Digital Capabilities in action; shared experiences of implementing DigiCap programmes
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This document summarizes the 12 Apps of Christmas course run by Regent's University London. The course runs for 12 days and has participants trial a specific app for learning, teaching, or research each day. Participants then reflect on how apps can be used in higher education. Over 1,000 people have enrolled in the course, most hearing about it through word-of-mouth. Evaluation found that participants enjoyed the collaborative discussion and course activities. Top tips for running a similar course include allocating enough time, careful course design, maintaining participant motivation, and developing a facilitator team.
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Digital Capabilities in action; shared experiences of implementing DigiCap programmes
- 1. Digital Capabilities in action; shared experiences of implementing DigiCap programmes. Chris Rowell - Regent’s University London 24th May 2017
- 2. The 12 Apps of Christmas What is it? 3 iterations...so far
- 3. • Trial a specific app for learning/teaching/research in own context based on an informed rationale • Reflect on how apps can be used within their learning, teaching and research context. • Discuss opportunities and challenges which influence more widely the use of apps in Higher Education. Learning Outcomes:
- 6. 2015 apps…. Mixture of apps….
- 7. 106.41 281.73 227.47 188.2 156.95 139.98 80.35 122.65 95.98 122.24 112.52 111.91 113.49 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Hours Days Hours spent on 12AoC course 2015
- 8. Pre-course survey (2015): 1087 have enrolled by the end of the course 431 have completed the pre-course survey. 910 comments on the discussion boards. Most participants heard about the course from a friend or colleague – 32% Gender split: 78% Female 19% Male 3% Other/Unanswered Top 3 locations: United Kingdom 83.063%, Europe (other than UK) 4.64%, Australasia 7.890% Top 3 areas of employment: Librarians 47.332%, Lecturers/teachers 26.21%, Learning technologist 12.21% Biggest age group 36-45, 34.12% Reasons for doing 12AoC: 36.659% thought about integrating mobile apps but were not sure how to go about it Percentage NOT taken a course delivered mostly or fully online before, 29.93%
- 9. Evaluation: 1. End of course survey. ‘The course was fantastic. The format and the course content was just right’. ‘really liked how the communities via twitter and discussion boards helped contextualise the apps- the course really provoked me to have a try- thank you I learned loads’ ‘RUL12Aoc is quickly turning into a national institution, so please keep doing what you are doing, it is great!’
- 10. Evaluation (2): 2. Post course survey (103 respondents). 3 months after the course finished 3. 13 Interviews (of participants and facilitators) Themes that emerged: Christmas/Fun, Collaboration, Discussion, Course Activity, Improvements, Improvements, Role of Facilitator, Task Difficulty, Task Flexibility, Twitter, Changing Behaviour, Using apps, Personal/Professional divide,
- 11. Top tips for running a similar course: Allocate enough time. Course design. Motivation. Develop a team.
- 12. Build your own 12AoC: https://rul12aoc.wordpress.com/
Editor's Notes
- I first created the 12AoC in in December 2014 and in the first year it attracted over 500 participants to the course. 2015 – over 1000 2016 – nearly 1500 Q> Why I ran the course? A> I ran workshops and they were poorly attended – yet when I ask the lecturers they seemed very keen but said they didn’t have the time. The course runs over twelve days and like an Advent calendar a new app is revealed each day. Initially, I advertised my course just to staff at my university but I then made it an open access course where anyone could sign up for it. I wanted to run the course in December when the exam boards were completed and potentially lecturers had more time to think about their own professional development. The Christmas theme seemed like a good way to attract their attention at this time of the year. I repeated the course in2015 and again last December in 2016 where I used a similar course structure but 12 different apps. Over 1000 participants enrolled on the second iteration of the course and this increased to nearly. Advertised it via my own PLN The via ALT and SEDA
- Course design. The course was developed on the Blackboard Open Education platform. This is a separate system from Regents’ University Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) designed for the delivery of open online courses. On each day I introduced a different app to the participants. The course site gave a summary of what the app can do and how it could be used. Next participants were invited to download the app onto their own smartphone or tablet and then attempt a ’10 Minute activity’. It was expected that most participants would be able to complete the activity in less than 10 minutes. The activity was a simple practical task that aimed to get the participant to use the app. It was not aimed at using the full functionality of the app.
- Course design – Part 2.
- The table below (Summary of Appendix 1) shows the total number of hours spent by participants on the course starting on the 30th November 2015 (Day 0) and finishing on 15th December 2015 (Day 12). The general trend is apparent with a relatively high number of hours spent on Day 1 of the course (281.73) and declining over the subsequent period of the course. This is quite typical of most MOOC’s where they experience high dropout rates (Meyer, 2012).
- 1087 have enrolled by the end of the course 431 have completed the pre-course survey. 910 comments on the discussion boards. Most participants heard about the course from a friend or colleague – 32% Gender split: 78% Female 19% Male 3% Other/Unanswered Top 3 locations: United Kingdom 83.063%, Europe (other than UK) 4.64%, Australasia 7.890% Top 3 areas of employment: Librarians 47.332%, Lecturers/teachers 26.21%, Learning technologist 12.21% Biggest age group 36-45, 34.12% Reasons for doing 12AoC: 36.659% thought about integrating mobile apps but were not sure how to go about it Percentage NOT taken a course delivered mostly or fully online before, 29.93%
- The course was fantastic. The format and the course content was just right. RUL12Aoc is quickly turning into a national institution, so please keep doing what you are doing, it is great! really liked how the communities via twitter and discussion boards helped contextualise the apps- the course really provoked me to have a try- thank you I learned loads
- Themes: Christmas/Fun (12) Collaboration (Participants networking) (10) Discussion (mainly discussion boards) (11) Course Activity (28) Improvements (10) Role of Facilitator (10) Task Difficulty (6) Task Flexibility (9) Twitter (4)………………………………..Twitter discussions really important Changing Behaviour (33) Using apps (21) Personal/Professional divide (6)
- Allocate enough time. Planning, organising and running the 12AoC course does require a significant amount of time. It is difficult to quantify how much time it actually took in total. But as the lead organiser I frequently checked the discussion boards and the Twitter timeline throughout the 12 days. I would recommend that you keep the course to a maximum of 12 days – maybe 13 if you add a preliminary task. Also as the 12AoC is a CPD activity don’t run the course over the weekend. Course design. Be careful not to ‘overdesign’ the course and add too much content. Remember this is a CPD course designed for busy professionals. The feedback form, the surveys and Interviews showed that respondents like the short ‘bite-sized’ tasks, they liked the space to play and experiment and the ability to connect with others. Think about motivation levels. It is important to think about the motivation levels of your participants over the whole duration of the course. Like most MOOCs for a variety of reasons (that I have discussed elsewhere) their engagement with the activities will drop of over time. I used a small scale competition towards the end of the course with nominal competition prizes to try and re-engage participants’ activity. On the day of the Animoto app the task was to create a short video and share it with others via Twitter or on the discussion board. Develop a team. Don’t just run the course on your own. I asked a variety of people in my University, two ‘contacts’ from other Universities and freelance consultant to be co-facilitators. This involved them choosing an app they were familiar with and then writing the ‘10 minute task’, ‘further tasks’, finding relevant links/articles and crucially, responding to the discussion about their apps on the day.