{"id":67,"date":"2018-11-29T16:29:13","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T15:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalmappe.uit.no\/keshav\/?page_id=67"},"modified":"2019-04-30T17:48:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T16:48:07","slug":"teaching-development","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitalmappe.uit.no\/keshav\/teaching-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Use of online learning resources and student-peer teaching: Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching<\/em>\"<\/span><\/strong><\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Background and motivation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The\u00a0teaching development project was based on two approaches ‘student peer teaching’ and a form of ‘blended learning’, incorporating massive open online courses and\/or online learning resources in a traditional classroom setting as a complementary resource. The project aimed to improve the TLAs of the undergraduate course (FSK-2006: Geografiske informasjonssystemer for marin ressurs- og kystsoneforvaltning<\/em><\/a>), which I am fully responsible for, by enhancing the student active learning environment. FSK-2006 is an introductory GIS course, taught in the spring semester.<\/p>\n
Studies have confirmed that enriching a classroom course with the use of online learning resources, or different forms of blended learning approaches, have a strong positive impact on TLA (Bralic and Divjak, 2018; Garisson and Kanuka, 2004). The benefits of using web-based learning, including the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) web course as a complementary recourse in GIS teaching in higher education, have been well discussed (e.g., Clark et al., 2007; Johnson and Boyd, 2007). I have also used ESRI web courses(https:\/\/www.esri.com\/training\/<\/a>) as part of teaching activities in FSK-2006 in the last two years. Once registered, the students can take as many courses as they like while they are a student at UiT, as an institution with a site license for free ESRI software and unlimited access to all ESRI-authored, self-study courses. After the successful completion of the web courses (that are available with a maintenance subscription), the students get certificates of completion from ESRI. That could also be a plus point for the students\u2019 CVs. I have received very positive feedback about the use of the ESRI web course as part of the TLA as a work requirement. It is working well; however, as studies have shown, it is yet to be demonstrated how to embed this to achieve learning outcomes (Brali\u0107 and Divjak, 2018). One of the best models would be to combine this blending learning with group work and a student peer-teaching approach.<\/p>\n
The positive impacts and pedagogical benefits \u2013 such as a deep understanding of the subject matter, critical thinking, enhanced collaborative and communicative skills, and self-assessment \u2013 of working in a small group and peer-teaching have been well demonstrated in the literature (Qureshi and Stormyhr, 2012; Ramaswamy et al., 2001; Stigmar, 2016;). Peer-teaching shifts the focus from students being the recipients to being the creators of the knowledge. Considering learning to be a collaborative process, where knowledge is created and constructed by the students, in this project, I used student peer-teaching, in combination with the ESRI web course, to foster active and in-depth learning.<\/p>\n
In summary, my motivation for combining an online learning resource and peer-teaching as an improved TLA was based on theoretical and empirical evidence found in the literature and learning from my own experiences. In this way, I hoped that all the students in the course would be able to best utilize online resources, such as the ESRI web course, learn from each other\u2019s skills, promote critical thinking, communication and collaborative skills, and achieve learning outcomes.<\/p>\n
Method<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The development project\u00a0mainly involved two work requirements (out of four) for the course (Work Requirements 1 and 4 were based on problem-based learning, where the students worked with real-world problems).\u00a0The class was divided in to four small groups (maximum four, minimum three students in each group) based on the web course they were most interested in taking (from a list of suggested courses). For Work Requirement 2, each student completed the course individually. As required, all students had to upload a copy of their certificate of completion.<\/p>\n
In the second phase, the students worked in a team to prepare teaching materials (presentation slides, hands-on exercises, and so on) based on what they had learned from the ESRI training web course, and taught this to their fellow classmates as Work Requirement 3. The student peer-teaching was organized as a one-day seminar (27 March, 2019). The approximate time for each team\u2019s actual teaching session\u00a0was about 30 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of discussion and a question\/answer session. Two groups used combined lectures (five to seven minutes long) and a practical data lab (23\u201325 minutes) as the method of peer-teaching. One group used a multimedia-based lecture and a Kahoot<\/em>! quiz, while another used a lecture (10 minutes) and a demonstration (20 minutes) as the mode of teaching.<\/p>\n
In each student peer-teaching session, I participated in the class as an active\u00a0student, making comments and asking questions, as well as a facilitator, encouraging other students into active participation, when needed.<\/p>\n
Assessment<\/em><\/h5>\n
At the end of the seminar, a feedback session was held to evaluate the project orally and using an eight-item debriefing survey. Five questions utilized a 5-point Likert scale (1: very low\/strongly disagree to 5:\u00a0very high\/strongly agree) to measure their experiences and expectations about the work requirements. Another three survey questions were open-ended, where the students could openly express their experiences and suggestions for improvement. All students completed the debriefing questionnaire and actively participated during the oral evaluation of the project.<\/p>\n
Results<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Students\u2019 feedback<\/em><\/h5>\n
In general, the students had very positive learning experiences in the virtual learning environment (ESRI training\u00a0course) and during group work and peer-teaching. Regarding the quality of the web course they had taken, the students ranked it 3 or higher, with 60% of the students considering the course to be the best. Sixteen percent of the students had\u00a0already taken extra web-courses, and all the students expressed that they were planning to take further courses and make best use of the online learning resources. All of the students (100%) agreed that the blended learning (i.e., integration of ESRI training courses, group work, and student peer-teaching) helped them to effectively achieve the learning outcomes of the course (67% of the students ranked this as 5 [very high], while 33% ranked it 4). Similarly, all the students felt an increased understanding and retention of the materials presented in the web course they had undertaken as Work Requirement 2 and taught to their fellow students as Work Requirement 3 (75%\u00a0ranked it 5 and\u00a025% ranked it 4). All the students liked the idea of integrating online courses with peer-teaching, as part of their learning activities.<\/p>\n
Regarding the question of whether the students had any suggestions for the improvement of these TLAs, many expressed that \u201call activities\u00a0are good as they are<\/em>\u201d, while three students suggested making the practical data lab session mandatory (combined lecture and practical data lab)\u00a0in all peer-teaching. As one student expressed, \u201cData lab is more helpful than a PowerPoint presentation, it should be a requirement that all students have\u00a0one data lab as peer-teaching<\/em>\u201d. There was also one suggestion \u201cto use more challenging web courses<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n
Feedback from my colleague<\/em><\/h5>\n
I organized an informal lunch meeting with a colleague from my research group on 16 April, 2019 to present and discuss my development project and get feedback from them. I found it very fruitful to share my experience with them. During the meeting, I received some constructive suggestions and encouragement. I am planning to incorporate some of those suggestions, such as providing a problem and a dataset and asking the students to select the appropriate course (from a list of suggested courses) to solve that problem, and use same datasets (for different problems\/courses) for all student groups. We also discussed different aspects related to the students\u2019 suggestion for mandatory computer lab exercises (a combination of mini lectures and practical sessions) in their peer-teaching. We agreed that it would be better to leave\u00a0the students to decide how they wanted to teach their fellow students, depending on the nature of the topic; however, as the teacher, I could play a facilitator role to make this more constructive.<\/p>\n
Concluding remarks<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Based on the students\u2019s and my colleague\u2019s feedback, and my own observations during the implementation of the project, I found that the integration of online learning resources, group work, and student peer-teaching work well as student active learning activities. I believe that, using these TLAs as part of the work requirement of the course, and assuming the responsibility of teaching their peers (as the students expressed during the preparation of the teaching materials), the students not only develop an in-depth understanding of the content of the training course, but also actively participate in the TLAs and develop collaborative and communication skills. Thus, these TLAs motivate the students towards a deep approach to learning and the further use of online resources, such as the ESRI training courses.<\/p>\n
I also observed that making small groups is the best strategy to avoid the risk of \u2018freeloaders\u2019 during the group work (i.e., in the preparation of the teaching materials), and to use these TLAs more effectively.<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/h3>\n