Teaching Matters

21 - Lyn Goldberg

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Teaching Matters 2016 | Presentation Details | 7 DecemberDec 2016

Title

Creating successful staff-student partnerships in an online learning environment


Author(s)

Anthony Cook, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Faculty of Health
David Ward, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Faculty of Health
Alison Canty, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Faculty of Health
Anna King, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Faculty of Health
Lyn Goldberg*, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Faculty of Health


Subtheme

Students as Partners and Building an Inclusive Culture


Presentation Type

Spotlight on Practice


Room

Academy Gallery


Time

14.20-15.20


Abstract

Background: Our fully online Bachelor of Dementia Care program addresses the documented need to increase the knowledge and capacity of those who provide care to people with dementia. Many of the students within this course are carers and non-traditional students. To facilitate their success, their online learning needs to be based on principles that promote active, student-centred, problem-based, authentic, and work-related learning. The development of an inclusive culture with staff-student partnerships at all levels of the degree is integral to this unique program.
Objectives: This presentation features a “capstone” experience of final year students. It illustrates how staff-mentored, student-led research addressed the research-teaching nexus and built on and solidified an inclusive culture of staff-student partnerships in an online learning environment.
Methods: 65 students, mentored by academic staff, worked both individually and in small groups on 14 research projects for semester-long study. Each student’s research involved a literature review and oral presentation in an online, asynchronous symposium with responses to questions from other students. Students’ posts, as they developed their research topics and participated in the symposium, were analysed, as was their feedback from the unit eVALUate survey.
Results: Students made 700 posts in the 10 days allocated for selection and development of a research topic, and 500 posts related to the end-of-unit symposium. Analysis of posts documented students’ initial challenges in identifying a topic, constructing a measurable question, and searching the literature; then how these challenges were mitigated by staff support; and students’ immense satisfaction in presenting and explaining their work.
Discussion: Students’ comments on the eVALUate survey confirmed the success of their experience in these staff-student partnerships to plan, conduct, and learn about research. Students’ eVALUate comments also provided valuable feedback to strengthen this experiential partnership learning opportunity.
Ethics approval for the current study was obtained from the Tasmanian Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC #H13822).
References
Goldberg, L.R., Carr, A.R., Canty, A.J., Klekociuk, S., Ward, D., Landowski, L., King, C., Vickers, J. (2015). Making neuroscience important and relevant: Online learning in an innovative Bachelor of Dementia Care program. E-Learning, E-Education and Online Training, Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 160, 84-91.
Nam, C.W., & Zellner, R.D. (2011). The relative effects of positive interdependence and group processing on student achievement and attitude in online cooperative learning. Computers & Education, 56, 680-688.
Scherer Bassani, P.B. (2011). Interpersonal exchanges in discussion forums: A study of learning communities in distance learning settings. Computers & Education, 56, 931-938.
Zhan, Z., Xu, F., & Ye, H. (2011). Effects of an online learning community on active and reflective learners’ learning performance and attitudes in a face-to-face undergraduate course. Computers & Education, 56, 961-968.

Resource

Download presentation (requires University of Tasmania login) (PDF)

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