Watch with me: blending the synchronous with the asynchronous
10 Jan 2024
Institute of Teaching and Learning Fellowship Project report focuses on a new and innovative teaching methodology
The report, Come watch with me: blending the synchronous with the asynchronous, focuses on a new and innovative teaching methodology developed and evaluated by Dr Jen McBride, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience & Psychology in the Faculty of Biology Medicine & Health, and her Institute of Teaching and Learning (ITL) project team.
For Jen, the move towards more online and blended learning – expedited by the Covid-19 pandemic – opened up questions on the best ways to create effective learning, student support, and community of learners in a more digital landscape.
"Online learning seems to provide a more inclusive learning space where learners feel better able to contribute anonymously," Jen says. "And while the traditional in-person lecture may no longer be the default in the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ there is good evidence in the pedagogical literature that students really value the traditional on-campus lecture – but it’s not been precisely clear why or how this generalises across disciplines."
Working with a student partner and her final year project students, Jen set out to determine some of the causal factors for learning and student experience in different teaching formats, building on Jen’s very successful earlier trial of “watch-parties” in pandemic-teaching as a springboard for some controlled evaluation.
"In watch-parties students are physically separate, but come together at the same time online to view pre-recorded materials and discuss them together in a chatbox. I’ve never had such positive feedback on an approach from students – which was great – but I wanted to know why it was so effective so I could build those factors in to other teaching."
Jen’s project investigated the role of modality (online vs in-person) and opportunities for social interaction (chatbox vs. no chatbox) on students’ learning and perceptions. While students’ perceptions were that the in-person formats were better for their learning, objective data on test performance showed that this was not the case - there was no reliable difference according to whether or not the learning session was in-person or online. However, there was a significant advantage in performance produced by the addition of a chatbox into the session. Follow-up surveys and focus groups converged on the same explanation for why the watch-parties were popular and effective: they created a sense of community – connection with one another to the member of staff – and this was causal to success.
Jen is now continuing the work she started, and is co-creating further experiments with students to determine how to best create a sense of community and belonging for students, and investigate the role of sense of community on students’ learning.
ITL Fellowships are open to Academic and Professional Services colleagues. Fellows are appointed annually to develop and deliver a strategically-aligned project to enhance an aspect of teaching and learning across our University while working in partnership with students to effect positive change.
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