The Use of eResources in History, Classics and Archaeology Subject Centre Survey 20052006

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The Use of e-Resources in History, Classics and
ArchaeologySubject Centre Survey 2005/2006

• Cary MacMahon
• e-Learning Project Officer
• JISC Distributed e-Learning Programme

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e-learning according to the educationalistsdev
elopment of open, distributed, or distance
learningnew learning spaces being
createdstudent at the centre and potentially in
control of the learning experience a flexible
form of learning delivery
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use the potential for enhancing student
learning presented by digital resources in a
discipline-appropriate manner
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Two JISC-funded projects

• Project 1 examination of use and sharing of
  e-learning resources in history
• Project 2 examination of use of e-learning
  resources on decentralised campuses in history,
  classics and archaeology

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snapshot of the use of e-resources in history,
classics and archaeology teaching in the academic
year 2005/2006

• Phase 1 online questionnaire -184 analysable
  responses from 48 HEIs
• Phase 2 31 semi-structured telephone interviews
  with academics from 21 HEIs
• Phase 3 2 focus groups 10 participants from
  9 HEIs

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survey methodology snowball sampling
grounded theory emerging analysis guides
the collection of further data. (Douglas Ezzy
Qualitative Analysis Practice and Innovation
(2002), 87)

• some methodological problems
• self-selecting sample
• no monitoring over time
• not contextualised within individual
• pedagogical structures

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• online questionnaire quantitative and
  qualitative questions

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ACCESSIBILITY 1. Our survey respondents have
defined 'a resource which can be easily accessed
by learners' as being the most crucial criterion
when they select an e-learning resource. What do
you feel makes an e-learning resource easily
accessible to learners?SHARING2a. Our survey
respondents have, by and large, indicated that
they would like to share more e-learning
resources. If a colleague asked you what would
be the best way in which to share e-resources, on
the basis of your experience what advice would
you give?OR2b. Our survey respondents have, by
and large, indicated that they would like to
share more e-learning resources. If you would
like to share e-resources, what mechanisms or
structures would you like to see in place to
assist you? If you would not like to share
e-resources, can you expand on why you do not
wish to do this?TEACHING ASSESSMENT3. Do you
feel that using e-resources in teaching alters
how students learn? Do you feel that using
e-resources in teaching should alter the
assessment process?SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTIONIf
using e-resources in teaching has altered how
your students learn, has that alteration prompted
you to make greater use of online learning
materials?DISTRIBUTED CAMPUS4. You have
indicated in your responses that you feel that
being located on a campus without easy access to
main library facilities has affected the way in
which you and your students use e-resources.
Could you expand upon this?

• questions sent in advance to telephone
  interviewees

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focus groups agenda

• Enhancement of Students' IT SkillsHow can we
  deal with variable levels of IT literacy amongst
  a student cohort? Should IT skills be taught
  separately at undergraduate level, or be embedded
  within subject teaching? Is the schools sector
  teaching pupils IT skills which are appropriate
  to the undergraduate curriculum in our
  disciplines?Enhancement of Students' Research
  SkillsWhat particular research skills should we
  emphasise when directing students towards
  e-resources? How could an effective tutorial on
  the evaluation of websites be developed and
  structured? Does the use of e-resources encourage
  students to become more independent
  learners?Sharing of e-ResourcesWhat types of
  e-resources would you like to share within your
  own institutions and between institutions? How
  can teaching materials developed for one group of
  learners be effectively and efficiently
  re-purposed for other groups? What structures
  would you like to see in place to assist you in
  the sharing of e-resources?
• The Future of e-learning in History, Classics
  and Archaeology
• What developments would you like to see in
  e-learning in your disciplines and in the digital
  resources available to you and your students over
  the next five years?

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themes which we investigated during the Survey

• types of e-resources used in teaching and
  research
• levels of teaching at which e-resources are used
• alteration in pedagogy when using e-resources
• sharing of e-resources
• accessibility of e-resources to us and our
  students
• use of e-resources in assessment
• student skills IT and disciplinary
• institutional support
• future developments in electronic teaching in our
  disciplines

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subject breakdown of responses to online
questionnaire
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institutional support for e-learning in history,
classics and archaeology
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types of e-resources used
own institution websitesother institutional
websitesother websitese-journalse-books digi
tal archives software tools virtual
learning environments online discussion
groups email sound resources image
resources powerpoint
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responses to question 1, broken down by
disciplinary allegiance
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comparison between ideal and real world use of
e-resources in history, classics and archaeology
2005/2006
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the five most used e-resources 2005/2006

• email (79 of respondents currently using this
  for teaching)
• own institutions website (72 of respondents
  currently using this for teaching)
• powerpoint (70 of respondents currently using
  this for teaching)
• e-journals (70 of respondents currently using
  this for teaching)
• other institutions websites (69 of respondents
  currently using this for teaching)

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the 7 most under-used e-resources
2005/2006technologically, logistically,
pedagogically more challenging?

• sound resources
• software tools
• e-books
• online discussion groups
• digital archives
• image resources
• virtual learning environments

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nb value axis maximum 70
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disciplinary breakdown of student skill levels

• all disciplines include multidisciplinary sample

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IT skillsare the necessary skills being taught
at school?mature students can be more, or less,
competent

• disciplinary skills
• They are just not learned enough to
  differentiate between the crap and the good
  stuff!
• questionnaire respondent

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Daniel J Cohen
the medium of the web has not been exploited to
its fullest if the best we can say about
historians use of this highly advanced computer
network is that it has become a giant, global fax
machine, faithfully reproducing and distributing
copies of historical documents (primary and
secondary), related commentaries and professional
missives. And because of the openness of the
mediumand the always tenuous relationship
between the professoriate and the large
population of lay historians and the general
public interested in historymany historians have
found the web to be a mixed blessing prolific
but unmediated, powerful but untamed, open to all
but taken seriously by few.

• Daniel J Cohen

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the most, and least, important criteria when
selecting an e-learning resource for use in
teaching
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disciplinary breakdown of accessibility of
e-resources

• history classics
• archaeology
• all disciplines include multidisciplinary sample

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accessibility

• physical access
• do students have access to computers and the
  necessary computing power?
• usability
• are the learning materials easily downloaded and
  navigable?
• special needs access
• can the learning materials be adapted for use by
  students with special learning needs?

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distributed campus sample
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disciplinary breakdown of distributed campus
sample

• all disciplines include multidisciplinary sample

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creation and sharing of e-resources
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the benefits of sharing

• it saves us time
• it allows us to access others disciplinary
  knowledge and expertise
• it allows us to access others pedagogical
  knowledge and expertise
• its what higher education is all about

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the barriers to sharing

• we dont know whats out there
• our learning materials need to be tailored to a
  specific learner group or specialised area
• were concerned about ownership of the learning
  materials
• we dont have any incentives

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nb value axis maximum 60
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e-learning occasions an alteration in our
teaching practice by

• changing the ways in which we can deliver our
  learning materials
• changing the learning materials we can deliver

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Modern historians wonder if it is still possible
to have the kind of impact that such teachers as
Socrates or Confucius had in their face-to-face
conversations with students in a new world where
the digital byte is king. This difficulty is all
the more apparent when one considers that the
majority of historians tend to use educational
technology primarily as another delivery tool for
traditional hard copy resources, whereas

• creating an effective online course or other
  interactive online materials demands that they
  learn to use the computer as a cognitive tool.
• Deborah Vess

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used well, e-resources can be more than just an
overhead projector for the new centuryused
well, e-resources can cause a re-examination of
teaching styles and, on occasions, philosophy
sometimes for the betterfor optimum usage of
e-resources, the pedagogical justifications for
and underpinnings of their use must be a starting
point in planningdisciplinary differences in
core skills, values and attitudes must be
acknowledged when using e-resources

• (e) learning