| duologue home > staff > staff viewpoints | |||||
|
|||||
| back to table of Contents | |||||
|
Staff viewpoints on duoOn this page, comments from a range of English staff in the project follow-up year (2003-04)
1. Full-time (modern period) 2. Part-time 4. Full-time (early and medieval)
For individual perspectives from the project team, see: Worm's Eye View | duologue: a review | one teacher's approaches 1. Full-time colleague (teaches in the modern period)This year, this member of staff registered both a Special Topic (taught through seminars) and a large lecture module (supported by tutorials). Like many colleagues, he finds the email facilities the most obviously useful feature of duo--better for immediate information than trusting either to the physical notice boards or to the duo announcement board. He also makes use of links to online information posted 'outside' the English department. Students are more likely to find this information if it is signposted 'in house', rather than tracking through the generic portals in the library first. I find it's very useful for emailing before each lecture, to give students a sense of the contents of each lecture, even if it's just a list of poems. Everybody lecturing on the course now does this. I've also been putting access to old exam papers on duo, so they don't have to go through other ports (like the library) - it is much easier. It's the exam papers, I gather, they find particularly useful. I emailed them all to let them know they were there. I didn't use the announcements board. Rather than do a notice on the board I'll do an email.. because I know they'll see it. I definitely use it from home. For instance, if I can't find the reading list or the lecture list - and I've emailed them all from home using duo -- I do this quite a lot... I never use the actual notice boards now - Thank God. —NEVER! With the split site that was always a bore.... I'd like more things like sound clips of poets reading their work... I'm sure there are sites for the links, but it's the matter of time again, of making the effort. But definitely a plus. top
2. Part-time colleague - postgraduate teaching assistantNearing the end of her PhD studies, this colleague took on more teaching and registered for the PG cert in Higher Education. Having practised with duo as part of that course, she sought permission from the department to try out the discussion board with her own tutorial groups. With the department's concerns about offering equal provision to all students, the Board of Studies requested her not to offer to conduct tutorial discussion on the board. She thought it worth experimenting, nevertheless, but discovered, as others have, that without a strong lead in discussion, boards will lie unused. Replicating the pattern of her tutorials, she found that only the most confident entered discussion spontaneously, and learned that without a tutor's guidance, encouragement and structure, others - predictably - failed to follow. [From email] I've been looking over the discussion board that I set up on duo for my drama groups. There has really been little activity on the board: About 1/4 of the students found the site and introduced themselves, and none used it in any constructive way. I didn't ever set them any task to do that involved the board, and only told them that it was there for them to use. I have just sent them all an email reminding them that it is there, and that now may be a good time to take another look at it as there will be no more tutorials. I will be interested to see if they use it when preparing for the exams. If I had to suggest why it hasn't been particularly successful so far, I would say that the group involved is too small, and I think this makes even the confident students rather shy. And because they have no assigned reason to use it, it is difficult to start a "chat" from nothing. In spite of disappointments in this area of duo, this colleague found other positive features. She posted accounts of her PG cert experiences on the Postgraduate Teaching Assistants' duo site, and found the communication facilities an easement of the 'email hell' she had found in her first year working as a tutorial assistant. A member of the project team spent five minutes showing her how to set up 'groups' - a facility ignored by many other staff - and this proved an asset. [From interview] It's really useful for just emailing, especially if you set up groups. I put all my students into 'groups', which was easy once I had been shown how. It didn't take much time at all. [Asked why she hadn't used it last year] Even though it's incredibly easy, if you've never looked at the page before, it can seem a bit more intimidating than it is. If you don't really know your way around it, you assume it's no use. 3. English Departmental SecretaryWe [in the office] were right in at the start, but I'd not used it. I'd been on a course about two years ago, but it seemed geared towards staff then -- about putting their module information on. But since the department as whole decided to try it, and with it being so user-friendly and easy, I went back to it. This colleague, who saw little in duo when first introduced to it, is now an enthusiastic user. In interview, she highlights its convenience for office staff; its cost-cutting benefits (time, photocopying) in the day-to-day business of the department; and its benefits for communicating with staff across a split site. Having the module administration sites for both the students and staff has been a great help. It really has helped avoid the need for repeating information everywhere in hard copy. Every thing can be stored on duo [e.g. module proformas, minutes of meetings]. This saves us an enormous amount of time on the photocopier and is very cost effective for the department; it saves us a lot of money. For example, [the Head of Department] sent the minutes of the Board of Studies yesterday afternoon, and these could be posted straight away on to duo, with a message to all staff informing them of their presence. It enables the staff on the other site to access the data - and it's there for them at the same time as people in this building. It's there for everyone at the same time as it's put on centrally.
As one of the department's most regular users, she has noticed improvements in the system; and suggests ways of developing the VLE further within the department. [On the North American labels on the buttons] It was irritating last year that you couldn't change the names, but now it's easier to make the different headings clear. [On teaching staff's use of duo in the English Department] I think staff could use it a bit more for downloading. We could save more time on photocopying by putting up agendas including documents. It would ensure staff responsibility to turn up with correct papers, and be very helpful to us. I think it would also encourage the staff to navigate duo - and those that are slightly less confident would gain. [On postgraduate administration, one of this colleagues' major and growing tasks] I think we should in the department as a whole develop a site solely for the taught MA and the research postgrads. It would enable them to access information more easily than making them go through the general student module. I think there's a lot of information for research students which we rely on putting on noticeboards - and it would be useful for them to access from links from home. [Would this create more work?] Only in the very beginning. I don't think it would entail any more work than emailing each student individually with info, rather than putting it on duo. [Other uses?] I don't use the discussion board- at least, not yet. .. .Tracking? Yes, but not as often as I would like to.. I like to see the trends of the regular users. Staff Student Consultative Committee - Could do even more with duo. I think the students we have at the present moment are very keen to be more involved. [Any other comments?] I enjoy using duo immensely and think it is a very easy way to contact the students or members of staff. I never thought it would be as helpful as it is and so easy to use as it is. I thought it would be very irksome, and it has proved me wrong. 4. Full time colleague [teaches early and medieval modules]
He gives a picture of a new user beginning to expand and develop his sense of a VLE's potential. His account will also remind those more at home with IT that there are basic skills which should not be taken for granted - e.g. resizing images- and that, if you do not know short-cuts exist, or have no idea of where to look for solutions, trying to work around such problems can take a very long time. Although this colleague had found the LTT team very helpful, at interview he mentioned further problems, for which he had not sought help, as he had assumed that they were endemic to the software. 'To start with I had a basic view of duo -- that I would use it for bibliographies -- but it very soon occurred to me that it was silly not to have handouts as well. A lot of texts are very difficult to find and I've done quite a lot of translation which I decided to put on too - a different amount according to different modules. Then I began to think that for some of the texts, illustrations, where I could find them, would be a very good idea.' Examples: 1. The Dream of the Rood - from 'The Heroic Age'. An introductory module for first-years - '. . . it's quite important to know that a lot of imagery in the Dream of the Rood derived from earlier Italian art. I thought that sort of basic information would be good on duo.' 2. Old Norse - Level 2/3 module. 'Again, here images [e.g. photographs of sites] seemed useful for illustrating a way of life that was extremely unfamiliar to the students. It also seemed an excellent place to put time-lines and details of grammar and [links to manuscript museum in Iceland].' Problems were both logistical and technical. They included:
Main advantages
Other comments [On student feedback] 'They gave very favourable feedback at first, but now they just regard it as natural.' [Conclusions..?] 'It often turned out to be quite difficult to do, but it brought it alive for the students when they wanted it.' 'It's hard work but well worth it.'
5. Departmental Administrative OfficerOur Administrative Officer's first priority was to clarify the respective roles of the public web and the duo material - the topic of our first web-committee meeting before the start of the main project year. Once we had established these, she moved the in-house student business into duo, and set up a staff information module in parallel. Two of the project team were initially registered as 'instructors', to add some basic links, but were removed once the module was fully launched. A module for Teaching Assistants' Administration followed at the start of the academic year 2003-04. In interview, she, too, emphasised its importance as a storage system. For most staff, these administration modules have become a portable filing-cabinet and reference shelf, on all matters from postgraduate supervision proformas to details of disability legislation. Desks are not quite yet a clutter-free zone, but these sites have helped reduce the heaps on our pending-trays. For those most interested in the innovative pedagogical potential of a VLE, this might seem a somewhat pedestrian application; for staff, feeling battered by all the day-to-day tasks of teaching, it can be tremendously helpful to know that some vital document hasn't just blown away in the sandstorm. For all the VLE's uses, this colleague, again, insists on the importance of face-to-face communication. Where a programme is not specifically designed for distance learning, many of the most important contacts come in personal meetings. Often, it is only in talking through documentation with a member of staff that students bring problems to light. I find it very helpful for posting something up and having it stored there. It's an archiving source - for example, for our policy documents. You can go and look at it as and when you want, where there's always the chance of losing an email. I've gone as far as I can with my knowledge for now. The way I've got it at the moment, I tend to just use it as an admin system. I'm often pointing students in that direction; and I hope if they go for one thing, they'll find other things that will be of use. I put the list of dissertation tutors on duo - so they can just log on and get that. Some students have asked for everything to be put there, but I'm reluctant to go so far. Not everything's so straightforward. Already, some students are begining feel they don't have to come into the department. I'd be reluctant to encourage this -- for students to feel they don't need to come into the department. There are advantages to them in coming in. They don't always pick up on the detail or the emphasis, and only realise when you're talking it through with them. I feel they should come in - If everything's virtual you lose the emphasis.
Viewpoints home | Worm's Eye View | duologue: a review | one teacher's approaches
|
||||
|
|||||
Beginning
in 2002-03, this colleague now uses duo more actively than
any others outside the project team, and students (first-years
through to postgrads) praised his efforts vigorously in the
duo university-wide surveys. In interview, he emphasised the
VLE's advantages for giving students access to resources -
illustrations, texts, cultural materials. 'Sometimes they find
it hard to believe that any of this really existed.'