Sharing good practice in e-learning at Oxford Brookes

The open exemplar database

Fawei Geng
Learning Technologist
Media Workshop

Media workshop uses many ways to support e-learning development. One we are currently adopting is to share good practice exemplars with staff . We do this by creating an Open Exemplar Database containing clones of real WebCT courses. Staff can then use the examples when considering how to integrate e-learning into their courses at Brookes. The Open Exemplar Database has been used by a considerable number of staff at Brookes, but no formal user feedback had hitherto been collected. With the number of users increasing, we decided to consult the users of the database, in order to find out how well it is serving its purpose. We asked for feedback between March and September, 2005 though the research is still ongoing. What follows is a brief report of the interim findings. For a fuller report see Geng and Francis (2005).

Research aims and methodology

Our research was designed to help us answer key research questions:

What qualifies as an exemplar of good practice in e-course design within this institution?
How can evidence of such practice be collected and presented?
How can the resulting resource be sustained?

The research was carried out in three stages. First, we sought consensus around the research questions and methodology through consulting staff experienced in e-learning and the use of WebCT at Brookes. Next, we re-formulated our research questions into questions suitable for conducting interviews with six e-learning practitioners chosen to represent different groups. Finally, we analysed interviewees’ responses and generated a questionnaire which we distributed to all WebCT designers at Brookes (514 at that time). The interview method was chosen to gain insight into, and relatively deep understanding of, the issues around the research questions (Gillham, 2000, p11). The questionnaire method allowed a wide range of users to be consulted on the research questions and the combined methodology helped to give the study greater breadth and depth.

Summary of the research progress and findings

The implementation suggestions and responses from two international conferences

Our research produced seven implementation suggestions. We then took these suggestions to two conferences, one in China (The 4th International Conference on Technology in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) and one in Manchester (ALT-C: exploring the frontiers of e-learning - borders, outposts and migration). We asked delegates to imagine that an exemplar database was being implemented in their own institution. Could they prioritise the seven suggestions? Thirty six gave it a try and their answers are listed below:

Implementation priorities	Votes
Incorporate individual learning activities, eg assessments, discussions, interactive learning materials as learning objects in addition to whole WebCT courses	26
Provide student evaluation where available	18
Provide facilities for online peer review by staff	17
Use the key features of e-learning exemplars identified by questionnaire respondents as descriptors in the database, eg helping learners to reflect on the learning process; more efficient use of contact time; potential solutions to specific pedagogic problems, eg high failure rate, access issues	17
Provide free keyword searching	15
Enable users to propose exemplars	9
Ensure all exemplars include anonymised student data where possible	6

Conclusions and the next steps

We will use the research findings to improve the Open Exemplar Database so that it can better help staff at Brookes to enhance their courses using e-learning technologies. Here are the main points we have learned:

Respondent feedback has highlighted how valuable it is to course designers to have access to real examples of successful learning activities.
It is notable that online peer review by staff is regarded as an important facility.
Seeing student evaluation data is also considered important, but careful handling is needed: the original aims of an evaluation may not be those of the reviewer of the exemplars, and so evaluation results may not be relevant or may be open to misinterpretation.
Database users clearly feel that they need the exemplars to be contextualised, described from main users’ (student and tutor) perspectives, so that they can then find exemplars that are suitable for their purpose.
Free keyword searching would also make life easier.

As often happens, one finding is a bit surprising: conference delegates ranked access to student data last. There are several possible reasons for this low priority. Perhaps staff fear that it is difficult to present the data . For example, to understand the success of an online discussion, sometimes the content of students’ messages are important to the exemplar users, but the pattern of the discussions among the students and staff can be equally helpful. In addition, requesting permission from the students may not always be easy. For example, asking permission at the beginning of the course may prevent students from communicating freely as they would be aware of being monitored; if permission is requested at the end of the course, students dropping out in the middle of the study will not be informed. Permission from the students is nevertheless required for data protection concerns.

In conclusion, our research confirms that a user-centred approach is the key to the further development of the Exemplar Database. We will have to wait until the 2006 upgrade of WebCT to further develop the Exemplar Database in line with these findings. The good news is that we believe that WebCT Campus Edition 6 will allow tutors to design online learning activities more easily. In addition, we will incorporate what we have learned from the research into WebCT Campus Edition 6 course development process.

If you have any further thoughts on these issues, your ideas are always very welcome. Please contact me via email: fgeng@brookes.ac.uk.

References

Geng, F and Francis, R (2005) Facilitating e-course design using an open exemplar database. In: C Spirou and Q Wang (eds). 4th International Conference on Technology in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, July 11-13, 2005, Beijing, China. Chicago: National-Louis University, pp99-103.
Gillham, B (2000) The research interview, London: Continuum.