Posts Tagged ‘breakout session B’
Real Challenges in a virtual world
Philippa Sheail gave a fascinating insight into the challenges of information provision in the virtual world as a part-time (16 hours a week outside work) student on the postgraduate MSc in E-Learning at the University of Edinburgh.
The course is taught completely online and she is particularly interested in the debate surrounding ‘e-learning’. Because it’s a huge variety of different things, there needs to be further discussion about what e-learning is and isn’t, she said, and referred to the 2007 and 2009 JISC reports on the subject.
Philippa talked about the different interfaces she uses (VLEs; online discussion boards, Second Life etc) and talked the audience through how she (and fellow students) use them. Students can see who else is online when they need help at any give time, which is useful as students are based globally and work in different time zones. Discussion boards can be a bit intimidating to students not confidence with their level of subject knowledge but can be really useful. For some modules on the course students have to keep a blog which is assessed. Tutorials and virtual corridor chat is via SKYPE and Second Life. Students really appreciate the feeling of being together virtually even when not together in the ‘real’ world. Different University Schools (Management, Education etc) have buildings in Second Life and Graduation ceremonies take place in Second Life and real life simultaneously with the latter filmed and streamed into the virtual environment. Students can talk to each in Second Life with microphones but prefer to send text messages as easier to refer back to earlier ‘conversations’ and keep track of online discussion.
On one particular module of the course, ‘E-Learning and Digital Cultures’ public Twitter feeds are used and generally students are increasingly following academics ‘live’ as a way of developing a greater awareness of the subject and discovering what the academics are particularly interested in. The trail can lead to other academics in the subject area and creates a wider teaching group to students. Zotero is used to see what others are reading too…both peers and tutors.
Advice from the library is to ‘use the advanced search on Google’ at the least but Philippa says she uses Google for cross search all the time (sometimes Google Scholar) and interestingly said that sometimes Google Scholar doesn’t take her to the article she wants but Google will via a link on the author’s blog for example as a ‘free to download’ pdf from their book. She complained that it can be problematic to access journal content sometimes as she needs to remember to log in first or think about where she is trying to access it from first. Is the content in a journal or a database; is an abstract enough of does she need the full article? Often she just needs to get to the full text quickly and doesn’t care how.
‘I love e-books’ she said and highlighted Dawsons and NetLibrary in particular and said that she uses Amazon all the time as a quick and easy interface for finding what exists before going to library to do further research.
All in all, Philippa’s session was very interesting…so much so that I asked her if she would come and visit us at SAGE. I’m sure others would be interested to hear her views too.
The course is taught completely online and she is particularly interested in the debate surrounding ‘e-learning’. Because it’s a huge variety of different things, there needs to be further discussion about what e-learning is and isn’t, she said, and referred to the 2007 and 2009 JISC reports on the subject.
Philippa talked about the different interfaces she uses (VLEs; online discussion boards, Second Life etc) and talked the audience through how she (and fellow students) use them. Students can see who else is online when they need help at any give time, which is useful as students are based globally and work in different time zones. Discussion boards can be a bit intimidating to students not confidence with their level of subject knowledge but can be really useful. For some modules on the course students have to keep a blog which is assessed. Tutorials and virtual corridor chat is via SKYPE and Second Life. Students really appreciate the feeling of being together virtually even when not together in the ‘real’ world. Different University Schools (Management, Education etc) have buildings in Second Life and Graduation ceremonies take place in Second Life and real life simultaneously with the latter filmed and streamed into the virtual environment. Students can talk to each in Second Life with microphones but prefer to send text messages as easier to refer back to earlier ‘conversations’ and keep track of online discussion.
On one particular module of the course, ‘E-Learning and Digital Cultures’ public Twitter feeds are used and generally students are increasingly following academics ‘live’ as a way of developing a greater awareness of the subject and discovering what the academics are particularly interested in. The trail can lead to other academics in the subject area and creates a wider teaching group to students. Zotero is used to see what others are reading too…both peers and tutors.
Advice from the library is to ‘use the advanced search on Google’ at the least but Philippa says she uses Google for cross search all the time (sometimes Google Scholar) and interestingly said that sometimes Google Scholar doesn’t take her to the article she wants but Google will via a link on the author’s blog for example as a ‘free to download’ pdf from their book. She complained that it can be problematic to access journal content sometimes as she needs to remember to log in first or think about where she is trying to access it from first. Is the content in a journal or a database; is an abstract enough of does she need the full article? Often she just needs to get to the full text quickly and doesn’t care how.
‘I love e-books’ she said and highlighted Dawsons and NetLibrary in particular and said that she uses Amazon all the time as a quick and easy interface for finding what exists before going to library to do further research.
All in all, Philippa’s session was very interesting…so much so that I asked her if she would come and visit us at SAGE. I’m sure others would be interested to hear her views too.
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E-book readers in a mobile-friendly library
Breakout Session B: E-book readers in a mobile-friendly library / Alison Brock, Open University
Although e-books have hit critical mass amongst consumers in terms of awareness and increasing interest libraries are yet to progress their e-book agendas due to hardware limitations and licensing restrictions.
Alison Brock reported on the joint Open University and Cranfield University e-reader project. The main aim was to explore students working practice of using e-readers and to see what kinds of content was available to them and to see how this could inform the development of library services.
6 participants from undergraduate to PhD level were chosen at both institutions using 4 Sony PRS-505 and 2 iPod Touch (8GB) devices. Students were given the devices for 3 months starting from August 2009. The devices were not preloaded with content. Since the study the Kindle is now available in the UK and the UK launch of the iPad imminent.
Prior to the survey less than half the group had used e-readers.
Usability
Students found the devices easy to use and easy to read although no specific testing was carried out with visually impaired students. They also liked the portability and lightweight feel of the devices. The colour screen of the iPod Touch and its multipurpose functionality was appreciated, although it’s highly reliant on wi-fi access.
Barriers
The weaknesses predictably centred on difficulties in finding and uploading content to the devices and the single-purpose nature of the Sony. Most participants would not buy either model tested even if they would consider an e-reader. Presumably different answers would be received in a post iPad landscape. The main barriers for use were formatting issues, navigation, the inability to annotate or interact with text and how tiring they are to use. There is also no way to link between books or link out to other content.
Similar studies undertaken in the United States and the UK found similar results. The business model for e-readers is still aimed at single users purchasing individual titles for their devices. Although ePub is the most common format it is not used on all devices - Amazon’s Kindle for example. Users cannot transfer purchases from one device to another. Licensing restricts libraries and library users from downloading e-books to mobile devices. Obviously cost is a factor. If e-readers were priced at a more competitive £50 or below £100 it would encourage more rapid take-up and experimentation among libraries to see how they can best be used for educational purposes.
Most of all it is an area of constant flux. Other manufacturers and consumers are waiting to see how the Apple iPad performs in the market. Google has announced a new tablet device and other companies are following suit. Until the hardware develops and is able to meet the study needs of learners and licensing terms change, academic libraries are unlikely to heavily invest in e-readers on a huge scale for the foreseeable future until it is clearer how they will impact the development of library services.
Although e-books have hit critical mass amongst consumers in terms of awareness and increasing interest libraries are yet to progress their e-book agendas due to hardware limitations and licensing restrictions.
Alison Brock reported on the joint Open University and Cranfield University e-reader project. The main aim was to explore students working practice of using e-readers and to see what kinds of content was available to them and to see how this could inform the development of library services.
6 participants from undergraduate to PhD level were chosen at both institutions using 4 Sony PRS-505 and 2 iPod Touch (8GB) devices. Students were given the devices for 3 months starting from August 2009. The devices were not preloaded with content. Since the study the Kindle is now available in the UK and the UK launch of the iPad imminent.
Prior to the survey less than half the group had used e-readers.
Usability
Students found the devices easy to use and easy to read although no specific testing was carried out with visually impaired students. They also liked the portability and lightweight feel of the devices. The colour screen of the iPod Touch and its multipurpose functionality was appreciated, although it’s highly reliant on wi-fi access.
Barriers
The weaknesses predictably centred on difficulties in finding and uploading content to the devices and the single-purpose nature of the Sony. Most participants would not buy either model tested even if they would consider an e-reader. Presumably different answers would be received in a post iPad landscape. The main barriers for use were formatting issues, navigation, the inability to annotate or interact with text and how tiring they are to use. There is also no way to link between books or link out to other content.
Similar studies undertaken in the United States and the UK found similar results. The business model for e-readers is still aimed at single users purchasing individual titles for their devices. Although ePub is the most common format it is not used on all devices - Amazon’s Kindle for example. Users cannot transfer purchases from one device to another. Licensing restricts libraries and library users from downloading e-books to mobile devices. Obviously cost is a factor. If e-readers were priced at a more competitive £50 or below £100 it would encourage more rapid take-up and experimentation among libraries to see how they can best be used for educational purposes.
Most of all it is an area of constant flux. Other manufacturers and consumers are waiting to see how the Apple iPad performs in the market. Google has announced a new tablet device and other companies are following suit. Until the hardware develops and is able to meet the study needs of learners and licensing terms change, academic libraries are unlikely to heavily invest in e-readers on a huge scale for the foreseeable future until it is clearer how they will impact the development of library services.