Reaching into the Web

As part of our JISC funded ‘Isthmus’ project we have launched a pilot Facebook group for students on our short online courses. The overall concept is to encourage a ‘community’ of students that exists beyond the run of any single course. It’s been running for 6 days now and so far we have 45 members (about 10% of this term’s students) and around 20 posts.

Deciding to use Facebook and then deciding exactly how to set-up the group was complicated and generated a lot of discussion here at TALL. Our students are generally older than a traditional university student and many of them are retired. The recent OxIS Internet survey reported that 42% of students signed up to a Social Networking site last year but of those in the retired ‘life-stage’ category only 2% signed up. In contrast Saga recently launched a Social Networking site for the over 55s and claimed that ‘Silver Social Networking’ was on the rise. Surveys of our students revealed that not many of them were members of Social Networking sites (around a third) but that only 26% were not interested in communicating with other students after their course had finished.

As well as the difficulty in deciding to run the pilot it was also not clear exactly what form it should take because it cuts across technical, pedagogical, social and legal issues. Each area for consideration pulls the design and principle of the pilot in different directions. The core challenge was how to strike the right balance between supporting and structuring the group without ‘owning’ or managing it. This involved consulting JISC legal, Oxford University’s Legal Services Office and a range of stakeholders (including the students).

So far the group seems to be working, but it is early days. More significantly I feel we have made inroads into how to manage our relationship with third party services such as Facebook. If we can establish some principles in this area then we will be able to take advantage of the wider web much more efficiently in the future.

Keeping students on course

Although I am very closely involved in the development of all our courses, we have so many now that I can no longer follow them as closely as I used to when they finally go live. The course stops being the thing that the author, project manager, web developers, and I (as learning technologist) have laboured over and becomes something that is owned by the tutor (often, but not always, the author) and the students.

As an external observer you can dip in and get a sense of how things are progressing but it is not the same as visiting a course every day, getting to know everyone, and really being part of the course experience.

Unsurprisingly it sometimes feels odd guiding people in creating effective online learning when my “hands on” involvement is so much less than it has been in the past, so I am reduced to getting my affirmation that we are on the right track in other ways. Evaluation forms are always interesting reading (and we do monitor these very closely) but recently we got some very gratifying hard statistics that I had not personally seen before.

In continuing education funding is often predicated on the mysterious completion rates – i.e. it is not just the students who start your course but those who finish who are important to HEFCE….especially hard for us in our fully online courses (an area where completion rates can be VERY low) .

So to the meat – we got the latest stats and we are averaging a 91% completion rate, even more amazing is that this is higher than the face to face rate of about 85%.

Designing courses to encourage completion is something we have given a lot of thought to over the years and we have devoted a lot of our learning design energy in creating learning and assessment in such a way to keep students on-board and motivated. It seems that in 91% of cases it is paying off….

CPD online courses for Autumn

We are launching a number of Continuing Professional Development courses, this Autumn including 2 new courses.

24th September

Introduction to Electronics

Patient-Based Evidence (NEW)

1st October

Perl for Bioinformatics

22nd October

Key Concepts in Health Care for People Experiencing Homelessness

5th November

Effective Online Tutoring (NEW)

For more information on these courses or to enroll on a course visit http://cpd.conted.ox.ac.uk/

Online courses for the Autumn

This autumn we are offering more short courses than ever before, including 7 new courses

10th September

Brontës (NEW)
Learning to Look at the Visual Arts
New Economic Powers
Study Skills

12th September

Jane Austen
Learning to Look at Western Architecture
Philosophy Gym
Political Philosophy

17th September

Exploring Roman Britain
Islamic Art and Architecture (NEW)
Victorian Fiction: an Introduction (NEW)

19th September

Contemporary British Fiction; an Introduction (NEW)
Critical Reading
Durer to Bruegel: Northern Renaissance Art c.1480-1580
Learning to look at Modern Art (NEW)
Philosophy of Religion
Reality, being and existence: An introduction to metaphysics

24th September

Philosophy of Mind
Theory of Knowledge (NEW)
Visual Arts of India

26th September

Playing God: an introduction to Bioethics (NEW)

For more information on these courses or to enrol on a course visit Online courses at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education, email the online courses office or telephone +44 (0)1865 280974.

New courses launched today

NEW! Introduction to Political Philosophy: Introducing the student to classic and contemporary texts in the context of approaching some central questions in political philosophy. The course examines the justification of the state, problems of democracy, liberty, justice, and feminist theory. Participants are guided through the thought of various classical and contemporary thinkers, in both primary and secondary readings.

NEW! Philosophy of Religion: This course helps participants to think clearly about the following questions:- What, if anything, is it that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are agreeing about when they join in claiming that there is a God; and what, if any, prospects are there for rationally defending or attacking this claim? This course appeals to everyone interested in thinking clearly about their own religious beliefs (if any) and those of others. The course is intended to be accessible to people who have not studied Philosophy before, even informally.

Courses launched today

Learning to look at the Visual Arts: During this course students learn to look at paintings, prints and drawings from a more analytical and objective point of view. By the end of the course they are able to use visual vocabulary to appreciate art. Active online discussions centre around aspects such as composition, space, form, tone, colour, subject matter and visual techniques.

Learning to look at Western Architecture: This course enables students to ‘read’ the architecture of the Western world in a critically informed way. Students learn to recognise and differentiate between the major architectural styles of the western tradition – and thus gain a greater understanding of the way that buildings are built, and why they look the way they do.

Northern Renaissance Art c1480-1580: Complementing ‘Learning to look at the Visual Arts, this course covers European art and artists from between 1480 and 1580, introducing students to the world of the Northern Renaissance.

Arts of India: Students learn about the main developments in the history of South Asian art in this period, including Buddhist and Hindu architecture and sculpture, paintings and architecture from the Rajput and Mughal courts, and the impact of European colonialism. They also examine the religious, ritual, social and political contexts in which these buildings and objects were made and used.

Courses launched today

Introduction to Philosophy: Even as our knowledge continually expands, philosophical questions asked since the time of the Ancient Greek philosophers continue to perplex us. This course offers the opportunity to explore four topics in philosophy – knowledge, reality, free will and morality.

Philosophy Gym: Based on the popular book of the same name, this course introduces students to philosophy by means of a number of intriguing puzzles on such subjects as Does God exist? and Is time travel possible?

Philosophy of Mind: The philosophy of mind is one of the most exciting areas within philosophy. It is concerned with questions about the nature of mind and the relation between our minds and the physical world.