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On 13 June 2024 I attended a seminar that was run by three colleagues from the School of Maths and Statistics: Cath Brown, Vinay Kathotia, and Abi Kirk. The seminar was intended for ‘anyone interested in the development of online teaching’.

For anyone finding this blog post, it might be useful to view this summary alongside other posts about Adobe Connect , tutorials, and online pedagogy.

What follows are some brief notes that I made from each of the presentations. For concision, I have taken the liberty of abridging each of the titles. Some reflections and acknowledgments are shared at the end.

Why should we promote students working together?

The subtitle for this first presentation, which was facilitated by Vinay Kathotia with Cath Brown was: what are the pedagogical and broader benefits?

A useful term was introduced: student-centred pedagogy. Student adopting an active role during a tutorial can mean increases in confidence and self-efficacy. Interaction can be as simple as students making points, listening, arguing, and responding to a tutorial.

These points can be connected to ‘inquiry based mathematics education’ where collaboration has the potential to lead to higher levels of inclusion. There are some advantages of collaboration: mathematics is a collaborative activity. Through tutors demonstrating mathematical thinking, students can see that mathematics can be messy.

I noted down the phrase: “community enhances attainment”. Community can relate to the study of a module, and anything that helps to develop community, but is also useful is important.

We were asked a question: what were everyone’s experiences? How do we convince the students it is a good idea for them to come along to tutorials? Perhaps writing can be useful; asking students to write an account of what happened during a tutorial, is one approach that can facilitate sharing and suggest the benefits of tutorials.

The design and structure of collaborative tasks

The second session was facilitated by Abi Kirk. The full title of this second session was ‘some ideas and examples on the nature, design and structure of collaborative tasks’. The presenters described some collaborative tasks they have used for tutorials: small-group problem solving (which takes place on M337), and ‘pub quiz’ group work.

In the pub quiz activity, students were put into breakout rooms where they have access to five questions. In each room, students record their answers. This then leads to a plenary session which is facilitated by a tutor where all the results are shared using an Adobe Connect whiteboard.

A question was asked: how could collaboration using breakout rooms work in your context? One thought is to giving information in advance; perhaps it is important for everyone to know what is going to happen in a tutorial. There is an inherent tension of giving them too much in advance. Making a session look enticing and interesting is a skill all of its own.

Technology to enable collaborative work

The full title of this session was ‘technology to enable collaborative work - Adobe Connect and beyond’. In this session we were introduced to a variety of different Adobe Connect features and maths tools the presenters have used, such as GeoGebra, Desmos and PolyPad. Different subjects will, of course, necessitate the use of different tools. What I might use as a computing tutor will, of course, be different to what a maths tutor may use.

You can, of course, use features within Adobe Connect, such as screensharing, file sharing and polls with external tools and utilities. In some tools it is possible to create multipart activities, for example, and share URLs (web page links) with students through a text chat window.

One other idea is to open a shared Microsoft OneNote notebook. Any OU student can use it through Office 365. It can be used as a whiteboard where student can share their work. Control could be given to students, where they could interact with mathematical text.

Towards the end of the session, we returned to the topic of breakout rooms. They are pretty complex, which means that it is important to make sure you have a solid understanding of the interaction metaphors that are used. Tutors need to know how to set up and move between different layouts, how to adding and deleting breakout rooms, how to start and end breakout rooms, how to communicate to all rooms, moving between rooms, and combining results from different rooms together in a virtual plenary space.

Reflections

Quite a lot of time has elapsed between attending the seminar (June) and making these notes available (November). This means that there is risk that the sessions may not be summarised as accurately as I would have liked them to be. This said, I hope the points that I have shared are helpful, and apologies to the facilitators if I have misrepresented anything.

I went to this session since I hold the view that student interaction through online tutorials is important, but I also have the sense that it is very difficult to do well. This session was of specific interest since there are some key similarities between maths and computing: both subjects work with textual notations. With maths, there are equations (and whatever mathematicians do); within computing there are programming languages.

I do feel that there are multiple structural and technological barriers that are put in everyone’s way before interaction can become possible. More often than not, I don’t hear any student voices in tutorials, since no one really knows anyone. I remember that a book called eModeration by Gilly Salmon emphasises the importance of digital socialisation. In the currently tutorial world, where students can attend any number of different tutorials by different tutors, the tentative social connections between everyone works against interaction and collaboration. I don’t know what the solution is.

Using distance learning technology to facilitate interaction and collaboration is difficult. I don’t know where this comes from, but I’m always minded that perhaps digital educators have to become digital media producers and performers. To be good at digital performance, rehearsals are essential.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to all facilitators.

This post shares some notes that I made during a continuing professional development (CPD) event organised by the Research Career Development Team (RCD) that took place on 6 November 2024. The event was all about how a third party monitor supports doctoral students and doctoral level study. 

The event was pitched as being useful for “those who are new to third party monitoring”. It’s key objective and learning outcome were to help participants understand what the OU expects of third party monitors, whilst also sharing practices and experiences between participants.

Before moving sharing the key points that I took away, I would just like to share that I’m mostly writing this piece from the perspective of a third party monitor, sharing points with other potential fellow third party monitors. Although I’ve made this post widely available, some of the links that I’ve shared are very OU specific, and will not be available outside the OU.

Third party monitoring: the role

The aim of the third party monitor (TPM) is to provide pastoral support for research students outside the supervision team. A TPM is an academic member of staff who has had research degree supervision experience. They are there to provide confidential, independent, and dispassionate support. They are able to offer advice about how to deal with the challenges of doctoral research, how to deal with and handle conflict within (and possibly outside) the supervision team, and can offer perspectives about research process. A TPM can provide practical opinions about the supervision process. They may, for example, help to identify resource management difficulties; a student might meet with supervisors too frequently, or not frequently enough. A TPM may be able to offer practical advice on how to broach this with supervisors. The key point is that a TPM must always act in the best interest of the student.

In terms of meetings, there is an obligation for a TPM to meet with a student at least once a year, but a student might email the monitor at any point throughout the year. Meetings do not need to be in person; they can take place online. The first meeting should take place by the fifth month following registration. In my own practice, I tend to meet with students every quarter, but I would be happy to meet more regularly if there are any emerging or ongoing issues that need to be addressed or resolved. Meetings can be documented through a form (which is used within the WELS faculty) but this is not compulsory. All that needs to be recorded is a date of a meeting.

The TPM is described in the section 6 of the university research degree regulations. There are also third party monitoring guidelines from the graduate school network. Any member of staff who is carrying out third party monitoring should record it within their academic workload management (AWM) tool. At the time of writing I don’t have an official figure, but a guideline to work to is: one day per year, for each student you are monitoring.

What happens if things are not going well?

During the session, there was a useful discussion about what to do if things are not going very well. I noted down some important points.

The first point is: if possible, have discussions with everyone. Before even picking up the phone, gain permission from the student you are supporting; confidentiality, trust, and transparency in terms of actions are paramount.

It isn’t easy doing research. Depending on the topic, it can be sometimes lonely. It can sometimes place significant demands on reserves of intrinsic motivation. When looking at a subject in a new way, this can have a potentially destabilising way of seeing the world. All this means is that there are times when doing research can negatively affect our mental health. A TPM might be able to help just by having a chat about how everything is going. You can also signpost some resources that relate to staying mentally healthy.

Sometimes, you may well need to seek advice to answer some questions which may come up when meeting a student. Two key points of help were mentioned: the graduate school, or a group of staff within your academic school that supports postgraduate students. If something is serious, you might wish to contact your head of school, or their delegate.

Resources

A number of useful resources were shared during this session. The OU national support network that follows isn’t specific to the TPM role, but offers pointers to a whole host of different resources.

• Research Degree Regulations
• Research Career Development (RCD): Third Party Monitoring Resources
• OU Graduate school network
• OU National support network

There is also something called the STEM Mentoring Scheme: Framework, which dates back to 2021.

Reflections

At the time of writing, I’m a third party monitor for two doctoral students.

When I started as a third party monitor, I have to confess that I didn’t really know what I was doing. My interaction with students began with an email introduction from a graduate student supervisor (or lead). The was the followed with organising an informal meeting between myself and the student, where we introduced each other.

My big take away from this session was the importance of active listening and relationship building. Empathy also plays an important role. As third party supervisors we all have our prior doctoral experience we can draw upon. In some cases, it can be about being practical; sometimes third party monitors need to find things out for our students. In turn, we may need be their advocate, but always with their permission.

I found the discussion about the formality of a form, and its usefulness interesting. During my own meetings, I do sometimes make notes, but it does always depend on what is being said and what needs to be done.

Given the title of the session, I was expecting to learn more about mentoring, perhaps even something about models of mentoring. At various points in my OU career, I’ve been both a mentor and a mentee. Sometimes these relationships have gone well, other times less so. To help others more effectively, I feel as if I need to know more about how to ‘mentor’ well.

Acknowledgements

The event was facilitated by Dr Liz FitzGerald, a Senior Lecturer in the OU’s Institute of Educational Technology.

On 23 October 2024 I attended something called a Go Green Workshop which was all about ‘Dirty Digital Habits’. Having recently supported a research intern who had been exploring what is meant by green computing, the topic of sustainable computing (and all that means) has become of increasing interest. The event had an alternative title: Go Green Spotlight - Digital Carbon Footprints. Apparently, this month is ‘cyber awareness month’. A lot of the session was facilitated by David Crews, our Digital Services Sustainability lead, with input from other colleagues.

A number of topics were covered in the hour long session. These were, broadly: challenges, current efforts, what we can do, and something about a search engine called Ecosia. I share a bunch of reflections at the end.

Challenges 

The full title of this topic was ‘challenges in reducing digital related CO2 emissions’. There was a passing reference to a Guardian article about data centres but there was also a passing comments that data centres would consume 8% of electricity by 2030. This suggested figure is likely to be under threat due to increases in cloud computing, and AI. I noted another challenging comment that was shared, which was: by 2025, everyone will have an interaction with a data centre every 18 seconds. I have no idea where this striking estimate comes from, but I now need to find out.

Current efforts

The full title of this section was ‘current efforts in digital services to reduce CO2 emissions’. In other words, what was the university doing? More specifically, what is ‘digital services’ doing?

During this bit of the workshop, I noted down a few points. One continual action that was being taken was addressing of legacy systems. There was a reference to the scheduled replacement of hardware, with the suggestion that newer hardware means better energy efficiency (I did later ask a question that asked whether the carbon cost of equipment manufacture, and disposal was also taken account of).

There was also a reference to a movement of services from university data centres to data centres managed by third party suppliers (two different vendors were mentioned). On this point, I also noted down the words “a cloud data centre is more efficient than anything that an organisation can run themselves”. The point is, of course, that that energy costs of our own data centres are likely to be higher than the costs of cloud suppliers.

A number of familiar topics were mentioned, such as the movement to different processor architectures on servers (such as ARM processors, the kind of chips that you find on your mobile phone), the use of virtual machines to make optimal use of hardware, and the importance of having your data (and servers) as close to the users as possible. Closeness improves latency (performance) and reduces energy consumption.

On a related note, I was introduced the PUE measurement, which is an abbreviation for Power Usage Effectiveness (Wikipedia). The lower the number, the more efficient your data centre is. I need to look into this in a bit more depth.

What can we do?

Under this heading, I combined notes from two different parts of the presentation which had the titles ‘how we can contribute at home’ and ‘top categories to reduce your digital carbon footprint’. Some of the suggestions were familiar: use energy efficient peripherals, power things off, go paperless, stop hoarding data (particularly on the cloud), and ask ourselves whether we really need to use super high definition data when streaming film. In the work environment, when having team calls, can we get away with only using audio? This obviously reduces how much data we use. Also, use browser bookmarks rather than searching for a website address using search engines. An interesting statistic was shared: a search using Google will use 14g of CO2, a kettle takes 15g (but I don’t have the reference from where this comes from; I need to find it).

An interesting question was highlighted: what is the carbon cost of email? It depends, of course, on the length and the content of an email message. A practical suggestion was to minimise the use of attachments. A further interesting statistic was that 71% of colleagues make use of email attachments rather than linking to files. Shipping files across and between email accounts makes unnecessary use of data storage.  A file sent through email can use 50g of CO2 (again, I don’t know where this statistic comes from). Sharing a link rather than an attachment can mean a 90% reduction. Of course, the choice of attachment vs link very much depends on whether we have continual access to the cloud services that we need to use. 

Ecosia: Search engine pilot

Towards the end of the session, a search engine called Ecosia was mentioned. More information about Ecosia is available through a useful Wikipedia summary. The reason for mentioning it is that there is a plan to pilot its use as the default search engine.

Reflections

I feel as if I must have missed something. I had never heard of an OU unit called ‘digital services’ before; I’ve always known it as IT (in the same way that I know People Services as HR). 

This wasn’t an academic event, and it was less of a workshop and more of a presentation (since the time allocated to discussion was quite limited). I did feel that there was quite a need to discuss digital practices. Also, wearing an academic hat, I have an intrinsic need to look for the sources that relate to the statistics that were shared.

I appreciated the presentation about the carbon cost of email. This discussion reflects a similar question I have, which is: what is the carbon cost of taking a digital photograph? There probably isn’t a simple answer: it would depend on how that photograph is used (and how it is shared). 

Given that energy consumption is now important to business units such as digital services, I did wonder about whether there will become a time where organisations may be required to report their energy use. To what extent may statutory reporting be helpful or appropriate? Is this desirable or useful? There’s that old engineering adage of if you can measure something, you can then control it.

Within all this, there’s the need for balance. There’s the need to balance the need to minimise using digital bandwidth with the importance of maintaining and fostering personal connections. There’s also the need to use additional layers of software to maintain security and integrity of systems (such as virus checkers and intruder detection systems), whilst minimising a software stack to reduce server costs. There’s the balance of necessarily carrying out searches to attempt to solve a problem, contrasted with the inherent carbon cost of carrying out searches. 

One of the points that I asked about was the physical (environmental) cost of changing hardware. Electronics contain a huge amount of embedded carbon, which comes its design and manufacture. How is electronic hardware safely and responsibly disposed? Also, how to we make the most effective ‘carbon’ decisions about to migrate from one hardware platform to another?  Should this come under the remit of software engineering? Are there some standards or guidelines that can be help with decision making?

Tone of this event was very positive. Perhaps it’s my state of mind, but this positivity doesn’t reflect my own understanding of the term ‘climate emergency’. It’s important to consider how we consume digital resources, just as we consume physical resources. Individuals can, of course make a difference, but if individual decisions are not measured (in the way that the use of the Ecosia search engine may be measured), then it’s hard to measure what difference we may have made.

I’m going to have to search for some references.

Many thanks to everyone in Digital Services for facilitating a thought provoking event.

One of the things I try to always do as a tutor is to connect different bit of a module together. I try to tie the digital materials to the analogue materials, and the tutorials to the assessments, and so on. I also try to connect students together too. 

This short blog post summarises some of the different ways that I connect things together. There was a time when I tried to prepare a graphical model to emphasise the connections that can exist between the different components of a module. As time has gone on, I’ve realised that there are more and more elements that can be tied together by a tutor.

The module that you tutor will have a unique combination of components that can be tied together in different ways. Different tutors may well, of course, emphasise different combinations of components based on their own knowledge and understanding of a subject.

What follows is a summary of what I try to do.

Welcome letter

At the start of every presentation, I write to all my students. In my introductory email, which contains a link to an introductory letter, I direct students to my tutor group forum. To make things as simple as possible, I include a link to the forum, which they can click on. 

In my tutor group forum, I have an introduction thread, where I encourage students to introduce themselves. I also tell them to subscribe to the forum, saying that I use the forum to post updates about TMA marking progress and to share resources that I use in my tutorials. I also share dates about introductory tutorials, encouraging students to put their dates into their diaries. Finally, I will direct students to the module website and the module calendar.

From the very start of the module, I am linking things together, directing students to different tools, places and resources.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes drive a lot of the ‘connecting’ that I do. In some ways, could be considered to be ‘academic glue’. I see learning outcomes less of a straight jacket that tells me what I should be talking about, but more as useful pointers.

Module materials sometimes begin with learning outcomes. Assessments are designed to evaluate learning outcomes. Subsequently, tutorials should help students to understand them and what they mean. A part of my role as a tutor to do my best to understand what students understand, and to offer guidance that helps students to move to a place where they can demonstrate an understanding of a learning outcome.

Study calendar

I’ve heard it described that the study calendar, which is available through the module website, is the backbone of a module. It outlines the study pace and rhythm. It is also an important ‘go to’ place to find out when the assessments take place; it gives the date of the TMAs, and the date when the examinable component is due. It also says when a block or a unit begins and ends. I highlight the study calendar during tutorials and introductory letters. I also sometimes post references to it in my forum posts.

Module blocks

Some modules have printed blocks, whereas other modules have everything online. Modules that teach fast moving subjects, such as computing, sometimes present all their module materials online. A module contains a number of units. I direct students to module blocks and units at different points during the course of a module presentation; at the start of a module, and when preparing for an end of module exam.

Online study materials

There are some module materials that can’t be presented through books. A literature module I have studied contained videos of performances, interviews with academics, and audio clips of pieces of music, all of which are presented through the module website. These study materials are linked to the module blocks and the module calendar. As a tutor, I also mention these materials during tutorials. I also share guidance about how online materials can be referenced.

Tutorials

Tutorials are a great way to connect different elements of our tutoring practice together. During tutorials, I might share handouts, do some screensharing to highlight bits from module websites, highlighting various module resources and tools. I connect tutorials to assessments, and encourage students to ask question through the module forums, highlighting that I will use forums to share resources.

Using the screen sharing facilities, I might even take students on a short guided tour of the OU library, demonstrating some custom searches. I might also show students some of the software tools or utilities that they might need to use during the course of their studies.

Forums

Although forums are sometimes underused, since students often talk with each other through various channels outside the university systems, they do represent an important way to share resources and connect things together.

Before some tutorials, I sometimes make a post, sometimes asking a question about what topics students would like to be covered. To make it easier for students to access the tutorial, I also share a link to the online room that is used. If a tutorial relates to an assessment or module materials, I may also share a link to these too.

After every tutorial, I post a link to a recording, if one has been made, also sharing a copy of a PowerPoint formed the basis of a session. If I shared resources during a tutorial, such as Word documents, or PDF files, I also share these too.

Sometimes interesting topics can be raised during tutorials. Forums are great spaces to continue those discussion, and to share resources that deepen understanding of module concepts.

Module materials often contain activities. Sometimes module materials specifically ask students to make forum posts. Other times, students’ complete activities in their own time. Forums are great ways to share activity work.

Towards the end of a module presentation, a forum has the potential to become a useful resource in its own right.

Study sites and materials

The OU has a wealth of really helpful supplementary materials. Tutors can play a really important role in highlighting these resources to students.

A study site is a set of pages and resources that are designed to offer help and support for students who are studying modules which form a wider programme of study. Sometimes these study sites provide pointers to complementary resources and activities. This might even include a range of optional online tutorial sessions that could help with study skills and writing. These resources can be especially useful for students studying at a high study intensity – in other words, studying full time with the university.

The Study Skills pages are also really useful, providing access to a range of helpful booklets on subjects such as preparing assignments, revising for exams, and studying with dyslexia.

A particularly useful resource is the page about good academic practice, which offers a link a some Open Learn resources and a set of pages about References and Plagiarism. 

Assessments

In some way, all these different components all relate to the assessments. 

I tie together assessments and tutorials, and tutorials with learning outcomes, and learning outcomes with module materials. During tutorials, I sometimes share pointers to the sections of the module materials (such as block and online content) are particularly relevant for assignments (without, of course, giving any answers away).

Some modules ask students to share evidence of engagement with forums in their marked assessments. Also, students might be asked to provide evidence of interaction with software tools or products, but more of this in a moment.

One of best things that tutors can do is to link assessments to wider aims and objectives, to help students appreciate their purpose, and what they gain by completing them. It might be to demonstrate knowledge, or to develop skills. In turn, these skills may be useful within a wider programme or study, or have industrial relevance. In other words, gently answer the question: “why am I doing what I am doing?”

Student support teams

Remind students about their student support team (SST). As a tutor, you’re there to facilitate a student’s learning of the module materials, to answer any questions they may have, to run tutorials, and to mark their assignments and to provide helpful feedback. If you are approached about any non-academic issues, the thing to do is to refer students to the student support team, where they can gain further help and support. Do refer them if you feel that they require substantial study skills help that is above and beyond what you feel you’ll be able to provide.

The SST uses something called an Information, Advice and Guidance model (IAG). When students call, they are often seeking information. If it turns out that a query is more complicated, students are then passed onto advisors. 

Although tutors can sometimes share really helpful information about what a student’s next module might be, it is always worth encouraging students to have a conversation with the student support team, who will be able to offer official university information, advice, and guidance. Module choice is a non-academic issue, although it relates to the study of academic modules. If you’re ever in doubt, always refer students to the SST.

Software tools

Some modules require students to use different bits of software, some compulsory, some optional. These might be bits of software you access through a module website to share images or text with fellow students, or bits of software to download and use to create or edit digital resources.

If your module makes use of bits of software, you can connect them up with bits of the module in different ways: you can mention bits of software in your forum posts, you can introduce them using screen sharing in your tutorials, and emphasise their relevance (and importance) within your correspondence tuition feedback.

During my own tutor practice, I sometimes make some forum posts to make students aware of bits of software that might be helpful to them.

Library

The OU library a fabulous resource. Through the library, you can find resources, articles, and books for every academic subject. The library provides access to really useful collections of journals and eBooks. A bit of a student’s module fee is used to support the library.

Every module uses the library in a different way. Some modules may direct a student to a lot of library resources, and databases that can be accessed through the library.

When working with your students, do remember to refer your students to the library, especially if they have to do some independent study as a part of level 3 or dissertation (or project) modules. It is worth remembering three key bits, which are especially useful: firstly, the library has curated selected resources for your study. Do encourage your students to spend browsing these pages. Secondly, the library often runs a series of events. The library also offers a really comprehensive help and support section, which can be really useful for students who are looking for articles to support their academic writing.

Finally, it's worth mentioning SCONUL to your students, which is an access scheme that enables learners to the use the libraries of other universities. If students lack a quiet place to study, SCONUL is a really useful service.

Correspondence teaching

TMA feedback is one of the most important opportunities tutors have to connect different elements of a module together.  There are, of course, two ways to provide feedback: on the student’s eTMA summary form, and on a student’s script.

When leaving comments on a script, I sometimes provide direct links to module materials, or provide page references to module blocks. Where appropriate, I may also share pointers to module activities that relate to the skills and ideas that were needed to be demonstrated through the assessment. I also may also share pointers to study skills resources, but also explain why I have done this.

In my eTMA summaries, I often mention the dates of an tutorials that are coming up, along with any important forum posts that may have been made to our module material concepts. I use the eTMA summary to provide pointers to what has happened, and what may happen, whilst also explaining why these pointers are important.

Group emails

Throughout a module presentation, I regularly send group email messages to my tutor group. These emails are useful opportunities to direct students to different resources, and also to highlight important deadlines. I don’t tend to put too much in my emails, instead preferring to put more information in an accompanying forum post, which I have shared a hyperlink to. The motivation for doing this is try to guide students to the discussion forums. In my emails I encourage students to subscribe to the forum if they haven’t already done so.

I typically send group emails towards the start of a module, reminding everyone of my introductory tutorials. When I do this, I would share a link that allows student to join the relevant tutorial room, saving them from having to follow a chain of links through the module website. Linking things together is about making things clear and easy for students.

I also send group emails a few days before each tutorial, to offer them a reminder of what is coming up. When reminding everyone about the exam revision tutorials, I might say: “as I have mentioned on your TMA feedback”, to remind them that what I have written may well share some useful guidance.

At the end of module presentation, I use the group email feature to send a short ‘sign off’ email, where I encourage students to consider their next study options. When tutoring on a level 2 module, I would mention (in passing) a combination of different level 2 and level 3 modules, and encourage students to contact the student registration service if they are considering doing their next module.

External news stories and events

Connecting your module to current events and stories can be a powerful way to emphasise its importance and relevance. During tutorials I might highlight a story by asking a question, by asking: “has anyone seen that news feature about…” For students who might not come along to a tutorial, I might post a link to a news article on my tutor group forum. In turn, I might share a relevant link or a news story with fellow tutors by making a post to the module tutor’s forum.

Personal experience

Andragogy is the term used to refer to the practice of teaching adults. One of the great things about teaching adults is that they arrive at your tutorial with a wealth of personal experience. Many students may well already have careers in the topic that is the focus of your module. A good andragogic practice is to draw on the experiences of those who are studying the module, which you may find out about during introductory tutorials and events. When you know a little more about your students, you can then relate their experience with module themes and topics. You may also be able to draw on existing experience of study, to facilitate sharing between students.

Exams and EMA

Many elements of a module can be linked with its examinable component, which could be an end of module exam, or end of module assessment (EMA), or an end of module TMA (emTMA). As a tutor, you may be asked to facilitate tutorials about the final exam or final assessment.

In a tutorial that prepares students for an examinable component, it is useful to offer links and pointers to its structure, individual questions, and back again to the module the module materials. From there, you could link questions to module and unit learning outcomes. You might also link questions to previous TMAs, as well as any earlier points of feedback you may have shared.

It is also worthwhile offering links to other resources: module glossaries, resources about academic conduct, and guides about how to plan for exams.

Careers service

The careers service is sometimes easily forgotten about; it’s a great service. I mention the careers service in the comments of a final TMA that I return. I also mention it during some of my final tutorials and in my ‘sign off’ group emails.

Not only does the careers service provide some really helpful resources, students can also request to have a one-to-one career consultation with a career professional, which can be really useful in terms of identifying next steps. Working in combination with industry, the careers service also advertises jobs and graduate schemes that may be of interest to students who are coming to the end of their studies. It sometimes is used to share information about different types of internships.

It is worth telling your students that they are able to continue to access the OU career’s service a couple of years after graduating, just in the same way that they are also able to access module websites a couple of years after studying a module. Even though a student might not be a current OU student, they are still eligible to give the career service a ring.

Reflections

Connecting different things together is a really important thing to do in online and distance teaching. A module is so much more than just the course materials and the assignments.

I initially thought this list would be a lot smaller than it is. When I started writing it, I thought there would be a maximum of around six entries. Reflecting on my practice as tutor, and reflecting on what I have experienced as an OU student has helped me appreciate that there are so many different pieces that can be proactively connected with each other. Tutors are perfectly placed to do a lot of connecting, to signpost different elements, tools, and resources.

Another reflection is that every module is different. One module that I tutored place a huge amount of emphasis on the use of discussion forums. Another module that I tutor doesn’t really use forums in a prescribed way. Just because a tool isn’t used doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t use a tool. Digital pedagogy is still something that is very new. We can only uncover best practices, and practices that relate to the modules that we tutor, by trying things out.

On 29 February 2024 I attended an academic conduct review briefing for module teams. The aim of this blog is to share some highlights that may be useful for colleagues (and to also try to remember what was covered, since there’s always a lot going on).

During the introduction, it was highlighted that academic referrals have increased over the last 5 years. Two thirds of these typically relate to study skills and poor academic practice. In other words, this relates to what could be called inadvertent misconduct.

There are some specific challenges. Investigations take time, there is an obvious need for consistency with decision making, a need for transparency, and continually emerging threats, such as essay mills and the arrival of generative AI. To respond to this changing landscape, there is a new VLE page for staff, a new academic conduct tariff, new guidance on StudentHome, a new referral form, and new processes and study skills arrangements.

Academic integrity principles for assessment design

Assessment design is important. Good assessment design should ‘reduce the motivation and opportunities for plagarism’ and focus should be on how learning takes place, as well as what is learnt.

An important point that I noted was that module teams should look at patterns of academic conduct referrals. One way to respond to repeated issues is, of course, to consider the assessment design. To help with this, there some useful principles of assessment which I share below.

A key theme of these principles is authenticity. This is connected with need for to assessments that focus on problem solving, perhaps solving problem that might have an open ended answer.

Here are the ten principles that were shared during the session.

Principle 1: Reward academic integrity

Make sure students reflect on their skills and capabilities that demonstrate academic integrity.

Principle 2: Assess higher skills

Assess metacognitive skills where students actively create an answer, with an emphasis on construction and their own thinking. This point is, of course, linked to the principle of refletion.

Principle 3: Open-ended solutions

This principle is related to authenticity. It’s possible to see authenticity within the undergraduate computing project module.

Principle 4: Diversify assessment formats

This is linked to how students might relate assessment to their own interests and preferences. Providing a variety of different assessment formats also speaks to the importance of accessibility and diversity.

Principle 5: Authentic assessment

Making an assessment real by sharing an exciting concept can enhance motivation. Make an assessment authentic by drawing on their own experience.

Principle 6: New assignment questions

To limit the risk of academic conduct, prepare new assignment questions every year. Design the assignments in such a way that students cannot re-use a previous answer. In other words, make it difficult for students to directly benefit if the questions were to be shared.

Principle 7: Process besides product

Ask students to submit interim versions of assignments or ask them to provide a demonstration. In the computing project module, students are asked to submit a draft EMA as an assessment.

Principle 8: Making quality criteria transparent

Make rubrics transparent; share with students how assessments are made so everyone knows what the module team (and the university) is looking for. 

Principle 9: Generating and acting on feedback

Encourage students to generate their own feedback, which helps to develop critical thinking. This relates to a principle of peer assessment. This is used, to a limited extent in a software engineering module, where students comment on interim designs. 

Principle 10: Authentication methods

Are students who they say they are? There used to be a time when students had carry out written exams by attending exam centres at a specific date and time. As a part of this, students needed to show a form of ID, such as a passport or a driving licence. An alternative approach would be for a student to have a conversation with a tutor about their assignment.

TurnitIn

A recent development has been the increased availability of TurnItIn to students. Module teams and staff tutors always used to receive TurnItIn reports. These reports indicated whether a submission contained words found in other online resources. A typical TurnItIn report might highlight legitimate quotes that a student used to evidence an argument, as well as uncited text.

On many modules students can now submit an earlier version of an assignment into TurnItIn. In turn, they can review a ‘similarity report’ to gain confidence that their assignment is adhering to sound principles of good academic practice. More information about TurnItIn can be typically found within a module’s assessment handbook.

Resources

A whole host of useful resources are available to students. The blog post Study Skills Resources: what is available? offers a handy summary of some of the most useful.

Reflections

I’m not sure where these assessment principles come from. I really like them. I can bring these ten points into module team meetings. Their focus on authenticity strikes me as being really important. It is important in terms of problem solving, skill development and the application of knowledge.

Putting the assessment design principles to one side for a moment, tutors are really important. If appropriate, students can refer students for additional support sessions, and can also refer students to study advisors who work within the student support team.

Students can then be referred to additional support needs, and referral to a study advisor. In my experience tutors may sometimes get a sense when a student may have used Generative AI.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements are duly given to the academic conduct review team who facilitated this session. The principles shared in this blog post are their own, and I take no credit for them. I hope I’ve summarised them effectively.

When planning your project, an important question to ask is: how can I tell if my project has been a success?

The extent of your evaluation very much depends on what you do during your project. For some projects, you might consider asking your stakeholders the question: “does this solve your problem?” You can ask this question in different ways: you could prepare a short survey (if you have a number of stakeholders), carry out an interview, or carry out a usability study.

If you consider design (rather than coding) to be your strong point, you may choose to carry out an interaction design project, where the output may well be a detailed high level prototype that could be presented using a prototyping tool. Since you may sidestep some of the important software development skills that you might otherwise demonstrate, is really important to ensure that you carry out your interaction design project in a really thorough way to clearly satisfy the requirement that your project is all about computing. If you are confident with software development and enjoy this aspect of your studies, you may well want to combine design with an aspect of software development; it is completely up to you.

Most interaction design projects are iterative. In fact, a practical recommendation is that a solid project that is based on the interaction design module should have three different development iterations, or phases. The thinking behind this is that this gives you the best opportunity to demonstrate your skills. When you get to the end you may want to ask the question: has my project solved the problem I set out to solve?

Consider an example of an app that could to pre-order a coffee from a local café, or to book a slot for your dog in a pet grooming parlour (you can choose another example if you prefer). 

Iteration 1: First initial sketches

Designs can be presented (and detailed) using different levels of fidelity, which (of course) relates to the idea of detail. A low fidelity design (or sketch) might be a rough sketch on paper (which is known as a paper-based prototype). A high fidelity design might be a design that closely resembles the final product. There are other terms that you might want to consider too: the idea of a vertical prototype (a prototype that covers a small bit of functionality in a lot of depth), or a horizontal prototype (a prototype that covers all the functionality of a product, but in a small amount of depth).

You might begin your design by creating some low fidelity designs, perhaps using paper-based prototyping. In other words, writing a bunch of sketches. You might want to combine this with other approaches from interaction design, such as the writing of user profiles and scenarios. It is up to you. Whatever you do needs to link back to the requirements of whatever it is you are designing. Different products will treat requirements in different ways.

When you have completed your first round of sketches (which could be made either using a pen or pencil, or using a tool), you should show them to whoever has the problem that needs to be solved (the café owner, or manager of the pet grooming parlour) to carry out your first round of evaluations.

Iteration 2: Wireframes

When you have received feedback, and have further refined your requirements, it is then a good idea to try to flesh out your design. You might have a second round of sketches, or you might move from pencil and paper to a prototyping tool. Choose whatever tool or product works best for you and your project.

When you have completed you second set of designs, go back to your stakeholders to get some further feedback. Here you should get some useful data (information about what works well, and what needs to be looked at in a bit more detail) to further refine you prototype further.

Iteration 3: Higher Fidelity prototypes

A high fidelity prototype is all about showing what a final (or polished) version of a product or system might look like. With this final iteration (or phase) you might get elements of your designing working. You may well develop software and create databases. 

As well as considering prototypes in terms of low and high fidelity, there is another couple of dimensions that can be considered helpful: horizontal and vertical prototypes. A horizontal prototype is a demonstration of a design across all its key functionality, but to a limited depth. A vertical prototype, on the other hand, means that you implement a small amount of functionality in a lot of depth. With a vertical prototype, you may well ‘go deep’ with the technology; you may have to choose appropriate software components and frameworks, and justify your choice.

When it comes to your project report, you should share your high fidelity prototype by walking your examiner through a series of screenshots.

Depending on the aim of your project, you might stop at this point. You may well have demonstrated a lot of technical skill and knowledge in a lot of detail. If your project is less about practical software development and more about design, it would be a good idea to carry out a final evaluation of your prototype to answer the question: does my design do what it supposed to do?

Using the DECIDE framework

The DECIDE framework can help you to plan (and run) an evaluation. It is featured within the interaction design module and its accompanying set text. Taking a letter at a time, here are the components of the framework: 

Determine the goals (of your evaluation): What are you aiming to get from your evaluation? Remember, this isn’t the goals of your project, it is the goals of your evaluation. What do you need to do to determine whether it is a success.

Explore the questions: What questions are you trying to find answers for? Or, alternatively, what questions do you need to ask to carry out an evaluation?

Choose the evaluation approach or paradigm: How are you going to approach your evaluation? You can choose a number of different approaches. You might wish to carry our a heuristic evaluation (which doesn’t involve users), a predictive evaluation (to predict how efficient your design is, perhaps using a cognitive walkthrough approach), or user testing (which can involve real users).

Identify the practical issues: This point relates to the detail of how you run your evaluation. If you need participants, how will you go about recruiting them? How will you ensure they are representative? How will you collect data? Will you be making notes on a data collection form, or if you’re carrying out an interview, will you be using the voice recorder app on your mobile phone? When you have captured data, where will you be storing your data, and how will you be making sure your data is secured.

Decide about the ethical issues: If you involve anyone in your evaluation, you need to think about ethics. Essentially, you need to gain permission, and you need to make sure that everyone knows what your evaluation is all about. An important point to emphasise is that you’re carrying out an evaluation of the performance of a product or a solution rather than the performance of your participants. Remember that your participants are always more important than the task of completing your evaluation. 

Evaluate: With your evaluation all planned, your data collection approach chosen, and permission gained, it is now time to carry out your evaluation. After you’ve gathered your data, it is time to analyse your data, interpret your data and then share your findings. In terms of your project report, this will mean the need to write a summary or conclusion.

Carrying out your evaluation

The DECIDE framework helps you to understand why you intend to carry out your evaluation, what criteria for success you consider to be important, and how you intend to carry out your evaluation.

If your project has an evaluation section, a recommendation is to show what you did in series of step by steps. In other words, adopt a narrative approach. Use a series of appendices to share the resources you may have created during the course of your evaluation. If participants are involved in your evaluations, consider taking a photograph of the environment in which an evaluation takes place, sharing that photograph within the body of your report.

Reflections

Although I have suggested three phrases or iterations is often appropriate for an interaction design project, there are no ‘right’ number of iterations. Every project is different. Whilst carrying you’re your project you may discover that you need more phases, and more evaluations.

References

Rogers, Y., Sharp, H., Preece, J. (2023) Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 6th Edition. Wiley.

You have a plan, you have identified all your resources and the skills that you need, and you’ve identified a good number of risk and accompanying mitigations. If things start to go wrong, you should look to your risk log to see if it (and your accompanying mitigations) might be able to help. If they don’t help, there are many things you can start to do.

When things start to go wrong, start to make notes of what has happened, and how you have responded to what has happened. In other words, add entries to your project log. If you haven’t started a project log, start one. It is never too late.

Even though you may have prepared a plan (and identified risks) at the start of your project, these are not set in stone. Your project plan and all the other elements of planning (your resource, skill and risk summaries) should always be updated.

An important tip: keep two versions of your Gantt chart; the plan that you prepared at the very start of your project, and a version that you continually update throughout your project. 

If things are not going to plan, do update your plan, and make a note of why you think this is the case. If things happen in your life which mean that you have to break your regular study pattern, and you find that key project milestones will be delayed, write down what has happened and replan your project. If you need advice about how to approach this, do get in contact with your tutor.

The reason for writing everything down is simple: it gives you some useful material you can use when you get to write your reflection section.

At the time of writing, the reflection section of your project report accounts for 20% of the overall project score. This means that there are a lot of marks available just for writing about what has happened during your project (and saying what you have learnt).

If everything went to plan and there were no surprises, your reflection section would be pretty uninteresting. Examiners are not very fond of uninteresting project reports. If your project doesn’t go to plan, this gives you something to write about.

To summarise, projects can and do go wrong. If you realise that your project has elements of complexity that you never expected, and need to replan, that is completely okay. If life intervenes which means that you need to reevaluate your project’s aims and objectives, that is okay too. Both of these situations will lead to a changed project which means you have a really interesting story to tell in your reflection section.

If you’re unsure about anything, my biggest tip is, of course, contact your tutor to book in a chat.

1 September 2024

I’ve been looking through some of the databases we have access to. I had a look at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Early English Books Online (EEBO), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), The Reading Experience Database (UK RED) and ProQuest One Literature (PQ1L).

I did a few random searches in EEBO and I was amazed at the number of curious books I could find. When messing with ECCO I was very impressed that it could relate textual searches to sections of manuscripts. The Defoe search was a great exercise. I found the UK RED database interesting, but a bit more curious. I’m guessing it can be useful to understand more about how texts are talked about, received (by the reader and readers) and shared. It was interesting to discover a suggestion that Austen had read Gulliver’s Travels, evidenced by a letter where she mentions horses.

What struck me about the PQ11 database is the extent to which it is possible to gain more directly access articles written by critics. For the A233 I was relying on the OU library to find critical perspectives and voices. Whilst I did okay, there this might have been a more useful (and faster) too.

This activity has also helped me to think about my day job. When I was a computing research student I remember discovering an article that related literary criticism and choosing bits of software to solve a problem. At the time, I didn’t really fully appreciate what it was going on about and why it was important. I’m now beginning to see its point. Practicing software engineers need to be critics. At this point, I’m on the cusp of digressing completely, so I need to stop. I’m noting all this down since I wanted to remember this reflection.

A final task in the morning: a listen to the audio about how the module approaches equality and diversity, and how it speaks to people from different backgrounds. A great listen.

5 September 2024

My module blocks have arrived! They are now decorating my desk, and will probably do so for a couple of weeks. This said, I’ve done couple of random bits of early ‘study’. 

I’ve leafed through the introduction to the Turkish Embassy Letters. Having once written a travelogue of my own, I have a feeling that this might me ‘my kind of book’.

I enjoyed ‘The Playhouse’ video. There’s a lot in that one; the history of The Globe and The Rose theatres. One of the things I’m going to do is to have a cycle down to the South Bank to find ‘New Globe Walk’ and ‘Rose Alley’. I need to watch this one again.

I’ve also had a watch of the Book 1 Chapter 1 video, Performing As you like it. In the introduction, Danson Brown shared the view that “the old fashioned view was that the text was king”. The director who is featured in the video asks the question about whether performance should be king.

It was also suggested that the job of a director is to make the text clear, and to help the audience believe the characters. Often, directors make some cuts of the text to make plays more accessible. In the video there are comments about the interpretation of words and the playing scenes.

An interesting comment is that As You Like It is a play about education, that “it is a practical tutorial in love”. Being new to the play, and having only been through the text once, I’ve yet to form my own view, but it’s an interesting perspective.

The key point of the video is that there’s a difference between how academics read and analyse the texts, and how directors interpret texts so they can be performed. Everything depends on your perspective.

The final thing I do is to have a quick look at the independent study section, just to get a feel for what we have in store. All the independent study sections are in a single document, which makes everything easy to navigate; there is one section for each of the block chapters. The option for the first chapter are: explore another Shakespeare comedy (which is an activity I quite like the look of), read the introduction to the set text (which is quite lengthy), read two essays (which look quite interesting), and review timelines of As You Like It (which will take quite a bit of time).

I’m clearly going to be busy.

8 September 2024

One of my lockdown discoveries was cycling. From where I live in London, I discovered that I can relatively easily cycle to most of central London. Itching for a bit of exercise, I decided to go on a mini field trip, to find the site of The Rose playhouse.

It wasn’t too difficult to find: I picked up a cycle path from Greenwich, followed the path to London Bridge, and then headed towards Southwark Bridge. When heading north, I took a left, and then took a right, and then found Rose Walk, which was featured in one of the materials on the module materials. It took me about 35 minutes to get there, which was pretty good going.

It turns out that the venue has 6 plays in a single day! On one Saturday, the programme begins with Dr Faustus by Marlowe, and then finishes with Hamlet. These are all clearly abridged; each play is said to last one hour.

I’m going to have to come back.

11 September 2024

Towards the end of last week, I noticed a copy of Bill Bryson’s biography of Shakespeare languishing on my shelves. I can’t remember where it came from; I think it must have been either a Christmas or birthday present. I’m roughly halfway through it, and there’s a lot that I recognise that is also covered in the Greenblatt text.

One thing that really interested me was a reference to other writers. Kyd gets a mention. There was also a reference to someone called Thomas Heywood (Wikipedia) who is said to have written over 200 plays (of which only a small number are said to survive). Who is this Heywood?

13 September 2024

Continuing with independent study, I found a couple of interesting resources on BBC Sounds: an episode of In Our Time that was all about Marlowe, and short three part crime drama, which was all about Marlowe’s death. I have no idea about how they will stretch it out to three hours… If I can find the time to listen, I’ll find out.

I listened to In Our Time early one morning, but fell asleep, waking up at the moment where the presenters were discussing what evidence there is about Marlowe being a spy. I really need to give it another listen when I’m a bit more awake.

As an aside, Marlowe is buried not too far from a new bakery I regularly visit. I’m getting to know Deptford quite well, but I don’t tend to visit too many ale houses.

14 September 2024

Over the last couple of days, I watched an RSC production of Love's Labour's Lost on Drama Online.

To help with my study I downloaded a copy of the text from Project Guttenberg.

When learning plays, I tend to read a synopsis on Wikipedia to help me to figure out what is going on.

An independent study task is to compare the play with As You Like it. Some things that I’m going to look at are: characters, plot, setting, and use of language. Specifically, how verse and prose used? Also, is it a similar length to As You Like It?

I’m not going to write a lot here, since I’m going to let the play sit with me for a while. 

I really liked was the RSC’s staging, especially the context that the production used, which worked really well with the ending, amplifying the themes of the play. I also liked that it had a play within a play, which reminded me of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Two three simplistic points: there was the role of the clown (which has some similarities to As You Like It), and the role that verse plays, and there is a diversity (but a symmetry) of characters.

Another thought that crossed my mind: perhaps I could watch Dr Faustus, which is also available on Drama Online. I’ve heard it mentioned so many times. I know it only by reputation.

I’m keen to get ahead, since I know that I have a challenging couple of months in front of me, where I won’t have an environment that is very conducive to study, whilst doing my best to do my day job.

15 September 2024

As hoped, I watched a production of Dr Faustus through the Drama Online library. What follows are a rough set of notes, since I’m letting it all sit with me for a while. The production was impressive, taking place on two levels in the Greenwich Theatre, which I’ve been to a couple of time before. (I think It was by the same production company with made a version of The Dutchess of Malfi, which we covered on an earlier module).

The play had clear and direct references to scholarship and study. Faustus mentioned the disciplines of medicine, law and divinity, whilst expressing an interest in divinity. This may well link to Marlowe’s experience of being a scholar at Cambridge, and having been from Canterbury (I picked all this up through an episode of In Our Time). Faustus ignored all these subjects in favour of necromancy, where he conjured up a spirit called Mephistophilis who was a constant presence through the play.

I’ve noted down the occasional interesting line, such as “I think hell is a fable”, which I expect had a dramatic effect. There were also regular references to ‘books’, books which provide details about how to do necromancy. This reminded me quite a bit of The Tempest, where there is Prospero. Notably, towards the end of the play, I noted down the words “I’ll burn my books” when Faustus became overwhelmed by the impact of his own actions.

Remembering a discussion from In Our Time, an interesting question to ask is: could Marlowe have written comedies? There were certainly some funny moments in the Drama Online production.

Whilst I was watching Dr Faustus, I was reminded of Harry Potter, and the young wizards use of Latin sounding incantations to execute spells. The thought that is rattling through my head is: how come ghosts, spirits and magic have such a hold on art and literature? Why do they feature so regularly in depictions of the human condition? Not being spiritual at all, and not being a follower of any religion, this is something that I struggle with. This said, this might speak to why I find studying the humanities interesting.

I liked Dr Faustus. Without using too many words, I found it a pretty scary play. The Drama Online struck me as the Elizabethan version of a horror movie.

16 September 2024

I’ve found a series on BBC Sounds called The Shakespeare Sessions. I recently listened to an episode called Exit Burbage which I thought was really interesting. I do recommend it. There’s a reference to an archive in Washington, a recreation of the Blackfriars Theatre in Virginia, a reference to a painting of Burbage in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, which I’ve never visited.

Looking on a map, the road next to Dulwich Picture Gallery is called Burbage Road.

I need to make a visit.

18 September 2024

I’ve finally finished the Bryson book. I enjoyed it. I particularly liked the section where he talks about Shakespeare’s changing reputation over time. There was also a reference to the Folger library, which was mentioned in the podcast I listened to.

Next steps: continue to have a listen to the BBC Sounds series that I found, and finally get onto reading the first chapter of the module block. After this, I’ll return back to the module website to see what else is coming up.

I’m very mindful that I need to continue to get ahead, but I’m also mindful that the module starts soon.

20 September 2024

I went to see a production of Hamlet last night. It took place at a local theatre. I was really looking forward to it. I had been to the ‘studio’ bit of my local theatre, but not the main one, which has a capacity of eight or nine hundred. I was intrigued about what it was going to be like. I was also in for an unexpected surprise; the box office had upgraded my ticket (to make sure the audience gets a bit closer to the stage).

The production was by a company called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men; a name of a company that is mentioned in the module materials (but it obviously wasn’t the same one, having been founded in 2005).

The performance lasted just over two hours, which meant that there were clearly some sections that were cut. Plus, all the actors had to speak pretty quickly to get through all the action. Being a ‘traditional’ company, all the women were played by men. Whilst they did a pretty good job of it, I did question this particular nod towards authenticity.

The pace had a curious effect on how Hamlet came across. The actor who played the miserable prince was positively cheery. This said, he was very good at fencing.

The performance made me reflect on how I related to the play. It’s themes of grief and loss resonated, and its conclusion emphasises potential consequences of it were to become all encompassing. Grief is about life, but grief can cast a shadow over light.

I think I’m beginning to ‘get’ the cathartic role of tragedies.

24 September 2024

A fellow student from our WhatApp group said “it’s starting to get real” after announcing that it was possible to book on tutorials.

I’ve booked onto pretty much everything I could. My diary is now jam packed with interesting sounding events.

It is starting to get real.

25 September 2024

An email from my tutor, which had a link to a very reassuring and thorough introductory video. 

Interestingly, I don’t make a video recording for my undergrad students (yet), but I do for my postgrad students, where make an Adobe Connect empty room recording. 

As a part of his video, he asked two questions: what I was looking forward to (Shakespeare), and what I wasn’t looking forward to (Austen).

No study today; I’ve been too busy marking exams.

30 September 2024

A couple of days ago I heard from my tutor; we exchanged a couple of friendly emails.

I’m aware that this pre-start month is slipping through my fingers and the module is just about to begin. I’ve not done anything of note over the last week, other than vaguely identifying which lever arch file I’m going to use for all my notes.

Next week I’m going to try to start a regular study habit. Before I login to my work inbox, I’m going to spend a bit of quality time with my module materials. There. I’ve written it. I’m hoping to make myself accountable. To myself.

Good luck to all fellow A334 students!

This month has been challenging for a whole host of personal reasons (which I’m not going to be going into). Amidst my personal challenges, I did manage to get away for a two week break, which much needed. During those two weeks I went cycling, tried to do some swimming (I’m not good at swimming) and do some reading for A334.

One of the first things I managed to do was to finish an audio book of Pride and Prejudice. I feel as if I did rush listening to it, since there are bits of the story that I don’t quite grasp, but I do appreciate that there were all kinds of shenanigans happening in Brighton.

I was given a lovely gift for my birthday: a text called Will in the World, by critic Stephen Greenblatt. You could say I devoured it in a couple of sittings. I don’t read many biographies, but when I do, I really enjoy them. This text is what you might call a biography that extensively draws upon Shakespeare’s plays. I really liked it.

I managed to find a BBC Radio 3 production of The Spanish Tragedy, which I listened to whilst reading the recommended course text. The radio production was abridged, which meant that I regularly got lost. I have no idea (yet) what to make of it, but I quite liked what I read, and what I listened to. I have yet to make any notes, or to buy any extensive amounts of stationary to facilitate the making of my notes.

Next up was reading though a version of The Country Wife by William Wycherley. I got completely lost and had no idea what was going on. The most I understood was that there was some cross dressing going on. I’m hoping the module materials (when I got stuck into them) will help me to figure it all out.

Before my holiday, I managed to download a copy of Gulliver’s Travels by Swift. Although I think there is a bit of guidance from the module team about which books to focus on, I found myself reading the whole text. Whilst reading, I remembered a recent television documentary which caused quite a sensation (BBC culture website). Whilst reading Gulliver’s Travels, I remembered of the tone of the documentary, and how its enthusiasm and energy reminded me of Swift’s writing.

What I really loved about Gulliver’s Travels was his summary of academia; there was a lot that I could recognise. A real surprise was that the text has something to say about generative AI, which can be found in his description of something called The Engine (Wikipedia). All this took me on a short journey to Swift’s Wikipedia biography, which was fascinating.

Two texts that I did want to delve into (but didn’t have the time) was The Turkish Embassy Letters (but I had forgotten that there wasn’t a Project Guttenberg version I could download to my Kindle), and the Arabian Nights’ stories.

Since I had watched a production of As You Like It and Julius Caesar before travelling away, I next gave these plays a read. It was interesting reading these plays almost back to back; a contrast between light and dark. Shakespeare really ratchets up the tension in Julius Caesar a bit at a time. I don’t think I would have been able to get as much out of reading the plays if I hadn’t seen two really good productions.

I did have a plan to read Hamlet on a very long train ride, but I found that I had run out of mental energy.

One of the other things that I did was download an audio book version of Persuasion. I think I got up until chapter 5 before losing track of what was going on. I have some very long drives ahead of me in forthcoming months, so I’m sure I’ll be able to find the time, but I might restrict myself to just the bits I need to read for the module materials.

Another thing that I managed to do is to briefly look through the blocks. I have mixed feelings about the poetry in the second block, and was mildly shocked at some of the more racy verses that we have in store a bit later on.

A few days after getting back from my holiday, I finally found my way to the module website, where I started to look at the module guide. I was surprised by the bit that said there was 40% of our weekly study time is going to be spent on independent study. There was also a mention of (potentially) using a blog too. This is going to be interesting.

Perhaps my time spent reading Greenblatt was time very well spent.

I’m worried about one thing: the need to find both the quiet and the time to study everything. I’m in a situation where I can’t get “quiet time” easily, since there’s such a lot going on. Reflecting on this, my approach might well be to get up early in the morning.

My next steps: continue to read the module guide, watch some of the module videos, and start to find my way around the module website.

A question that I’m regularly asked is: “what do I need to submit?”

The answer is pretty simple: you only need to submit a Word single document. Some obvious follow questions are, of course: “what should my Word document contain?” and “I’ve written some software as a part of my project, should I include this? If so, how?” or “During my project, I’ve done a lot of design work, and I have a load of sketches and some prototypes – how can I submit these?”.

A principle to return to this: TM470 is all about showing off. You can ‘show off’ in a couple of different ways. One of the most important sections of your EMA is the section of your report that summarises the account of the work that you have carried out on your project. In this section, you should make sure that you highlight the best bits of work that you have done. This might include a design, a diagram, or bits of code for important functions that may have been particularly develop. If you have a lot of code, or many different screenshots or sketches, choose the best ones, and put all the others within a series of appendices. An important point to remember is: you can include any number of appendices in your EMA report.

A related question that I’m sometimes asked is: “should I include a weblink to some working software, or an app that can be downloaded?” The answer is: no; you don’t have to do this. Whilst your examiner (the reader of your EMA) may appreciate this, there isn’t an obligation to provide links to a working version of any software you have created. Your project report must, however, be sufficiently detailed to ensure they can evaluate the learning that has taken place over the duration of your project.

If your project relates to a particular setting or context, a further practical suggestion is to provide some photographs of that setting. If you are developing an app that solves a problem, you might want to include a photograph of the setting where your app is used. Give your photograph a figure number, and refer to it in the body of your text.

To summarise, you only need to submit a written report, your EMA. You don’t need to need to provide a working prototype, but you do need to provide sufficient detail to ensure that the examiner is convinced about what you have done. If you haven’t got things working at you had hoped, it is okay to say this too; this makes for an interesting report. It isn’t what you have built that is the focus, it is what you have learnt (and demonstrated) through the building of something, and how you write about it that really matters.

On 23 May 24 I attended an AL development event (in my capacity as an OU tutor) that was all about Generative AI (which is abbreviated to here as GenAI). This blog sits alongside a couple of other blogs that I shared last year that also relate to GenAI and what this means for education, distance learning, and education practice.

What follows is some notes that I made during a couple of the sessions I attended, and what points and themes I took away from them. I also share some critical perspectives. Since GenAI is a fast moving subject, not just in terms of the technology, but in terms of policy and institutional responses, what is presented here is also likely to age quickly.

Opening keynote

The event opened with a keynote by Mychelle Pride which had the subtitle: Generative AI in Learning, Teaching and Assessment I won’t summarise it at length. Instead, I’ll share some key points that I noted down.

One important point was that AI isn’t anything new. A couple of useful resources were shared, one from the popular press, How AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Bard work – visual explainer (The Guardian) and another from industry: The rise of generative AI: A timeline of breakthrough innovations (Qualcomm).

An interesting use case was shared through a YouTube video: Be My Eyes Accessibility with GPT-4. Although clearly choreographed, and without any indication of whether any of this was ‘live’, one immediately wonders whether this technology is solving the right problems. Maybe this scenario implicitly implies that visually impaired people should adapt to the sighted world, whereas perhaps a better solution might be for the world to adapt to people with visual impairments? I digress.

There are clear risks. One significant concern lies with the lack of transparency. Tools can be trained with data that contains biases; in computing there’s the notion of GiGO: garbage in, garbage out. There’s also the clear potential that GenAI tools may accept and then propagate misinformation. It is clear that “risks need to be considered, along with the potential opportunities”.

A point was shared from a colleague Michel Wermelinger who was quoted saying “academic conduct is a symptom, not the problem”, which directly takes us to the university’s academic conduct policies about plagiarism.

In this session I learnt a new term: “green light culture”. The point here was that there are a variety of positions that relate to GenAI: in HE there are policy decisions that range from ‘forbid’ to ‘go ahead’.

I made a note of a range of searching questions. One of them was: how might students use Generative AI? It might become a study assistant, it might facilitate language learning, or support with creative projects. Another question was: how could pedagogies be augmented by AI? Also, is there a risk of over dependence in how we use these tools? Could it prevent us from developing skills? How can we assess in a generative AI world? Some answers to this question may be to have project-based assessment, collaborative assessment, to use complex case studies, and to consider the use of oral assessments. 

A point is that students will be using Generative AI in the future, which means that the university has a responsibility to educate students about it

Towards the end of the keynote, there was some talk about all this being revolutionary (I’ll say more about this later). This led onto a closing provocative question: what differentiates you (the tutor) from Generative AI?

During the keynote, some interesting resources were shared:

• Alpha Go Documentary (YouTube)
• Jisc: A Generative AI Primer
• How to use generative AI creatively in Higher Education

Teaching and learning with AI across the curriculum

The aim of a session by Mirjam Hauck was to explore the connection between AI and pedagogy, and to also consider the issue of ethics.

Just like the previous presentation, there were some interesting resources that were shared. One of them was a talk: TED Talk: How AI could save (not destroy) education.

Another resource was a recent book, Practical Pedagogy: 40 New Ways to Teach and Learn by Mike Sharples which students and staff can access through the OU Library.

I had a quick look at it, just to see what these 40 new ways were. Taking a critical perspective, I realised that the vast majority of these approaches were already familiar to me, in one way or another. These are not necessarily ‘new’ but are instead presented in a new way, in a useful compendium. The text also shares a lot of informal web links, which immediately limits the longevity of the text. It does highlight academic articles, but it doesn’t always cite them within a description of a pedagogy. My view is: do consider this text as something that shares a useful set of ideas, rather than something that is definite.

During this session, there were some complementary reflections about how GenAI could be linked with pedagogy: it could be used to help with the generation of ideas (but to be mindful that it might be regenerating ideas and bits of text that may be subject to copyright), play a role within a Socratic dialogue, or act as a digital assistant for learning (which was sometimes called an AIDA – an AI digital assistant).

Power was mentioned in this session, with respect to the power that is exerted by the corporations that develop, run, and deploy AI tools. The point I had in my mind during this part of the session was: ‘do be mindful about who is running these products, why, and that they hope to get from them’.

A brief aside…

Whilst I was prepping this blog, I was sent a related email from Hello World magazine, which is written for computing educators. In that email, there was a podcast which had the title: What is the role of AI in your classroom? 

There was an interesting discussion about assessment, and asking the question of ‘how can this help with pedagogy?’ and ‘how can we adapt our own practices?’ A further question is: ‘is there a risk that we dumb down creativity?’

A scholarship question?

A few times this year tutors have been in touch with me, to ask the question: ‘I’ve seen a students answer in a script that makes me think they may well have used Generative AI. What do I do?’ Copying TMA questions, or any other elements of university materials into a Generative AI tool represents a breach of university policy, and can potentially be viewed as an academic conduct issue. The question is: what do tutors do about this? At the moment, and without any significant evidence, tutors must mark what they have been given.

An important scholarship question to ask is: how many tutors think they are being presented with assessments that may have been produced by Generative AI tools?

Reflections

There was a lot of take on board during this session. I need to find the time to sit down and work through some of the various resources that were shared in this session, which is (in part) the reason for this blog.

When I was a computing undergraduate I went to a couple of short seminars about the development of the internet. When it came to the topic of the web browser, our lecturer said: “this is never going to catch on; who is going to spend time creating all these web pages and HTML tags?” Every day I make use of a web browser; it is, of course, an important bit of software that is embedded within my phone. This connects with an important point: it is notoriously difficult to predict the future, especially when it comes to how technologies are used. There are often unintended consequences, both good and bad.

Being a former student of AI (late in the last century) I’m aware that the fashions that surround AI is cyclical. With each cycle of hype, there are new technologies and tools. Following an early (modern) cycle of AI, I remember a project called SHRDLU, which demonstrated an imaginary world, where users could interact with natural language. This led to an expression that they key challenges had been solved, and all that needs to be done is to scale everything up. Reality, of course, is a whole lot more complicated.

A really important point to bear in mind is that GenAI (in the general sense) cannot reason. You can’t play chess with it. There are, however, other tools within the AI toolset that can do reasoning. As a postgrad student, I had to write an expert system that helped to solve a problem: to figure out a path through a university campus.

I’ve also been around for long enough to see various cycles of hype regarding learning technologies: I joined when e-learning objects were the fashion of the day, then there was the virtual learning environment, and then there was a craze that related to learning analytics. In some respects, the current generation of AI feels like a new (temporary) craze.

Embedding AI into educational tools isn’t anything new. I remember first hearing about the integration of neural networks in the early 2000s.  In 2009 I was employed on a project that intended to provide customised digital resources for learners who have different requirements and needs.

As the models get bigger, more data they hoover up, and the greater potential of these tools generating nonsense. And here lies a paradox: to make effective use of GenAI within education, you need education.

Perhaps there is a difference between generally available generative AI, to generative AI that is aligned to particular contexts. This takes me to an important reflection: no GenAI tool or engine can ever know what your own context is. You might ask it some questions and get a sensible sounding response, but it will not know why you’re asking a question, and what purpose your intended answer may serve. This is why the results produced by a GenAI tool might look terrible, or suspicious if submitted as a part of an assessment. Context is everything, and assessments relate to your personal understanding of very particular learning context.

Although the notion of power and digital corporations was mentioned, there’s another type of power that wasn’t mentioned: electrical power. I don’t have figures to hand, but large language models require an inordinate amount of electrical energy to do what they do. Their use has real environmental consequences. It's easy to forget this.

Here is my view: it is important to be aware of what GenAI is all about, but it is also really important not to get carried away and caught up in what could be thought of as technological froth. It’s also important to always remember that technology can change faster than pedagogy. We need to apply effective pedagogy to teach about technology. 

In my eyes, GenAI, or AI in many of its other forms isn’t a revolution that will change everything, or is an existential threat to humanity; it is an evolution of a set of existing technologies.

It’s important to keep everything in perspective.

Resources

A number of resources were highlighted in this session which are worth having a quick look at:

• Open Learn: An introduction to artificial intelligence – a free short course that also addresses the history of AI.
• Exploring Generative AI: critical skills and ethical use – some useful resources from the OU library.
• Generative AI for students – OU policy guidance for students.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the presenters of this professional development event, and the team that put this event together. Lots to look at, and lots of think about.

7 April 2024

I am procrastinating in a really productive way: I’m reading ahead! I’ve been reading Startdust. It is interesting note that there are a number of different versions. I accidentally downloaded the text only version. What you do need is the illustrated version. The illustrations add a huge amount to the text, since on its own, I found the text quite hard to follow.

I’ve made it part way through the chapter that I shouldn’t be reading.

It’s time to begin to collate all my notes, to prepare for the writing of the TMA. I’ve got notes in two different places: pencil scribbles in the set text, and digital highlights on the PDF version that I’ve been reading using my Kindle. I’ll see how I get on.

12 April 2024

I’ve downloaded an audio book of The Dispossessed. Today I’m helping a friend get settled in his new house. Since it’s quite a drive away, listen to The Dispossessed whilst I’m driving. I found the first couple of chapters unfathomable, and I have no idea what is going on.

13 April 2024

I’m stuck at home with a dodgy ankle that was caused by too much running about, and the messing about with furniture didn’t’ help it one bit. Subsequently, this gives me a bit of time to complete TMA 4! I edit together a set of notes from my reading, I then have a go to edit up my story, and then cycle round a loop of editing a few times. I’m quite pleased with what I’ve written, but less happy with the reflective section, where I’m really struggling with word count. 

I really like Propp’s actants, but I feel pretty dumb, since the extent of my reflection seems to be: ‘I like them, and they have helped me’. I think I know where I’m going to let myself down in the TMA, but it has nearly got to that point where I’ve just got to submit it.

14 April 2024

It’s ‘listening to The Dispossessed’ day. I’m making reasonable progress, but it’s slow and long going. I’ve really got to concentrate to understand what on earth is going on. Since it’s all a bit weird, I don’t know what detail is going to be important, and what detail adds to the overall atmosphere. I don’t think I like it. I glimpsed at the module materials, and there is a comment that the text places demands on the reader. I’m struggling and I’m not even reading it.

It really isn’t good that I’ve fallen asleep twice. On the second occasion I slept through half a chapter. This has never happened.

15 April 2024

One hour of listening before I start work. The Dispossessed has become very weird. Let’s say: I appreciate it, but I don’t like it. I appreciate it’s difficult to predict the future, but spacemen reading books and sending letters? As for all the faux physics, that bit is really starting to grate.

16 April 2024

Another chapter first thing in the morning. The further I get into it, the more I’m drawn to it. I’m surprised at how much action there is!

It’s time to get back to studying a bit more systematically again. I’m back to the online module materials. There are bits that I’ve missed in the previous section, but I need to keep moving forward. It’s onto the video and audio material that relate to Stardust. There are interviews and videos to work through. I’ll skive off a bit of my day job, with the justification that everything I’m doing here is connected (in one way or another).

I’m on a roll: I’ve reviewed all the audio and video clips in the Le Guin weeks, making some notes. My next activity has been to prep a TMA 5 document. Noticing there’s a fair amount of supplementary material, I start to download articles from the library.

Before I’ve finished today, I’m going to have a quick look in the Shakespeare section to see if there’s any audio or video materials I can have a look or listen to.

17 April 2024

Struggling with ankle aches and pains, I join the queue to the GP, whilst listening to chapter 11 of The Dispossessed. 

When I get back from the queue, I make the following post to the A233 ‘laid back’ Facebook group: “I think I've done a 180 turn when it comes to The Dispossessed. I've gone from: 'this is really tedious, and is continually making me fall asleep' to 'this is really amazing stuff!'. Two chapters on the audio book to go. Keep with it; there are Urasti propetarian dividends to be had, even though it initially might sound like a lot of nonsense (if it is your kind of thing).”

I’m now browsing through the Journal of Science Fiction Studies, when I really ought to be browsing through the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. 

It’s all related, right?

During the planning stages of your project, it is really important to consider resources. There is a link between the notion of resources and one of the module learning outcomes:

L03. Identify, list and justify the resources, skills and activities needed to carry out the project successfully. Identify and address any associated risks

To satisfy the requirements for a distinction level project, you need to have:

… identified the resources, skills and activities, the timely availability of which is essential. Has judged risks appropriately.

Resources can be thought of in a couple of ways. Firstly, you should draw upon and use academic resources. Your choice of these resources will make up your literature review chapter. Secondly, there are the resources that you will need to use to get your project done. There is, of course, a link between both of these types of resources and the skills that you need to apply.

There is another link to bear in mind, which is a link to the risks that you have to take account of. Some risks that you identify might lead you choosing certain types of resources over another. Whatever you do, it is going to be important to justify your decisions about what you have done within your project report. Your considerations need to be convincing.

To read more about risk, and how it relates to TM470, it is worth reading an accompanying blog, Considering project risks. 

Academic resources

Your TM470 project is all about building on your earlier learning and studies. This means that you need to identify what academic resource might be useful when thinking about your project. The starting point is, of course, the previous modules you have studied. 

The TM470 module materials has a resource called Preparing a Literature Search, which you should read. To offer some complementary guidance, the following blog offers a bit of guidance: TM470 Understanding the Literature review.

The library also maintains a list of links to online databases that relate to ICT which might be useful. A really important point (which I share to students) is: the OU library is your friend. It is a huge resource. Do make sure you find the time to look at it.

When working on your project, it is worthwhile thinking about the following categories of academic resources:

• Module materials.
• Textbooks that accompany module materials.
• Academic articles (such as those found within academic journals).
• User guides or instruction manuals.
• Technical websites.

It is all very well knowing which modules, textbooks, articles and databases may help you with your project, but when it comes to your TM470 project you actually need to get on and do something. This takes us to the following section, which addresses the question: ‘what do I need to complete my project?’

Resources you need to complete your project

Your TM470 project will be typically based on a level 3 module. The TM470 module team have written a number of few short articles about what a project (which is based on an earlier level 3 module) might look like.

You might want to draw on TM356 Fundamentals of Interaction Design, for example. In doing so, you may wish to apply the interaction design life cycle. With ID projects, students should ideally carry out a number of design iterations, potentially leading to either a high fidelity prototype, or a design of a particularly implemented software tool or system.

There are many different approaches to prototyping. A prototype can, of course, being as a paper prototype, and then lead onto a series of higher fidelity prototypes. Some students have used PowerPoint, for example. There are other tools that could be used, such as Balsamiq, Adobe XD or Figma. When you have created a design, you will need to carry out an evaluation. This leads to the questions: ‘what do we do to carry out an evaluation?’ and ‘what do we need to carry out an evaluation?’.

Unpicking this further, we can identify different broad categories of resources that we might need.

Software: Software products, such as prototyping tools, software development environments, or products to help you manage information or aspects of your project.

People: Put more broadly, the people category includes stakeholders. Stakeholders can be defined as anyone influenced by or affected by a project. People might also be participants; people who might help you with the testing or evaluation of your product.

Tools: Broadly, tools are anything that helps you to do what you need to do. If you’re capturing requirements and interviewing stakeholders, you might want to use a data recorder. If you’re carrying out an evaluation, might choose to make notes about happens.

Facilities: by facilities you might think about rooms, spaces, or physical places where project related activities occur. If you’re gathering requirements and need to run a focus group, you’ll need to find a place where this takes place. If you will be creating software as a part of your project, you will need a computer and maybe some server space to get it working. If you are evaluating an interface, you’ll need to find somewhere to do that evaluation. 

Different projects will require, of course, different resources. Since your project is only small, you should only use what you have easy access to.

The link to skills

By identifying the resources you need for your project, you will begin to think about the skills you have, the skills that you need to apply, and the skills you need to develop.

As mentioned earlier, resources can be thought being in two broad types: academic resources, and resources you need to complete your project. When writing and preparing your literature review, you may well develop your academic reading and critical thinking skills. When it comes to project resources and project management, you may well need specific skills to make progress on your project.

Practical advice

The different two types of resources needed to be treated differently. Think of your literature review as a narrative (or story) of what you have read. Don’t present a summary of papers, or articles that are relevant to your project. Instead, show the examiner what you have read, what readings are going to be useful within your project, and explain why they are important. There are different ways to structure a literature review, but a practical recommendation is to adopt a thematic approach.

Let’s turn to the other type of resources: project resource. In the planning section of your report, create a table that summarises the resources you need. Give each resource a name, and then offer a brief summary of that it is and why it is important to your project. If appropriate, you might even want to provide a reference.

When you have prepared table of resources (which could include different types of software, people, tools, and facilities), it is time to write about skills. Just as you did with your list of resources, create a table that summarises the skills that you will either need to have, or need to master in order to use these resources.

Considering reflection

Identifying the resources and skills that you need is both important and helpful.

When you get to the end of your project, you will need to complete the reflection section. When you get to this bit of your project ask yourself:

• Did you choose the right set of resources?
• Have you developed the skills that you expected to develop?

There is always a further question to ask, which is:

• Have there been any surprises?

There is (or will be) a whole other blog that relates to reflection, and the importance it plays in TM470.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the TM470 project team and fellow TM470 tutors. Although this blog (and other TM470 blogs) are intended to provide useful additional guidance, always refer to the module materials. If you have any questions, please do contact your tutor.