and teaching. Whilst the University’s three colleges were to work within the University guidelines for the development of elearning projects, it was left up to individual college teams to work out the best mix of projects. The dilemma for the College of Sciences and Technology was: ‘Do we look for the overarching, all-embracing projects which are needed by the clients (even though they may not know this) and which will become diffused in time across the College or even the institution?’ or ‘Do we work at the “coalface” level and help academics develop elearning resources which will fulfill their various perceived needs?’ The answer for us was to do both.

Evaluating the functional and educational aspects of WebCT in undergraduate psychology
Fiona White, Caleb Owens and Martin Daly, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science
Presentation

In 2005 the School of Psychology conducted several evaluations of eLearning techniques of first and second year units of study. Altogether 957 PSYC1001 first year students, 200 PSYC2011 (Neuroscience) students and 115 PSYC2012 (Statistics) completed a common online survey that assessed both functional and educational aspects of eLearning. The functional results revealed that PSYC1001 students reported significantly higher ratings of the WebCT sites in terms of organization and navigation. This may be explained by the single navigational pathways implemented in first year and the appropriate, hierarchical organization of materials. With regard to educational aspects we found evidence that employing online tutors assisted students' learning in the second year units and encouraged students to benefit from the online discussions. Also, due to a greater focus on developing online materials for first year, we found students were more satisfied with the level of online learning offered. Since we focused most funding on the development of online educational materials in first year, and on the online tutors in second year, our results reflect the positive impact of these eLearning initiatives.

Reflections on Practice:How the Using Still Images in Teaching & Learning website has changed the way staff use images in the Colleges of Science & Technology and the College of Health Sciences
Marina Lobastov and Marianna Koulias, Flexible Online Teaching
Presentation

As part of the inaugural project of the strategic, collaborative e-learning initiative between the College of Sciences & Technology and the College of Health Sciences, focus groups were run to establish the teaching staff's needs in regards to the use of images in teaching. As a result of data gathered from focus groups, the initial project scope was modified to be far more reflective of the needs of staff who required a more practical approach in image use and manipulation. The FOLT team designed and created a WebCT site which covered topics from basic image manipulation through to the utilisation and manipulation of images in online resources. Several workshops were also run to familiarise staff with the resource. At the end of the project period an evaluation was performed to assess the venture and it found that 50% of staff that accessed the site and attended the workshops felt that they had a better understanding of using images online. This presentation looks at the Using Still Images site and what staff found most useful in the site.

Faculty of Veterinary Science e-Learning Resources and Blended Delivery Models
P. Sheehy, G. Marcus, J. Norris, M. Krockenberger & F. Costa, Faculty of Veterinary Science
Presentation

The Faculty of Veterinary Science has extensive e-learning resources to assist students to attain their learning objectives by providing flexible and high quality resources for independent and blended learning situations. The faculty heavily utilises the WebCT e-learning platform for content and activity delivery and supplements the existing platform features with advanced online resources which include a web portal for library information services (Veterinary Education and Information Network - VEIN), an image repository containing approximately 10,000 images (Online Library of Images for Veterinary Education and Research- OLIVER) and a case-based resource development tool (CaseBuilder) which enables rapid creation of online case-based learning resources that can be used as part of a blended approach to delivery. Significant emphasis in e-learning resource development in the Faculty of Veterinary Science is aimed at the provision of unit of study specifc support for students and to increase student engagement in learning while simplifying the administrative, technical and pedagogical responsibilities of staff.

A number of blended delivery models are used in a range of disciplines. All rely on the e-learning resources to support face-to-face interactions as well as group learning situations and non-timetabled inquiry based tasks. Academic and learning support staff utilise evidence based approaches for the development of the learning activities and to assess the impact of the activities on the quality of the student learning experience.

he development and incorporation of a WebCT-based online resource, HBOnline, into Human Biology Courses
Osu Lilje, Alison Lewis and Aida Yalcin, School of Biological Sciences, Karen Scott and Lyn Melville, FOLT and Mary Peat, College of Sciences and Technology
Presentation

HBOnline is an online WebCT supported learning resource, developed in collaboration with the University of Sydney Flexible Online Learning Team for Human Biology Courses in the School of Biological Sciences. HBOnline contains activities, which in previous years were paper-based laboratory class activities or independent study modules. The resource utilises different formats of self-assessment with links to practical class activities and the textbook. The online learning resource attempts to address criticisms from past students that the paper-based course structures limited access to feedback outside structured classes and consultation times. Students also found it difficult to complete all the activities within the timetabled class. HBOnline increases flexibility of the learning environment; enhances student participation in coursework material; provides timely and constructive feedback; monitors students' progress through the coursework; and enhances utilisation of the online environment. HBOnline has been incorporated in the Advanced Human Biology course in 2005 (approx. 60 students) and will be incorporated into the standard Human Biology course (approx. 900 students) in 2006.

Practising complex calculations: Automated spreadsheets with built-in feedback
Mary-Helen Ward, FOLT and Graeme Wood, Faculty of Engineering
Presentation

Second year engineering students studying the subject of Fluid Mechanics need practice at applying formulas that they learn in class to real situations. They also need to be able to see what happens when the parameters of the question change. A set of 10 problems was created in Excel workbooks, and VBA code was added so the students could both work on the problems repeatedly and get feedback for their answers. The feedback included clues and pointers on where to look in the course texts for assistance. The original idea came from lecturers in the Faculty of Economics and Business who had previously created similar workbooks for their students' summative assessment (Freeman and Blayney, 2005). However, their workbooks had a different function. Although their calculations did not need to be as complex as the engineering ones, their code provided a much higher level of security to prevent students cheating.

When the excel files and the VBA coding had been completed, the workbooks were uploaded into a WebCT site, from where the students could download them to their own computers and work on them over and over, getting different sets of variables to work with each time they opened the files. The site also contained a 'Read me first' file, with instructions on how to use the sheets, including how to adjust the level of macro security in their copy of Excel.

Presenting core engineering concepts online: the framework of a visual library of information
Gianluca Ranzi and Danny Carroll
Presentation

This presentation outlines the development of a framework for the establishment of a visual library of information to deliver fundamental engineering concepts online. It is envisaged that academics and students will contribute to this learning resource which can potentially be accessed by all engineering students via WebCT. The framework is scalable in nature allowing its contents to be expanded to cover all engineering disciplines.

This learning resource will assist students to master basic engineering concepts which have been observed to be problematic for some students. Enhancing their preparation on fundamental concepts will enable them to better follow the material presented in their unit of studies and to encourage deep learning. The proposed framework will be described from a user's perspective, i.e. students seeking support material, and from a developer's perspective; for this purpose, templates have been developed to allow both academic staff members and students to easily contribute to the developing learning resource.

© 1997 - 2010 UniServe Science

Page Maintained By: BioSciCH@mail.usyd.edu.au
Last Update: Friday, 27-Apr-2007 14:15:22 EST
URL: http://science.uniserve.edu.au/courses/showcase/showcase2005/elipresents.html