ReVITALising the Use of the VLE in The Faculty of Veterinary Science

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ReVITALising the Use of the VLE in The Faculty of
Veterinary Science
Hannah Gorton
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Introduction
This project aimed to develop and evaluate
resources to enhance the learning experience for
students in The Faculty of Veterinary Science.
These new resources were used in one first year
first semester module which all vets and biovets
are enrolled on.
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Introduction

• This involved 3 main additions
• Wimba Create (Course Genie) Learning Packages
• Interactive Questions
• Wiki

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Wimba Create (Course Genie)

• Wimba Create (Course Genie) is a program which
  will easily and cleanly convert Microsoft Word
  documents into web pages
• Allows large amounts of text to be broken down
  into smaller sections which can be easier to use
• Creates an interactive resource
• No specialist experience with web pages
  necessary

Images from Wimba Create
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Wimba Create (Course Genie)
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Interactive Questions

• Made with
• Wimba Create
• (Course Genie)
• Blackboard
• Feedback

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Wiki

• Group work
• Short answer questions (SAQs)
• Similar to exam questions

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End of Semester Evaluation
After implementing the new changes, we wanted to
evaluate their effectiveness from the point of
the end user the student.
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Evaluation Sessions Overview

• PURPOSE
• To find out the student viewpoint about the
  module

• LOGISTICS
• Sessions taken by Hannah Gorton, Avril Senior
  and Catherine Hayhurst
• On 5/12/07 and 12/12/07
• Groups of around 8
• Sessions took 20-30 minutes

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Method

• IMPLEMENTATION
• Small groups (around 8)
• Anonymous
• Questions and guided discussion
• Recorded
• Refreshments kindly sponsored by Educational
  Development
• ANALYSIS
• Transcripts
• -Microsoft Word
• -Nvivo 7

Images from The Profit Clinic, Sony and Nvivo
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Results

• LIKED
• Course Genie content
• Interactive questions
• Feedback
• Access to PowerPoints

• DISLIKED
• Folder organisation
• Unable to print Course Genie
• Offline resource availability
• Amount of feedback

• COURSE GENIE
• Deemed to be very useful
• Especially liked the pictures and provision of
  learning objectives
• Would like to be able to print this off
  (currently looking into provising this)
• LIKED

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Possible Improvements

• Changes to the use of VITAL
• -Resources
• -Announcements
• -Consistency
• Feedback exercises
• -Counting for anything up to 10
• Students want information regarding what they
  need to know for the exam
• -Syllabus
• -Feedback

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Future Ideas

• .mp3 recordings
• Faculty social networking space
• -ELGG
• -Ning
• Develop wiki use
• Make students engage in more online dialogue

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VITAL Usage Statistics

• Most folders accessed 1 - 12 times
• -Folder access lower for biovets
• There are limitations
• -Data not time based
• -Downloadable materials
• -Not all materials were uploaded
• No correlation between exam performance
  and the number of times VITAL was accessed

Biovets
Vets
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Resource Access Conclusion

• Most students accessed resources at least once
• The differences in exam scores are inconclusive
• Better usage data needed
• Re-evaluate next year

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Overall Conclusion

• Students reasonably happy
• - Sessions useful
• - New additions welcome
• Small changes could make a big difference
• Access data at the moment not useful
• Provides a good base to work from to continue
  improving

Image from Jupiter Images
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Thank You Any Questions?