Managing change: the use of mixed delivery modes to
increase learning opportunities for large first year classes
Sue Franklin & Mary Peat
School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science
Background
Science teaching in this millennium will need to suit the students’
needs and understanding, and employers’ expectations. Choosing to
learn will help form the learning opportunities presented. Universities
today are in transition, with much of the change driven by economic
pressures and demands for graduates who will be able to function in
a knowledge society. To cope with these pressures and demands, the
majority of universities are turning to the use of the Internet to deliver
courses at distance as well as to enhance on-campus educational
programs.
Virtual Learning Environment
http://FYBio.bio.usyd.edu.au/VLE/L1/
Use of the VLE to support learning
Usefulness of VLE in supporting learning
- not useful
- useful
- extremely useful
Strategies in use in biology
Student learning communities - a
cultural change
Advantages - helps develop a sense of belonging for students; peer
support groups can function on many levels; collaborative teaching
strategies may enhance learning outcomes; students encouraged to take
responsibility for own learning
Outcomes - reduce teacher focus; rely on self-directed learning; offer
flexible learning scenarios; help develop life-long learning skills; may help
improve performance
Activities to promote learning
communities
Communication between students and with teachers - activities that
help students work together include the use of card games, board games,
concept maps, experiments, field work and poster presentations
Provision of Virtual Learning Environment - to help individuals and
groups to work on resources anytime/anyplace. The VLE has online
learning materials of various types and well developed communications
portals for access to various types of help
Actual Use
Did not use
85%
15%
6%
47%
47%
6%
44%
50%
11%
55%
34%
However 15 % of our students elect not to use the VLE to support them in
their learning and report that this is because they have not had enough time
of on-campus and online learning opportunities - since the mid
1990s we have been using both computer technology and face-to-face
scenarios to support our students in their learning
Gateway for online materials - Virtual Learning Environment - our
use of computers in the classroom led to the development on an online
resource
Expectation of
use
85%
The majority of students (85%) use the VLE and report it to be useful
 Mix
 Development of student learning communities - in the lab classes we
use peer group activities to help students develop expertise in working
together
Use of VLE and perceptions of
usefulness
What is the biology VLE?
General Resource Centre - contains access to information, to
learning resources, to self-assessment resources, general university
information and much much more
Has access to CyberHelpers - students can ask CyberTutor
about academic matters, CyberAdmin about administrative matters,
and CyberTechSupport about using the computer and the VLE
Offers support for new students - this is especially important for
mid year entry students who need help during their transition to uni
life
Consists of nine study rooms, one for each unit of study each unit room has access to lecture notes, data from laboratory
experiments, discussions, learning resources, self-assessment
resources
Evaluations
Peer Review - the web site was externally reviewed in 1999 - see
http://science.uniserve.edu.au/disc/reviews/
Student comments via - use of log-out surveys and focus groups;
discussion forum on the Web; email surveys.
Survey outcomes include - strong use of learning resources and
self-assessment materials; comments that the VLE is easy to
navigate; unsolicited praise for all the CAL materials and FAQs.
“I’m so addicted to the VLE. I hang out there”
“Biology web site is extremely useful and well organised”
“You have done an absolutely fantastic job ….I appreciate it very
much and so no doubt do many other ‘silent’ students”
Focus group interviews also support the time/motivation issue. For many
students there is too much to do in the limited time
The Future?
Need to provide more learning and self-assessment resources
Have provided a CD ROM with the more stable and developed resources to
help overcome the competition in the home for the Internet line
Looking at introducing curriculum changes to provide more flexibility in the
units with less face-to-face materials and more independent work
Developing appropriate evaluation strategies to determine the value of the
changes
References
Franklin, S., Lewis, A & Peat, M. (2001) A large-scale evaluation of the effectiveness of computerbased resources: A research methodology. In A. Fernandez (Ed.), Proceedings of Research and
Development into University Science Teaching and Learning Workshop. UniServe Science, The
University of Sydney
Peat, M. (2000), On-line self-assessment materials: do these make a difference to student learning?
Association for Learning Technology Journal, 8(2), 51-57
. Peat, M. (2000a) Towards First Year Biology online: a virtual learning environment Educational
Technology & Society 3(3) 203-207
Peat, M., Franklin, S. & Lewis, A. (2001) A review of the use of on-line self-assessment modules to
enhance student learning outcomes: are they worth the effort of production? Proceedings of the 18th
Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Tertiary Education, Melbourne