Student Perception of Learning and Teaching by VC

Simon Clarke

doi:10.14297/jpaap.v3i1.144

Abstract

This paper explores the student experience of learning and teaching through the medium of videoconferencing (VC), on a range of HE programmes across all the partners of the University of the Highlands (UHI). The primary evidence used are the 190 responses to an online survey made available to any taught HE student at UHI that had taken modules where VC had played a significant role in delivery. Twenty-nine multiple choice, multiple answer and continuous response questions were asked, covering a wide range of subjects from students’ circumstances of study, to how they rated difference aspects of the experience. The study suggests that not only can VC succeed as a mode of educational delivery when undertaken by pioneering staff with a strong interest in educational technology, but it continues to succeed when delivered by an institution’s rank and file teachers, as a mature technology that has lost its novelty value. The much greater sample size of this study compared to those that have been undertaken in the past also provides a quantitative basis for identifying the approaches to teaching which succeed best, and for identifying the groups amongst whom VC is best received. Key factors for success were found to be appropriate allocation and configuration of VC suites, effective training in the use of VC, and teaching that placed a premium on interaction with students. However, social circumstances appear to be as important as substantive quality factors in colouring perception. Students’ rating of the technology as a mode of study seems to be heavily coloured by their access to educational alternatives. Students in remote locations appear more favourably disposed than those in larger campuses, mature students more than school leavers and women more than men. This has important implication for design and marketing of VC mediated degrees in the future.

Highlights

Videoconferencing (VC) has been used to support students at centres remote from their tutors for the better part of two decades
That VC teaching can be routinely used by remote students to access higher education comparable in quality to a face-to-face experience
The study will demonstrate that significant differences exist in the perceived quality of the experience for different types of students, with important implications for how and when VC should be used to maximum advantage

Summary

Introduction

Videoconferencing (VC) has been used to support students at centres remote from their tutors for the better part of two decades. Looking at overall satisfaction filtered by the use of streamed recordings, there is a very strong association between use of the recordings and the most positive responses Amongst those that had never used the service (thirty-seven students in total), 10.81% reported the VC experience “overwhelmingly positive” and 8.11% “wholly inadequate”. Most masters level respondents are enrolled with Orkney College (one of the happiest partners in terms of VC experience), they have a different age profile to other programmes (more mature students, who tend to be more satisfied with the VC experience, see Table 16) and they have a high proportion of participants via Jabber from outside the UHI network. Many of these were glowing endorsements of the VC experience, but clearly students’ attitude was significantly coloured by the availability (or not) of alternative educational opportunity

Conclusions

Findings

20. How did you find the experience?