This document discusses students' use of the virtual learning environment (VLE) at NUI Maynooth and what it reveals about supporting students. A study found that while VLE use was widespread, it was often limited to accessing notes and assignments. Students had inconsistent experiences depending on lecturer use. The VLE helped students manage their studies but interactive features were underused. More flexible support is needed beyond formal training. The vision of digital natives may not reflect students' actual preferences for technology use. Future support could involve student-led help and challenging assumptions around students and technology.

1. Joined up learning:
students’ use of the VLE, and
what it can tell us
Dr Claire McAvinia
Centre for Teaching and Learning, NUI Maynooth
CONUL ACIL Annual Information Literacy Seminar, 14 June 2012

2. A map for today
 What is a Learning Technologist?
 What do we have in common with you?
 What can the VLE experience tell us
about some of the challenges we face?
 How might we support students in new
ways in the future?
 Questions and discussion

3. What have Learning Technologists got in
common with Library people?
We are all supporting students’ learning..
..but it can be very difficult for us to know what is really
happening “out there” or in rooms like this one

4. Challenges we face
 How do we know what effects new
technologies may be having?
 How do we know what supports to put in
place for students?
 And how do we know what effects our
supports are having?
 What should we do next?
 What do other people think we should be
doing?

5. Addressing these challenges:
the VLE as a lens

6. Moodle at NUI Maynooth

7. Resources and Activities

8. Change in third level
 Massification and expansion
 Modularisation
 Semesterisation
 Computerisation
 Globalisation?
 Teaching and learning
development as a key function
(Gosling 1996, 2001)
 What was the place of technology
amid these changes? (Laurillard
1993, 2001)

9. VLE as a means of embarking on
e-learning?
 Notes of our decision to adopt Moodle:
The Committee believes that the mainstreaming of e-learning in a strategically
aligned manner will enable us to
 enhance the learning experience for students through a consistently
student-centred approach
 support the quality agenda of higher education
 enhance the research capacity of the institution
 increase student numbers and market globally
 upskill for the knowledge economy
 enhance access to higher education
 provide progression routes and learner mobility
 emphasise the importance of learning communities
 operationalise the public policy imperatives of lifelong learning.
(Committee, 2005a, p. 1, my emphasis)

10. So - what did people use it for?
…fast forward to the end of the noughties…

11. What were students doing?
 Many case studies reporting positive outcomes
where activities used in the VLE:
 But often in funded projects with discrete groups
 Wider studies of students’ use of VLEs and
other technologies were undertaken:
 Conole (2008); Conole, de Laat, Dillon & Darby
(2008); Jones & Lea (2008) in UK
 Cosgrave et al (2008, 2009, 2011) in Ireland
 Ongoing research originating in NAIRTL, now
supported by ILTA
 Over 15,000 responses (2012)

12. If you use your VLE, Why? (All sites)
90%
80% If you use your VLE, Why?
70%
100%
60%
90%
50%
80%
40%
70%
60%
30%
50%
20%
40%
10%
30%
0%
20%
10% Keep Track of Get copies of Get other course Online Online Quizzes Submit
0% class times lecture notes material discussions Assignments
Keep Track of Get copies of Get other course about the course
Online Online Quizzes Submit
class times lecture notes material discussions Assignments
Average course
about the
2009 A 2008 A 2008 B 2008 C 2009 D 2008 D 2009 E 2008 E 2009 F
2009 G 2009 H 2009 I Average
Cosgrave et al, 2008, 2009

13. If you don't use your VLE, why not?
20%
If you don't use your VLE, why not?
70%
60%
10%
50%
40%
30%
If not, why not?
0%
20%
My Lecturers don’t The information on it I can’t access it I find it difficult to use I don’t have access
10% use it isn’t useful to the web
0%
My Lecturers don’t The information on it I can’t access it I find it difficult to use I don’t have access
use it isn’t useful to the web
2008 A 2009 A 2008 B 2008 C 2008 D 2009 D 2008 E 2009 E 2009 F
2009 G 2009 H 2009 I Average
Cosgrave et al, 2008, 2009

15. Notes culture?
Although students are given additional opportunities to engage
with course-related topics via discussion forums or chats,
lecturers generally appear to favour the distribution of
course-related documents over the creation of interactive
and collaborative activities that may enable the online
construction and manipulation of content by learners
Blin and Munro, 2008
Students desire access to the overheads of a lecture – this
access means that they do not have to attend the lecture. More
seriously, the students who ‘check’ their notes against the
PowerPoint slides will invariably copy down any points they
missed – word for word. This is not critical thinking: in fact, it is not
even thinking.
Brabazon, 2002

16. Researchers disappointed
Certainly, as it is currently being used on campus, eLearning
is not delivering the wide benefits to education which were
expected: the anticipated sweeping impact of the new
technologies on restructuring the learning and teaching
practices at universities (and with it their high-profit
prospects) has not materialised.
Donnelly & O'Rourke, 2007, p. 38

17. Characterising VLE use by 2008
 Things we knew were happening:
 VLE usage pervasive amongst students
 At NUIM: Moodle reported as being easy to use, reliable
 Things we thought were happening:
 Student use dependent on lecturer use
 Notes culture persists - from Leaving Cert, or…?
 Limited use of interactive features
 Some students needing more help
 Could this be investigated further?
 What would we find out about the impacts of new
technologies?
 What could we find out about supporting students better?

18. Researching across a university
 Qualitative and quantitative study
 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Video observation of students using Moodle
 Working with:
 Managers
 Lecturers
 Students
 Support people/Learning Technologists

19. Instruments
Transformation
Subject Object Outcomes
Process
Rules Community Division of
labour
Extended Activity System (Engeström, 1987)

20. Students
 Object 1: Keep up to date.
 Object 2: Undertake and complete
coursework.

21. Overview of survey findings
with students
 60 responses
 Group was self-selecting:
 Majority female, first year undergraduates
 Most were born after 1983
 Estimated that they spent up to 15 hours a week online
 Figures corresponded with those for Lecturers
 Nearly all were using social networking sites
 Some Lecturers were too!
 Most thought the web was “useful” or “very useful” for their
studies
 They were wary of some content and resources and did not
like paying for things
 Lecturers shared these concerns

22. Overview of survey findings
with students
 Use of the VLE:
 Often reading from screen, printing selectively
 Lengthy documents printed
 Experiences not consistent across subjects
 VLE supported administrative aspects of the
course making tools, procedures visible (Kuutti,
1996)
 VLE helped them to manage their studies
 There was some support available from the
“community” via Forums

23. Observation and interviews
 The VLE is mediating their
coursework activities even if
its use is inconsistent
 Visits to the VLE are fast
 ranging 3-8 minutes’ duration
 Subjects with large groups use
it extensively
 Subjects with smaller groups
use it minimally
 ..but they have small groups in
class

24. Students
 No direct statement that more technology
should be used in class or in their courses.
 High tolerance for inconsistent use of the
VLE:
 No desire to lead or drive the use of technology -
consumerist approach!
 Lecturer-dependent
 Supporter-dependent?
 Not displaying the assumed behaviour of the
digital native

25. What can we do next?
 Not only continue providing formal inductions for
students:
 Orientation Week
 LIST with Library at NUI Maynooth
 Departmental requests for training
 But also:
 Providing student-led support (pilot project)
 Developing other forms of agile, amorphous support?
 Continuing to research with students and staff
 Challenging the notion of digital natives

26. Evolution or Revolution?
The image of primary school children using computer in 1980 is
copyright protected, but available from the Science in Society
Picture Gallery at http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/, at
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10464130&itemw=4

27. Comments and questions…

28. Thank you!
claire.mcavinia@nuim.ie