Student Experience in Online Education Policy and Practice Workshop Kendra Backstrom (The University of Adelaide) Trish Andrews (The University of Queensland)

Student Experience in Online Education

Policy and Practice Workshop

Kendra Backstrom (The University of Adelaide)

Trish Andrews (The University of Queensland)

Support for this project/activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching .

The Student Voice in Online Education Project

• Key objective is to develop a Student Experience Kit (SEK) for use by academics, learning designers and managers.

• Based on ‘student voices’ (online learners) across traditional face-to-face and dual mode institutions as represented by

• Project partners: The University of Queensland (UQ); University of Southern Queensland [USQ], Central Queensland University [CQU] and the University of Adelaide.

Phenomenological approach

o Information session and questionnaire • demographic and context data

o Charting the Week’s Activities • 7 day record of

o Time spent studying, working and engaging in family, social and personal activities

o Resources used for study and learningo Day Experience Method

• Random Text/SMS prompts (avg. 7) during 1 day asking o Time? Where? Who with? What doing? What

resources in use? How do you feel about this?o Photo(s) of learning spaceso Focus group sessions (teleconference or Skype group

calls)

ParticipantsAge Group Female Male Total

NumbersThe University of Adelaide

20-24 1 0 1 025-29 7 0 7 230-34 2 4 6 135-39 6 0 6 240-44 6 1 7 245-49 6 1 7 250-54 2 1 3 155-59 2 1 3 160-65 0 0 0 065 and over 0 1 1 1Missing age 2 0 2 1Total 34 9 43 13

ParticipantsStudying at:  Females  Males  Total UoACQU 12 2 14 -

U Adelaide 9 4 13 -

UQ 6 2 8 -

USQ 7 1 8 -

Doing:     As % of total

Part time Study 25 7 74% 12Full time Study 9 2 26% 1And      Part time Work 9 0 21% 1Full time Work 21 8 67% 11Not Working 4 1 12% 1While      Sharing accommodation

5 0 12%1

Living in own home

29 9 88%12

With at least 1 child at home

17 2 44%6

Key themes from the data

Wellbeing

Wellbeing• Student wellbeing is defined as a sustainable

state of positive mood and attitude, resilience, and satisfaction with self, relationships and learning experiences. (Noble, McGrath, Wyatt et al. 2008 )

Theme: Life Spaces• Definition: a sensitizing concept to denote

‘learning in spaces that make up our life’ – inspired by Kolb &Kolb’s (2005) conceptualization of ‘learning space’ in experiential learning theory where learning is not a single universal process but a map of learning territories.

Where are students engaging with

learning?

Where are students engaging with

learning?

Theme: Orchestrating Time• Definition: deliberate and conscious choices

about using time. Making “learning time”.

Well being

How are students managing their learning?

Strategising

Opportunistic

Snippets Concurrent

On the go

Managing Self

Theme: Institutional T &L Environment

• Definition: student experience and perceptions of institutionally based approaches to teaching and learning (pedagogies) and the quality of T&L delivery

What type of learning experience are our students

having?• Pedagogies: how teachers and course

designers deliver learning experience and what distance students would like (ideal experience) - covering design (formal/informal), attributes and skills (digital and information literacies).

• Quality: (positive and negative) perceptions of quality of T&L