Enhancing Personalisation of Learning and Improving Retention

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Enhancing Personalisation of Learning and
Improving Retention

• CRA 8th Residential Seminar, Manchester
• 21 November 2008

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Sandra King, Senior Lecturer, Business School,
Glyndwr University
s.king_at_glyndwr.ac.uk
Denise Oram, Senior Lecturer, Computing and
Communications Technology, Glyndwr University

• d.oram_at_glyndwr.ac.uk

Chris Edwards, Lecturer, Centre for
Outcomes-Based Education (COBE), Open University
c.h.edwards_at_open.ac.uk
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About Glyndwr University

• Formerly NEWI (North East Wales Institute)
• Member of the University of Wales
• Situated in Wrexham
• Close to the border between England and Wales
• Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Professional
  courses

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About the Open University

• Set up in 1969 celebrating 40 years
• Offers nearly 800 course modules
• Around 180,000 students at any one time
• The UKs largest distance learning organisation
• About 70 per cent of undergraduate students are
  in full-time employment
• More than 25,000 OU students live outside the UK

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Origins of ELLI - Effective Lifelong Learning
Inventory

• Developed over three years at the University of
  Bristol
• Project funded by the Lifelong Learning
  Foundation
• Identified seven dimensions of learning that
  together describe the energy and motivation to
  learn
• an online profiling instrument which provides a
  visual profile

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Dimensions of Learning

• Knowledge, skills and understanding of the
  curriculum form one strand of learning
• Attitudes, feelings, dispositions and motivations
  form another strand of learning
• The seven dimensions of learning integrate these
  elements together

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Seven Dimensions

• Being stuck static
• Data accumulation
• Passivity
• Being rule bound
• Isolation dependence
• Being robotic
• Fragility and dependence

• Changing and learning
• Meaning making
• Critical curiosity
• Creativity
• Learning relationships
• Strategic awareness
• Resilience

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A Typical ELLI Profile
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ELLI Claims for Tutors

• Enables tutors to focus on learning and learners
• Describes the energy to learn in terms of seven
  dimensions of learning
• Provides a vocabulary and language to talk about
  learning
• Describes ways in which tutors release energy for
  learning in their classrooms

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ELLI Claims for Students

• Makes learning learnable
• Takes the mystique out of the process of learning
  for students
• Enables students to focus on different aspects of
  learning during tutorial sessions
• Gives a focus to reflect on learning
• Provides a way of celebrating achievements in
  learning alongside curriculum success

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Project at Glyndwr University

• Business and Computing Students

Postgraduate International
Undergraduate
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Project at Glyndwr University

• ELLI introduced to 96 students
• Business and Computing Year 1
• Business Year 3 multinational cohort
• Postgraduate (MBA MSc)
• Raised awareness of Learning Power
• Facebook groups used for communication
• ELLI questionnaire repeated 2 months later with
  46 students
• Students interviewed in focus groups

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ELLI Research Outcomes

• No significant difference in the pre-scores
  between computing and business students
• Resilience lower for international students
• Repeated survey
• Some students improved dimensions
• Raising awareness had prompted other students to
  recalibrate their responses to the scales,
  resulting in some lower scores

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Empowering students to describe their learning
potential

• Communication tool between tutor and learner
• Dropped barriers
• Provided a narrative of a students Learning
  Power
• Raised awareness of how to learn
• Provided a learning language between different
  cultures
• Identified strengths and development areas

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Student Comments on ELLI

• ELLI created an awareness that I did not have
  before about how to learnit enabled me to focus
  on an entirely new way of learning
• the profile shows us where we can attempt to do
  something better and can create a personalised
  learning agenda
• It shows weaknesses in learning in a positive
  light and this is more motivating
• I realised that learning goes beyond university
  and that outside activities also contribute to my
  learning
• Definitely a worthwhile experience

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Outline

• Four groups of student participants.
• first-year art students
• first year technology students
• third year arts students
• third year technology students
• Intervention undertaking, the ELOISE survey,
  and approximately 2 months of normal study

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Questions

• Can ELLI support OU students in their learning?
• Could it help prepare new students for study?
• Can it enable and encourage student confidence?
• Is it a helpful diagnostic tool for tutors and
  advisors?

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Process for Participants
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Numbers of Participants
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Outcomes

• Provides a framework to discuss ways of and
  approaches to learning
• Most value reported towards the beginning of
  study
• Students often made links between the dimensions
• Learning relationships dimension complex for OU
• Students generally agreed with their profiles
• OU students have highest resilience and
• High in changing and learning, and critical
  curiosity

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• I think it would be a really good thing to do as
  an induction course and then ... maybe half way
  or a bit further along through whatever studies
  youre doing ...
• It does make you sort of think, examine your
  learning from a different perspective cos I think
  especially when youre in the midst of it, midst
  of doing a course, you dont think about the
  larger picture of how you approach things.
• ... because of my age, ... my learning has been
  spread over it seems like centuries. So I look
  back ... my comparison between school learning
  and todays learning is totally different. I mean
  my school learning was all rote.
• You can really find out a lot more about
  yourself than you realise on this ...

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Leitch Review (2007) and the Burgess Report (2008)

• Inevitable change to recording achievement in HE
• Capture the range of experiences in HE
• Describe a broader picture of achievements
• Tell the story of a learning journey to an
  employer
• Promote a culture of lifelong learning
• Increase employability

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Personalisation of Learning

• The ELLI Project aims to develop whole people and
  whole lives what we think and feel and do in our
  learning for life
• Key activity for personal development planning
• Accessible to students of all disciplines
• Tells a story
• Fun Activity
• Improving retention