SOLSTICE engaged with students across the university in many ways, here are a few key examples of student activity within the CETL:
Student Competition:
SOLSTICE’s first student competition, ‘Future Learning’ was designed to involve students in SOLSTICE activity and seek out their views and perspectives on how they think learning could happen at the University in the future. Students were asked to present their vision of learning through media such as video, audio or photography.
The winning entry was produced by Amy Laurence, a final year BSc Geography student, for her video presentation on Electronic Documents. What the judges particularly liked about Amy’s submission was that, whilst gazing towards future technologies is important, Amy gave a picture that is grounded in the here and now, and showed how to make better use of technology that is already in place. Amy was awarded with her prizes (a lap-top computer, £50 Amazon voucher and an honorary certificate) at the SOLSTICE 2007 Conference, where her submission was shown to delegates following the second keynote speech.
Watch Amy’s winning video (streaming wmv) >>>
Amy Laurence distilled her e-dissertation into a 3 minute video detailing the nature and purposes of e-dissertations. Amy’s work encompassed a highly competent digital geographic investigation of the coastal zone at Sandscale Haws, Lancashire by using a geographical information system. Moreover, she presented her work in the form of e-dissertation which contained video and sound bytes along with computer animations. The latter was particularly successful in demonstrating the changing nature of the coastline in the last 150 years.
The Student Digital Slam:
Students from Edge Hill, the University of Central Lancashire and Riverside College in Halton, joined forces for a ‘Digital Slam’ event to explore the potential power of linking up a variety of different digital technologies and tools.
Armed with mini-camcorders, digital voice recorders, ultra-small laptops (eeepcs), standard PCs, mobile phones and digital cameras, the students put together a lively presentation for their colleagues. The process, known as digital storytelling, is an emerging, interactive medium which is fast gaining popularity in such fields as the media and education.
As well as exploring the power of new technology, the students also examined the phenomenon known as the Digital Divide, which refers to the knowledge gap which can develop between people who have effective access to digital and information technology and those who don’t. Further details >>>
SOLSTICE Students’ eLearning Surveys:
SOLSTICE initiated the EHU students’ eLearning surveys, the second survey was completed by 775 students. The survey was run one year after the first to obtain a better understanding of students’ perceptions, experience and expectations of technology as a tool to enhance learning.
To encourage participation students could enter a free draw. Congratulations to the two winners of £50 Amazon voucher winners: Stuart Bennett and Zoey Vickers.
Responses were received from 775 students, 46% were from Education, 29% from Arts and Sciences and 23% from Health. Part time students accounted for 24% of responses, full time 76%. The gender distribution was female 73% and male 27%. Breakdown by year of study shows the highest number of responses from first year undergraduates.
Preliminary results showed that over three-quarters (76%) of the respondents said they logged onto Blackboard, the university VLE, at least 3 times a week. 76 % regarded the VLE as very important in their studies, with access to module information, lecture notes / presentations, library catalogue, online databases, eJournals, university email, reading lists, eBooks and online submission of assignments all rated as very important by more than 50% of students.
The survey also explored students’ choices of other tools that are widely available but not yet part of mainstream teaching and learning at Edge Hill. By far the most popular was Facebook or similar social networking sites, followed almost equally by iPods / mobile phones to access lecture notes / course content, SMS texting and Instant messaging.