Refreshing insessional course provision

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Refreshing in-sessional course provision

• Centre for Language StudySouthampton University
• K.Richardson J.Watson
• kmr2_at_soton.ac.uk jw17_at_soton.ac.uk

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Overview

• In-sessional support pre-2004
• Refreshing the provision
• Example of online provision
• Preliminary findings
• Conclusions
• The way forward

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In-sessional support pre-2004

• Courses available per semester
• 15 face-to-face courses of 1 hour each
• 1 face-to face workshop of 2 hours
• Individual tutorial help (6 hours per week)
• Self-access language study
• Content
• Non-specific EGAP to non-specific groups of
  students

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In-sessional support pre-2004

• Issues
• Erratic attendance
• Varying satisfaction levels among students
• (lack of specificity in course content mixed
• discipline groups single session classes
  course duration)
• Tutor frustration
• Timetable clashes

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Refreshing the provision

• Face-to-face changes
• non-specific EGAP to discipline specific groups
  of students
• task specific EGAP to task/context specific
  groups of students
• ESAP to discipline specific groups of students
• Shorten certain courses 6 weeks of double
  sessions
• Introduction of online provision
• tutored online non-specific EGAP to
  non-discipline specific groups of students
• non-tutored International Students Online
  Resources (ISOR)

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Refreshing the provision Monitoring

• Face-to-face
• level of attendance
• student feedback
• Online provision
• enrolments, participation, VLE tracking, student
  feedback

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Refreshing the provision Online

• 04-05 S1 Academic Writing Skills Academic
  Listening Skills
• 04-05 S2 Academic Writing Skills Academic
  Listening Skills Academic Communication Skills
  
• 05-06 S1 Academic Writing Skills Academic
  Listening Skills Academic Communication
  Skills Academic Reading Skills Academic
  Vocabulary Development Aspects of Grammar
  for Academic Study
• 05-06 International Students Online Resources

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Online coursesPreliminary findings

• 04-05 S1 93 students, 1846 hits,
• 30-40 still active at the end of the course
• 04-05 S2 67 students, no data available
  (Blackboard)
• 05-06 S1 198 students, 7576 hits after 4 weeks
• 05-06 non-tutored option
• 124 students self-enrolled,
• 1247 hits after 4 weeks

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Online coursesStudent feedback

• On the 2004-2005 online courses
• external websites and the comments after each
  question are particularly useful.  By reading
  them, it helps a lot with my writing. (AWS)
• very useful learning material, clear
  instructions  (ALS)
• The quality of the course content is high the
  activities cover many important areas of
  communication (ACS)
• On discussion boards
• Since this online course is very self-learning,
  therefore, I may not have the time to discuss. 
  However, I think the tutor did a good job and
  offer help when necessary.
• The topic of the discussions and activities was
  quite good and useful for student.
• I did not benefit much as other course
  participants did not actively participate in the
  discussion forum.
• I'm not confident about my English, that's why
  I'm not active in course discussion.
• The better way of discussing is face-to-face 
• ... people did not visit the discussion board
  regularly, maybe because of time-constraints.
• On self motivation time constraints etc
• The problem for me was especially the last unit I
  was very busy and as a result, I could not
  concentrate on them. Anyway, I read through all
  of them.
• It is not because of the content etc. but solely
  because I just lost and do not follow the
  activity.
• Hope we could have longer course duration.

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Face-to-face coursesPreliminary findings
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Conclusions

• The more specific the student group, the better
  the attendance
• The more specific the content, the better the
  attendance
• Shorter workshop courses do not have as much
  impact on attendance as expected
• Online courses provide a flexible way to deliver
• Online is an attractive option for some students
• Untutored online resources might suit some
  students

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The way forward

• Further research
• Improve format and delivery of current online
  courses and ISOR
• More ESAP to discipline specific students?
• Introduce online ESAP to discipline specific
  students?
• Integrate online courses with face-to-face
  courses blended learning?

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Refreshing in-sessional course provision

• Centre for Language StudySouthampton University
• K.Richardson J.Watson
• kmr2_at_soton.ac.uk jw17_at_soton.ac.uk