Student Engagement and Web2.0: What’s the connection?
The Canadian classroom has come a long way from its one-room school house beginnings. Now, many schools have implemented a host of new technological tools—from school intranets to online discussion boards—moving the classroom beyond brick-and-mortar to go online. But is the digital classroom anymore effective? The rush to add educational technologies has often led to additional work with no tie-in to class material, resulting in “course-and-a-half syndrome,” according to a MRC instructor and blended learning expert.
In response to the available technologies, Dr. Norman Vaughan, Teaching and Learning Faculty, is launching a research project with several other faculty members at MRC called Student Engagement and Web2.0: What’s the connection? Dr. Vaughan, author of the award-winning Blended Learning in Higher Education, will work with five instructors to analyze the effectiveness of five different collaborative technologies as tools in the classroom. Calling students the “bottom line,” Dr. Vaughan says the project is using student engagement as the benchmark for success.
“What I want to demonstrate is that it works for a purpose—it engages us,” said Dr. Vaughan. Using blogs, wikis, social networking systems, mash-ups and voice-over-Internet-protocol, in the class room, student engagement will be measured with a survey. The survey focuses on five points: how actively collaborative the learning is; the quality of interaction with instructors; is there a sense of challenge or rigor; is there a connection between the assigned task and a future purpose; and the larger campus environment of learning.
Dr. Vaughan points to the Maclean’s magazine engagement survey, which replaced their unpopular rankings of Canadian Universities, as a way of judging student learning. “What they figured out is that engagement really is the time and effort students are putting into their studies. Its got to be relevant, meaningful learning and its got to be challenging, and—this is where the Web2.0 comes in—it has to create relationships.”
Collaborating with Dr. Vaughan on the project, Dr. Alex Bruton of the Bissett School of Business is heading up the “wikis classroom.” Applying “a lens of entrepreneurship,” Dr. Bruton is looking to fill a void he noticed while consulting; more companies are using Web2.0 tools in the workplace, but they are not currently being taught in business schools. He is very motivated to investigate how the idea of open learning, via the wikis, can be applied to course and curriculum redesigns.
“The idea is you’ve got a convergence of students with new ways of thinking relative to five years ago, 10 years ago. Students who have grown up using the Internet as their main research method,” said Dr. Bruton. As well as wikis, Dr. Bruton also uses Google Docs, and believes that the open source style of education may, one day, replace the textbook. He uses the technology to lecture and deliver content, but he also involves students to have them become familiar with its professional application. “We did it with teachers collaborating with each other, as well as we had the students using the platform to deliver to teachers, but also to people in industry.”
In a study centered on student engagement, Dr. Vaughan is please to be employing two educational students to do the bulk of the research. “I am just the guy to make it happen behind the scenes.” The students will assist with non-sensitive analysis of results and conduct the research—administering surveys and running focus groups.
In response to the available technologies, Dr. Norman Vaughan, Teaching and Learning Faculty, is launching a research project with several other faculty members at MRC called Student Engagement and Web2.0: What’s the connection? Dr. Vaughan, author of the award-winning Blended Learning in Higher Education, will work with five instructors to analyze the effectiveness of five different collaborative technologies as tools in the classroom. Calling students the “bottom line,” Dr. Vaughan says the project is using student engagement as the benchmark for success.
“What I want to demonstrate is that it works for a purpose—it engages us,” said Dr. Vaughan. Using blogs, wikis, social networking systems, mash-ups and voice-over-Internet-protocol, in the class room, student engagement will be measured with a survey. The survey focuses on five points: how actively collaborative the learning is; the quality of interaction with instructors; is there a sense of challenge or rigor; is there a connection between the assigned task and a future purpose; and the larger campus environment of learning.
Dr. Vaughan points to the Maclean’s magazine engagement survey, which replaced their unpopular rankings of Canadian Universities, as a way of judging student learning. “What they figured out is that engagement really is the time and effort students are putting into their studies. Its got to be relevant, meaningful learning and its got to be challenging, and—this is where the Web2.0 comes in—it has to create relationships.”
Collaborating with Dr. Vaughan on the project, Dr. Alex Bruton of the Bissett School of Business is heading up the “wikis classroom.” Applying “a lens of entrepreneurship,” Dr. Bruton is looking to fill a void he noticed while consulting; more companies are using Web2.0 tools in the workplace, but they are not currently being taught in business schools. He is very motivated to investigate how the idea of open learning, via the wikis, can be applied to course and curriculum redesigns.
“The idea is you’ve got a convergence of students with new ways of thinking relative to five years ago, 10 years ago. Students who have grown up using the Internet as their main research method,” said Dr. Bruton. As well as wikis, Dr. Bruton also uses Google Docs, and believes that the open source style of education may, one day, replace the textbook. He uses the technology to lecture and deliver content, but he also involves students to have them become familiar with its professional application. “We did it with teachers collaborating with each other, as well as we had the students using the platform to deliver to teachers, but also to people in industry.”
In a study centered on student engagement, Dr. Vaughan is please to be employing two educational students to do the bulk of the research. “I am just the guy to make it happen behind the scenes.” The students will assist with non-sensitive analysis of results and conduct the research—administering surveys and running focus groups.