Supporting distance learning - Matt Donaghy, Graduate School and Chris Gratton, A&RA Team IS/Graduate School

The Graduate School's online research training course 'Project management for PhD students' was developed to help postgraduate research students to think about the principles of project management and how they might apply to the PhD process. We were keen to develop the course to support all students but particularly part-time students and those studying at a distance. Whilst we were keen that the course focussed on key learning outcomes, we were also keen to use the course as a vehicle through which these particular students, who often operate in isolation, could collaborate, exchange ideas and effectively build some form of postgraduate community.

This pilot course differed from the standard online courses delivered by the Graduate School in the following ways:

• It was e-moderated. Discussion forums were key to the course and had an online tutor to guide them through the learning
• It had a timeframe. It was not just 'anytime, anywhere' learning
• It was targeted at part-time and distance learners and the Malaysia-Nottingham Doctoral Programme students in particular
• It was designed for small to medium cohorts of students
• Activities, or what is now know as 'E-tivities', were embedded into the discussion forums
• Course completion was measured by discussion forum posts
• The course was evaluated by Professor Gilly Salmon's group at the University of Leicester before the pilot

The pilot course started on 29^th October 2007 and ran for 1 week. Students worked through the online material and took part in online discussions. They were expected to spend approximately 1.5 hours a day on the course and they could choose a time (or times) that suited them each day. Throughout the week, students were expected to post to each of the five discussion forums available. They also had to post an original thread on each forum and respond to the post of another student.

Below is a screen shot of a typical course page

Below is a screen shot of one of the threads (student names have been hidden)

The pilot cohort was quite diverse:

• 2 MNDP students currently based in Malaysia
• 1 full-time student based on campus at Nottingham
• 1 part-time student based at home in Lincolnshire
• 1 part-time student based at home/on campus at Nottingham

Using Professor Gilly Salmon's Model of online learning, we started the course with a socialisation task to get things going so that the students felt comfortable. Each day the emoderator logged on to the course, encouraged students to respond to one another, posted messages and summarised the threads. The elearning convenor also logged on regularly to check progress and to ensure that all students were contributing.

We provided an evaluation survey and all participants were encouraged to fill it in. We also solicited feedback by email. The course was very well received by the cohort.

Here are some of the comments provided:

• "I really enjoyed the course"
• "I think the course was beneficial"
• "I especially enjoyed getting feedback from the tutor and others"
• "Mixing with other disciplines, cultures etc. is often difficult sat in deepest Lincolnshire so this was possibly one of the best things, plus knowing you're not alone..."
• "If you did a follow-up I would be interested in carrying on - it's like a tutorial but without the hassle of travel"
• "One of the most important things I got from the course was the opportunity to discuss ideas with others"

However, we learned a few lessons that will feed into the next session:

• Several thread topics were set up in each daily forum. With hindsight it would be easier for students if a single thread topic was provided for each day.
• In order to minimise the time pressures on students and also the emoderator we will run the course over two weeks next time rather than one. The amount of time the students will need to put into the course will remain the same.

We've provided a very rough guide the amount of development time and also the time it took to run and moderate the session:

Approx. time taken for development of the course:

• Project management, 1 day
• WebCT framework, 1 day
• Content authorship, 10 days
• Content development in html and javascript, 5 days
• Input into WebCT learning modules, 1 day
• Setting up discussion forum topics and threads, 0.5 days
• Other, 5 days

Pilot session:

• Emoderator time, 3 hours
• Admin & tech support, 2 hours

The resources needed to administer and run an online, emoderated course are not insignificant; however we think the benefits can clearly be seen from the comments provided by the students. Moreover, there is now a great deal of material that can be fed back into the course, saving the emodertors time for the next course. To maximise the scope of the course, we are proposing to run it to appeal to different requirements:

• We will continue to run the course regularly with a moderated cohort - this is especially important for part-time students, those studying at a distance or those who are isolated for any other reason. Now that we have piloted the course with 5 students we feel confident that the course could be delivered to a cohort of 10 students to the same standards
• We will register interested students on the course for use as a 'standalone' unit - for students who just want the information
• We will add tasks to the course as is standard with our 'traditional' courses - for students who want the information but also need training points

To do this we will use the 'groups' functionality in WebCT to hide the discussion forums and moderated group from students who are registered for the standalone course only. The students in the moderated group will not be affected by, or aware of, the students registered for the standalone version. This will negate the need to duplicate the course and will keep our administration and update time as low as possible.

As the course was so well received in its moderated form we are keen to keep the model going. We are planning to offer the Project Management course again in January. We will also be running new emoderated versions of Qualitative Methods (January) and Advanced Presentation Skills (February).

The development of this course and the other courses mentioned above was funded by the MNDP programme.