Last year with help from The Compass we set out to gather some feedback from students on the apps they would recommend to others to aid study at University. We’ve repeated the event this year to find out in this fast moving market, what’s changed and what has remained popular.
Recent statistics reveal that educational apps are the third most downloaded category in Apple’s app store, dropping just behind Business apps. But what constitutes as an educational app? Often apps that aren’t typically seen as educational can be assistive in University study, so using the speak-board on Penryn campus helped us gain further insight into the apps our students found useful and would recommend to others.
This year, social media and social learning apps feature most prominantely; Facebook to “get involved with events”, Pinterest for social bookmarking and newcomer YikYak which allows you to post updates anonymously and subscribe to feeds from specific geographical locations such as Penryn and Falmouth Campuses at the University.
Referencing tools are again popular, with RefMe appearing for the second year in a row and Mendeley cropping up aswell.
Discipline specific apps such as the Steinway Metronome app get a mention for music students.
Organisational tools such as Wunderlist and LifeRPG appeared this year. With HabitRPG on last years list, the notion of game play in productivity would appear important to students.
Apps that support student wellbeing remain popular, with Rain Rain helping us get to sleep, School Sucks podcasts on remedies for procrastination and Colour Switch to facilitate it!
Thanks again to all who took part in the speak-board, if you’d like any more information about any of the apps mentioned or you’d like to talk about using apps as part of Learning and Teaching at Falmouth University please get in touch – etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk
Here’s the full list of recommended apps from our speak-boards. Please upvote and comment on those that you find useful:
In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and various projects being undertaken within the sector.
Designing a course or module that encompasses and considers activities and aspects beyond your subject is a task that is required of academics. Bringing in elements of digital interactions with your students is expected: students are arriving at University with wide ranging digital practices. The Institution requires that part of your course is delivered in a blended or online fashion.
According to the King’s College London/QAA Student Expectations and Perceptions of Higher Education report (Kandiko & Mawer, 2013) students prefer adequate face to face time, and institutions are urged to be cautious in their implementation of technology as a tool to replace face to face interactions.
The report also says that “no students mentioned pedagogical uses of digital technologies” and that students perception of technology in their academic lives is simply a means to access information. This is rather a contradiction to what perceptions we have of students when they arrive at University, and to what some researchers of effective pedagogies have said (check out Re-thinking pedagogy for the digital age, Beetham & Sharpe, 2013)
When you really think about it though, if technology is used well then it is not viewed as a separate element of the students’ learning journey. If it is used as part of that journey (an embedded, invisible practice) – instead of something that sits alongside or even outside of the delivery of learning – then technology can be a tool to enhance what students are achieving, rather than as an annoyance that limits their attention on subject and forces focus to remain on the process of using it.
By following a course design process that facilitates:
innovative practice, both digitally and physically
flexible, seamless transition between the physical and digital space
recording the learning journey to allow for informed reflection
constructive alignment of materials, outcomes and assessment
and
both physical and digital interactions that transcend their platform
it will enhance your practice and your students’ learning.
Course design processes exist in many HEIs (e.g. Oxford Brookes, Northampton, Ulster, Leicester) and are successfully participated in to create some great programmes of study. Most are based around a team based approach that enables the teaching team to work with facilitators, support staff, and students to build a course/module that includes all the elements mentioned above. The great thing about them is that because the processes are not subject specific, a consistent experience can be created.
The processes are pure design – it is down to the subject specialists to decide what direction they take. Constructive alignment, interactions (both online and face to face) and assessment can be scaffolded using planning and storyboarding techniques. Materials and delivery are designed alongside librarians, technologists, students and technicians.
It’s no secret that the EdTech team have experience in pedagogic design and its integration of technology. We can facilitate the course design processes and are happy to help with the design of your module. Get in touch to learn more.
Exhibitors included FutureLearn, Github, Google and Raspberry Pi to name a few.
Unfortunately none of the Ed Tech team could make it to this years show, however a wealth of resources and highlights are available via the Bett site and using #bett16 and #bettchat hashtags.
In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and various projects being undertaken within the sector.
Learning Analytics utilises the data that passes through University systems and can be used as a powerful tool for learning about students and their achievements. It is used to collect data to measure learning and the contexts in which learning takes place. This data is then analysed and put to use to optimise interactions and opportunities; improving engagement, experiences and ultimately results.
It cannot be as simple as throwing data into some predictive software and asking it to tell you what it thinks though; analysts/experts are best placed to interpret the data, who know what they’re looking for, and align results with the institutional, teaching and student priorities.
An example of analysing an element of learning is measuring engagement. Overall there are three levels that can be measured.
Behavioural Students who are behaviourally engaged would typically comply with behavioural norms, such as attendance and involvement, and would demonstrate the absence of disruptive or negative behaviour.
Behavioural engagement can be measured by recording attendance at face to face sessions and access to online materials. This can be relatively easy to achieve as long as the monitoring tools are in place.
Emotional Students who engage emotionally would experience affective reactions such as interest, enjoyment, or a sense of belonging
Emotional engagement is more difficult to measure. Some activities that facilitate tracking include online discussion, interactive activities
Cognitive Cognitively engaged students would be invested in their learning, would seek to go beyond the requirements, and would relish challenge
Cognitive engagement is even more difficult to measure. Extra curricular activities and ‘extra credit’ work can shed some light…
Activities, systems and mechanisms need to be in place to ensure that the right level of analytics can be performed, and measurements can be determined. This is why smaller pilots should be carried out with tasks designed with analytics in mind; so that settings and specifications can be refined.
There are other reasons to implement Learning Analytics including (but not limited to):
Identify students at risk so as to provide positive interventions designed to improve retention.
Provide recommendations to students in relation to reading material and learning activities.
Detect the need for, and measure the results of, pedagogic improvements.
Tailor course offerings.
Identify teachers who are performing well, and teachers who need assistance with teaching methods.
Learning analytics has a strong link with pedagogy, and consideration needs to be taken into how the institution would like to improve pedagogically, and consider the method of implementation of a learning analytics process to ensure that it will not hinder, but enhance the direction of its learning and teaching strategy.
The sector has looked at learning analytics over the last few years as a tool to achieve better experiences for students. The realities of using the huge amount of data that institutions collect is shrouded in ethical and legal issues but luckily, the good folks over at Jisc have done a lot of the leg work and developed a Code of Practice for learning analytics as part of their ongoing Effective Learning Analytics project. This code of practice is in place to advise UK HEIs about the legal and ethical considerations that need to be included in the implementation of a learning analytics strategy.
Last week (11th-15th Jan), I had the opportunity to engage in the ‘open magic box’ that is Bring Your Own Device For Learning or #BYOD4L on social media. I had taken part in 2015, but this year I also volunteered as a community mentor and helped facilitate a tweetchat.
BYOD4L is a fantastic community that spans the global education sector and focuses on the use of mobile/smart devices in learning and teaching. It runs over a week and participants have the opportunity to engage through a variety of online communities; Google+, Facebook and Twitter and at a time and place appropriate to them (often people are in different timezones).
Each of the 5 days has a theme from the ‘5 Cs’; Connecting, Communicating, Curating Collaborating and Creating and participants are encouraged to engage with various learning and teaching scenarios that relate to the theme and the potential use of mobile technologies. I posted thoughts on these themes in 2015 and submitted them as part of a portfolio to gain accreditation through digital badges that signify the skills that I have developed. For the 2016 iteration of the course, I’m now collating evidence to support an application for the mentoring badge.
Part of the mentoring process involved responding to, as well as instigating conversations within online spaces, which for me are on Google+ and Twitter. I also co-facilitated Tuesday’s #BYOD4Lchat on Communicating which ran from 8-9pm. It was great to connect with so many other educators interested in the use of technology to support learning and a storify of the conversation was made available for reference and for those that couldn’t join us at that time.
It was a great experience to connect with colleagues across the sector and I’d recommend others to get involved in the next run. Contact the team to discuss opportunities for using mobile devices in learning and teaching.
