Educating undergraduate students for openness

Educating undergraduate students for openness Ass.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Hofhues and Sabrina Pensel, B.A. Professorship for Media Pedagogy/Instructional Design Institute for General Didactics and School Research Faculty of Human Sciences University of Cologne (Germany)

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Hofhues & Sabrina Pensel, B.A. | EADTU-Conference 2016 | Rome, 19.10.2016

“Education for Openness” (Peters, n.d.) General Idea and Some (Research) Questions

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To what extend could formal teaching and learning scenarios at universities opened up for undergraduates?

Is there any room for improvement within formal education at universities concerning open learning scenarios and student‘s own research?

How could the developed competencies be seen, while undergraduates should also be educated for openness?

Source: Peters, M.A. (n.d.). Open Education and Education for Openness. Encyclopaedia of Philosophy and Education. http://eepat.net/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=open_education_and_education_for_openness.pdf (19.10.2016).


Education for Openness Means ‚Doing‘ Research with Undergraduates

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Referring to an Elder Discussion about Involving Undergraduates into Research |  Academic ideal of education through science and research (cf. Huber, 1994). |  Learning and research processes could be seen in an analogue way. |  Consequences: Education for openness (e.g. critical thinking) might be a core

ingredient. Focus on open learning scenarios and student‘s own research could be possible.

Example of a Lecture Design at University of Cologne, Germany

|  Research-led/-tutored lecture design at University of Cologne: 300 undergraduates from several disciplines and +/- 11 study programmes.

|  Combination of knowledge transfer and student’s own research: Students are for example encouraged to draft research designs and projects within a lecture (Sandover et al., 2012).

Sources: Huber, L. (1994). Nur allgemeine Studierfähigkeit oder doch allgemeine Bildung? Die deutsche Schule. 86(1), 12–26.; Sandover, S., Partridge, L., Dunne E. & Burkill, S. (2012). Undergraduate researchers change learning and teaching: a case study of two universities in Australia and the UK. CUR Quarterly, 33(1), 33-39.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Hofhues & Sabrina Pensel, B.A. | EADTU-Conference 2016 | Rome, 19.10.2016 | 4

figure 1: learning processes with regard to research (according to Jenkins & Healey, 2011, p. 38)

Education for Openness A Famous Matrix to Do Research with Undergraduates

Source: Jenkins, A. & Healey, A. (2011). Research based learning – a collection of case studies in different disciplines. In I. Jahnke & J. Wildt (Hrsg.), Fachbezogene und fachübergreifende Hochschuldidaktik (S. 37-46). Bielefeld: Bertelsmann.


figure 1: learning processes with regard to research (according to Jenkins & Healey, 2011, p. 38)

Education for Openness A Famous Matrix to Do Research with Undergraduates

Opportunities: Open Science & Research (Processes, Products); Open Education & Communication (e.g. distributed via digital media) Tools: Open Annotation; Research Wikis & Questionnaires; etc.


A Research-led/-tutored Lecture Design Goals and Learning Objectives

#medida15

More: http://blog.hf.uni-koeln.de/mediendidaktik/

Learning Objectives Transferring basic knowledge with regard to “Media Didactics” (Instructional Design); enabling students to do their own research


A Research-led/-tutored Lecture Design Six Tasks with regard to the Research-led/-tutored Approach

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From a Research-led/-tutored Approach to Concrete Tasks

1.  What topics from daily news do you know that have a link to the currently discussed research field?

2.  Which of these collected topics would be a good starting point to ask further research questions together with your student team?

3.  How could a research question which is linked to your research interest and your chosen topic look like?

4.  Peer review session (online) 5.  Please search for former research and literature regarding your research interest. 6.  How does this literature and former research help you to answer your own

research question?


A Research-led/-tutored Lecture Design A Special OER Tool: the “Forschungspost” (Letters of Research)

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Sources: http://blog.hf.uni-koeln.de/mediendidaktik/files/2015/10/Forschungspost_Pensel-Hofhues_01_final.pdf ; http://blog.hf.uni-koeln.de/mediendidaktik/files/ 2015/10/Forschungspost_Pensel-Hofhues_02_final.pdf; http://blog.hf.uni-koeln.de/mediendidaktik/ausschreibung-wohin-reisen-sie/

Plus: Students can write an own “Forschungspost”.


The Student’s Point of View Evaluation Data and Findings | Design, Tasks, and Technologies

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Views at the Research-led/-tutored Lecture Design

|  Well structured educational content, not a quarter as complicated “as the ones e.g. in statistics”

|  Transparency of all offers (! „open“ discussion) |  Problems in interaction with their tandem partners |  Discrepancies between learning through and the structure of a lecture, within

which the (formal) assessment part plays a fundamental role |  Results: Time as crucial factor, Importance of openness in mind Views at the Tasks and Technologies

|  Joy being a critical thinker at a mass university |  Low experiences with a research-led/-tutored lecture design, but less problems |  Sometimes missing the ‘big picture’ (the research draft by one page) |  Important result besides: Most students were not able to use all media and

technologies within the lecture design in a way, how professionals would use them.

Source: Hofhues, S., Pensel, S. & Rottlaender, E.-M. (2016). Mit vielen Studierenden auf Forschungsreise gehen. In B. Berendt, A. Fleischmann, J. Wildt, N. Schaper & B. Szczyrba (Hrsg.), Neues Handbuch Hochschullehre (77; S. 61-82). Hamburg: Raabe.


The Student’s Point of View Evaluation Data and Findings | Assessment

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Views at the Assessment Part Summative Assessment |  Absurdity of a final exam in a setting which bases on research processes and open

dialogues (research vs. learning) |  Criticism of concrete questions (e.g. definitions, complex questions) |  Interpretation: Students do not see the aspect, that an exam in a Research-led/-

tutored lecture design could also be a feedback insofar as knowledge is concerned. Formative Assessment |  Combination of both – exam and research draft - seems to be “too much” from the

student’s perspective. |  Interpretation: Students focus only on their own research, not on their study

programme; limited interest in formal learning? “If something is not assessed (in higher education), then it is not learned.”

(Reeves, 2006, p. 299)

Source: Hofhues et al., 2016; Reeves, T.C. (2006). How do we know they are learning? International Journal of Learning Technology, 2 (4), 294-309.


Educating Undergraduates for Openness Conclusion | General Arrangement of the Lecture

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Findings are helpful and at the same moment sad

|  Lecture design sounds more extensive from the student’s point of view than ours. |  They do no invest more than 30 hours (see standardized questionnaire). |  Several boundaries due to the conceptions of a study program in Germany |  Recurrent problem: Open learning scenarios like this must externalize the shown

discrepancies again and again.

Problems with the interaction processes between students (peers) |  Students mention, that the agreements with their fellow students costs time. |  They name the interaction and communication processes between the tandem

partners as irritating and challenging. |  Students would love to do their work on their own (instead of open and together). |  Annual problem: By planning this research-led/-tutored lecture you cannot and

would not like to take the burden of communication off.

Source: see further Hofhues et al., 2016


Educating Undergraduates for Openness Snapshots| Competencies and the Institution

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Snapshot “competencies”: All findings underline that |  educating undergraduate students for openness in open learning scenarios like

research-led/-tutored lectures is needed more than ever. |  students need those irritations to scrutinize their own way of thinking and learning

at universities, and they need space for that within formal educational settings. |  doing research for less experienced students is feasible, if research is understood

as a task within the learning design. |  the design could be fragile because of the student’s age or their (missing)

experience, their absent knowledge in the professional media use, and the general interest in collective (team) work.

Snapshot “Higher Education institution”: More questions than answers

|  Avoid summative assessments like exams? |  Commitment between teachers and students as prerequisites for openness? |  Open learning along the “Student Life Cycle”?

Source: see further Hofhues et al., 2016

Thanks for Your Interest.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Hofhues and Sabrina Pensel, B.A. Professorship for Media Pedagogy/Instructional Design Institute for General Didactics and School Research Faculty of Human Sciences University of Cologne (Germany) Email: [email protected]

[email protected] Contact: Triforum Cologne, 02.228, Innere Kanalstraße 15, D-50823 Cologne

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The full paper is published in the EADTU16 Conference Proceedings. See further Hofhues et al. (2016).

Educating undergraduate students for openness

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