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WebCT at MMU: progress and possibilities
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Developing Links Using Online Learning
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Of Mice and Pen
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Using online learning to disseminate disability-related materials to Learning and Teaching Staff
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Independent Online Learning: Enhancing the Student Experience
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Introducing Online Learning in the Curriculum - Ensuring an Inclusive Learning Experience
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Adding an extra dimension: the experience of using WebCT for the Literature and its Readers unit
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WebCT in the Arctic - evaluating the first module for a new university
Bill Johnston

Developments in Lecture Theatre Technology
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MS PowerPoint for Lecture Delivery: Staff and Student Perspectives
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The European Computer Driving Licence Pilot Scheme
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Report from HSS Faculty Seminar on Online Learning
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Faculty Learning and Teaching Reports

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Wm Johnston

WebCT in the Arctic - evaluating the first module for a new university

When Pauline Knudsen flips on her computer, the lonely polar expanses vanish and harsh natural barriers to higher education near the North Pole lift as she enters class in the new WebCT-based University of the Arctic.

"It is opening new possibilities to me, it makes it possible to study in a place where there are no big institutions or universities," said Knudsen, a 41-year-old ethnic Inuit and mother of three who resides in Nuuk, Greenland, just below the Arctic Circle.

For Knudsen and more than two dozen other students enrolled in a pilot online programme, the virtual University of the Arctic, founded in June last year, offers educational opportunities where few existed before in remote northern regions of the world.

And with the emphatic objective, underlined on the university's web site (http://www.uarctic.org/) of delivering higher education "in the North, for the North, and by the North," the new institution is particularly attuned to the geographically specific requirements of its students.

"The idea came as a response to the lack of real resources for higher education in the northern communities," said Scott Forrest of the coordination office for the University of the Arctic based in Rovaniemi, the "capital" of Finnish Lapland.

The success of these pilots requires the ability to identify strengths and weaknesses in the course design across this spectrum. A critical question is to assess whether students who studied online achieved the same learning outcomes as those students in a classroom learning face-to-face with an instructor. An evaluation plan was needed to separate issues of course design from those of curriculum content and learning technologies. Because of my links with the University of Lapland and many years experience of working and teaching in the Arctic, I was invited to assist in creating and carrying out an evaluation plan for the online pilot in association with Leo Pekkala and Scott Forrest from the University of Lapland.

As a completely new course in a completely new program, within a completely new academic structure, BCS100 faces many challenges that a course in a traditional university would not. The curriculum has been developed by a sizeable international group of scholars. The course can be taught by instructors in different institutions, in different countries, to students of different cultures, speaking different first languages. For these reasons, the evaluation (and further development) of the course has to be done in as systematic manner as possible without becoming burdensome. Not only is this an evaluation of a pilot, but a pilot of an evaluation, as the course planners, teachers and evaluators are all involved in their own process of learning.

The content of the evaluation process is designed to be as straightforward as possible, given the complications of developing and delivering a course like this for the first time. For these reasons, the evaluation is being limited to three main activities: in-course monitoring, questionnaire, and descriptive feedback (through an evaluation workshop).

In-course Monitoring
I am currently actively monitoring the progress of the course through both the WebCT site and through regular emails with the instructor - Amanda Graham, based at Yukon College, and also the Site Coordinators at the six centers. I have access to the in-class discussion forums in the online learning environment, and am able to read the classroom discussion as a 'fly-on-the-wall.' The transcripts of these in-class discussions will be a primary evaluation tool, and it is part of my brief to summarize the results of these discussions in my evaluation report.

Questionnaire
The primary evaluation tool of the course will be a short questionnaire near the end of the course - week 14 (20-26 May, 2002), with one version for students and one for the instructor and site coordinators. The questions in both versions are basically the same, differing in perspective only. The questionnaire consists of a set of open-ended questions designed to assess the achievement of the learning outcomes, the appropriateness of the content and the effectiveness of delivery including interactivity. All participants will have an opportunity to present their general impressions.

Students will be able to answer the questionnaire in their first language, and local language versions of the questionnaire will be prepared by the site coordinators. This will ensure the fullest possible responses. Answers will be summarized in English by site coordinators in their evaluation report and submitted to myself by the end of May. Amanda Graham has also agreed to include on the WebCT site an anonymous survey asking the students for their own assessment of the amount of participation they are making.

Descriptive Feedback and Evaluation Workshop
Following the completion of the course, the written records of the evaluation (that is, the discussion forum transcripts and questionnaires/summaries) will be analyzed by the team of evaluators and developed into a final evaluation report. This will be a descriptive report including an analysis of the in-class discussions, questionnaire feedback, and general impressions from all those involved. This document is intended to also contain recommendations for course developers and future course planners on how to improve the curriculum, course design, support services, or other areas of the course.

The report, including feedback from the different sources will be provided to the BCS chairman, Aron Senkpiel, for distribution to the programme development team, by early June 2002.

Over the coming year, it is expected that this interdisciplinary course will be followed by a range of other courses allowing the realisation of a fully fledged bachelors degree in Circumpolar Studies. "In the North, for the North and by the North" - and with a little help from Manchester!

REFERENCES

BCS Pilot Evaluation Plan, L.Pekkala, S.Forrest, Wm Johnston, University of Lapland, December 2001

Virtual Uni Brings Educational Thaw to Arctic, Sci-Tech, 14 March, 2002

A Cool Way to Learn, Guardian, 26 March, 2002

Wm Johnston
e-mail: mail@wm-johnston.com
telephone: 0161 247 3025

July 2002
ISSN 1477-1241