Soton dl dec 2011

Editor's Notes

• #5: First, like to start by getting you to think about the tutoring you’ve done before and how it relates to distance learning. Some of you will have tutored before, some not, some in DL, some not. Whatever your previous experience – we all have expectations about the course and I’m particularly interested to hear about these. In normal teaching we have all sorts of set expectations – what the students know already, what happens in a lecture/seminar, what an assignment is for? These expectations have a dramatic influence on the way we teach. So, what expectations do you have about the Epi course? Do they match the students? The other tutors? The course organisers? Complete prompt sheet one (3 mins individually) Use it to introduce to neighbour (4 mins) Round of detailed introductions - your name, dept, experience of distance ed & interesting things you found out in your conversation with your neighbour.
• #6: http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/video/clips/video-helpful-time-management-tips.php
• #7: http://btv.brookes.ac.uk/jtwycross/graduateattributes/ Show the students then ask ‘So, summing up, what are they telling us?’ What’s the overall message from these students? Show Raftery and stop just before 4 minutes – stop when he says ‘….. It is about lighting the fire. How do we light their fire?’
• #8: http://btv.brookes.ac.uk/jtwycross/graduateattributes/ Show the students then ask ‘So, summing up, what are they telling us?’ What’s the overall message from these students? Show Raftery and stop just before 4 minutes – stop when he says ‘….. It is about lighting the fire. How do we light their fire?’
• #14: People who are not registered on the course will not have access to the VLE forums.People who are not registered on this course are free to establish their own discussion forums on platforms of their choosing.If you use the hashtag #eyolc on Twitter and Google+ we should be able to follow these conversations.
• #23: So, we’ve seen that in traditional correspondence tuition, marking and giving feedback on written assignments is the main teaching and learning activity. (I say ‘traditional’ because technologies are changing this but more of that this afternoon). So, we need to use these assignments to support learning as well as to grad work. What you have to do in correspondence tuition is essentially 1-1 communication through feedback, where the communication is 1-way. For instance, I could say “I WANT TO GO TO BED”… This is such a distinctive feature of DL that I’d like us to spend some time looking at the implications of 1-way communication…. Rather than just looking simply at communication, we’re going to be looking at art of explaining and instructing.
• #24: Assessment has become a really important issue in HE today, We know that assessment arrangements can do more than classify a piece of work or allow students to progress to the next stage. e.g. self and peer assessment allows students to understand the assessment process better and conduct their own self reviews e.g. providing early, quick and frequent feedback through CAA e.g. devising assessments which promote the development of generic skills alongside subject knowledge. e.g. offering a range of formative and summative assessment methods. We know that….
• #25: So in looking at the specific skill of giving feedback, we can see how complex it is in DL because it has to help the assignments fulfill all of these functions.
• #26: Feedback is crucial part of the learning process and of learning cyles. Giving good feedback, that supports learning, is a valuable skill. Is not automatically helpful e.g. if it Is late Using sophisticated vocabularly students don’t understand Is unsymapathetic Is ambiguous Is too brief But, giving feedback can be terribly frustrating when work shows no sign of improvement!
• #28: First, give them the good news. They need to know what they've done right , or well . They need to know this so that they'll keep on doing it right or well, and also because it will make them feel appropriately good about themselves and their work, which in itself aids learning as well as feeling good. They also need to know why it was right or good. Learners sometimes do well by accident - so tell them why it was right or good, in what respects it was right or good. Next, give them bad news - constructively!- and tell them why it is bad and what to do about it They also need to know what they've done wrong , or poorly , or performed in some other way which is inappropriate within the subject. And, immediately and always, they need to know in what respects it was wrong or poor or inappropriate, and they need suggestions on ways in which it could have been correct or better. Finally, end of a high note of encouragement. Round off your feedback with a high note and encouragement. "You really seem to be getting to grips with this", "Your analytic skills are improving steadily", "You're making good use of evidence". Say whatever you can that's encouraging and truthful. There's usually something that meets these two criteria.
• #29: Bad news needs to be: Specific Make it clear to what you are reacting - which word, which idea, which equation, which stylistic feature. Make it clear in what respects the work is wrong, inappropriate, whatever it is. Constructive Suggest how the work could have been made accurate, good, conforming to the paradigm of the subject, whatever. Suggest sources of information and guidance. Give them a handle, encouragement, whatever seems right. Kind Specific is kind. Constructive is kind. "Poor" scribbled at the bottom is cruel. Honest (See above under 'good news')