Academic Use of Social Networks - a talk of two halves

bit.ly/AJCannAlan Cann, University of Leicester

Mapping engagement Dark Social

Why me?

• Visitors and Residents: mapping student attitudes to academic use of social networks. (2013) Learning, Media and Technology, 38(2). A ramble through the history of online learning (2012) The Biochemist 34(4); 2-5.

• An efficient and effective system for interactive student feedback using Google+ to enhance an institutional virtual learning environment (2012) Leicester Research Archive.

• Beyond marks: new tools to visualise student engagement via social networks (2012) Research in Learning Technology 20: 16283.

• Reflective Social Portfolios for Feedback and Peer Mentoring (2011) Leicester Research Archive.

• Observing Emerging Student Networks on a Microblogging Service (2011) Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7 (1)

• Social media: A guide for researchers (2011) Research Information Network. • Assessment 2.0: Wikipedia writing projects (2008) Case studies of E-learning, the

HEA Centre for Bioscience.

Search on scholar.google.com

What is social media?

Internet services where the online content is generated by the users of the service( = Web 2.0, participatory media, etc)

Google it!

Why?• Education as professional training

• Transferable and employability skills development

• Students as producers – learning partnerships

• Intellectual ownership of media and content – producers not consumers

@daveowhite

- Visitors and Residents

blip.tv/tall-research/visitors-residents-2733992

Network

Context Content

IntrinsicExtrinsic

Assessment as driver?

Emerging concept: Dark Social

scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/search/label/DarkSocial

Why?

Ownership = engagement?

“Engaging by Talking: An Agile and Effective Approach to Audio Feedback”

HEA STEMStudents express widespread dissatisfaction with academic feedback. Teaching staff perceive a frequent lack of student engagement with written feedback, much of which goes uncollected. Published evidence shows that audio feedback is highly acceptable to students but is grossly underused. This project will explore methods to produce and deliver audio feedback to a wide range of students engaged in a variety of academic tasks with the aim of maximising student engagement while working towards a framework which increases the use of audio feedback by teaching staff.

goo.gl/yehf7

Phase 1 - GradeMark

N = 31A trial of the TurnitIn GradeMark system in a mixed information economy. (2012) figshare.http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.98134

Phase 1 - GradeMark

BUT:• Marks before feedback - pedagogically broken• Learning analytics – what analytics?• Personal tutor shutout

FAIL

Phase 1 - GradeMark

• I really liked the voice comment. It was useful being able to listen to it again. I would have liked it to be longer and with more improvement points.

• It was very useful, I thought that they said a lot about the essay and that it was more useful than the text comment.

• The most useful aspect was that you can access the feedback whenever and I liked the fact that it was interactive and had voice comments.

• The most useful aspects of feedback was the voice recording as it let me hear in the tone what my tutor felt towards my essay. The least helpful aspect were the notes/comments within the essay. This at times was crowded to read and should be listed on the side with bullets as to where to comment is referring. [GradeMark]

• Could be improved by making it easier to find. [GradeMark]

Phase 2 - SoundCloud

n = 170 (never again…)

Processing time, cost.

Engagement (downloads): 94%

{{Mail merge}} students (& tutors)

[Module Tag] - filters Feedbackthen

Marks

Phase 2 - SoundCloud• I was able to listen to it at home and did not have to collect it from campus - as is the

case with written feedback.• It removes the difficulty of reading bad handwriting that lots of markers have!• Useful that it's accessible on the computer instead of being on paper, which can be mixed

up or lost. The voice was really clear and understandable even for international students.• It feels more personalised and also easier as it doesn't require picking up work from the

office, can access at home.• Criticism seemed more constructive and less negative when given in audio form.

Sometimes written feedback comes across as too negative.• I found the length of the feedback to be ideal as it was both concise and informative. As it

was sent by email, it was extremely easy to access. I was impressed by how quickly we had received the feedback, even before we were able to get the marks for assignment.

• You also have to listen to the whole thing as instead of skim reading feedback... this is both positive and negative.

• I see no weaknesses in this form of feedback rather it was more elaborate than most feedback I have given in the past.

• Please use again and tell other staff to do so!

Phase 3

n = 25 Processing time, free.

Engagement (downloads): 91%

Audacity

GarageBand

Local recording Dropbox {{Mail merge}}

Phase 3

• Very useful. The feedback was easily accessible and was given very quick (very much appreciated, thank you).

• Most useful aspect: we don't have to keep a paper record of what could have been improved in our plan/essay, and can be accessed at any time.

• It was useful as I received feedback which were specific, compared to written feedback which I have noticed tend to be somewhat vague in most parts.

• The most useful was probably was that the feedback would seem more personal, and therefore feels more comprehensive. However, sometimes having feedback written has its advantages in the ease of re-accessing the feedback.

• I would prefer written feedback by email as it is easier to go back over and review. The audio feedback took quite a long time to load on my home computer as my internet is very low speed but this was not a problem on the University computers.

EvidenceConvenience

Assessment as driver?

Pedagogynottechnology