Universities focus on classrooms and learning management systems, but students sort out spaces to suit themselves.
Alison Casey and colleagues used focus groups with participants from eight Uni Sydney business disciplines to hear what students wanted – which is the capacity to create their own connections, on-line and in-person. There were quite a lot of complex interconnections across three broad areas of study need reported in their paper on the findings:
- Structure of learning experiences: students are frustrated when learning activities and assessment are not aligned;
- Progression: students want help when they get stuck and while they are not fussed by mode they want support fast; and
- Connections: with peers: groupwork is good but students want wider contacts, which makes a case for networked learning design and with the “real world.” Students want assurance their education will be relevant to their future working life.
Take-outs: Students create their own connections using an “entangled network,” including on-line resources and on-campus experiences, physical/digital artefacts and “their past and future selves.”
“When a course is offered, students need to be involved in the shaping of their educational
experience to enable them to better make meaningful connections in their
learning space.”
“There is a need for clearer oversight by course coordinators of the full range of
design components of courses to mitigate the effort involved in students making connections
between them.”
And who, pray, will make it happen?“the design of these learning spaces often involves a diverse team of stakeholders, including academics, developers, designers, media specialists, and technologists – many of whom may never meet the students who use these spaces.”
