Development of a methodology to support mobility students using a webbased approach

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Development of a methodology to support mobility
students using a web-based approach

• Helen Keegan
• University of Salford, UK
• h.keegan_at_salford.ac.uk

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ESMOS

• Enhancing Mobility using Online Support
• European project partnership
• Socrates/Minerva
• Develop, evaluate and model the usage of Virtual
  Learning Environments and online technologies to
  support mobility students

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ESMOS Phases/work packages
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ESMOS Phase 1

• WP3 Institutional reports
• How technology is used
• Factors that affect exchange students
• Problems with meeting mobility numbers
• Level of mobility support differs
• Mobility process is extremely complex
• Implementation varies (institutional procedures,
  numbers, experience, tech.)

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ESMOS Phase 1

• WP4 Needs analysis
• Staff and students (international)
• Interviews, focus groups, questionnaires
• More info on everyday life in host country
• Intercultural competences (before)
• Re-integration of experiences

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ESMOS Phase 2

• WP5 Methodology development
• WP6 VLE IT support model
• WP7 Protocols Development

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ESMOS Phase 3

• WP8 Case Studies some examples
• Online portfolios
• Blogs
• Peer-2-peer communication
• Webcams (PBL)
• WP9 Communication trialling

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WP5 Methodology Development

• WHY?
• Common terminology for support activities
• Categories analysed in detail
• Internal use within project (WP6 WP7)
• External use outside partnership

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Methodology Development

• Conceptual level
• Operational level
• Technological level

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Conceptual level

• Concepts and definitions of online support of
  learning CONSTRUCTIVIST PARADIGM
• Theories of knowledge, teaching and learning
  vast body of literature
• Considering all types of support
• ERASMUS as a new learning situation

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Types of support

• Organisational
• Administrative
• Methodical/Didactic
• Conceptual
• Psychological
• Technical
• Financial

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ERASMUS - New learning situation

• Main issues
• Academic and social integration
• Clear understanding about modules
• Cross-cultural training
• Language learning support
• Good infrastructure of student services

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ERASMUS - New learning situation

• Highly challenged academically and personally
• New teaching styles
• Colloquial language
• Different standards in grading
• Phases of culture shock

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Methodology Development

• Conceptual level
• Operational level
• Technological level

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Operational level

• Typology of support before, during and after the
  exchange.
• TASKS
• Decide on the objectives and strategy of
  provision for each support type
• Develop organisational structure of support
  actions considering all types of student support

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Operational level

• Tool used for prioritising different types of
  support
• Each partner ranked need for each type of support
• Detailed comments

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Tool for prioritising different types of support
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Operational level

• Next stage to develop the organisational
  structure of support actions
• Different organisational structures and
  allocation of responsibilities

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Methodology Development

• Conceptual level
• Operational level
• Technological level

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Technological level

• ACTIONS-MATERIALS-TECHNOLOGIES
• Identification of technical functionalities
  required to support exchange students
• Developed in generic terms
• Each partner institution to implement with
  respect to their own infrastructure and
  technologies

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WP6 VLE IT Support Model

• Summary presented in table form
• Overall view of entire mobility process
• Six types of support with objectives
• Chronologically structured scheme
• Key actors
• Key factors
• Common and shared perspective to the whole
  process thus creating a transferable and useful
  model for other organizations involved in
  mobility issues.

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VLE IT Support Model

• Types of support with objectives
• Psychological support
• Organizational support
• Administrative support
• Methodological / didactic support
• Conceptual support
• Technical support

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Psychological support

• To encourage students to go abroad
• To overcome the anxiety of going abroad and the
  resistance to change
• To overcome the fear of being alone in a new
  environment (to combat alienation, to assure that
  the student does not feel lost from the home
  organization while away)
• To encourage students to integrate into the host
  culture, avoiding separation of exchange students
• To build up self confidence (Can I manage? Am I
  good enough?)
• To ensure that the host organization is sensitive
  to the difficulties that the student may face
• To try to make the return to the home
  organization easier for the student in terms of
  reintegration

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Organisational support

• To raise awareness in the student community of
  the value, importance and possibility of going
  abroad
• To raise the awareness that different cultural
  environments exist and that learning and working
  styles can be expanded
• To help overstep barriers connected with the
  dispersion of people involved in the exchange
  process
• To improve the information exchange and the
  information processing
• To overcome disorientation upon arrival and
  shock after return home
• To help students solve financial problems they
  meet when participating in international mobility
  programmes

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Administrative support

• To overstep barriers connected with bureaucracy
  (forms, paperwork, etc..)
• To fulfil all administrative requirements of the
  university (before, during and after the period
  abroad)
• To set up a strategy for the negotiation of
  academic requirements (make sure that the study
  abroad corresponds to academic education at home)
• To facilitate academic recognition of activities
  performed abroad

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Methodological/didactical

• To help to understand learning in a different
  cultural environment
• To help students to organize and diversify their
  learning styles, using the difference in
  didactical models between home and host
  institutions for the development of new learning
  competences
• To overstep barriers that emerge when
  teaching/learning paradigm changes
• To overstep barriers that emerge when the
  conception of knowledge changes
• To help overcome obstacles that emerge when the
  nature of students learning tasks change
• To raise the awareness of the diversity of
  learning styles and didactical models among
  tutors and students
• To help the student and/or tutor to start using
  new ICT tools and online technologies

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Conceptual support

• To overstep barriers that appear when dealing
  with the interpretation of learning objectives
  and tasks
• To develop the individual learning programme for
  the exchange
• To search for learning resources/materials
• To extract knowledge from new experience
• To foster the integration and legitimation of new
  knowledge into the learning process

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Technical support

• To help the student and/or tutor to start using
  new ICT tools and online technologies (this
  objective overlaps with didactical support)
• To help to solve technical problems (technical
  failings e.g. server going down)
• To provide the right tools for each action in the
  virtual environment
• To analyse the existing virtual learning
  environments or online technologies (regarding
  the needs of mobility students) and to find
  additional tools
• To promote good practice in technology use
• To overcome the fear of new technologies in the
  staff involved
• To predict and solve the potential technological
  problems between home/host placement institutions

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Before phase (1)
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Before phase (2)
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During phase
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After phase
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WP7 Protocols development
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ESMOS Next Steps

• WP7 Protocols development detailed guidelines,
  checklists HOW-TO
• WP8 Case studies
• WP9 Communication trialling
• THANKYOU - h.keegan_at_salford.ac.uk