Learning Technology Research

• How qualitatively different is the experience of remote learners?
• Why are some students more anxious than others when using technology?
• What is the nature of the transactional distance between tutor and student?
• How do distance delivery methods affect subject matter?
• Do CMC users exhibit 'on-line personas'?
• How does technology shape the information it carries?
• Can we match delivery methods to students' individual differences?
• How can someone achieve 'virtual presence'
• Cyberpsychology models: see Leon James's website on Cyberpsychology.

1. Wikispaces Project
Over the last term, Steve Wheeler, Peter Yeomans and Dawn Wheeler have been investigating the use of Wikis in the creation of collaborative online learning environments. We are interested in a number of issues, including engagement in learning, collaborative writing, development of academic writing skills, intellectual property and ownership, and co-operation in learning. The notion that students are aware of a 'hidden audience' on the web is also of interest. One article is currently under review (British Journal of Educational Technology) with several more currently in progress. Students' work can be seen at the epedagogy wiki site.

2. Analysing online discussions
Debby Cotton, Jon Yorke and Joan Gavin have been working together on a project aimed at analysing the content of online asynchronous discussions (OADs) in higher education. In particular, we aimed to investigate how students use online discussions and the ways and extent to which their use enhances learning. We piloted a number of different methods for analysing the content of discussions and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each both in terms of methodological simplicity (how difficult and/ or time consuming were they?) and educational utility (what did they tell us about student learning?). A paper was presented at the ASCILITE conference in 2006 and another at the HEA conference this year.

3. iHUB: Research into Social Anxiety and Shyness
Graham Russell will be working with Judith Waterfield, Ray Jones and Steve Wheeler from September on a new project to design and build an iHUB(information hub) for students with social anxiety and shyness. The iHUB will be linked to the student portal and will provide students with a single point of access to information about all of the relevant, internal UoP and UPC support services together with hyperlinks to external support agencies (e.g. self-help voluntary groups, such as the National Phobics Society). The iHUB will provide basic information about social anxiety (e.g. by way of illustrative vignettes and self-diagnostic screening) and will encourage students with social anxiety to help themselves by actively developing and sharing information and advice. We will use Web 2.0 technologies to faciltate this (e.g use wiki-blog for posting, discussion, sharing links, on-line chat, etc). The intention is that this will provide students with their own virtual support networks (this is potentially important given the negative affects of social isolation and loneliness on well-being and learning and the reluctance of these students to go out and develop new peer networks in 'normal' ways, such as frequenting the Student Union bar). The iHUB will also provide staff with information and advice about social anxiety. Finally we hope that through a process of consulation and liaison with students and staff we will contribute to a wider dialogue about how to bolster existing support provision in ways which are effective and sustainable (e.g. methods that are not going to cost the uni lots of money to set up and maintain).

4. Behaviour Management with the use of Hand Held Technologies
Dawn Wheeler is undertaking research on the use of hand held technologies within the secondary classroom and their role in behaviour management. The study is being carried out at South Dartmoor Community College, Ashburton, where hand held PCs were introduced two years ago as a registering and tracking tool. The electronic register is used in conjunction with Truancy Alert. Update: primary data has now been collected through questionnaire (n=120) and interview (n=8) and is now undergoing analysis (20 July, 2007).

5. New Project: A ‘Sexual Health’ Public Education and Outreach SIM in Second Life
Maged Kamel Boulos, Steve Wheeler, and Susan Toth-Cohen (USA) have started this project, which will run until 31 July 2007 and is funded by http://SLEducationUK.net/. More info at http://sl-sexualhealth.org.uk/?page_id=2 (and don't miss our comprehensive directory of Second Life Health Education Resources at http://healthcybermap.org/sl.htm - updated regularly).

6. 'Getting the Bloggers to Write' Project
This study skills project has been set up to enable students to discuss creative and successful essay writing. Over a period of one academic year Mark Townsend and Steve Wheeler will gradually create a co-authored paper within a wiki, and invite students to comment, discuss and analyse its structure and content. A parallel blog entitled Black and Blue will be used to promote further threaded discussion, and students will be encouraged to ask questions and discuss what it takes to produce a good essay.

7. WikiLit Project
We have recently received funding for this small scale project from CETT proposed by Dawn Wheeler, Jackie Sitters and Steve Wheeler. The WikiLit project will employ open architecture software to encourage and support collaborative learning on the minimum core curriculum for the Post Compulsory Education and Training (PCET) programme. This project reflects the expediency of the PCET programme to adopt new technologies to obviate the need for busy academic staff to travel across the region to deliver the minimum core curriculum to large groups of students with limited contact time. WikiLit will initially run for one complete academic term for full-time and two terms for part-time students as a pilot study. In their specific groups, students will be able to collaborate freely across a shared and open digital learning environment that is easily accessible and navigable. The PCET cohorts will each be allocated a specially designed wiki to support the delivery of the minimum core of literacy, numeracy and ICT basic skills (n=80 approximately). The wiki spaces will house growing repositories of directed tasks will be created and lodged by the team. Students will access these tasks sequentially, but act upon them collaboratively and over the duration of the programme will generate their own artefacts in relation to the tasks (e.g. annotations, hyperlinks to websites, useful resources). They will have the opportunity to correct, edit or even delete their own contributions and the contributions of others and in this way will create a repository of knowledge which reflects the ‘wisdom of the masses’.

8. MentorBlog Project
Another successfully funded small sacel CETT project led by Steve Wheeler and Wendy Lambert-Heggs is currently starting. This project is an experimental design in which over a period of time, students and their mentors will generate dialogue within two-person blogs, to support the mentoring of teacher trainees who are geographically remote from their mentors. Participants will subsequently complete post-module questionnaires and be interviewed about their experiences. These will be compared to the paper-based diaries and face-to-face interactions of traditonal mentors and mentees. An added dimension will be the introduction of Nokia handheld technologies to extend the project toward moblogging (mobile blogging) - a means of connecting mentors and their mentees whilst on the move.

One of the most important areas of distance learning research is how learners can be supported whilst they are engaged in learning online. Often, students study in isolation and do not have immediate access to tutor or peer support. The University of Plymouth has a number of ongoing studies which are investigating the nature of 'the separation' of teacher and student and the resultant issues and problems. A combination of qualitative (interview) and quantitative (Likert scale questionnaire) tools have been developed and are being used by the team to investigate these problems to ascertain which methods and techniques are the most appropriate to use to support distance learners. Conference papers such as In Cyberspace No-One Can Hear You Scream (EDEN 2004) are available in full and will be published on this website as well as in international academic journals. See also the Townsend and Wheeler (2004) article in the Quarterly Review of Distance Education.

The Faculty of Education in association with two other University of Plymouth faculties (Health and Social Work, Technology) is involved in a number of research programmes investigating the development, application and evaluation of Web 2.0 software applications such as 'blogs, wikis and e-portfolios. There is a particular focus on new and hybrid social software applications such as the combination of 'blogs and wikis - the (bliki ) where students can co-edit professional reflective diaries online, and voice/audio based wiki applications. Publications include recent work with medical education by Wheeler and Boulos (ALT-C 2006), Boulos, Maramba and Wheeler (BMC Medical Education Journal, August 2006) and Boulos & Wheeler (Health and Information Libraries Journal, 2007). We are also investigating the impact of podcasting as an emerging mobile learning technology.

Read more about these projects on the Publications page.

Mapping Learners in Cyberspace

Another project supported through the Faculty of Education uses a cultural historical perspective to investigate changes in professional style and identity for qualified teachers who are engaged in Masters level study online. Using a combination of digital tracking, interview and questionnaires, the team are applying activity theory and other constructivist models of investigation to this field of interest. Details of initial findings have already appeared in conference papers and will be made available to read on this website under the Publications page.