Week 3 - eLearning guidelines for Quality

Below are three of the guidelines that would be appropriate to my working area. Many eLearning issues could possibly fit into more than one guideline or even overlap depending on the category of guideline.

TD4 What makes for an effective online discussion

Despite efforts to introduce the discussion board to students at level 2, they are really only forced to use it at level 3. It has been found that when tasks or dialogue on the discussion board are optional, very little activity is evidenced. This is primarily due to the fact that no-one actually facilitates the discussion board at level 2 and as such, students are left to organise themselves. The fact that no-one appears to be monitoring the discussion board generates low motivation in this area and few students actually participate. Those that do use the discussion forum just publish meaningless comments or inappropriate material. If a discussion board facility is to be utilised in a meaningful way, then some feedback needs to be provided together with appropriate activities to keep students motivated and on track. The discussion board is a tool that enables distance learning students to make contact with and share thoughts using an asynchronous medium. However, without guidance and supervision it becomes sadly lacking.


TD10 Should students present work using online discussion tools?


Following on from above (TD4), Level 3 students are expected to submit work for summative assessment using the discussion board. This applies to one module only and is facilitated by the assessor. Two or three activities are provided with the coursework which involves a certain amount of research and prepares the student for their final submission. Students are encouraged to post their findings on the discussion forum and share ideas and findings with their group. Each intake is spaced one month apart and students for each intake are grouped accordingly. However, there is some resistance to submitting using this means. Students feel that due to the high numbers passing through this course, plagiarism between student postings will occur. Many students have already been picked up for ‘copying and pasting’ direct from the net without reference or little acknowledgement to “own work”. Comments from the assessor frequently appear on the discussion board to this end. The answer here maybe is to set specific tasks for discussion and formative assessment with the final assignment to be submitted using a more secure method thus promoting sharing without the inherent plagiarism where it counts.

TT3 Is there evidence of timely, accurate and well targeted feedback to students?

Feedback is adequate considering the volume of students. Some online assessment material is in the form of multiple choice questions which provides automatic feedback and enables the student to see immediately how many questions they have got right or wrong. Students are encouraged to attempt the quiz as many times as they wish until they achieve 100%. The only problem here sometimes is that some questions can be quite ambiguous (often for a purpose) resulting in students seeking help through other channels to achieve the answer thus taking away the independent nature of on-line learning. The turnaround of feedback used to be quite poor due to the fact that this was carried out by only one or two people and the burden was quite onerous. As such, positive feedback was not always plausible. However, this has now been addressed by the hiring of more assessors who are now able to take a more proactive approach to monitoring and feedback. The result of this is that students are now able to progress through the modules more quickly and most students are happy with the turnaround of work submitted.

TO4 Are retention rates reviewed and evaluation done on why students did not complete the course?

It is recognised that any structured course that contains several modules and/or is self paced, the highest drop-out will occur within the first few weeks. The drop-out on our level 2 courses used to be huge and this has been reduced greatly by the introduction of monitoring systems. The majority of the students can be classed as ‘mature’ and as such work and family commitments impinge on their ability to commit to the number of hours required. Students that appear to be inactive are telephoned periodically to ensure that they are still on target and intend to continue with their studies. This has been welcomed by many of the students as it demonstrates our desire for them to succeed and continue their studies whilst at the same time, giving them the opportunity to air any concerns on a personal level.