DIVERSE – Development and Integration of Varying Educational Resources and Student

EngagementBen Trott & Max WoollardDr. John C. Murray – PI

What is DIVERSE?Academic Research

• A cross-departmental study of the use of ‘resource clouds’ for subject research, peer-review and validation of materials.

• A 'learning analytics' project that will study students' use of web resources and provide real time data to Academic Tutors, Educational Developers and Subject Librarians.

• A Student as Producer project that aims to make students become collaborators in their course design.

What is DIVERSE?Student Focus

• DIVERSE– Development and Integration of Varying Educational Resources and Student Engagement.

• DIVERSE is a social collaboration based virtual learning tool.– Combines social networking aspects with research within education

• DIVERSE is all about getting students more involved with their studies.– Student as Producer vs Student as Consumer

Student as Producer

• Spear-headed by the University of Lincoln

• Shift in paradigm from consumer to producer

• About getting students actively involved in their studies

• Making student research more dominant in the role of teaching

The basis of DIVERSE

• DIVERSE is a tool for constructing resource clouds.– A collaborative store of resources and materials.

• DIVERSE allows students to share and interact with resources, collaborating together.

• DIVERSE aims to make the student experience more interactive.

Resource Cloud

• A resource cloud is created for each topic

• Students add new resources to this cloud– Those they feel are relevant to the ‘cloud topic’

• A link icon is automatically added depending on the resource type

• Icons are easier to interpret compared to a list of resources

Facebook BlogMarks YouTube RSS Feed Digg

Cloud Dynamics

The icons within a ‘Resource Cloud’ have several meanings:

• The image indicates the type of content by source• The size of the icon determines its subject specific ‘usefulness’

• As voted by the students themselves• Smallest – deemed least useful/relevant• Largest – deemed most useful/relevant

Resource Clouds

Linking with VLEs

Towards 'Learning Analytics'

• DIVERSE not only provides a resource rich environment created by and for students.– Learning analytics can be harvested from DIVERSE

– Currently Tracked Stats (per cloud):– Number of users (over time)– Number of Resources (over time)– Individual Resource usage– Individual Resource ranking– Percentage of ‘type’ of resource

Example Data

Benefits for Students and Staff Promotes democratic, agile course design

- gives students a voice Provides insight into student digital literacy

More relevant and timely library acquisitions based on analytics

More integrated educational development based on tight feedback loops

Evidence-informed teaching and learning New starting point for assignments and revision

Resource Clouds

DIVERSE Site

http://diverse.lincoln.ac.ukhttp://diverse.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk

Questions?

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