Prepare session

We have delivered 2 sessions on group work to the original group looking at solutions to problems and helping to establish and organise their OneNote projects. We also asked for students to volunteer to help us with our research and initially there appeared to be enthusiasm and interest. However, when this was followed up, interest had waned with only one student joining us from this group who is keen to make videos with us. 

In addition several more modules have had our input on groupwork which has been valuable for all. Coincidentally some of these sessions have included students from the initial chosen module, but they have not included a OneNote focus. This is because they are not using the tool for any other module.

Conference output

We have been accepted on to the ALDinHE conference 2020 programme which will give us the opportunity to discuss our findings and experiences. 

 We are planning to incorporate the ABL aspects, feedback from students and staff

Blog

Our blog is well underway with regular posts documenting quite a lot of change to our research project. Posts have included  acquired data, teaching examples and how we have refined the sessions. This includes a re-purposable teaching plan and output which could be used pending permission being granted. 

Student involvement

This hasn’t gone according to our original plan, however we have diversified our approach to include a wider range of modules and working with the students in those cohorts to maximise engagement. We are currently talking to students to include them in our research and the conference.

In order to gain an idea of the most common issues students had experienced in group work we devised 2  questionnaires to elicit these ideas. The first one looked at experiences and expectation of groupwork which also looked at the technology used. This yielded 13 responses. Individuals studying on a range of modules were given the second questionnaire which we prepared in order to inform the key scenarios we have been planning to put together. This had 23 responses. These provided us with data about students’ digital literacies and helped us to inform the teaching activity. 

Technical drop ins and wider group support

We offered drop in support sessions for students on the original module, but only one was needed as students had become self-proficient in the tools.

The tutor has consulted both Helena and Richard for advice along the way.  Helena has been invited back to check in with the group and advise on specific group work issues

However we have seen a large number of students now and recorded seven videos exploring issues that can go wrong with groupwork and their solutions

Overall Summary

So far the process has been fascinating and taken us on a journey we couldn’t have foreseen. Despite not having the initial buy-in to a specific module we were hoping for (possibly due to the lack of opportunity to pay individuals), we have been pleasantly surprised by the engagement of a range of tutors and students to work with us. 

Our focus at the start of the project was to commission some output as learning material for future cohorts. However, it has since evolved into developing an activity in class in which students collaborate in groups to plan a response to given scenarios. These are then filmed on their mobile devices and uploaded to Kaltura. We are now in the process of reflecting on the interactive videos created in the activities and how best to move forwards.