The right blend? Using onlineresources to support

postgraduate dissertationstudents by Dr Paul Reilly

A �blended� learning approach towardssupporting postgraduate dissertation studentswas piloted in the Department of Media andCommunication in 2012. A variety of resourceswere created and made available to thepredominantly international cohort viaBlackboard at key milestones during theirprojects. A focus group and questionnaire-based study was conducted in July 2012 inorder to evaluate this approach. Specifically,there were two research questions:

1) To what extent did the provision of resourcesat appropriate milestones encourage students totake greater ownership of their projects?

2) Which of these resources were perceived tobe the most helpful during their projects? Whichwere the least helpful? Why?

Aims and Objectives:

Where did the studentscome from?

China (95%) Cyprus (1%) India (1%) Italy (1%)United States (1%)

71 out of 80participants are

female

Resources were released to the students throughout the duration of their projects.These included a Dissertation Planner, a series of e-tivities, a list of Frequently AskedQuestions, quizzes, and screencasts.

Resources

How to complete the ethics formscreencast

Research Ethics e-tivity

PC/Laptop University computer facility

Smart Phone Tablet

100

90

87.5

42.5

Par

ticip

ant u

se o

f dev

ice

(per

cent

)

What devices did theyuse to access thiscontent?

Daily (4%) Every other day (17%) Twice a week (29%)Once a week (21%) Less than once a week (16%)

Just a few times (12%) I did not access it (1%)

3

13 22

16

12

9

1

How many times didstudents access theDissertation Blackboardsite?

Laptop was the device that studentspreferred to use for their studies in

general

Do you agree that the screencastshelped you learn more key issues

e.g. ethics?

Questionnaire Results

Strongly Agree (13%) Agree (52%) Unsure (22%)Disagree (9%) Strongly Disagree (1%)Unable to comment- did not access it (4%)

Strongly Agree (10%) Agree (35%) Unsure (33%)Disagree (14%) Unable to comment- I did not access it (9%)

Strongly Agree (19%) Agree (59%) Unsure (18%)Disagree (4%) Unable to comment-I did not access it (1%)

15

47

14

31

The e-tivities helped me learn moreabout what I should be doing at

different stages of the project

The Quizzes helped me learn moreabout Research Ethics and

Plagiarism during the project

N.B All percentages have been rounded up and this means that they do notalways add up to 100 percent

The resources made the linkbetween the Research Methods

classes and my own project clearer

These resources helped me withquestions I had about the project at

times convenient to me

Strongly Agree (21%) Agree (62%) Unsure (17%)Disagree (1%)

20.5

61.5

16.7

1.3

Strongly Agree (17%) Agree (60%) Unsure (18%)Disagree (4%) Unable to comment- I did not access it (3%)

Did the resources promote greater sense ofindependence amongst the students?

Focus Group Results

Word cloud showing themes mentioned byparticipants

Key findings included:

1) Screencasts had pedagogic value for international students in terms of their English language proficiency2) E-tivities allowed students to see that their classmates were encountering similar problems to them 3) Those participants who completed the quizzes felt it had answered a lot of their questions about key issues4) Students wanted more interaction with their supervisors via Blackboard and these online exercises

"The e-tivity, the mostimportant part was that

you can see yourclassmates, how did they

go, before I start myliterature review I found

that most of myclassmates have started

and posted their part"(Focus Group 2,Participant 1)

"You gave me the link tothe screencast so I found

it useful for somethingsuch as how to apply for

ethical approval likethere is a process, it is

helpful because it is easyto know first I should do

the steps. It’s clear"(Focus Group 3,

Participant 2)

On E-tivities:

On Screencasts:

The questionnaire and focus group results suggested that the resourcesengendered some sense of ownership and independence amongst thosestudents who used them regularly.

Some students demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the differentways in which learning is facilitated and were aware of the inevitable limitationsof the �generic� content posted on Blackboard.

The use of blended learning approaches for the supervision of internationaldissertation students clearly merits further investigation.

Conclusion This project was funded by theUniversity of Leicester Teaching

Enhancement Fund.

For more information see: Reilly, P(2014) The Right Blend? The use ofBlackboard to support postgraduate

dissertation students, Journal ofExcellence in Teaching and

Learning, Available at:http://pauljreillydot.files.wordpress.c

om/2014/04/report_paul_reilly-libre.pdf

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 GenericLicense.