embedding digital skills learning outcomes in the Academic Reading and Writing Course

As I said in my October 2011 posting, I think the learning outcomes for the Academic Reading and Writing Course are generally appropriate, however, what I have been thinking about is how to embed some important basic digital skills learning outcomes in the course. These are:

Use digital skills to complete class work, including emailing lecturer, sending attachments, accessing resources on Moodle, posting to a discussion forum, posting to a Wiki

Use an online learning tool to work on reading skills in self-directed study (Pathways Awarua)

The justification for the new outcomes is to:improve flexibility; enable differentiated learning to cater for students’ needs; and ensure all students have the basic digital skills that will allow them to participate confidently in other programmes that are delivered, at least partly, online

sharing interesting websites in Moodle

Last semester I posted websites I thought might be useful, eg on report writing, in the weekly sections in Moodle. However, I felt this made the Moodle course look more cluttered and potentially overwhelming. This semester I decided to post these links in a word document in the introductory section of the course. I showed this to students in class a couple of times and encouraged them to send me links for me to add. (One student did).

However, the links weren't very visible in this format. Next time, I think I will try set interesting website links up as a topic in the Moodle forum to give them more visibility. This would also make it easier for students to add links.

involving students in writing summaries of class

This semester, I wrote summaries of what we did in each class and posted these as word documents, "Today in class..." in the Academic Reading and Writing Moodle course. These were intended to help students who had missed class to catch up easily, so they didn't fall behind, without taking up a lot of teacher time. I thought students who attended class, but wanted to go over things again, might also find the summaries helpful.

I found the summaries time consuming to write, and they are not 'reusable' beyond this semester. Initially, I delegated a couple of students to help draft the summaries and send these to me. I thought this would be another good way for me to see their writing skills and gave them an authentic purpose for writing. However, I let this slip by the wayside and took over writing the summaries myself. On the one hand this meant the summaries were much fuller and probably more useful to students who had missed the class. On the other hand, I had taken away an opportunity for students to use their developing writing skills for a real purpose.

I'll try to get some student feedback about this activity before deciding on my approach for next semester.

Using a wiki

I am going to try to get the class using a wiki as they collaborate to do research for the report writing assignment. To minimise risk of losing the work on the wiki, I have suggested students also record the information elsewhere - eg in a word document or paper notes. (If they use word, we will need to copy text into notepad' before adding it to the wiki. I'll take copies of what is on the wiki frequently too.

I think this particular collaborative task lends itself to a wiki, as students will research an aspect of sustainability on campus and in Foundation Learning, in pairs. Each pair's research will be added to the wiki. Then all students will use these 'findings' to write their own report. I have assigned one student with good digital skills to be the 'encourager and technical support' person and I also expect to have this role.

As with my wider use of Moodle with the students, I am hoping to build their familiarity with this common learning platform.

Some of my colleagues in Foundation Learning are also enrolled in the Academic Reading and Writing course, so they can also see how the students and I are using Moodle. This helps us learn together about what works - and what doesn't. Some staff come to me with technical questions about using Moodle, the visualiser etc, and I can often problem solve with them, or if not, know where to get help. Because I'm only slightly ahead in my learning, and I'm there on the spot when they need help, it is perhaps easier for me to respond to learning needs. That's what I want too when I'm learning - typical adult learners.