"An Examination of the Use of Blended Learning to Support Improvement of Engagement and Retention of Part-time Postgraduate Level Students using Student Edited Podcasts"
A bit of a mouthful so hopefully what follows will provide a better description.The audience of the project will be part-time taught postgraduate students in the School of Computing. Part-time students must contend with a large number of logistical factors which may inhibit their ability to attend all required instruction sessions. The vast majority or students are in full-time employment and due to either family or work commitments may be unable to attend all classes. This can have a significant impact on the student learning experience. Students can quickly fall behind, become de-motivated and can increasingly seek deferrals from either examinations or the programme itself.
This project will investigate how a “Blended Learning” approach, combining traditional and online delivery, and specifically, the use of podcasting could be used to address some of the problems encountered. Teaching material and classroom sessions for selected core modules on two MSc programmes in the school of computing will be recorded and made available as podcasts. Students will be encouraged to annotate these podcasts and to develop companion podcasts which will support the transfer of knowledge between their classmates and will form the basis of a repository accessible to future cohorts.
