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When Student Confidence Clicks Academic Self-Efficacy and Learning in HE

Engaging in an opendialogue with the students

Fabio R. AricòChris Thomson

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OUTLINE

PART 1 When Student Confidence ClicksQualitative data analysisResults from focus group interviews

Chris Thomson (and Kathleen Lane)

PART 2 From Blended Learning to Blended Surveyinga by-product of the When Student Confidence Clicks Projectmethods to engage in a continuous dialogue with students

Fabio R. Aricò

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1. When Student Confidence ClicksQualitative data analysis

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FOCUS GROUPS: set-up

2 focus group sessions

Nov 2013 Role of SRS in learningConfidence and self-efficacy

10 participants5 home students5 overseas students

Mar 2014 Experience with the moduleOpinions on learning environment

2 separate groups (on same day)6 high-performing students4 low-performing students

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FOCUS GROUPS: recruitment protocol

• Invitation email sent to all students (first-come-first-served) different email sent to high/low performing students2 different time-slots without revealing criteria.

• Students invited to collect a ticket from School’s General Office1st focus group: disclose domicile status2nd focus group: disclose time-slot on invitation email.

• Tickets collected at focus group session for participation.• Facilitators not involved in “Introductory Economics” teaching.

® Preserve anonymity and disclose as little information as possible.® Control for number of participants (as many as tickets available).® Allow for balanced representation within a diverse student population.

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FOCUS GROUPS: general considerations

Interview schedules at a glance• Assessing the impact of use of technology in the module• Reflecting on different teaching innovations within the module • Reflecting on student confidence (self-assessment, pressure, comparison)

Findings: preamble• Students displayed different learning styles and diverse preferences. Diversity detected in student attitudes towards clickers.• Attention often diverted to whole teaching styles, teaching resources,

approachability of teaching team.

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FOCUS GROUPS: 1st Session (Nov 2013)

Interview schedule

• investigate the role of clickers and learning technology

Findings

• Initially: not much endorsement of clickers pace ‘too fast/too slow’ – ‘just one more thing to do’

• Deeper probing: recognised role of clickers on learning and motivation‘really useful’ – ‘can tell the truth’ – ‘interactive’ – ‘know where you

are’

• Students appreciate anonymity and feel more confident atanswering question and participating to the class.

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FOCUS GROUPS: 1st Session (Nov 2013)

I found it’s really useful because we don’t have anything in my country … …the computer asks you if you are confident or not, and you can say [‘yes’], if ‘no’ you can tell the truth.

you are confident to answer the question even if you are not confident about the answer

I think it actually motivates me to focus on what I’ve actually missed, like go to the lecturer or study more

I know that I’m very weak in this area and I need to work on it more

There is not always time to finish all the questions that you’ve prepared … and those are the questions we’re going to get in the exams

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FOCUS GROUPS: 2nd Session (Mar 2014)

Interview schedule

• explore student confidence, study habits, motivation factors

Findings

• Students acknowledge that the material had become ‘harder’.• A difference emerged: high-performing students developed a learning style

and a learning strategy – higher awareness and control over learning.Low-performance students less worried as First Year ‘doesn’t matter’.

• Some low-performing students recognised the role of clickers in highlighting difficulties and motivating them to seek for help. Stronger change in study habits, like ‘working harder’ or ‘not missing lectures’.

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FOCUS GROUPS: 2nd Session (Mar 2014)

The adversity of not doing well on clicker questions:It stressed me out… I worked harder! It gave me the motivation to look over it [the material] because I wanted to correct it.

when I read the hand-outs myself…after the lecture, I understand so much more than when I’m actually in the classroom.

It sort of engages you a lot more in lectures… and especially in the workshops because you go through loads of different questions and sort of click away and that way you can know where you are

[I] avoided it [the Library] but it had become her second home

I know that I need to go in and speak to someone or go to a support session can know where you are. … [W]hen I wasn’t doing so well, I felt a little bit low but then I realised that the clickers are a way of letting me know that, so I can go and improve

Work out what works best for you quite quickly – whether making notes or going through the slides when you go home is best

I am confident if I stick to my revision schedule

only needing 40% to pass

doesn’t actually matter

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FOCUS GROUPS: closing remarks

• The diversity in the opinions gathered within the focus group session are underpinned by diverse background, reactions to the university environment and by diverse learning styles.

• Evidence from the qualitative data supports the claim that clickers contribute both directly and indirectly to student confidence about their learning as well as their level of engagement with the module;

directly when students recognise the role of clickers asa powerful self-assessment device;

indirectly when students feel, however, empowered to take more active participation in their learning.

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2. From Blended Learningto Blended Surveying

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BLENDED SURVEYING: a Project’s by-product

I found myself interacting with the students more and more:

® I found out what students like and dislike with much finer detail® I had chance to respond to their opinions in real time® Sometimes it is just enough to explain why things cannot be done.

I found out that an ‘end of module’ questionnaire is not enough

® Are we asking the right questions? At the right time? In the right way?

Students recognised this:“Best thing: the support provided by all the lecturers, teachers and the amount of feedback that is asked for shows that the staff care a lot for our learning experience”

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BLENDED SURVERYING: the idea

In a highly structured and diversified Blended Learning environmentwe need an equally sophisticated Blended Surveying approach.

Contact hours:lectures, small group seminars, large group workshops, office hours, and support meetings.

Modes of delivery:frontal teaching, seminar discussion, peer-instructed workshop practice, video-assisted individual study, VLE delivered material.

How can we assess the effectiveness of all this?

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BLENDED SURVEYING: principles

1) SIMULTANEITY Evaluate the process of learning as it occurs. Students do not need to recall events: they

just share their feelings in real time.

2) CONSISTENCY Assess teaching using the same devices according to which teaching is delivered.

This enables simultaneity, and seamlessly blends teaching, learning, and evaluation processes.

3) CONTINUITY Use the process along the whole teaching period. Make adjustments. Detect change in opinions.

4) CIRCULARITY Close the feedback loop. Talk to the students. Acknowledge changes. Explain why cannot change.

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BLENDED SURVEYING: examples and practice

Lectures Response to clicking sessionsDemocracy polls: what to do next?

Seminars Open-text box at the end of seminar quizzes.Transformed from a specific clarification tool into a forum for discussion with the students.(Individual responses posted on Blackboard).

Interim surveys deployed via Google FormsAsking questions and responding with a feedback document posted on Blackboard.

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FINAL REMARKS

We cannot put in place any action to enhance Academic Self-Efficacy if we do not commit to engage in a continuous dialogue with the student body.

This does not necessarily mean spoon-feeding students and solvingall their problems, but showing that we are ready to listen to them andaddress their concerns, even if just to say: ‘no, this cannot be done’.

Best open-text comment ever received from a student to a multiple choice question in a seminar quiz:

But this depends if we consider the Keynesian or the Monetaristapproach. If we consider Keynes, demand side is more important…

Mission accomplished: First Year students acknowledging pluralistic views!

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Tweet from a student:

Time to play who wants to be a millionaire in my economics lecture #FunLearning.