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"Today [20th January 2009] the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) jointly released the 2009 Horizon Report at the ELI Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. A collaboration between the NMC and ELI, the 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth in the annual series."

Recommended reading!

H. Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom (Volume 5, Issue 3, February/March 2009) -

"As we move further into the 21st century, the digital native/digital immigrant paradigm created by Marc Prensky in 2001 is becoming less relevant. In this article, Prensky suggests that we should focus instead on the development of what he calls "digital wisdom." Arguing that digital technology can make us not just smarter but truly wiser, Prensky describes how tools that give us access to more information and enhance our analytical powers will both reshape what wisdom is and give us the power to be wiser. In the form of complex simulations or databases or even implanted tools to help us process information as it arrives, digital technology will enhance our thinking power. The digitally enhanced person who will emerge from these developments, homo sapiens digital, differs from today's human in two key aspects: He or she accepts digital enhancement as an integral fact of human existence, and he or she is digitally wise. Digital wisdom is exhibit both in a considered use of digital enhancements to complement innate abilities and in the use enhancements to facilitate wiser decision making. In an unimaginably complex future, Prensky argues, the unenhanced person, however wise, will not have the tools of wisdom that will be available to even the least wise enhanced human." [Innovate]

Although I think that on the spectrum Information - Wisdom, there's a useful middle position called Knowledge, this perspective on wisdom as a desired, advanced state is badly needed at a time when we travel so fast and cursorily through the vast woods of information, data and titbits.

A highly recommended read!

Scenario

Can you tell briefly what the context was at the beginning of the project?

The Academy of Humanities and Economics (AHE) is divided into several departments. The methodology of teaching differs from one to another. There are two main ways of teaching: face-to-face and e-learning [Polish Virtual University (PVU/PUW)]. Traditional teaching includes lectures, exercises, laboratories, projects and workshops. In AHE the students are also given the electronic books for each course. The books are the main source of knowledge for the distance-learning students.
We observed that some students prefer having their lectures in traditional way, but they also use some modern web applications.
At the very beginning of the project the department of IT was involved. We decided to choose one teacher to lead course with new methodology of teaching. The course took place at their fourth semester of studies. The function of the teacher was to introduce the idea of Blended Learning-XL project and to choose the initial blended web tools. The teacher had to adapt the current course (Administration of network) to the demands of the project.

What problem areas was the project going to address?

The computer science students complain about several issues: courses are difficult and some exams are extremely difficult mainly due to the amount of material or due to complexity. Examination of Administration of Networks was one of them.
They also complain about lack of web programs which would be freely available for them to communicate. They lack the common area (environment) where their thoughts, ideas, files, reports, etc. could be exchanged (collaboration). It is extremely important especially for more practical oriented courses, e.g. Networks Administration. The teachers are also the ones who complain. They admit that, depending on the attitude of the group, they need some additional web environment to provide students with extra teaching materials.

Who have been involved, apart from your students and yourself?

Administration collaborators.

What were your main goals for the Blend-XL project?

The main objectives of redesigning the course are:

• to teach better
• to make the course more interesting and challenging learning experience
• to make good use of students’ abilities and their technical knowledge
• to meet students’ expectations
• to encourage students to be more hard-working and to motivate them to try harder
• to give some tools to exchange ideas between students 
• to give some additional teaching tools for the teachers
• to choose the most suitable web tools/programs for learning/teaching

How did you plan for improvement in practical terms?

We decided to make lecture’s PowerPoint presentations and notes available for students. There were some extra files provided to students (also created by them). A forum was compiled for them, where we expected to have fruitful discussion with students. Also, just after the exam had taken place, the exam topics were posted to students (they were encourage to solve the tasks in group work). We also expected feedback from students to receive their opinion on new methodology. The course syllabus has been rebuilt. 

Process

Can you briefly describe how the two cycles of the local case were set up?

We decided to enrich the traditional way of teaching by adding some e-tools. As mentioned before the AHE has a long tradition to give e-learning courses. The e-tools were made available for us.
For the purposes of the BlendXL project we decided to use R5 Generation e-learning platform, which has been set up for the course. We provided the following e-learning tools: fora, chat-rooms, drop-in folders, course content folders and mailing system. There are several tools to help administering the users (students, teachers, admin). The students were given the accounts for the system.
For the second run of the project the e-learning system was completely changed (students decided which one to choose). The teacher animated the forum discussions, replied to students’ posts and questions.

What were the main differences between the cycles?

First cycle of the project showed how important the web program is. The students criticized the R5 Generation e-platform and chose their own. The students were better informed about the aims of the project.

What problems did you encounter?

In the I cycle of the course three main problems were encountered:

• students’ dissatisfaction from group work and group discussions (in the I cycle evaluation most of the students did not feel encouraged by fellow students to participate in group work and they found quality of group discussions poor
• students’ feeling that introductory explanations given at the beginning of the course were not sufficient (they were lacking information concerning the following points: what is blended learning, the role of blended learning tools, amount of study time required)
• students’ doubts concerning their preferences – 48% of them could not say if they prefer blended learning or traditional teaching methods

Taking into consideration these three problems the teacher conducting the course did his best to improve II cycle course and paid more attention to group work, providing students with more detailed introductory information and encouraging them to be more active in the course.
Second run of the project run smoothly without severe problems.

Lessons

What were the main lessons from the project?

• The “blended way” of teaching is more effective
• Students like “blended way”.
• “Blended way” may teach how to make good use of team/group work
• The “blended way” should not mean “without the teacher”. This should mean to enrich the traditional way of teaching with web environment.
• “Blended way” is very demanding on the teacher. If the teacher is not determined the students will not profit from “blended way”.
• Forum is a good e-tool but not enough. Students need more off-line data – podcasts, lecture recordings, etc.

What were lessons for you personally as an educator and professional.

I will never go back into pure traditional teaching. I become the propagator of blended-xl teaching.

What new problem areas have you discovered? What actions will you take in the future on these points?

• “Blended way” is difficult for older teachers
• The members of management of the university (Rector, Chancellor) are the ones who should introduce “blended way” to the academic staff.
• Courses of blending learning are needed for the academic staff. The more the methodology is known the easier it will win support.
• Some money is needed to install and host web software.

Let's talk first about the context

The Faculty of Architecture at Delft, the bachelors programme, so this is a first year course, students coming out of a highschool, preparation for university with the science background.
They have had a design semester with very little knowledge input, and then the second semester is a knowledge semester and so they do what we refer to as line courses but basically they are courses intended to transmit knowledge rather than design skill, and the course is building process management.
You see in architecture schools the emphasis is always on the design and what you might call the art aspect of architecture, and so the whole acculturation process, i.e. issues such as the programme or the brief, the compliance with building code, making the client happy, ergonomics, structure, all of these technical issues, is seriously downplayed.

You would like your students to become more interested in the process of it all. That is more or less the general problem?

Well, the emphasis on "design" encourages students to adopt a kind of myth of the architect as a creative genius, as a solo practitioner, as the sole creative force behind the building -

A romantic image.

- which is a very romantic vision of the architect and which is one which is utterly and totally inaccurate with respect to practice. The purpose of our course is to introduce the students to kind of the other side of that, exactly what is being denied which is the rational, considered, reflective approach to managing or guiding or steering or directing design within the context of the entire building process.

So we want them to first understand what the entire building process is, who are involved in the building process, and we want them to understand how the role of the architect fits into that, and what their multiple responsibities are.

It is important to notice there is a kind of tension, not only because we would like to attract students to our masters programme in competition with architecture, and the architecture department basically runs the bachelor programme, but in terms of this acculturation process which is the windmill at which we're tilting.

Yes, right. They need to create a broader mindset and not just concentrate on the design thing.

Then there's an institutional tension. If you read the guide to learning goals for the three technical universities, attitude formation is reserved oddly enough for the masters when, in my point of view, it is too late. And skills development is primarily in the bachelors when it's too boring, in the sense that if you've got no reason to develop the skill, it is very difficult to do so. Many people find it difficult to develop skills they don't understand or require the use of.

Let's elaborate a little more on the concrete goal for the project?

My goal is to develop in the students an appreciation of the building process in its totality, to develop in the students an appreciation of the way certain kinds of management knowledge or skills or simply an understanding of how to run or organize or direct things, can facilitate – can help the architect or anyone else in the process to understand that it's collaboration and that, even though there are tensions between the collaborators that buildings don’t get to be at all without a degree of collaboration. And to develop in them a basic familiarity with the building process so that they understand how it’s typically phased, what kinds of things happen, what the building processes are like, what the client will have done before they talk to the architect so that is basically very basic knowledge.

How were you going to assess the student work in this new set up?

The old exam had a problem but this was made worse in that students would have a go at the exam without studying, evidently. They scored very very poorly. I was always having to move the 'ceasuur', as they call it here, down. I set myself the rule that half the class should pass and usually I had to move the ceasuur down from the standard in order to achieve that. And students would take the exam several times and still fail. The exam questions were really very close to the text. But it's not effective and in discussion with students from later years, they seemed to retain very little of it. During the course that we were required to take as instructors,I was indoctrinated in the notion of active learning and I thought well this may really be a good idea. Hypothetically, I could get them to do a case study. Of course I couldn't really do that because the class size was then effectively 250 and is now effectively 400-450. So there was no way that I was going to grade 250 reports. It was was a non-starter.

And that's where peer assessment comes in.

Peer assessment exactly. Blend-XL offered me the opportunity for what I thought would be quite interesting which would be that students grade work. And the reason I thought it would be quite interesting is because we set writing tasks to students very often, but they very rarely read what they write and so they very rarely come to understand what it is to write a report addressed to somebody, and write it in a way that somebody else might profit from it. And I thought what better way to train students to be aware of that and maybe to respond to these issues, and by getting to do that, to grade each other's work. And Blend-XL offered the support for attempting to develop and implement a peer assessment scheme with which at that point I had had no experience and which would clearly be a logistic issue.

(to be continued)

Case study "Multimedia Information Systems "
Lead institution: University of Zilina, Faculty of Management Science and Informatics
Authors: Peter Fabian

Faculty of Management Science and Informatics of the University of Zilina is a relatively young, dynamic and innovative faculty with two study centres: Zilina and Prievidza. It was established 15 years ago. From the very beginning faculty leadership decided to support the implementation of support of the study process in the form of information and communication technologies.
The reasons for such a decision was the existence of human and technological resources in the field of informatics and communication technologies, capable of development of the e-learning material, spatial distribution of the faculties (formerly there were three faculty sites, the one in the town of Ruzomberok has been closed since 2007-2008 academic year).

Course details

For the case study subject “Multimedia Information System” has been selected. The subject concerns information on media elements, their capture, storage, editing and maintenance and their integration into the multimedia applications of various types. Its workload at the Faculty consists of 2 hours lecture/week and 2 hours labs/ week during the autumn semester and its ETC value is 6. To get the credit, student must actively participate in the laboratory exercises, develop semester thesis, which contains multimedia application and pass the written and oral exam. The current pedagogy is based on the face-to-face learning with Web based support. The subject is elective, each year there are about 100-200 students taking up the subject, according to their desire.

Results achieved

The result of the first cycle of the project was the implementation of LMS Moodle – based Web site, in order to support the education in this subject. Although there exists a possibility to use University-wide system, the choice was to have a „private“ Web site for the project purposes, located at the Faculty, in order to be able better to control the contents, access and provide better feedback to learners, without the need of using the central administration services.
The second validation group consisted of students who have chosen the subject. In the 2nd cycle (academic year 2007-2008) there were 135 students who have chosen the subject in Zilina (180 in 2006) and 12 at the detached faculty site in Prievidza 12 (30 in 2006), in total 147 students (264 in 2006). This is within standard yearly variation of attendees of the elective courses and also dependent on the total number of students at the faculty.
The communication between teachers and students has been made possible through face-to-face contacts during the lectures and lab exercises and with the use of e-mail. Communication among students was not monitored by any means.
To facilitate the monitoring of student activities it has been decided to implement learning management system (LMS) Moodle. In the first cycle the original material developed earlier was used, in the second cycle material developed and improved in the first project cycle has been used. The use of the content was monitored and user appreciation was assed through evaluation of the cross-case questionnaire.

Nature of the blend

The preparation of the blend has been made so, that the material available on-line should be sufficient to gain the necessary information. The supplementary available on-line tools a – discussion forums, e-mail were used for on-line support of the students in case of need of further information. Apart from these on-line tools student could use face-to-face consultations with the lecturer and teachers, who conducted the exercises in the lab. Due to the organizational issues, the face-to-face lectures for those willing to attend were also held. As described in the document above, there were regular face-to-face exercises of the subject held in the lab, with the mandatory participation, where peer-to-peer discussions could be held.
This situation can be regarded as application of Model 2: Instructor-led program bended with self-study e-learning of the Five Specific Blended Learning Models, as described in the article [1] Alvaraez, S. (2005). Blended learning solutions. In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology.

Media used

The main delivery medium has been the Web site content, dedicated to the subject. At this site presentation contain lecture notes, animations and audio files have been stored, accessible to the target group via LMS Moodle.

Learning outcomes

The results obtained in the both cycles of the project were similar. Appreciation of the WWW contents has been high, however no significant breakthrough in the knowledge of the students could be observed.

Analysis, findings, evaluation

The problems that became apparent in the Cycle 1 were seemingly persistent and have remained also in the Cycle 2 of the project. They are common to the situation of other subjects taught at the faculty, so it relates to wider educational context there. The schedule of lectures is composed so, that it gives priority to scheduling of time and location of the obligatory courses, with rest of the time and space (left-over) given to mandatory subjects. Because of the optional solution of the mandatory subjects by students of different grades, to satisfy their availability, they are often pushed in the schedule into time slots, which are considered by students as unsuitable. This leads often to absence of students at the lectures and connected difficulties with catching up of the subject matter at the laboratory exercises, where the attendance is compulsory.

Organizational problems

Form the formal point of view, as any other subject at the „regular“ study, the subject chosen for the case study is taught in a traditional face-to-face method with the traditional lectures and labs. Due to the relatively large number of students, large lecture room is needed. There is a shortage of such lecture rooms at the University, since they are used for large student audiences in the first years of study, where the subjects of general nature are obligatory and the lectures are usually dedicated to the whole grade. Because the case study subject is elective and student stem from various core study groups, the only time available is either early morning, or late evening, which are not the best times suitable for learning and therefore numerous and frequent absenteeism can be observed.
This situation did not change in the second cycle of the project and even if the effort has been made with the University department managing the schedule, because of the above-mentioned constraints it proved to be impossible to change the timing of lecture hours.

Educational problems

The situation concerning the educational problems also did not alter in both cycles. Since the subject is mandatory, not based on the results of study in other subjects, it is attended by students with variable degree of skills and knowledge on the subject, from various study specialization and from bachelors’ as well as masters’ courses. Some of them are already specialists, skilled in professional development of multimedia applications, but usually without any theoretical background, others are beginners, with almost no practical skills in development of multimedia applications. By joining the core curriculum provided in form of lectures with Web based e-Learning support and resources it is possible to create possibility for students with different skill levels and backgrounds to gain the necessary information and to make development of their own learning paths possible.

Recommended directions for action

As it seems, the further development of the subject matter is necessary, not only due to the rapid development in the field of multimedia technologies, but also with respect to the blended learning approach taken. It will be necessary to further improve the on-line content with self-evaluation tests, in which the students will be able to assess the gained knowledge prior to attending the examination. The further improvement can be gained also with publication of the new lecture notes (in paper and in an enhanced electronic version), for the students who prefer written material, with possible use in the off-line manner.

References

Alvaraez, S. (2005) "Blended learning solutions". In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopaedia
of Educational Technology. Retrieved March 1, 2007 from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/blendedlearning/start.htm

Case study "Transport Geography"
Lead institution: University of Maribor, Faculty of Logistics
Authors: Lučka Lorber, Stanko Pelc
In collaboration with: Matija Vidiček, Andreja Čurin, Metka Zorič-Venuti

Can you tell briefly what the context was at the beginning of the project?

The Faculty of Logistics of the University of Maribor is a young, dynamic and innovative faculty with two study centres: Celje and Krško. It was established in 2004/05. From the very beginning, faculty leadership decided to implement a study process in the form of blended learning with the help of Moodle, a virtual learning environment (VLE). What were the reasons for such a brave decision, if we have in mind that the University of Maribor is a classical-type university? Member of the Blend-XL project group Stanko Pelc gives us the following explanation:

The majority of all courses at the Faculty of Logistics are run in a half semester period:

• 7 weeks of lectures and tutorials combined with different forms of e-learning and
• 1 week for the final assessment.

Lectures are given alternately, i.e. one week in the study centre at Celje and the other week at Krško. With the help of a video-conferencing system, the lectures are always transmitted from one location to another.

Student group - numbers, what kind of student, their perceptions and expectations?

The number of students enrolled in the Transport Geography course was 152 in the first cycle and 153 in the second cycle. Students come from all parts of Slovenia. The analysis of their background showed that most of the students had attended professional colleges or high schools in which Geography as a subject had only been feebly represented. Lučka Lorber, teacher in the first cycle, talks about the problems caused by the differences in prior knowledge among students:

Attending the lectures is not obligatory and to come prepared to the lectures is not a custom of Slovenian students either. With such student attitudes towards teaching and learning, it is not easy for teachers to apply active methods of teaching. Using the VLE and e-materials add additional demands – students need informational illiteracy and basic computer knowledge.

Who have been involved in the implementation of the course?

There was a teaching team, consisting of a teacher (lectures) and assistant (tutorials). For validation purposes, another experienced teacher from the same professional field supported them.

What were your main goals for the Blend-XL project?

The main goal was: "What kind of blended learning model is best suited to achieve better communication, more active learning and, as a result, lower dropout of students?"

How did you plan for improvement in practical terms?

With the use of the VLE we planned to give students a better possibility for communicating with teachers and other students. But we also maintained regular live contacts with teachers during the course.
We planned to improve students’ active participation and continuous learning during the course by:

• offering interesting links on the Web for the exploration of content relating to the students’ future professions
• preparing individual assignments (homework), supported by a help forum
• preparing group assignments, supported by a forum and a group chat room
• quizes
• motivating continuous learning by making assignment and quiz results part of the final course grade.

Can you briefly describe how the two cycles of the local case were set up?

The implementation of the first cycle was in the period May/June 2007 and the second in the period October/November 2007, taking place at the same time in two centers (Celje and Krško) with the following course structure:

TRANSPORT GEOGRAPHY

Weeks 1-7:  45 hours lecturing, 30 hours tutorial (blended format)
Week 8: assessment, exam

(VCS = video conference system)

Study materials consisted of MS Word files and MS Powerpoint presentations for all the topics. In the VLE relevant links were provided to direct students to web pages, where additional information about the discussed topics was available.
Communications were supported by forums, assigned to different purposes – news, discussions, group work and assignments. Quizes covered each part of the total content of the course. Before the oral exam students had to pass the test (the final quiz covering all the topics). At tutorials students had to do two individual assignments and one group assignment. For each assignment instructions were given in the classroom and instructions were also available in the VLE. For group assignments students were given the chance to group themselves and use a chat room for group discussions. Each assignment had to be submitted through the VLE before a deadline.

What were the main differences between the cycles?

At the end of the first cycle, a questionnaire was filled out by the students. They were generally very positive about blended learning and were prepared to share with us their ideas on how to make it even better:

• more group activities,
• still use some face-to-face lecturing and tutorials,
• more independent work, learning activities where students discover new knowledge by themselves,
• more collaboration in forums.

Case study second cycle teacher Stanko Pelc concisely describes the main differences between the cycles.

What new problem areas have you discovered?

From the students’ point of view we were very successful with the blended learning approach – combination of traditional teaching methods and using the VLE:

• communication between students and teacher was much better
• students’ active participation had improved
• students said that blended learning motivated them for continuous learning and independent study during the course.

But better communication and more student activities (exercises) in the VLE increased the work load for teachers. For example, within the course with approximately 150 students there were two individual exercises and one group exercise. The assistant was therefore obliged to read and assess over 300 texts. If we assume that the length of the average text was 5 pages, that meant the examination of 1,500 pages within only a few weeks!

What actions will you take in the future on these points?

However, the e-learning environment makes it possible to apply different forms of student-to-student assessment and mutual help. This has two very important advantages:

• students get the feedback from their colleagues and
• they have to learn how to assess their own as well as the work of others.

What has been noticeable in the feedback from students?

The student questionnaire gave us very useful feedback, including the following three findings:

• Blended learning was the right decision - more than two thirds (68.4%) of the students preferred blended learning to the more "traditional" ways of learning/studying that they experienced in the past.
• If one of our objectives is also to stimulate independent study, then it is interesting that almost two thirds of the respondents (64.9%) believed that the work with the VLE stimulated their independent study.
• Students realized that a large part of their future professional work will probably be team work. Therefore group work (supported by the VLE) was a good experience for them: they learned the benefits of group work but also the constraints (problems of group communication, task organization and implementation of the final product).

What were the lessons learned from the project?

Did "blending" – combination of traditional teaching and use of the VLE improve student work? "Yes!" Stanko Pelc has no doubts about that. He talks about changes in the behaviour of students and other benefits.

There are benefits on the both sides. Lučka Lorber talks about lessons learned from the project, for her personally as an educator and professional. One of the things she discusses is the way the teacher will have a new role.

Marie-Thérèse Schneiders is a researcher at RWTH Aachen University and a Blend-XL project team member. She also teaches on the course that is central to Aachen University's local Blend-XL project.

“Can you briefly describe the main context of the case study of Aachen University?”

“The case study for the BlendXL project at Aachen University dealt with the module Techniques of Programming, a mandatory course for students intending to sit the exam of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering. About 800 students in the first year learn how to program in C++. In line with the transition from Diploma to Bachelor/Master degree, the module was embedded into the second relevant module Project Work. Whereas in the past the two modules took place in different semesters, they are now integrated to one entire module. The main focus of the module Project Work is to give the students an opportunity to experience team and project work at the beginning of their studies as well as to deepen their knowledge of the lecture contents.”

“What were the problem areas the project addressed?”

“The main goal of the project was to design an innovative learning environment for extra large student groups. The big challenge of the case study in Aachen was implementation of the module Techniques of Programming in form of an e-learning tool named eClara encouraging a huge class of students with different previous knowledge to learn the programming methods by selfstudy. By adding a new way of learning into a traditional way of teaching the project pointed at offering the students the possibility to mix channels and materials of learning and to find an individual way of learning.”

“Can you briefly describe how the two cycles of the local case were set up?”

“In the first cycle the former module Techniques of Programming was transformed into an e-learning course and tested with a small group of students. The users gave a constructive feedback to optimise the user-friendliness and the necessary content of the tool.  Within the 2nd cycle eClara were applicated for about 850 students attending the course Project Work. Beside the e-learning tool eClara, the students got the possibility to also use a Web Knowledge Map providing contents from the lecture feeded with additional material like small videos or linked web material. Furthermore a forum motivated the students to discuss not only with each other but also with the teachers and tutors of the course.”

“What has been noticeable in the feedback from students? How did they react?”

“The implementation of e-learning and online tools was very well accepted by most of the students. They are used to mix of paper-based and hypertext material. But the acceptance of Blended Learning by huge student groups seems to be directly linked to an efficient information management. The results of the different questionnaires and the feedback we got from the students also reflected that the students were not totally convinced by the Blended Learning methodology particularly because they were not enough informed about the objective of the blend and how the different tools interact with the face-to-face lessons. The results showed that the students are afraid of loosing contact to the teacher by substituting the classroom situation with online forums. We therefore need to better inform the students on how the Blended Learning Methodolgy can help to design an individual learning process without disposing of the necessary student-teacher relationship.”