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An investigation of the purpose and use made by students of Reusable Learning Objects within a blended learning curriculum, designed to support progression and academic competence.

 

 

Description

This project introduces and critically appraises a range of Reusable Learning Objects (RLO's) into an extant curriculum at TVU.

 

The RLO's were designed by the Reusable Learning Objects CETL at London Metropolitan University, and the extant curriculum context in TVU is one specifically designed to support progression.

 The project builds on the work of a previous TQEF-funded project that evaluated the effectiveness of a model designed to underpin academic competence in a Business Studies degree. Students were placed in a Learning Development Zone (LDZ) designed to ensure effective engagement and deep learning of the skills required to underpin critical thinking and effective academic writing. Students were introduced to a critical skill that they were required to deploy independently within a Subject based activity. The activities were linked and developmental. Students were supported to a level of deep understanding through timely and appropriate educational interventions given as formative feedback. Students were challenged on superficial and weak learning habits and required to re-deploy the critical skills in a new activity.

The project found that while the students understood the critical skill at the time of explanation, they faced challenges in subsequent application. RLO's present a mechanism for addressing this problem.

The RLO's will be designed in as part of the LDZ curriculum and the use made of the RLO's by the cohort will be monitored. Specifically the project seeks to examine the timings and purpose for the use made of RLO's.

Student perceptions of the effectiveness of the RLO's as part of their learning will also be elicited, and assessed by replicating a prior tool for performance analysis (TQEF Funded project Greaves,L. 'Developing Student Academic Competence: the successes' 3rd Teaching Conference, Thames Valley University June 2007) to see if there is an overall improved cohort performance.

 

 

Organisations / Institutions

 

Thames Valley University

 

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