Online learning environments for large classes in a compulsory commercial law course

Alex SimsJosie Wirjapranata Neda Zdravkovic

http://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/comlaw101/

Setting the scene• Large compulsory course:

If you want to walk out with a Bcom you need to pass COMLAW 101

Large numbers – up to 1000 per course (split into 2 streams for lectures)

Offered three times per year (summer school is only half the length of the other two semesters)• English as an additional language for a very

large proportion of students

Setting the scene (cont)• Perception (unwarranted) that the course is:

too hardboring

• Two librarians (one from law and one from the main library) offered to help create an online interactive/problem solving tutorial/module for students to use in their own time and at their own pace

• This module is the result of those efforts (joint work between the librarians and me and a few others)

Not my idea to have this video up (let along made)– but the librarians were determined to have it there!

Features• Text is at a minimum (will see that as we go

through the presentation) – students don’t like to read! (Although you can’t please everyone as some people have asked for more detail)

• The quizzes (with comments on why answers are correct or incorrect) are the most popular feature – almost all questions taken from old test questions. Indeed students want more and more of them – but there is a danger in quizzes

Example of a quiz

Features• Information is delivered in a variety of ways,

ie:– Text – Photos– Cartoons– Videos– Diagrams

Photos

Photos

http://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/comlaw101/12_2_3.html

Cartoons

http://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/comlaw101/12_2_1.html

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOKT2lS_cas&feature=player_embedded

Diagrams

Features (cont)• Not meant to be just a one way delivery – ie

ethics questions

Features (cont)• Students (and others) are encouraged to post

feedback, pages have a comment section – most comments have been on the quizzes

Challenges• The main people involved in the creation of

the module had not used Coursebuilder before• Didn’t appreciate the amount of work involved

– were only covering about 4½ hours of material!

• Example of workload – creating the glossary of key terms – first cut done by librarians, but I had to go back and essentially rewrite the definitions as most had been taken from dictionaries and were explained in too high a level for the weakest students – also glossary crept into later parts of course and examples used

Challenges• Very practical issues of how to present the

material in a logical and concise way – ended up with two main ways of navigating the module, through:– Mind map– Tabs (some tabs down right hand side – others along

the top etc)

Challenges (cont)• Actually getting students to use it! Feedback

from students who had used it was extremely positive and they wanted the module extended to the rest of the course

• Resourcing an issue – would be great to get a learning technologist in

• Facilitating discussion amongst students

Reflection• May be a little too busy – but good first

attempt• Not really launched and promoted as well as it

could have been for the first semester it was used for

• Bit too optimistic in what could be achieved, was meant to include problem solving – hopefully in next iteration