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Optical Fibre Communications
• A module given to 2nd years (level 2) and 3rd and 4th years (level 3)
• Slight differences between the 2 levels• Engineering Department has a good
mix of international backgrounds – good testing ground!
• Chosen as the technology has started to stabilise
Survey composition(30 respondents, 38 in “class”)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
BEng C&E EnginYear 2
MEng C&E EnginYear 2
BEng E&E EnginYear 3
MEng E&E EnginYear 3
BEng GeneralYear 3
MEng GeneralYear 3
Do you have use of a computer at your term-time address?
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
No
Yes but no internetaccess
Unlimited slow internetaccess
Pay-as-you-go slowinternet access
Unlimited high-speedaccess
I accessed Blackboard:
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Always off campus
Usually off campus
Both off and on
Usually on campus
Always on campus
In the virtual lectures, I liked...
photograph/movie of lecturer
keyword search
high quality presentation
scrolling text
being able to jump toany slide
pause, play, rewindcontrols
ability to replay thelecture
Understanding lectures
0% 5% 10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
In (real) lectures, I sometimes have problems andI found these virtual lectures harder to
understand.
In (real) lectures, I sometimes have problems andI found these virtual lectures about the same.
In (real) lectures, I sometimes have problems andI found these virtual lectures easier to
understand.
In (real) lectures, I don’t have any problemunderstanding what the lecturers say.
Use of handouts
Did not use them
Downloaded but did not print
Printed them but did not write notes
Printed them and wrote notes
Use of quizzes
Used after lectures and before
assignments
Only used to prepare for the assignments.
I did not normally do the quizzes.
Used after the lectures to test understanding
Worked hard on quiz before consulting solutions?
Did not use solutions
0%
Gave up fairly quickly on quiz
7%
Just use solutions - not quizzes
7%
Worked a little on quiz first
17%
Worked hard on quiz first
69%
On-line assignments
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
I liked having assignments at the end of eachsection rather than just at the end.
I found that the assignments motivated me towork on this module.
I prefer “on-line” to “written” assignments.
I liked getting my mark immediately at the end ofthe assignment.
Discussion Board Usage
Read only Asked questions
Did not use %%%%%%%%%%%%%
1 – 5 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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5 – 20 %%%%%%%%%%%%%
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Usefulness of Discussion Board
I found the discussion board
useful occasionally. 41%
I didn’t use the discussion board at
all. 13%
I found the discussion board
very useful. 13%
I found the discussion board
quite useful. 33%
Video clips (£1.50 per student)
Did not watch them.7%
Not useful7%
Useful42% Useful, not worth
money37%
Very useful7%
Time spent on module(10 credits “should be” 6 hours)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
1 – 2 hours 3 – 4 hours 5 – 6 hours 7 – 8 hours 9 – 10 hours > 10 hours
Time spent/week
Key best things (29 responses)
• Study at own pace (9)• No exam, more freedom
(3)• Access lecture whenever
(12)• Learning and assessment in
sections (5)• Interesting material• Quick response to questions
on chat board (2)• Quizzes (4)
• Videos – “real world” view• Text accompanying
lectures• VLE style “relaxed” “fun” –
being able to study at home (2)
• Lecture notes in lots of formats and well presented
• Not entirely virtual
Key worst things (27 responses)
• Occasional mistakes in lectures (difficult to correct)
• University accommodation needs high-speed internet
• I preferred notes to lectures• Not all learning material
available at start of course• Difficulty of assignments• Some more “real” classes +
real exam
• Costly to print notes• Don’t need final report (2)• More animations/applets• Vague final report topic• Too time consuming• Technical problems• VLE sometimes goes down
at 1 o’clock in morning
Other comments
• “Glad I did the course”• “Good to see new way
of lecturing”• “Great course – new
style yet effective”• “Final report really did
test understanding”• “Report could have
been group effort”• “I really enjoyed the
module”
• “Would like to thank staff involved for their effort”
• “very different ... refreshing”
• “Good style of teaching”
• “Make the scrolling text bigger”
• “Would like (part of) more modules using this style”
Last Four Mark Distributions
Optical Fibre Communications mark distribution
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100Percentage of students with mark <M
Mar
k M
%
2004
1998
1999
2000
So how long does all this take?
• Lectures• All quite short and intensive• Almost like reading from a book• With diagrams, text etc., about 4 hours
to write a lecture• + about 1 or 2 hours to “produce it” –
often done by PhD student• 38 Lectures 220 hours
So how long does all this take?
• Quizzes
• These are quite quick.
• Need to use imagination (e.g. fill in the blanks, ordering for descriptions)
• Not much longer than writing a set of examples and solutions 3 hours
• So about 100 hours for the quizzes.
So how long does all this take?
• Course design
• This took a lot of thinking about!
• I should have gone on some courses.
Embedding e-learning
• good collaborative networks• support for teachers to integrate
learning technologies into courses• departmental/faculty teams• specialist learning technology teams• student ICT skills modules• pedagogical scholarship in departments(www.jisc.ac.uk/elti)