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In an earlier blog article, I described the structure of an undergraduate honours degree in terms of academic credits (or points). Degrees are organised into modules, and modules attract credit. To gain a degree you need 360 credits.

I am sometimes asked the following question: ‘is a degree from a brick university the same as a degree from the OU?’ The answer is, ‘of course it is’. A related question is, of course, ‘who defines what goes into a degree that makes them the same?’ 

This is where the QAA comes in. QAA, an abbreviation for the Quality Assurance Agency (for Higher Education) is a government quango (a quasi-non-governmental organisation) that defines what goes into a degree. Academics who are writing and delivering modules, and external examiners who help to maintain academic standards all need to know about QAA Benchmark Statements.

Here’s a definition of what they are, taken from the QAA website: “Subject Benchmark Statements describe the nature of study and the benchmark academic standards expected of graduates in specific subject areas, and in respect of particular qualifications. They provide a picture of what graduates in a particular subject might reasonably be expected to know, do and understand at the end of their course or programme.”

What follows is a mild ‘deep dive’ into a couple of subjects: Computing (which I’m involved with teaching), and English Literature (which I’m currently studying). If you are not interested in either of these, you can still find your own subject by having a rummage through the QAA website. An interesting activity would be to see how the learning outcomes for the module that you are tutoring are expressed on the QAA website.

I begin with computing, looking at computer science. I then move to look at Artificial Intelligent (AI) and then software engineering (which is a module I have some responsibility for), before looking at any accompanying QAA guidance that relates to project modules. This is followed by a contrasting look at English. I conclude with some reflections. To give you a good idea of what is contained within the QAA materials, I’m taking liberty of quoting extensively.

Computing

The QAA Computing benchmark statements are presented in two documents: a summary document (the basics), and a more detailed subject statement. At the time of writing, both documents were dated March 2022.

I began by looking at ‘the basics’ document. The purpose of a computing degree is to gives students “the opportunity to explore creative and dynamic technologies” and to “improve their employment prospects in a rapidly evolving global digital skills economy” (p.3). I was also drawn to a comment about assessment, which includes varied methods that are accessible to all students. Assessments should be authentic and tied to real-world contexts and constraints, allowing students to practically demonstrate the skills they have developed” (p.2).

Turning to the larger document, IEEE and ACM computing curricula (1.2, p.3). Before digging to the ACM curriculum and important subtopics within computing, below is a summary of points from the first three sections of the statement that struck me as being interesting and important. 

• Sustainability is to be addressed throughout the curriculum. The curriculum should make students aware of ‘the resource consumption of massive data centres used for cloud computing, and more generally, the environmental costs of both building hardware to support computing and disposing of electronic waste’ (1.16, p.6).
• On the topic ‘content, structure and delivery’, ‘educators should consider the balance between subject-specific and transferable skills development between educational and workforce requirements as courses are developed and maintained’ (3.4., p.15). In other words, learning activities should help students to develop skills that are useful in the workplace.
• On the topic of pedagogy, ‘teaching should encourage students to reflect, evaluate, select, justify, communicate and be innovative in their problem-solving; and prepare them to become adaptable independent learners throughout their lifelong learner-earner journey.’ (3.9, p.16)
• On the topic of defining what is to be learnt, computing ‘curriculum will define the knowledge students will gain and the course learning outcomes indicate the areas in which graduates will have knowledge competence or capability.’ (3.12, p.17)
• Computing is also a practical subject: ‘[t]he hardware and software resources available should facilitate a practical approach to the delivery of the course’ (3.13, p.17). 

Section 4 of the document summarises the benchmark standards, which are divided into the following areas: subject knowledge, understanding and skills, intellectual skills, computational problem solving, practical skills across the computing lifecycle, interpersonal and team working, and professional practice. The professional practice topic includes the importance of working with a legal and ethical framework, understanding the important of equality, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.

Three levels of attainment are outlined: threshold (students must demonstrate a requisite understanding to get a pass), typical (students should demonstrate a sound understanding), excellent (students are to show an exceptional understanding, showing an ability to be creative and innovative).

Curricula summaries

Appendix 3 of the benchmark statement shares some further guidance about what should go in computer science degrees. Educators should be aware of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) curricula recommendations. From here, it is possible to find your way to a digital book, Computer Science Curricula 2023 by Kumar et al. (2023) which was published in January 2024. It is useful to note that the document summarises ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ subjects. 

There are connections between the subject of computing and related named degrees, such as artificial intelligence and software engineering, which are sketched below. This is followed by a brief summary about the importance and significance of project work.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a named degree, but the QAA does not publish its own benchmark statement that is specific to AI. Instead, at the time of writing, it falls under the subject of computing. 

In the ACM 2023 Computer Science curriculum, AI is covered from pages 65 to 86. Two notable points summarise some recent changes: ‘importance of understanding and assessing the broader societal impacts and implications of AI methods and applications, including issues in AI ethics, fairness, trust, and explainability’ and ‘there are explicit goals to develop basic AI literacy and critical thinking in every computer science student’ (p.66).

Important AI topics include searching (for solutions), the use of heuristics, knowledge representation, machine learning, applications and (as mentioned) the societal impact of AI. Machine learning is a significant topic since it can relate to different approaches, and highlights the importance of working with data. Other areas (which are currently considered non-core) includes natural language processing, robotics, and computer vision.

Software engineering

Software engineering, like AI, can be a named degree. Appendix 3 of the QAA benchmark standard (p.34), contains a useful summary of software engineering, suggesting that students need to understand:

• problem definition, specification (including formal specification), design, implementation (including debugging) and maintenance, software testing, change management and documentation;
• cybersecurity, including information security, and safety-critical systems;
• understanding risk, reliability and scalability of the range of possible options and an appreciation of design trade-offs.  (QAA Computing Subject Benchmark Statement, 2022, p.34)

ACM offers some specific guidance about Software engineering courses, specifically SE2014 Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering. In the recent 2023 ACM curriculum book software engineering is covered on pages 237 to 254. Topics that courses should cover includes teamwork, tools, requirements (functional and non-function, which can include sustainability), design, software construction, software refactoring, software reliability, and formal methods. It is interesting to note that formal methods has now been relegated to being a ‘non-core’ subject, which reflects both current trends and practices.

Another source of guidance for educators is something called the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, which is also known as the SWEBOK. The most recent version, SWEBOK V4 was made available towards the end of 2024

Computing projects

When I was an undergraduate in computing in the 1990s, I had to do a computing project towards the end of my degree. The OU’s named Computing degree is formally accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS). This means that students must complete a project to gain a specific named degree.

The QAA benchmark guidance offers comments on the notion of a project in paragraph 3.19: “[c]omputing courses often conclude with a capstone activity, which brings together knowledge and practical and analytical skills that learners have developed throughout the course. This may take the form of a traditional project or end-point assessment, but other formats can be appropriate, whether research or practice-led” (p.18). Students who are studying on degree apprentices will work on a project that integrates together professional practice and independent study. 

The 2023 ACM curriculum book also offers a bit of guidance about projects, suggesting that ‘many of the fundamental topics of software engineering are best experienced in a hands-on fashion’ (p.238) whilst also emphasising the importance of feedback.

English Literature

The QAA benchmark standard for English was published in 2023

It shares the following characteristics of an English degree:

• 'English involves the study of language, literature and the practice of creative writing’ (p.3)
• ‘The study of language, of literary and cultural works, and the production of critical and creative work, enable students to interpret and interrogate past and present cultures, to anticipate their future transformations, and to enhance their ability to understand themselves, other people and our shared world.’ (p.3)
• English graduates should be able to: read critically, analyse texts, reflect critically, develop persuasive interpretations, articulate an understanding of complex texts, communicate, and apply a scholarly approach.

Just like the computing benchmark standards, there are three levels: threshold, typical, and excellent (p.14). To gain a pass, students must meet the threshold level. The benchmark is split into categories: generic skills; subject knowledge; understanding of EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion), access, sustainability and entrepreneurship.

Subject the subject knowledge is understandably quite descriptive, highlighting the importance of close reading of texts, helping students appreciate that different texts can carry multiple meanings, help students to understand the ‘rhetorical properties of texts’ (p.16), including pre-1800 texts, and how culture of the time would have influenced the production of texts. 

When looking through the benchmark standard, the following struck me as both interesting and important:

• ‘English courses often link literature, language or creative practice to sustainability and environmental challenges through exploring the relationship between humans and the natural environment across different periods and discourses, and between different modes and genres of writing. Ecocriticism places the environment at the centre of its interpretative focus.’ (1.15, p.5)
• ‘Creativity is fundamental to all aspects of English. Students of English demonstrate open-mindedness, initiative and independent thinking, as well as abilities in innovation, problem-solving and solution finding.’ (1.21, p.6)
• ‘The subject of English enhances the critical and analytic thinking that is crucial for enterprise and entrepreneurship, by encouraging curiosity, questioning, observation, pattern recognition, and problem identification.’ (1.22, p.6)

Unlike the computing subject benchmarks, there are no detailed appendices that provide pointers to other curriculum summaries.

Reflections

This has become more than a ‘quick’ look at QAA. To prepare this blog, I actually had about three goes of looking through it and reflecting on it before compiling this post.

There are some clear similarities and differences between the computing and English standards. Beginning with computing, I felt the QAA guidance tries to offer a balance of providing sufficient detail to be useful, whilst at the same time offering pointers to organisations which are able to offer a more comprehensive summary of the state of the curriculum in a fast moving field.

I was struck by the extent to which sustainability was emphasised, and I was impressed that it provided pointers toward helpful papers. When digging further into the computing curricula reports, I was struck that computing history is considered to be non-core. Computing clearly has an history, and understanding of how things are they way they are is important to understanding computing practices and tools.

Turning to English, the benchmark statement felt more complete, but I don’t think that should come as a surprise. It was striking was that nothing was mentioned about the canon; texts that are broadly recognised as being significant and worthy of study. This said, the standard wasn’t specific to English literature. This begs the question: do English academics have more of a free reign to choose texts? I have heard of instances where lecturers and students have worked together to study texts that they themselves identify as important.

There are clear points of similarity. There is the importance of skills, knowledge and critical thinking. Both subjects emphasise the importance of academic practice; what it means to study the respective subjects at a degree level.

It is interesting to see close reading emphasised in the English benchmark; it is certainly emphasised within the modules that I have been studying. Computing students have to do close reading too. Rather than analysing novels and poems, computing students need to analyse code. Code has, of course, two audiences: the machine, and software engineers working within the culture in which the software exists. There’s another important similarity, which is perhaps emphasised more in the English degree than it is in the computing degree: the importance of creativity. To get things done, computing students need to study a range of sources (different software components) and combine them together in creative ways.

So, what have I learnt from all this? I now know that the benchmark standards have a consistent structure, and I’ve given myself even more curriculum guidance to look through. I’m going to assume that’s a good thing.

Acknowledgements

I have drawn on the QAA subject benchmarks statements extensively in this post. They are worth spending a bit of time looking at. This article has been written as a part of an eSTEeM project about tutor practice.

I’ve had to read quite a few plays during my study of A334 English literature from Shakespeare to Austen I have found that some plays are easier to read than others; it really does depend on how much I know something about them.

One play I’ve enjoyed reading is Hamlet. To help with my study of the text, I tried an experiment. Could I get an AI chat bot to read Hamlet with me? After a conversation with a friend, I tried Pi, a general purpose chatbot.

We’ve been studying the Arden edition of Hamlet, which is an annotated version of the Q2 edition (if you know about these things). To keep things simple, I focussed on the very start of the play, where Barnardo and Francisco have a chat about keeping watch.

Using my mobile phone and a headset, I told Pi that I would play the role of Barnardo, and that Pi (who I configured to have a male voice) should play the role of Francisco. Pi insisted on saying ‘Francisco says…’, which was really annoying. After a bit of persuasion, Pi agreed just to immediately move onto the next line in the text after I had finished my line.

Although I was initially hopeful that I could have a cool digital performance buddy, things fell apart very quickly; ‘Francisco’ began to say lines that were not in the Q2 edition. Responding to this, I patiently explained which edition I was using, and Pi said something like, ‘okay, I understand, I’ll use the Q2 edition’.

We started again… and it all fell apart. Pi started to speak the wrong lines again.

Knowing that AI models have drawn on resources such as Project Guttenberg, I tried it out on a different play, using a version that we could both have access to: the Project Guttenberg version of Julius Caesar. Out of curiosity, I asked it to speak Mark Antony’s famous speech about Brutus being an honest man.

My reason for asking this was simple: perhaps Pi could be a helpful accessibility tool, and may help me to work through passages of bits of texts that I might have trouble with.

Pi refused. It didn’t want to read the speech for me. It told me that it wasn’t designed to help me in that way.

All this messing about with AI chatbots does beg some interesting questions. To what extent could it be possible to create a digital tool to help with the performance of play texts? I didn’t get too far with the use of a general purpose AI chat bot. My guess is that it would be better to tool that is specific to the problem. I have in my mind something where you could give different voices to different roles. Alternatively, the tool could play real recorded human voices too.

My questions are: what bits of technology could help to do this? There are speech recognition APIs and speech generation APIs. How might it be possible to create the middle bit? How could the idea of virtual actors be used in live performance, or to help to prepare for live performance?

I'm pretty sure there must be something like a text annotation language, to specify how a fragment of text should be read, i.e. whether something should be read slowly, or quickly, or in a friendly tone, or in an angry hurried manner.

Collaborators welcome.

6 December 2024

My deadlines are getting out of hand; not only do I have to write a TMA, I also have to mark up to 20 TMAs. I’m obviously going to prioritise the marking and returning of TMAs for the students that I support over writing my own TMA. There are other things that I have to do, which is writing of exam questions and TMA scenarios for the module that I’m supporting. Plus, there is other life stuff going on too.

My tutor has been really generous with an extension, which I really appreciate. This said, I continue to feel as if I’m getting behind. I also feel that I’m not going to have much time to get any reading done, due to the importance of doing my best to support others.

Part-time study is hard. I always knew this.

What am I going to do?

I’m going to double down on my marking; I’m going to work hard to get some time back.

14 December 2024

I’ve turned my marking around, I’ve got stuck into editing some module materials, and have been supporting those who are around me.

All this has taken me away from the module materials for over a week, and I need to get my head back into the Hamlet space. This weekend is TMA writing, which I’m going to mix up with a bit of cycling, and also a bit of TMA marking (two more scripts have come in over the last couple of days).

I’m beginning the day by making notes, and remembering where I was. By the end of the day, I hope to have identified a number of passages to draw on. If all goes well, I hope to submit in 4 days’ time, which is a lot earlier than my extension.

I have a vague plan over Christmas, which is to try and begin to read the Turkish Ambassador’s letters, but there’s a possibility I might well get distracted by cooking and mince pies.

17 December 2024

Well, my TMA 2 has gone in. I don’t think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written, and there’s a part of me that feels that it isn’t really what the module team was looking for. This said, I think I’ve done a fair job at answering the question.

I’m troubled by two things. The first is that I don’t think I’ve analysed the text as closely as I feel I ought to have done. I have picked out various key bits, and related these to comments from critics, but I don’t think I’ve gone into enough detail about the literary forms and structures. On the subject of critics, I don’t feel as if I’ve got them talking to each other as I would have liked. What I mean is that I don’t feel like I’m positioning myself in the middle of a debate. Perhaps this is something that comes with practice.

I have a vague plan for this morning; to have a quick look at the module website to find out where I supposed to be, and then to look at what I ought to be reading over the Xmas break. I know there are two sections that have passed me by: Donne and Spencer. When I’ve done this, it is back to my day job: editing TMAs and module materials.

Final comment of the day: I’ve looked at the module materials, and I’ve eyeballed the all the remaining TMA questions, as well as the EMA. I think I’m going to quite like TMA 3. TMA 4 looks worrying, but TMA 5, which is about Austen looks like a nightmare. I quite like the EMA, though. I need to choose some texts to base it on.

I’ve got such a lot to do. I need to sort myself out.

18 December 2024

I’ve just watched Simon Schama’s John Donne. A fabulous documentary. I really appreciated the setting; the scenes of trapped office workers, working in offices that were said to be close by the former site of the Fleet Prison. I feel another field trip coming on. This time, a trip to Bread Street, which I might have visited once before. My Kindle is charged, ready for a trip to a hospital reception area, to pick up my reading when I get there.

Back from my visit. It’s been quite a productive day in terms of reading. I’ve been through all the poems in Chapter 8, and it looks like I have two tutorials to catch up on; one that was about Petrarchan poetry, and another about TMA writing (which I missed).

In terms of what I’ve been through today, I recognised one of Donne’s poems, but I have no idea when I first came across it – it might have been a tutor development event; I honestly can’t remember. I quite like the sonnets of Samuel Daniel, but there’s a part of me that want to tell him to ‘get a grip’ and stop being so dramatic.

Looking ahead, to book 2, there’s a lot more poetry to get through. The next section is going to be pretty racy.

19 December 2024

I’ve listened to the tutorial recording about Petrarchan poetry, and I’ve sped through the Write Now tutorial. I feel as if I’ve now caught up a bit, but Spencer remains a bit of a mystery. I’m making a practical decision to not spend any more time looking at The Faerie Queene – it really doesn’t appeal.

The Write Now tutorial was useful, even though I listened to it after having written everything. A worry that I do have is that my essay might have a structure that is over complicated, and I may have covered too much of Hamlet. After having a quick look at it, I’ve decided not to worry. I think it’s okay. I think I know what mark I would give myself, and I would be really pleased if it was higher.

I’ve not got the racy block 2. Instead, I’ve got to return to the marking of TMAs, which is an occupational hazard. I then need to write a few more blog posts to share a bit more material for a project that relates to TM470.

I also need to do a bit of Xmas shopping.

I haven’t done any more Xmas shopping, but I have been listening to (and reading) some of the poems in chapter 1, book 2. Oh, my days…

23 December 2024

My TMA results came back in super quick time. Kudos to my tutor for turning the results around just before the Christmas break. I’m happy with my score (although obviously I would have liked to get a few more marks).

I’m managing to find a few hours here and there. I’ve not been specifically studying the module materials, but I’ve been finding resources that connect to the module materials.

Last night I watched a production to the bawdy play The Country Wife (YouTube). I remember reading a very short discussion in the text notes which considers its genre. It’s certainly a comedy! The characters are ridiculous. This summary I tried to read the play without either listening to or watching a production, or having the useful notes from the start of the set text. My imagination just wasn’t up to it.

In the early hours of one morning, trying to get to sleep, I discovered an In Our Time episode that was about the life of Thomas Wyatt who was covered towards the end of block 1. I listened to quite a bit of it before dropping off. I’ve noted it here, so I know to go back to it. Another poet that I’ve found from Block 1 is Lady Mary Wroth; another programme which is worth listening to.

Turning to the early chapters of Block 2, to complement Simon Schama’s documentary, there’s also this programme about John Donne, which I need to listen to.

Continuing my searching, I’ve discovered a programme about the life of Aphra Behn, a poet, playwright, novelist and spy. I really want to read her biography. There’s hasn’t been a biopic made about her. I feel there should be. The podcast mentions actress Nell Gwyn. I’ve heard of Gwyn, but I don’t know anything about her. There is an episode about Gwynfrom a series called You’re Dead to Me.

Reading through the list of poets in books 2, there are programmes about Thomas Campion (The Early Music Show); Campion being a composer as well as a poet. There’s also a programme on Richard Herrick (Omnibus). There is, of course, an episode of In Our Time about Christopher Marlowe.

There’s a programme about Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress; one from a programme called Free Thinking.  .

Looking a bit further ahead, there’s an episode of In Our Time that relates to The Arabian Nights'. There’s also an audio book version of Gulliver’s Travels. Although there isn’t an audio clip that covers the life of Swift, there is a different episode of In Our Time that explores Swift’s A Modest Proposal .

29 December 2024

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been reading Tartuffe. I quite liked it. I found it an easier read than the block text which summarised the different acts. I found another summary online, and listened a couple of podcasts about it. I guess this all counts as independent study, right?

A couple of days earlier, I had a quick look at the next TMA; there has also been a bit of chat on the WhatApp group about it. I’m not quite sure what option I’m going to do, or what texts I’m going to draw on, but it is really early days.

My objective for today is to get an overview of the online module materials to see what texts might be useful. I’ll also have a delve into any accompanying audio or video recordings.

I had a look through the independent study options for week 12. It looks like that in quite an unstructured way I’ve already done bits and pieces: I’ve listened to an audio recording, have read the introduction to the set text, read a biography of Molière and have read a review of a contemporary (2018) production. I looked for a video of a production through Drama Online, but I couldn’t find anything. Instead, I found a 1983 RSC production on a popular video streaming site, and I was immediately struck by the difference in the translation between the text and the play.

I realised I hadn’t looked at the week 11 independent study options. The suggestions were to look at the poetry of Suckling and Lovelace, find out more about Hobbes and Leviathan, read more about Aphra Behn (from where I discovered a summary of her works) and to practice one’s close readings skills.

Looking forward, there’s audio recordings for The Country Wife (which I need to have a listen to), the chapters on the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Turkish Embassy Letters all before the next TMA. Remembering the TMA question, I think I already know what direction I’m going to move to, but everything will depend on the tutorials.

Back to my proper study (rather than this ‘messing about’) I need to go through the Wycherley chapter pretty sharpish.

30 December 2024

I’ve read the chapter about Wycherley, but I need to go over it again.

I’ve realised that I don’t have the set text for the Arabian Nights, so I’ve downloaded a copy for my Kindle (since the chapter suggested that I should read the introduction of the set text). I hate ordering things from Amazon.

Talking of Amazon, I’ve noticed something weird about the OU ePubs that I’m using on my Kindle Scribe. I can add handwritten notes to my ePub version of books 1 and 3, but I can only save ‘text notes’ (by using a virtual keyboard) in book 2. It must be something to do with the format that is used.

Here’s a summary of the independent study options for Wycherley: read the introduction of the set text (which I’ve partially done), read two articles about restoration theatre, read another libertine play (which looks like an interesting option), and read some criticism. Although I shouldn’t really jump ahead too far, my task for today is to read the introduction of the Arabian Nights, and to go through the accompanying material that is on the module website.

2 November 2024

It’s time to do a bit of catching up. I save all the email notifications about forum posts, and I put them in a separate folder. Before moving towards looking into the detail of the TMA question, I’m going through them all, just to get a sense of what they’re all about. Before making this post, I’ve made four short posts: a comment about The Spanish Tragedy (mostly saying that I don’t yet understand it), one about Julius Caesar, one saying something about Love’s Labour’s Lost, and another one about As You Like it. I really had to struggle to remember what happened in Love’s Labour’s Lost, but I remember adding some notes in the bit of the module website.

Our tutor has posted some FAQ notes, which are helpful. Some points that I’ve noted down are: look at the English Literature Toolkit for guidance about close reading, look the Renaissance Rhetoric document, the module glossary, the Oxford English Dictionary and some OpenLearn resources. The three resources that are relevant are: Approaching plays, Approaching poetry and Approaching prose fiction.

5 November 2024

I’ve started to prepare for my TMA 1, albeit quite late. 

I’ve clicked through to the independent study, and I’ve looked at the suggested options: exploring a 2012 film adaptation (which I’ve watched whilst working through the module materials), read two critical essays (some suggestions are offered), something about Plutarch’s Lives (which are at the back of our set text), and the role of women in Julius Caesar. Although I’ve kind of done the first activity (but not really thought about the setting and direction much), I’m interested in the final activity. This said, what I’m probably going to do, is to quickly read through the introduction of the set text (I’m sure that alternative option is okay!)

Before I get there, I’m just going to remind myself by doing a quick re-read of Chapter 4: Julius Caesar and the shape of Shakespearian tragedy, and have a good look through the additional notes about Renaissance Rhetoric.

7 November 2024

Well, I think I’ve written a reasonable draft of my TMA. I compiled a whole lot of notes together when I was in London yesterday morning. I then continued my reading, writing, and editing this morning, from deepest Lincolnshire. 

Whilst on one hand, I have felt that this one has been a bit of a struggle, I quite enjoyed how it has all come together after putting in the groundwork. I’ve emailed a PDF to myself, so I can do some proofreading on my Kindle in the morning, before making some final edits.

There isn’t much of a break. The next TMA is due to be submitted by mid-December.

8 November 2024

Well, it has gone in. My first TMA for my first level 3 literature module.

I’ve looked ahead: the next chapter is all about Hamlet. I’ve eyeballed the independent study options, and whilst I might have a look at some other sources, I’m quite drawn to the activity of looking at the different versions of the text. At this point, more importantly, I need to make sure I get my head around the chapter of the module materials.

11 November 2024

Slightly worried the next deadline, I got stuck into Hamlet. I began with a video that I found on the module website, followed by a document that highlighted differences in one of Hamlet’s speeches. I then discovered an In Our Time Podcast which I thought was brilliant. The guests spoke about differences between the texts, and the different characters. I’m going to give it another listen. Now that we’ve done an exercise in close reading, I’m going to do my own exercise in close listening.

I’m up to act 4 of the set text, which is Q2, rather than the FF (if you know about this stuff; I didn’t know about this stuff until very recently). I’m surprised at how well I’m following it all. Looking back, I remember seeing two film versions of Hamlet (one with Laurence Olivier, another with Mel Gibson), a recording of an RSC performance, and a live performance in Catford. Each one was, of course, pretty different. A question I’m toying with is: why is there no clown? There are bits of the play which suggests that, perhaps, Hamlet is the clown? I should be done reading it in a couple of days. I’m actually reading it out loud to myself.

The side effect of all this is that I feel as if I’m now talking in iambic pentameter.

A final note for today: my tutor has sent a note encouraging me to start thinking about the EMA question, encouraging me to make notes whilst I do the various independent study option (I’ll share a top level summary of what I’m doing in this blog). It’s a useful reminder. I need to find a few moments to look at the EMA options.

16 November 2024

Catch up day. I’ve chosen independent study option 1 for chapter 5. To make it easy for myself, I’ve put the text in a Word document, adjusted the font to make it bigger, and I’ve emailed it to my Kindle, so I can read it a bit more easily; my eyes are getting old. Plus, I can scribble on it with a digital pen, which will help with understanding the text.

I’ve realised that I’ve already done independent study option for chapter 6: watch a production of Hamlet. You could say I’ve watched quite a few of them.

My plan for today: read The Story of Amleth by Saxo Grammaticus, read chapter 6 of the book, and look at both the TMA and the EMA question.

Okay, I’ve chosen which TMA option I’m going to go with, and I’ve had a first go at finding some sources. I’ve found about five so far. I’m going to email these to my Kindle and hope to read these over the week.

My final bit of work for the day: I know which EMA option I’m going to do. I just need to make a choice about which set texts to choose. There’s quite a bit of time between now and the end of May so I have a bit of time to choose, but I do know that there’s quite a bit of pace to it all.

I’m starting to feel a difference between level 2 and level 3 study. I have a feeling I’m going to puzzle over TMA 2 (and the EMA).

22 November 2024

I’ve fallen off the study train since I’ve had to focus on my day job, where I’ve been going through other module materials. This said, I have been to one interesting and related event; an annual digital humanities workshop, which was facilitated by some colleagues who have been involved with the writing of the modules I’ve been studying.

Yesterday I received my TMA 1 result. I’m pleased with it, but I would have liked a higher score. I’ll be really happy if I can keep this up, but I know it’s going to be a hard slog. There has been loads of chatter on the module WhatsApp group from other students about the return of their TMA results.

The biggest learning point I’m taking away from my TMA is: be more secure in your own opinions, and try to get different sources to play off against each other. Good advice, which I need to remember.

Before delving into my day job in a lot of depth, I’m going to listen to a tutorial that I missed. There was chatter on the WhatsApp forum about that too.

25 November 2024

I feel I’m making a bit of progress, in terms of starting to organise my thoughts for the next TMA. I’ve downloaded about four or five different papers that relate to the TMA theme, and I’ve scribbled on all of them using my Kindle Scribe (or whatever it is called). One of the papers offers a set of useful definitions which I can work with. Another paper articulates the exact same idea that I had about Hamlet. I guess that is encouraging, since that might suggest that I’m starting to think like a critic?

On Wednesday I may have a bit of time to transcribe my annotations and thoughts, so I can begin to order them. In doing this, I hope to crystalise my opinions.

I’m slightly behind on the module planner, but not too behind.

There are some rumours on the WhatApp group about what is in TMA 3. I haven’t looked yet. I feel I can do TMA 2, but the rest are complete mysteries to me.

28 November 2024

I didn’t manage to do any note taking yesterday despite the best of intentions. I hauled all my books to a medical appointment, but there was no way I could find a quiet corner.

I’ve listened to two tutorials this morning. The first was recorded by my own tutor, and the second was by another tutor, which was all about Spencer. Both tutorials were really helpful, even though I’m not doing the Spencer TMA option. It was especially helpful since I’m a bit behind the reading; it shared a framework that will help me understand more clearly the reading.

Next steps? Over the next couple of days there are some really long ‘composite’ tutorials, which should be interesting. When I’ve been to one of those, I’ll be ready to start my TMA. I still need to keep up with the reading, though.

In my day job, I’ve got some tasks where I need to find some headspace some writing that also requires a bit of problem solving.

29 November 2024

Another day, another set of tutorials.

Today we had one about Hamlet, one about Donne, one about Spencer, and one about independent study. The study session focussed more on rhetoric, which I’m quite comfortable with. I recognised all the techniques that were mentioned, but I don’t know the names for everything.

I think I would like to do the earlier independent study option which was to read some essays by Michel de Montaigne.

Now that I’ve attended two tutorials on Hamlet, have written a bunch of notes, I feel I need to write my notes up, pick a few passages and then start to pull everything together.

The module calendar says that I’m now officially behind.

On 20 November 2024 I was attended to attend an OU Digital Humanities annual workshop, which was hosted by the OU Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) and facilitated by Francesca Benatti, Research fFellow in Digital humanities. 

What follows is a brief summary of my impressions of the event, and what I took away from it. I’ve also taken the liberty of mentioning some of the really interesting presentations that were made, and ask for forgiveness for necessary brevity; I share only certain highlights.

Annotating object itineraries in Recogito

The first main presentation was by Sarah Middle, visiting fellow in Classical Studies, and Elton Barker, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture. Sarah introduces us to a tool called Recogito, a Pelagios project that is used for semantic annotation. To share a bit more detail, I understand Recogito to be a tool that can be used to store and record information about museum artifacts.

I confess to not knowing very much about how museum collections are curated and organised. In Sarah’s presentation we were presented with the concept of object itineraries, which was a compelling idea. Artefacts are found at places (at particular times, by individuals or teams). These artefacts end up in museums which, of course, have locations. When artefacts are moved, the spatial relationships between artefacts can be lost. If multiple institutions provide location data, I can see how it is possible to look back in time to see what artefacts were found where, despite artefacts being in different geographic locations. A particular interesting example of artefacts which might have a lot of location history are navigation instruments. Instruments such as sextants and marine clocks have their own unique journeys.

From what I noted down, Recogito Studio permits different types of annotation, such as Geo-Tagger annotation (which doesn’t mean a lot to me). I also noted down a reference for something called CIDOC CRM an ontology for modelling heritage data. Ontologies, a way of organising knowledge about or describing a world, is a term that I’ve come across before. In thinking about all this, a question I asked myself was: can Recogito be thought of as a collaborative and structured Nvivo (which can be used to hold any kinds of data)?

Another project that was mentioned was Peripleo, described as ‘a browser-based map tool which enables the visualisation of information that has a geographical component’. The project used to be funded by JISC and the Andrew Mellon foundation and aimed to help researchers to collaborate with each other, to share ‘linked open data’, and to assist with tool development. The tools can be useful for history, classics, archaeology researchers, and cultural heritage professionals. 

A recognised difficulty lies with keeping a project and accompanying resources alive after it has formally finished. A recent contribution to Pelagios has been made through the OU’s Open Societal Challenges Project, Pelagios: linking online resources through the places they mention.

There’s clearly a whole lot more to these projects than can be summarised in a relatively short presentation. There are tools, methods, ontologies, collaborations, records, and a whole lot of research that has been taking place. I sense this presentation merely scratched the surface, but did surface some really interesting ideas and questions.

From DH OU to DH at Reading

The next presentation was by Dawn Kanter from the Digital Humanities Hub at the University of Reading, who summarised her art history research about portraiture. An obvious question is, of course, what do computers have to do with art history? When we visit the National portrait gallery, we only see the final painting. There are a lot of other interesting details which relate to portraiture that I have never really thought about beyond the obvious question of who the painter was. Other relevant bits of information might be: when did a sitting take place?, where did it take place?, how much did it cost?, and what other portraits did a painter paint? (My begins to get a bit sketchy here, so I might well be making up questions).

Recording sitter information in a portrait-sitting ontology (that word again) translates analogue data into a digital form that can then be studied, searched and scrutinised. In turn, this can help researchers to test hypotheses, such as, when there may have been a movement from traditional portraiture to modern portraiture, which may reflect a moment from formal to informal sittings (if I’ve noted all this down correctly). 

The methodology that is applied in this project is interesting. It moves from an application of an inductive qualitative method, where data is described within a structured ontology, to a deductive method, where the data is then used to answer questions. It is a method goes beyond the notion of mixed qualitative-quantitative data that my social science training has exposed me to. Both stages of the method relies on interpretation, insight and knowledge. The machine becomes a tool for reflection and discovery.

Digital Humanities and email corpora

Rachele De Felice shared something out her linguistics research from email corpora. In other words, she analyses large sets of email messages, looking for how language is used. Email is interesting, since there are some large data sets available, typically from different well known scandals. The use of this kind of data poses some unique challenges. Sometimes email corpora can be in different formats which have to be worked with, and in other situations, the databases contains emails that are incomplete, since sections may have been redacted.

Rachele’s presentation led me to a question: perhaps this blog is becoming a corpus, which reflects an element of activity and work that is taking place within the OU. Accompany questions are: how could it be analysed, and what might a linguistic analysis say?

People and music: exploring their encounters over the centuries

Alba Morales, a Research associate at KMi introduced a project called Meetups. The aim of the project was to provide a tool to enable ‘the exploration and visualisation of encounters between people in the musical world in Europe from c.1800 to c.1945, relying on information extracted from public domain books such as biographies, memoirs and travel writing, and open-access databases’. If it is possible to explore the connections between musicians, then maybe it is possible to understand more about a musician’s collaborations and influences.

The interactions are extracted from public access records. There was the development of a tool chain to extract records from Wikipedia biographies. Tools were then used to explore the resulting database. The presentation led to a thought, which was expressed as a question: what other sources of data might be used?

For the Digital Humanities outsider looking in, this presentation also spoke to me about the importance of data structures and, of course, ontologies. I reflected on a similarity between this project and the project about portraits: both were using digital tools to study artistic outputs in new ways.

Discussion

Rather than summarise what was a wide ranging discussion, I’m going to share a couple of themes or topics that caught my attention. 

A discussion about reading reminded me of the UK Reading Experience Database which I remember being mentioned at another event. On this point, there was a reference to theories of intertexuality; each reader would have read a whole number of other texts. Also, what about texts that have always been digital; texts that have never been printed, but are consumed through digital devices?

Another theme that was discussed was, of course, Generative AI. On this point there was a reference to potentially using AI to capture (and perhaps present) summaries of political discourse; a topic of a presentation which will be made in a forthcoming KMi seminar.

Resources

During the session, I identified a number of different resources that might be useful:

• UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association
• OpenARC, The Open University Arts & Humanities Research Centre
• Open Learn - Digital humanities: humanities research in the digital age

This final resource, a short course, looks particularly helpful.

Reflections

I have been aware of Digital Humanities being a subject of its own for well over a decade. After reading an article that was shared by our former head of school, I have started to adopt the view that computing should be thought as a humanities subject. After all, computing is done by people, for people. People design, use and consume digital media; our humanity is, of course, can be expressed through digital artefacts. 

I remember someone suggesting that artificial intelligence is applied philosophy, since by trying to build ‘intelligence’ we try to understand what it is. In turn, computing can be thought of a subject that mirror, magnifies and reflects, our humanity. After all, it gives us a way to create and engineer tools that help us to look at ourselves and our histories in creative and imaginative ways.

One of the big takeaways was a more thorough understanding of methods. I can see how important it is to examine and study a domain, how important it is to describe or formalise data, how important it is to correctly capture data, and how to interrogate data to answer research questions. The examples that were shared were really helpful.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Andrew Murray, who mentioned this session to me, and to Francesca Benatti who let me join the session. I hope I can attend events in the future.

On Wednesday 30 October 24, the TM470 module team facilitated a module briefing event. On the day, I was only able to attend for a few minutes, so afterwards I went to the recording of the session. What follows are some notes of what I took were the key takeaway points from the session, written from the tutor’s perspective.

Generative AI

The university has devised a simple framework which has been shared to module teams: students muse use, may use, or shouldn’t use generative AI (Gen AI). The TM470 module team position is that students may use Gen AI, but students must use it critically, and clearly (and unambiguously) reference its use. 

This point of clarification led to an interesting discussion. A project might use Gen AI to create resources (such as program code) which may then be critically evaluated and discussed within a project report. A project may evaluate the use of generative AI, but generative AI should not be used to write parts of a report; doing so would be a breach of academic conduct. Students must be clear about what was, and what was not produced by Gen AI.

The module team will share some guidance on the tutor’s forum.

Ethics approvals

The university now has a requirement that all student projects need go through an ethical review process. This now applies to TM470 projects.

Here is a summary of how I currently understand the process that has been set up:

1. A tutor will have a conversation with a student to enable them to understand more about the broad aims of their project.
2. Students complete an online form which aims to collect a summary of their project idea. 
3. The tutor will determine whether the student’s project will meet the criteria for an appropriate project; they either approve a project, or they refer a proposal to the module team.
4. If a project is approved, then students receive a confirmation email which contains some further information and guidance.

To facilitate this process, there is a new TM470 Project Ethics approval portal, which has three views: a student view, a tutor view, and an assessment panel view.

Students submit their form through the student view, where they give a title, and a brief description of their project, and answer set of simple questions. These questions ask whether the project will involve people, may involve animals and/or plants, and how data protection will be dealt with.

From the tutor’s perspective, the portal will share a summary of all the students in your group. When reviewing the student’s ethics form, there will be a space for tutors to respond to the information that a student has shared. You may, for example, offer further guidance, or say that a further conversation is necessary. 

All these records are saved in a simple database which facilitates to the Faculty Board of Studies, showing how everyone has engaged with a process.

Early conversations with tutors is essential, so tutors can potentially steer students away from projects that might be difficult from an ethical perspective.

If there are changes to the aims and intent of a project, there could be either a new form, or additional information could be recorded that a change has taken place.

Changes in module assessment

There have been some important changes to assessment strategy for the forthcoming module presentation.

There will be a greater weighting to the important Computing and IT elements to ensure that the module meets both current and future accreditation standards. There will also be more emphasis that students must demonstrate how they have extended their study of their level 3 modules.

As with earlier presentations, there will remain 5 groups which cover each of the 11 learning outcomes. An important difference is that these learning outcomes will now be more explicit in terms of where to award marks, and what for.

The module team will be sharing a very basic TMA template for students, but tutors are free to suggest their own versions and alternatives. A recommendation is that students adopt whatever template they choose for TMA 1, and then use it for forthcoming TMAs.

TMA 1 will now become more of a proposal: what they aim to do, and how they how to do it. TMA 2 and 3 will be now known as interim reports; TMA 3 will no longer be known as the draft TMA. Students should, of course, write enough to evidence each of the learning outcomes. In other words, students can write more than the 10k word limit, but some practical advice is: don’t go too far over, since if you do, this might influence the ‘communication’ learning outcome.

Reflections

I welcome the introduction of the ethics processes for the simple reason that the processes will help to facilitate conversations between students and tutors. It is also right and appropriate that ideas that relate to projects are scrutinised and considered.

I also welcome the tightening of the criteria that relates to learning outcomes. This can only help with clarity for students, and consistency in marking.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks are extended to Alexis Lansbury and Chris Gardner. A number of TM470 tutors were involved in proofreading the updated guidance.

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.