1. Introduction

By using technology that is already being exploited by students for social networking and for entertainment purposes is it possible that we can harness this enthusiasm to our advantage?  The emergence of Web 2.0 which has been defined by O’Reilly (O’Reilly, 2007, p. 17) as “an architecture of participation” has allowed educators to explore new methods of engaging and motivating students. 

Highly engaged and motivated students have been thought to be less likely to drop out of education and to have increased academic success (Blank, 1997). However, keeping students engaged and motivated is a challenge that most lecturers encounter. Student motivation "refers to a student's willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in, the learning process" (Bomia et al., 1997, p.1).   Research has shown that lecturers can influence student motivation and that there are methods to help make coursework and assignments more engaging and more effective for students (Anderman and Midgley, 1998).

This case study focuses on first and second year computing students who are required to keep a weekly blog for eight weeks, from week four to week eleven of the first semester.  The blogs are marked weekly.  The total amount of marks available over the eight week period contributes 50% of the of coursework total.  A marking guide was provided in advance so students could see how this part of the assignment would be assessed.

1.2 Aims

The aim of this project is to use weekly completed and assessed web logs (blogs) as a tool to follow the development of a piece of coursework, to monitor student engagement and to ascertain whether or not the depth or frequency of engagement has an effect on overall module marks.  A distinction will be drawn between measuring the quality and quantity of student engagement.

Students will complete the journal online each week for eight consecutive weeks.  The journals can be viewed by everyone on the World Wide Web but not edited by anyone other than the student and there is no opportunity for a third party to post a comment.  The journals will be marked each week and results and feedback will be available during the following week’s lab class (if requested by the student) allowing students to quickly reflect and respond if necessary. 

The objective of the project is to;

•          add an extra dimension to existing criterion by which student achievement is measured i.e. coursework and examination, by asking students to write about their learning,

•          measure student engagement on a weekly basis over an eight week period,

•          ascertain if those students who engage weekly gain a higher overall module marks,

•          establish if the quality of the engagement lead to different marks,

•          compare the student’s marks with previous year’s marks when the blogs ran for six  weeks instead of eight and accounted for 30% of the coursework marks rather than 50%.

Based on the literature a number of empirical evaluations would need to be employed in order to give a comprehensive assessment of the project.  Would the marks received for the blogs be relative to the overall module marks?  Would the same students who scored well in the blogs get equally good marks in the end of semester examination? Or could there be a case drawn to demonstrate that using weekly deliverables (in the form of blogs) would mean that students, by definition were engaged for the whole eight weeks of this assessment period and therefore earned better marks?

1.3 Educational objectives

The educational objective of this piece of coursework was to encourage students to work at a steady pace throughout the semester rather that leaving everything until the end to provide students with examples of good practice and of good design which could inform their own design choices, and to engage the students in their own learning whilst helping them develop the writing skills many lacked.  The benefits to the students included improved writing skills and more confidence in their own abilities.  The benefits to the module co-ordinator included an indication as to whether or not learning outcomes had been achieved and whether the module had met student expectations.

Learning outcomes for the module

Upon the successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

(i) Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the fundamental multimedia

concepts,

(ii) Use such knowledge and understanding in the implementation of interactive

multimedia solutions using multimedia authoring software,

(iii) Effectively communicate and justify basic technical choices that were made    when implementing interactive multimedia solutions.

2. Literature Review

Are motivated students also engaged students?

Motivation can be divided into two categories, extrinsic and intrinsic. As defined by Deci and Ryan:

“…Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation to perform an activity simply for the pleasure and satisfaction that accompany the action (Noels, Clément, p.24)”.  Extrinsically motivated students engage in learning ‘purely for the sake of attaining a reward or for avoiding some punishment’ (Dev, 1997, p.18).  Fazey and Fazey (2001, p.357) concluded that ... students scored significantly higher on extrinsic motivation than on intrinsic motivation.  Similarly, Lumsden (1994) suggests that not only do intrinsically motivated student achieve more but that using extrinsically motivators to engage student can have a detrimental affect on their learning and motivation.  Extrinsically motivated students can be seen to exert only enough effort to achieve the bare minimum mark.  Indeed Brooks et al. (1998) noted that external rewards can ‘decrease interest in the task, thereby diminishing the likelihood that the task will be continued in the future’.

Nystrand and Gamoran (1992) define two distinct types of student engagement. Firstly the student’s willingness to participate in everyday learning activities such as attending classes and submitting required assignments. The second focuses on the cognitive and behavioural engagement in specific tasks.  A cognitive approach could include students attempting to integrate new knowledge with existing, in order to understand more.  Students exhibiting a behavioural approach follow rules and participate in planned activities.  Skinner & Belmont (1993) suggest that the opposite of engagement is disaffection and that disaffected students give up easily in the face of challenges and can be bored by learning.

Blog entries were assessed and students were awarded weekly marks.  These online activities or E-Tivities are described by Gilly Salmon in E-Tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning (2002).   Gilly Salmon explores E-tivities and describes them as a framework for enhancing active and participative online learning by individuals and groups.

E-tivities are

·      Motivating, engaging and purposeful

·      Based on interaction between learners/students/participants mainly through written message contributions

·      Designed and led by an e-moderator

·      Asynchronous (i.e. take place over time)

(Salmon, 2002, p.102)

Key features of e-tivities

·      A small piece of information, stimulus or challenge (the ‘spark’)

·      Online activity which includes individual participants posting a contribution

·      An interactive or participative element- such as responding to the postings of others

·      Summary, feedback or critique from an e-moderator (the ‘plenary’)

·      All the instructions to take part are available in one online message.

(Salmon, 2002, p.102 )

In this case study it is unlikely given the amount of time and probable length of each weekly blog entry, that they will involve critical thinking. They tend to be simply reportage or narrative rather than an analysis and evaluation of ideas and arguments.  The aim for pedagogic purposes was, to demonstrate and extend student learning and to encourage self-awareness. Salmon (p.102) suggests that at the development stage of e-tivities students gain insight and begin to make judgements on the experience and knowledge surfaced and built.

It is widely acknowledged that Kobl’s model forms the fundamental concepts towards our understanding and explaining human learning behaviour, and towards helping others to learn.  Kolb's model sets out four distinct learning styles which are based on a four-stage learning cycle.  This offers both a way to understand individual people's different learning styles, and also an explanation of a cycle of learning that applies to us all.

It is generally accepted that students learn in many different ways and therefore as teachers we should teach and assess using various methods to allow for different strengths and talents.  The passive method of teaching where teachers teach and students listen still dominates university programmes with little regard for the depth of engagement.  A different approach suggested by Newmann, and Wehlage (1992) in their ‘Five Standards of Authentic Instruction’ suggests that the following be measured.  Firstly, higher-order thinking which first became a major educational agenda item with the publication of Bloom et al's taxonomy (1956) of educational objectives where students are required to manipulate information rather than just reciting it. Newmann, and Wehlage also believe that it is important to assesses the students’ depth of knowledge and understanding as well as measuring the extent to which the class has value and meaning beyond the instructional context.

Substantive conversation, the fourth of Newmann, and Wehlage’s standards assesses the extent of talking to learn and understand the substance of a subject.  This is supported by Courter, Wright, and Kwako’s paper ‘Work in Progress – Transforming College Teaching Courses into More Authentic Experiences’ (2005) where they conclude that;

“In substantive conversation, each person is trying to express a point of view, to understand why others have their viewpoints, or to arrive at a solution to a problem that neither has previously is the most difficult.” (p.?)

Finally Newmann, and Wehlage’ support the idea that social support for student achievement is key to engagement and that the social support scale involves high expectations, respect, and inclusion of all students in the learning process.

3. Ethics

Whilst it is ethically important to inform the students on the module of the research project it has been considered that informed consent for the evaluation questionnaires was unnecessary in this situation (UU guidelines support this).  The project has been running for three years and there is no risk to the student’s personal rights or possibility of the student being exposed to undue stress.  The blog is now one of the assessed aspects of the modules and as such compulsory.  However the Head of the School of Computing and Mathematics (appendix l) has been consulted and he believes this to be a worthy research project.

Informed consent was sought for the interviewees.  This was in writing and was obtained on the days of the meeting (appendix ll).

All students were given a frank and full account of the research project at the beginning of the semester and were given an opportunity to read the outcomes of the project (posted on my web site).

Individual pieces of students work will be anonymised and all information treated with the strictest of confidentiality.  The research will explore the value of using blogs as a tool to support student engagement however it is hoped that the final report may be of benefit to both the school and those who took part.   The benefits to the school may be reflected in improved retention rates due to increased engagement.  Furthermore, because module coordinators can identify a lack of engagement from individual students very quickly (weekly) they can respond rapidly and intervene, again possibly improving retention rates.

4. Research Design

4.1 Orienting decisions

The time scale for the project is limited to eight weeks in semester one.  During this period the students will keep a reflective blog detailing the weekly progress of their second piece of coursework.  The blogs will be marked weekly.

The results of the research will be of use to academics interested in student engagement and motivation especially in first year students.

5. Methods and Methodology

5.1 Methodology

Traditionally computing science adopts a positivist philosophy to research.  The logical analysis of structured data sits well within the discipline, however this objective concept can cause problems for qualitative research.  Even though the use of qualitative methods can be challenging in science based disciplines they are indisputably right when collecting opinions, beliefs and feelings.  Jong et al (1998, p. 745-758) point out that it is important to match the methods used to the problem being studied, and to the constraints imposed by the situation.  There is considerable deliberation about the nature of Computing Education research, Holmboe et al (2001) because it requires a quantum shift in thinking for a scientist to accept the concept of subjective rather than objective research to accept that there could be more than one right answer.