H809: Week 1 – Activity 1.4: Reading Hiltz and Meinke (1989): Teaching sociology in a virtual classroom

Overview of paper

The paper describes a study conducted between 1986 and 1988 at two colleges in New Jersey. Comparisons were made between the performance and perceptions of students studying a variety of sociology courses traditionally as against those studying in a virtual classroom or in ‘mixed mode’.  The results were derived from a statistical analysis of questionnaire surveys completed by students on the courses.

Comment

As an aside, one of the first things that struck me about this study was that the research took place between 1986 and 1988. During this period I was actually studying on a part time (day release) basis for my first degree. I am quite surprised that the technology which was the subject of this paper was even available. When I think back to my own studies at that time, electronic communications of any type were not even on the horizon!

Questions: What research questions are being addressed?

In summary the research sought to establish whether course delivery via a virtual classroom could achieve comparable outcomes to those of traditional face-to-face delivery. Additionally, the research identify the factors which contributed to positive or negative outcomes.

Setting: What is the sector and setting? 

The research was based in a higher education setting, and specifically within two New Jersey colleges. I’m not completely sure of the distinction between colleges and universities in America, so the UK equivalent setting might be more FE than HE. Nevertheless, the setting is clearly one of formal education, and the students in the research were studying  sociology courses.

Concepts: What theories, concepts and key terms are being used?

I would say that the fundamental concept under consideration is that of education. Early in the paper (p432) a definition of education is provided, and in very simple terms the researchers were simply trying to determine whether the objectives of education can be achieved using computer-mediated communication. Key educational terms used include collaborative learning; mastery of subject; access to educational activities; interest, involvement and motivation; interaction.

Educational technology is also a key concept, and the widely used terms are virtual classroom and computer-mediated communication.

Methods: What methods of data collection and analysis are used? 

The main data collection technique used was the questionnaire survey. Surveys were administered to students both before and after they took courses. The questionnaires were analysed statistically which is obviously a quantitative approach. In addition a qualitative approach was adopted through participant observation of the online conferences.

Findings: What did this research find out?

The key finding was that the use of the virtual classroom can “increase access to and effectiveness of college education”. There were some variations in the outcomes between courses, and particularly between courses at different levels, the significant finding was that the virtual classroom represented a “viable option” for post-secondary educational delivery.

Limitations: What are the limitations of the methods used?

Since the primary data collection technique was a questionnaire survey, I would say that the main limitation was that respondents are simply selecting their responses limited range of possible options and there is no opportunity to investigate the underlying significance of the results at a deeper level (such as would be possible using interviews).

Ethics: Are there any ethical issues associated with the research?

One possible ethical issue that springs to mind is that the researchers may have been enthusiastic about the technology, and therefore perhaps approached the research with a tacit expectation or hope that the technology would be shown to produce positive outcomes.

Implications: What are the implications (if any) for practice, policy or further research?

It is important to recognise that this research was conducted over 25 years ago. Clearly at the time, the use of the virtual classroom would have been highly innovative, and the results of this study would have been sufficient to warrant further studies and more widespread implementation.

Reference

Hiltz, S.R. and Meinke, R. (1989) ‘Teaching sociology in a virtual classroom’, Teaching Sociology, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 431–46. 

Impact of tuition fees on part time construction degree courses

Most of the furore over the new higher education tuition fees has considered the issue from the perspective of full time students, but construction degree courses are widely offered on a part time, day-release basis. How will the new fees affect these courses?

The new system

There has been understandable concern over the new tuition fees for university courses which will come into effect in September 2012. Students enrolling on degree courses will be liable to pay annual tuition fees of up to £9000 per year. The mechanism which is to be used to recover the fees is the student loan system, so students will not have to pay fees up front but will effectively receive a loan to cover the fees. The Student Loans Company (a government-owned organisation) pays the tuition fees directly to the University on behalf of the student. After graduation, students only start making repayments once they are earning £21,000 or more. At that point, they are required to pay 9% annually of everything they earn over £21,000. Thus, a student earning a salary of £25,000 will pay 9% of £4,000 (£360), which equates to £30 per month.

That might sound reassuring, in the sense that new graduates (particularly those earning relatively small salaries) are not burdened with excessive repayments in the early years of their careers. Nevertheless, the fact remains that most graduates will effectively have debts of around £27,000 just for tuition fees, and may have racked up further debts if they have borrowed money to cover accommodation, food travel etc. (so-called maintenance loans). Consequently, there have been many scare stories about young people being saddled with £40,000 of debt at the age of 21. However, the student loan is actually very different from a normal debt. As the money-saving expert, Martin Lewis, points out, it isn’t strictly a loan at all but a “hybrid form of finance ..... half way between traditional borrowing and taxation”. The key differences are as follows:

•          Repayments are made automatically through the tax system
•          Repayments are made only when earnings go above the threshold (£21,000)
•          If earnings drop below the threshold, repayments stop, so if someone loses their job they do not have to continue paying.
•          Repayments continue for a maximum of 30 years only, after which any remaining debt is wiped.

When the new tuition fees were first proposed, my understanding was that a key principle of the system would be that everyone going to university would have to take out a student loan. That way there would be no advantage for people from wealthy families who are able to pay their fees up-front and thus avoid the burden of debt after graduation. There was certainly some debate about this, but it seems that system introduced does allow up-front payment, and indeed many universities offer a discount for payment in this way. I personally don’t agree with that in principle, but that’s beside the point. What I am currently somewhat confused about is the question of part time students who are sponsored by their employers.

Part time students

At the University of Westminster just over 50% of the 600 students on the various courses in the Construction Studies Undergraduate Programme are part time students. These students attend University on one full day per week, and complete their degree courses over a five year period. A significant number of these students are sponsored by their employers, i.e. employers pay the students’ fees and allow them a day off work each week to attend university. There has been a long tradition in the construction industry of ‘day-release’ education whereby new entrants to the industry combine their studies with paid employment. Although it is demanding, it is a fantastic way to learn, because students are gaining valuable workplace experience alongside their studies and can thus contextualise much of what they learn in the classroom. At Westminster we have served the part time market for decades, and up until the recent downturn in the industry we actually had significantly more part time students than full time students on our construction courses.

So what is the likely impact of the new tuition fees on part time student numbers? Well, the answer at the moment is that no one really knows. Part time students will pay fees on a pro-rata basis to the same level as full time students. This means that our part time students will be paying between £4000 and £6000 a year (depending on the number of modules they are studying), as compared with £8000 for full time students. One key difference for part time students under the new system is that, for the first time, they will be able to apply for a loan in the same way as full time students. Potentially, this is could be positive move for prospective part time students who don’t have employer sponsorship. But how are employers going to view the new fee system? If employers are considering taking on trainees with a view to sponsoring them through university courses, how will the new fees affect those decisions? Some important questions spring to mind:

•         Are employers actually aware of the implications of the new fees?
•          Will they still be willing to pay tuition fees up front at the new levels?
•          Will student employees be expected to apply for loans and pay their own fees?
•          What is the government’s position in respect of employer-sponsored part time students?

I think it will be important for us as a University to engage with employers to find out what they are thinking. Of course the current economic climate means that construction employers are less likely to be taking on new recruits, so this will make it even more difficult to establish a clear picture.

Some people believe that in the next few years the distinction between full time and part time students will become increasingly blurred. Most students will need to be in employment alongside their studies just to survive, so the concept of a full time course or a part time course might simply disappear. Students may simply complete modules at a pace which suits their circumstances, and accumulate credits towards their degree over different periods of time. Universities will have to be proactive in making their courses available through more flexible modes of delivery.

Personally, I think the part time, ‘day release’ tradition in the construction industry has much to commend it, and it would be great shame if it were to disappear. However, I can’t help thinking that the combination of low levels of activity in the industry and much higher tuition fee levels will have a significant impact.

I would be really interested to hear other people’s views on this issue, particularly from construction industry employers, current or prospective students, or university staff. Leave a comment below, or email me directly on a.burke@westminster.ac.uk

Social Media and my New Year’s Resolution

I’ve never been a great one for New Year’s resolutions. In fact I often think that the New Year is not a good time to give things up or start a new regime. However, I’m going to make an exception this year, and it’s all about social media....

2011 was the year in which I really embraced online technologies. I had dabbled with various technologies for a long time prior to 2011 but over the past 12 months I have really got hooked in. The ease with which online services can now be accessed has been the key factor in my increased usage. Having internet access from my PC, laptop, iPad and smartphone means that there are now very few places where I can’t engage in online activities. Consequently I can take advantage of storing and accessing files online (using DropBox or Google Docs), managing photographs online using Picasa, using an online notebook (Evernote) which I can access from any device, using a social bookmarking service (Diigo) and downloading books and newspapers to my iPad and/or smartphone. This is all in addition to the things I have done for several years, such as managing emails, calendar and contacts from any device via an Exchange server, and downloading and listening to music on my smartphone. I have to confess to being a bit of a sucker when it comes to gadgets and technologies and I’m really interested in new ways of working which take advantage of online services. However, I’d like to think that I’m quite discerning in my choice of technologies, and I will generally only commit to new stuff if I can see genuine benefits in terms of efficiency, or rewards in terms of enjoyment or personal interest.

What about social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter? I’ve had a Facebook account for a couple of years, and in that time I have posted maybe only twenty or thirty times. However, I do look at Facebook almost every day just to see what friends and family all over the world are up to, so whilst I don’t contribute much to Facebook, I still value it as a connection with people who are important to me. I also have a Twitter account, and during 2011 I really got into Twitter in quite a big way, looking at Twitter streams several times a day. However, as with Facebook I would consider myself to be primarily a viewer rather than a contributor. Nevertheless, I can confidently say that I have gained a huge amount from Twitter over the past year, particularly in terms of links to useful resources or interesting articles.

Then there’s blogging. I am an avid reader of many blogs and I use Google Reader to bring them all together in one place. Yet I can’t really seem to maintain a momentum with writing my own blog (This is the first blog post I have written since June 2011). I have managed to keep it going whilst studying courses for the Open University’s postgraduate programme in Online and Distance Education but as soon as each course has ended, my blogging has also seemed to stop.

So it seems that I am what might be termed a ‘passive’ user of social media, who mainly ‘consumes’ rather than actively engages with the content. And yet I really feel that I could be getting so much more out of these services. In a strange way I sometimes envy my teenage children who interact so regularly and so freely on Facebook and Twitter with dozens of other people. Don’t get me wrong, I have no desire to spend half my life telling everyone on Twitter what I had for breakfast, but I would like to exploit the potential benefits of social media to a much greater extent. I have realised that, as with most things in life, you really only get out what you put in. So my New Year’s resolution is to make much more of an effort to contribute to the various media. My rationale is to try to promote and become part of a more active online community which includes but extends beyond my current circle of friends, colleagues, contacts and acquaintances. I genuinely think that there is a lot to be gained from being part of such a community. Specifically, I intend to:

·         Use Twitter much more actively, by tweeting more regularly myself, retweeting others, seeking out more interesting people to follow and generating more followers for myself.

·         Contribute to Facebook more frequently, by commenting on posts by friends and family and by posting myself.

·         Maintaining my blog more effectively by setting myself a target of at least one blog post per week, and promoting the blog more widely.

And finally, just for fun, I have started an online photo-journal in which I am proposing to upload a photo every day during 2012. I’m sure most of the photos will be very boring, but it will be an interesting record of the year in pictures.

My Twitter name is @tonyburke1

My photo-journal can be found at www.blipfoto.com/TonyBurke

What I don’t get about Twitter

I'm still a relative novice at Twitter. I've really only been tweeting for a few months. I probably only tweet a few times a week, but this is mainly because I don't often feel that what I've got to say would be remotely interesting to anyone else!

I've found it useful in lots of ways. I've picked up on some really useful websites and other resources as a result of links in various tweets, such as elearning resources from @gconole. It's also been a good news stream for certain things that I wouldn't normally pick up on via mainstream sources, such as higher education (@timeshighered), construction economics (@brickonomics), and even a journalist's perspective on the goings on at Loftus Road (@davidmcintyre76).

However, whilst I'm glad I'm on Twitter, and I do value it, there are certain aspects of it which remain a bit of mystery to me. So, here are the top five things I just don't get about Twitter. 

1. Meaningless hashtags


I understand the principle of hashtags and I think it's one of the things that makes Twitter a potentially really useful tool. Adding a relevant hashtag means that users with common interests or a shared group can easily locate tweets which are relevant to them. Hence, I make use of #H807 for my Open University studies (because H807 is the module number) and #QPR to locate tweets about, yes, you've got it - QPR.

But could somebody please explain the point of hashtags like #wornoutbeforeistart #needsomesleep #lookingforwardtotheweekend ? What purpose do they serve? I just find them really annoying.

1. 
   

   1. 
      
   2. Follow Friday

I thought "Follow Friday" (#FF) was supposed to be used to recommend people you follow to others. I also thought that you were supposed to state why you are recommending them. So why does every Friday produce a deluge of tweets that contain "#FF" followed by a whole string of Twitter names with no reason to follow them?

3. Being followed by random people 

Why would someone who has no connection with me whatsoever want to follow me? I could understand if we had something in common, but there doesn't seem to be any reason at all for some people to follow me. Strange.

4. Banal tweets

I must confess that I've tweeted occasionally about something that just happens and you feel the need to tell someone. But really .... am I seriously interested in the fact that you are wondering what to have for dinner this evening or that you're on a coffee break. Why do people think that anyone would want to know that?

5. Retweeting everything 

Like hashtags, retweeting is a really useful tool. If I see a tweet from someone that I follow which contains a link to a useful resource, then the obvious thing to do is retweet it. But some people's tweets seem to only consist of retweets. If all they do is retweet other people's tweets then maybe they've missed the point of Twitter in the first place.


 
So there you are. As useful as Twitter is, I think these points will continue to bug me. Having said that - I'm still discovering new ways of using Twitter, and I'm keen to experiment with using it in connection with my teaching.

H807: Week 17 – Activity 2 – Supporting your elearners

In this activity we are asked to reflect on a paper by Dearnley (2003) which discusses student support in the context of mature learners who were practicing nurses and were studying through open learning. Dearnley identifies three types of network which provide support:

• Social (typically family and friends)
  
• Professional (typically work colleagues)
  
• Academic (fellow students and personal tutors)
  

We are asked to consider the following questions:

1. Focus on your prospective learners: will they have any of the same issues as the students in Dearnley's paper?
   
2. Which social, academic and professional frameworks do you access as a student – for example, in your study of H807? I'm not assuming that everyone will use all three or will have access to all of them, a point that Dearnley also makes.
   

 

Question 1

Undoubtedly, some of the learners in the group on which I will base my activity will experience many of the same issues as those in Dearnley's paper. Our courses attract significant numbers of part time (day release) students who often have demanding professional jobs. Furthermore we tend to have substantial numbers of mature students who may have family responsibilities to balance alongside their studies. In fact, even many of our younger, school leaving entrants also have to contend with part time employment and family commitments. It is therefore highly likely that the majority of our students will benefit from all three types of support network.

Question 2

From a personal perspective, I would say that I benefit from primarily from the social and academic networks. My family and friends provide the emotional support that is often essential when the demands of part time study get on top of me. They also keep me grounded when I am perhaps getting things out of proportion. My fellow students on the course are also a valuable source of support. It is always helpful when one is really struggling with workloads, or with understanding a concept, to know that others in the group are going through similar difficulties, or indeed having to cope with much more difficult circumstances than me. I feel that I get the least support from my colleagues at work and there is virtually no allowance made for my studies. This may be my own fault in that I have never really sought support.

Reference:

Dearnley, C. (2003) 'Student support in open learning: sustaining the process', International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning [online]http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/132/212 (Accessed 29 May 2011)

Champions!

When I resurrected my blog earlier this year I decided that I wanted to make it a bit more wide ranging than just my Open University studies. In the heading to the blog I actually mention that I will include posts about construction education and about the frustrations and joys of supporting QPR. I've managed to include several posts about the former, but so far not one single post about the latter. The reason for that is simple: I didn't want to tempt fate! The season which has just ended has been the best season in a generation for QPR fans but I thought if I wrote anything in my blog about this it would simply tempt fate. However, now the season is over I thought it was only right that I finally included something about QPR being champions and promoted to the Premier League.

People who don't follow football find it difficult to appreciate the highs and lows which fans go through. I took my son to his first QPR game when he was five years old in 2002. At the time we were in the third tier (what is now League One) and the club was struggling. For years he has had to put up with the jibes and taunts from his friends who support Chelsea or Arsenal or Manchester United. Throughout that time I used to tell him to simply ask those so-called fans how many times they had actually been to see their team play. In most cases this was once or twice a season whilst, as season ticket holders, we have hardly missed a home game at QPR in that time. He has stuck with the team through thick and thin, and let's be honest – it has mostly been thin! It has been difficult at times over the years to maintain the enthusiasm for QPR as performances on the pitch have often been mediocre at best, and the club became a laughing stock off the pitch due to bizarre boardroom activities and the rate at which managers were hired and fired.

All that changed last year. In the second half of the 2009/10 season the board finally appointed a proven manager – Neil Warnock – and allowed him to get on with running the team. I have to confess we were less than enthusiastic at the appointment, having seen the style of football adopted by Warnock at previous clubs, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United. Well – our doubts were unfounded because Neil Warnock had an immediate impact last season, stabilising the club and avoiding relegation. In the close-season he made several signings, most of which were greeted with scepticism to say the least. And yet on the opening day of the 2010/11 season we beat Barnsley 4-0 at home and went top of the league on goal difference. Amazingly (and I still have to pinch myself when I say this) we stayed top for virtually the whole season apart from a couple of weeks.

But QPR don't do things the easy way. In March the FA announced that QPR had been charged with seven offences relating to third-party ownership of players. There was immediate speculation that, if proven, the charges could result in a significant points deduction. So, the best season ever was about to be ruined by matters which had nothing to do with performances on the pitch. This cloud remained hanging over us for the remainder of the season. It clearly affected the players who struggled to maintain their form. However, the important thing was that they didn't lose too many matches. They drew quite a few but they managed to keep accumulating enough points to keep them top. The FA's hearing took place during the week before the final day of the season. A decision was due on Friday 7^th May but no decision was forthcoming.

On Saturday 8^th May QPR played their final match of the season at home to Leeds United. Regardless of the result QPR would still be top of the league, but no one knew whether the FA would deduct points and strip us of the title. My son and I followed our usual matchday ritual of driving out to South Ruislip station to get on the Central Line to White City. There were loads of Rs fans on the train and at each station more and more got on. Everyone was excited but also really anxious. Then, somewhere between Perivale and Hanger Lane, I received a text message. It was an official announcement from the club:

"Official QPR: WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! The FA have announced there will be no points deduction. WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE!"

I couldn't believe what I was reading. I had to read it again but once I realised it was genuine I just shouted it out. It seems I was the first one on the train to get the message because it went up and down the train like wildfire. Suddenly everyone's phones were going and people were cheering and shouting. We got off the train at White City to walk to the ground and there was unbridled jubilation everywhere. Grown men were in tears. It really was memorable. We just stood outside the stadium for a while to soak it all in.

As I said, people who don't follow football find this difficult to understand, but when you have invested so much time and emotion (and money!) in following a team, when something like this happens it really is special. We lost to Leeds on the day, but it didn't actually matter. QPR were presented with the Championship trophy on the pitch at Loftus Road after the match and the celebrations continued well into the night.
It was a fantastic day which I think I will remember for ever. It was great for my son too, who finally gets to see his team compete at the top level after years of putting up with so much stick.

U RRRRRRssss!!

Fragmentation, Silos and the Impact on Built Environment Education

I gave a presentation at a symposium on Friday 20 May at the University of Westminster. The symposium was for the launch of a new research centre called ProBE: the Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment. It's a joint initiative between the School of Architecture and the Built Environment and Westminster Business School. 


The symposium included a range of presentations by guests from around the world, including Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Sri Lanka, as well as the UK. 


To me, the most striking thing about the international presentations was how much more integrated and coherent the education frameworks for the built environment professions seemed to be in other countries. My presentation focussed on the fragmentation which exists amongst the built environment professions in the UK, and the impact this has on education. Here's the presentation:

ProBE presentation 20 May 2011

More information about ProBE