Mark Gamble
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| 25/05/2007 12:18 |
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| Unfortunately, Mark Atlay will be unavailable for the conference. He and I worked closely on the rationale behind using a wiki for this continuing professional development module and we have learnt a number of valuable lessons, some of which have susteained what we thought and some have conflicted with out ideas. We will be doing it again, but with some modifications. |
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Catherine Owen
Posts: 27
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| 25/05/2007 13:07 |
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Luckily the whole conference will be archived Mark, so Mark Atlay will be able to read comments and postings and contact delegates after the event.
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Fran Everingham
Posts: 14
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| 29/05/2007 14:29 |
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| Hi Mark, I'm in another time zone (heading towards midnight). I have just read your case study and wonder if you have dealt with partipants who need extensions - how do you manage the impact on the group process? And indeed, how does this plays out for students who are still to complete, when there is perhaps only one left still to complete requirements? |
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Lesley Lawrence
Posts: 4
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| 29/05/2007 15:50 |
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Hi Fran
Some interesting questions!
Mark might have a different view, but in many ways, I don't see this as being too different from the problems faced by us in the offline world in collaborative work. There have been problems with some students who were paired up for the critical incident sharing and a few contacted us to say they were having problems contacting their 'partner'. But where the Wiki was concerned we haven't had an extension request as yet! And the Wiki site goes down - happening on June 4th so haven't had any last minute requests. I think also, the Wiki is being assessed on an individual basis, not as a group as such thus, there are fewer of the problems you refer to. And, if someone hasn't been that active, then students have many other fellow student sites to visit.
A problem we had was 'what happens when students are too late in engaging with the materials and the module'?. Some students in fact were advised that they were too late and would have to take the module next year. It had been made clear in early information about the module that as the wiki was a collaborative resource, 'extensions will not be possible' and the structured development of the Wiki was meant to encourage engagement throughout the semester. Thus if they didn't engage early enough they were really disadvantaging themselves with too much to catch up on. And,as an aim of the programme is for there to be learning from the process and the experience, some were actively discouraged to take the module next year.
You have raised an interesting point though, what happens if any do get an extension claim accepted centrally! Mmmmmmmmmmh.
There was one student who applied for and obtained a two week extension from our central University Advisory Service, but this related to the critical incident element of the assessment and not the Wiki as such. He was attempting to continue his wiki contribution and was confident he'd make the deadline when I last spoke to him.
Cheers
Lesley
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Fran Everingham
Posts: 14
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| 29/05/2007 16:51 |
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Hi Lesley, my students are PG distance/WebCT/local/international. All are working full-time, in stressful health settings, and are female and tend to carry the impact of family 'misadventures'. When they prioritise, there is really no choice - studies are the first to hit the wall. The reality is some 10% apply for extensions. So, every second or third group of five, might end up minus a member, over a 6-8 week period of a group assignment activity.
My design solution has been to (1) schedule the group work assignments for the first few weeks of semester (life events have not kicked in) - the downside is the students are unfamiliar with the content, and havent had a chance to build rapport through general chat. (2) design group-based assignments that have solo components that are arrived at through group negotiation and enhanced by critical discussion - the downside is student's submitting late may miss the value added benefit of the discussion directly related to their task.
Even so, probably the greatest problem is fluidity of group communication - WEbCT is just plain 'clunky' - This could be in part my own failing with the design side of the tool. Last weekend some students in one group experimented stepped 'outside' and seized the moment with MSN ... they got their kids to show then how! Sorry, this is a digression from wikkis - but explains why I'm loitering in a discussion about web assessment structures.
Fran |
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Lesley Lawrence
Posts: 4
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| 30/05/2007 08:52 |
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Glad you're loitering Fran!
I can see the difference in what you're doing - more group-oriented than in our scenario. Your second design solution is similar - but ultimately where the wiki is concerned ours is an individual assignment arrived at through development of their own wiki site, but making links to other student sites. So in a sense its about each student contributing to a collaborative learning environment and learning from each other. So a student can see through the wiki how others approach teaching and learning. So, different from your situation.
In the critical incident where they were paired up, there were some issues, but as far as I'm aware no one has asked for an extension, but might yet! It was the 'late comers'that posed a problem.
Lesley
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