Dynamic Learning Maps - Northumbria University Planning. Overview of Dynamic Learning maps...

http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk

Simon Cotterill, Paul Horner, John Peterson, Gordon Skelly, Tony McDonald, Patrick Rosenkranz, Nick Riches & Steve Ball

Dynamic Learning Maps: curriculum maps and personal learning

Overview

1. Background / Rationale

2. Demonstration

3. Summary of Formative Evaluation

Background

1: Communicating Complex Curricula

2: Modular courses: ‘Compartmentalisation’

Need to promote cross-modular learning

Understanding linkageswithin the curriculum(students & teachers)

Occasional Teachers

Background: Web 2.0 and changing expectations of learners

“The Net Generation has grown up with information technology. The aptitudes, attitudes, expectations, and learning styles of Net Gen students reflect the environment in which they were raised—one that is decidedly different from that which existed when faculty and administrators were growing up.”

Educating the Net Generation http://www.educause.edu/

“although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web. Higher education, therefore, continues to have a unique role in providing learners with the higher-order skills of evaluation, critical analysis and reflection, synthesis, problem-solving, creativity and thinking across discipline boundaries.”

Widespread uptake of social networking and other Web 2.0= changing expectations and technical literacies of many learners


Background: Curriculum Maps

A diagrammatic representation of the curriculum.

Different ‘windows’ ontothe curriculum e.g.

• Intended outcomes• Curriculum content

/subject areas• Learning opportunities• Assessment• Learning resources• People (students / staff)

Known barriers:-Complexity-Labour intensive

Maps as a Metaphor

Where have I been?

Where am I now?

Where am I going?

Stakeholders• Learners• Teachers (incl. occasional teachers)• Curriculum Managers• Administrators• External regulators

ReflectionRevision

Contextualisation

Preparation

What should the students already know?

Where is topic X taught in the curriculum ?

Career choices

Curriculum choices

Where is my specialty covered in the curriculum ?


Synthesis / Metacognition

Planning

Overview of Dynamic Learning maps

Interactive ‘Web 2.0Sharing , rating and reviewsHarvesting multiple sources (‘Mashups’ )Facilitating communities of interest

Curriculum MapsOverview , Prior learning, Current & Future learning

Personal LearningPersonalised, sharing , reflective notes and evidencing outcomes

Linking Learning ResourcesCurriculum & External

Resources

Dynamic Learning Maps

Demonstration

Initial Evaluation


Evaluation: Focus Groups 2009/2010

Focus Group: Psychology (n=2)

Focus Groups: Speech Therapy BSc (9), MSc (7)

Focus Groups: Medicine (students, staff)

Staff Meeting: Speech Therapy ~15

Module Choices

Liked concept / layout

Perceived duplication

Importance of personal preferences

Visual vs. Text ViewsIntegration with

Blackboard?

I prefer

n=193 (student response system)

It is easy to use


“Time consuming to learn/to use?”

“Requires an amount of foundation knowledge to be able to make full use of it; either a session on it or a drop in surgery would be helpful”

78% agreed BUT some wanted training:

Medical students - focus groups

Medical teacher

“It seems a really good idea but it important that we get training on how to use it.”

The map would benefit my learning


80% of students agreed

“Excellent way of linking learning and thought processes”.

“Hopefully minimises learning occurring in isolated chunks.”

“Potential for more joined-up thinking for patient care”

“If assessment is not linked to it how much will it be used?”

Clinical teachers (focus group)

The map will help me better understand the MBBS curriculum


“Will increase relevance of Phase I lectures to clinical presentations/experience”

73% agreed

“It is helpful to be able to see [the curriculum] from both macro and micro levels”.

Stage 4 Medical Students- Focus group

Knowing how a teaching session relates to the rest of the curriculum is important to me


“Will increase relevance of Phase I lectures to clinical presentations/experience”

From a students point of view, one could be much clearer on ‘the big picture’, as you have a curriculum map laid out in front of you...”

77% Agreed

Stage 4 Medical Students- Focus groups

Having the map will be useful for preparation before a teaching session?


“Would be potentially be extremely helpful, particularly when undertaking a new topic and preview [grouping] lectures”

“Help you to pitch your teaching at the right level/know what has been taught before”

‘What’s on “curriculum” doesn’t always equate to what students know’

Stage 4 Medical Student

“Enables you to reactivate prior learning”

“Tells you what student has covered in theory, [but] still need to know how much they have absorbed.”

Clinical teachers (focus group)

57% agreed

Having the map will be useful for reviewing and reflecting after a session?


80% Agreed

Having the map will be useful for revision


? “Any way of ticking off lectures revised?”

“Excellent revision tool”

“Helpful revision tool”

Stage 4 Medical Students

Clinical Teacher

91% Agreed

It would be useful to add notes and reflections to teaching sessions and other parts of the map

“*liked+ linking the portfolio (which mayappear otherwise abstract) with the rest of a student’s education”.

“link to portfolio may increase its usage!”

Stage 4 Medical Students(Focus Group)

73% of students agree

But clinical teaching staff skeptical:


“Can this really be used for portfolio (if voluntary) ?“

“How to engage student with e-portfolios – won’t work without their engagement”

I frequently supplement my learning with external resources on the web


I only want information and resources provided by teaching staff


72% agreed 26% agreed

Recap: Summary of DLM





Resources

Project funded by

Further information & Public Demonstrator:


Thank You

e-Learning

Technical approach

Curricula databases

Library databases

ePortfolio/ blog

Repositories

ExternalFeeds

LearningResources

Life-longLearningRecord

ID-MAPsproject

Student Information

Systems

reflection

evidencing

discussion

adding resources,rating & reviewing

Learning Maps

(topic-specific)

Curriculum map

Personal learning

Community


Curriculum Maps: Potential role in Monitoring & QA

Declaredcurriculum

Taughtcurriculum

Learning &development

‘Constructive Alignment’(curriculum – T&L – assessment)

Better insight into learning outside the curriculum

External resources Prior learning ‘Life-wide’ learning

Identify popularexternal resources(QA + peer review)

Map to otherCurricula(widens learningopportunities)

Identify ‘gaps’in teaching

Identifyduplication

Monitor access & equality of learning opportunities

What should be on a curriculum map?

Example of different interpretations / implementations

Making Connections

Initial interfaces & user preferences

Text-based interface

Mind-map style interface

Forthcoming focus groups:explore options e.g. colour codingterminology e.g. ‘nodes’ or topics

>1,000 external resources: 389 from 5 key sites (above)

Careers

Search

Challenges for Curriculum Mapping ♯1

Stage 5

Stage 4

Stage 3

Stage 2

Stage 1

2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12

Student journeythrough thecurriculum

‘here and now’teaching focus

Between major restructuring of the MBBS curriculum (aprox. every 5-7yrs): stable: units (modules), programme outcomesminor adjustments: sessions, cases, unit outcomes (responsive to evaluation / QA)

more variation in assessment & differences in delivery by 4 ‘Base Units’ (stages 3 & 5)

The curriculum changes over time


Stepped availability of study guides, cases and timetable data

Semester 2Available

Semester 1Available

Sept 2008 Jan 2009 Sept 2009 Jan 2010

i.e. a fully detailed / data-driven curriculum map for the current academic year would not be available until Semester 2.

A partial map would be no good at all! (Needs to be a semi-persistent map but drawing on latest information as it becomes available).

Resources (presentations etc) are uploaded into the VLE on a ‘just in time’ basis.


MBBS study guide databases (baseline) designed to support complex curricula with large number of contributors using familiar Word documents (well formatted ‘portal documents’) these populate databases and structure the VLE when they are uploaded supports changing curriculum with views by multiple academic years

Module Database (baseline)• outcomes are blocks of free text: variable formats and amount of detail

Fit for purpose, but raise challenges for online curriculum maps:

Key data is in the form of non-standardised text e.g. learning outcomes, core presentations / conditions etc. language is inconsistent between study guides (modified for context) hard to differentiate between unit-specific and programme outcomes & content

Codes used in VLE and timetable are not persistent e.g. ‘PPD2.15’ may referrer to completely different teaching sessions from

one academic year to the next Problematic as resources are linked to these non-persistent codes

Existing data may not be in a readily usable

Getting the right balance

Automation Specificity & Granularity

Initially reliant on manually makingconnections (curriculum & community)

Maintenance cost as curriculum changes

Search – High volume

of resultsmixed relevance

Saturation (too many

Connections – ‘hairball’)

e.g. MBBS: 60+ learning outcomesper module. High-level outcomespresent in virtually every module.

Refine relevancescoring

Data on connected topics used to improve future automation/specificity(related keywords / strength of connections)

Recap: Summary of DLM





Resources

I understand the concept of Learning Maps


How often would you envisage using the map (once complete) ?


Dynamic Learning Maps - Northumbria University Planning. Overview of Dynamic Learning maps...

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