Using Interactive Elements Between Disciplines

A range of web based activities developed for individual and specific learning contexts are described. These learning re s o u rces reuse Flash programs which cre a t e the interaction and are, essentially, free of subject content.. Wo rking closely with academic staff across the institution, each development is highly specific and contex-tualised within discipline. The rationale for individual projects and process of specification, design, development and evaluation is described along with examples.


I n t r o d u c t i o n
Multimedia learning technologies can provide a rich interactive learning e n v i ronment that can be used in scheduled classes, for independent study or distance learning.Multimedia re s o u rces are, howe ve r, expensive to produce leading to an i n t e rest in the development of reusable learning objects (RLOs).Controversy exists over how an RLO may be defined.Koper (2001) provides a re v i ew of definitions applied to learning objects, the minimal being "any object that is used to enhance teaching".To be useful a more complex definition is needed which is where c o n t roversy develops.De velopments within learning technologies follow and are influenced by evolution in the IT industry where component based arc h i t e c t u re is i n c reasingly used in programming as there is no point re i n venting the wheel.Si m i l a r l y, within learning technology there is a move away from individual computer aided learning (CAL) packages for isolated use tow a rds the creation and re p u r p o s i n g of simpler learning objects that can be embedded into the curriculum.
Cu r rent constructivist models of education acknowledge that learning invo l ves more than the acquisition of knowledge, facts and technical skills.Learners need to use information to construct their own understanding (Pa l i n c s a r, 1998) to integrate it with their current understanding.Jonassen (2002) identifies a number of educational o b j e c t i ves that should be met to fulfill the re q u i rements of a constructivist learning e n v i ronment.The environment should provide opportunities for active, constru c t i ve , c o l l a b o r a t i ve, intentional, complex, contextual, conversational, and re f l e c t i ve learning.The objects described in this study are specific, they have been deve l o p e d for a specific reason: to address a particular difficulty arising from current teaching practices or in response to changing student needs as a result of the widening part i cipation and lifelong learning agendas.Each object is embedded and contextualised within the subject and the curriculum, including assessment, modified appro p r i a t e l y to produce a coherent learning experience.Howe ve r, the templates themselves are the multimedia web instructions, usually with Flash animations, describing the interaction with no subject content, effectively empty boxes.These templates are intended to be simple, attract students and have a strong games influence to motiva t e students from non-traditional backgrounds to interact with the subject content.All the templates use web technology and are remotely accessible either from websites or a virtual learning environment (VLE) Web-CT in addition to use during timetabled l e c t u res and work s h o p s .
The projects described here re p resent collaborations between subject specialists, learning technologists and education developers in a range of disciplines across the

Using In t e ra c t i ve Elements Be t ween Disciplines
Sieber et al ( 2004) Sieber et al (2004) u n i ve r s i t y.The development cycle begins through dialogue with academic staff with the aim of identifying specific areas of difficulty in their current teaching.Each d e velopment has been designed to address a specific issue: limited contact with teachers due to distance or part-time study, poor motivation, difficulties understanding basic concepts, or the need to re i n f o rce rote learning.Once the p roblem has been identified, alternative technological solutions are proposed and p rototypes built rapidly.Separate evaluations are carried out on the prototype to establish both student and staff reactions to the materials.In some instances, there h a ve been significant discrepancies between the two.For example, at early stages in the specification of a development for community nurses on day release, staff vo i c e d concerns that the students might have low IT skills and have limited access to PCs.Discussions with the students, howe ve r, showed that they all had access to a PC and the Internet from home and we re confident users with re l a t i vely developed IT skills.Once these evaluations have been carried out the materials are revised and ree valuated in terms of technical performance, student attitude and learning outcomes.A variety of evaluation methods have been used, each appropriate to the d e velopment.An iterative process of development and evaluation continues t h roughout the life-cycle of an object.
London Me t ropolitan Un i versity (LMU) is located in north east London, the majority of students are drawn from the local racially and culturally dive r s e populations, many are non-native English speakers.Only 12% of students in the business school we re standard A-level entrants (QAA Subject Re v i ew 2002) and only 25% come from families with previous experience of HE.Many failed during their school education, are ove rcoming painful experiences and have little self-confidence ( Sinfield, Burns and Ho l l e y, 2003).These students have to combine study with paid e m p l oyment, working an average of 15 hours a week in addition to their studies and family commitments.Only 50% have access to a computer outside the institution.The challenge with new technology is to balance the paradigm identified by Mi c k and Fournier (cited in Rudestam and Schoenholtz-Read, 2002), where successful operation of new technology can lead to a greater sense of intelligence and efficacy, but failure can evoke feelings of stupidity and ineptitude in both staff and students.
Each of the case studies described below was developed in response to a specific need, identified during course evaluation to address a problem re c o g n i zed during course d e l i ve ry or, in for new courses to address a potential problem.Brief rationale for these developments demonstrated here are given along with the web-based examples.
As each development was developed specifically to address an individual teaching situation their specific aims, stru c t u re and use we re different.Although each pro j e c t Journal of In t e r a c t i ve Media in Education, 2004 (16) had a separate inception a marked commonality was observed in student response to these developments and in how the staff used them in their teaching.In several cases, the academic staff invo l ved in these developments we re studying for Po s t g r a d u a t e C e rtificates in Teaching and Learning in HE or the Applying Learning Te c h n o l o g i e s masters module themselve s .
Although these developments cover a range of subjects and disciplines they we re all carried out at LMU No rth Campus with its own mission statement and student body.Some of the problems they we re intended to ove rcome; poor performance, limited attendance, the need for distance study are common to most courses.W h e re an a p p roach was successful and well re c e i ved by students, it was demonstrated to academic staff and used as an example to inform future developments.So m e interactions we re developed specifically to address a particular problem, for example the pairs game was designed to provide re i n f o rcement of essentially rote learning whilst inserting text was developed to allow text entry without typing (to pre ve n t students with poor keyboard skills from being disadvantaged) both interactions we re easy to demonstrate and reuse in a different contexts.
Evaluation was built into the development cycle, where possible students used early p rototypes and their feedback was used to inform modifications and furt h e r d e velopment.Both the developers and teaching staff observe students as they use the materials and verbal feedback is collected during classes.In some cases eva l u a t i o n q u e s t i o n n a i res we re used during the development process and questions on the LT we re included in routine module monitoring.Since each of these re s o u rces was d e veloped for a specific course the opportunity for evaluation was constrained by the teaching re q u i rements and timescale of the course.For example, evaluation of the distance course using "Talking Heads" was constrained by the teaching being in Hong Kong.In this instance student comments we re re p o rted by staff on their return.Detailed evaluations we re carried out on one of the text insertion exe rc i s e s (Ja va programming) in terms of performance and learning outcomes which showed a measurable 15% increase in mean module mark

. Case Study One: Talking Heads
This website was developed following concerns of staff teaching community nursing.These mature students are geographically dispersed, meet only during weekly classes and work at health centres.In response to changes in their role, community nurses can now prescribe medication directly to patients.The aims of this interve n t i o n we re, to introduce the teaching staff to students, to create a set of re s o u rces to help

Using In t e ra c t i ve Elements Be t ween Disciplines
Sieber et al (2004) nurses develop both the skills and confidence to prescribe and to provide a means of communication between the students themselves and other practitioners.

. Case Study Two: Pairs Game
The pairs game, based on the children's card game Happy Families, aims to prov i d e re i n f o rcement for rote learning.The interaction re q u i res selecting two cards from a display on the screen and until a pair with re l e vant content are identified.T h i s template was used on the nurses prescribing course described above to help students learn the meanings for the acronyms that appear on prescribed medicines and on p rescriptions.In this case the player wins when both the term and its acronym are exposed, for example Prescription Only Medicine and POM.

. Case Study Three: Inserting Te x t
During the development of materials for the modern language courses the need for another template was identified.Interaction is an important aspect of e-learning and the opportunity for students to insert a text response to a question is va l u a b l e .Howe ve r, feedback must be predetermined and included in the programme ro u t i n e .
It is easy to elicit a single word or simple phrase as a response and identify the corre c t a n s we r.Howe ve r, this will not accommodate poor typing or spelling mistakes and an essentially correct answer will be rejected.Templates we re developed that gave the user text set in boxes that they we re asked to arrange in the correct ord e r, ove rc o m i n g the need for text entries.This provides an interactive exe rcise that allowed students to develop their understanding of syntax and grammar without the complication of t y p i n g .The text insertion interaction has been reused a number of times during a major d e velopment to teach Ja va programming to first year undergraduates.Prior to the redesign of this course there was a 40% pass rate.The module was re s t ru c t u red, team teaching introduced and a weekly series of scheduled multimedia classes intro d u c e d .Multimedia classes we re held in an IT teaching room with staff present.Each individual session included a virtual demonstration of key principles, access to l e c t u re materials and a series of interactive exe rcises.Syntax is an important aspect of any programming, again we wished to ove rcome problems resulting from typing and spelling mistakes or to disadvantage students with low IT skills.The text insert i o n template described above was reused on a number of occasions. http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2004/16/demo/java/lm_jav1_softob_t.htm Redesigning an entire first year module invo l ved collaboration between the academic staff responsible for the module, curriculum specialists, learning technologists and multimedia developers.The effect of these innovations has been extensive l y e valuated.Comparing exam performance of the previous cohort of students, with c o n ventional face to face teaching, 200-2 with that of students taught with the

Using In t e ra c t i ve Elements Be t ween Disciplines
Sieber et al ( 2004) revised delive ry, team teaching and multimedia activities there was a measurable 15% i n c rease in mean mark (Boyle, Bradley and Haynes, 2003).

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Case Study Four: Animations

. 1 Incoterms : Inco Dive for International Purchasing and Supply Module
This series of interactions was developed for an advanced level course in International Pu rchasing.Two distinct types of participants take this course; mature students working in industry studying for a professional qualification by day re l e a s e and a group of young full-time students.Re s e a rch indicated that both groups had difficulties learning the series of terms (Incoterms) describing the stages and documentation necessary to move goods from one country to another.The In c o t e r m s Challenge was designed with the intention that students would learn the terms t h rough interacting with the materials and playing the games, the challenge itself to m o t i vate students to work through the materials.Users can only enter the challenge once they have completed all sections of the material and this game allowed students to compete against one another as a rew a rd.Animated swimmers we re incorporated into the game to act as a memory aid and as a stimulant to encourage users to engage with the game.Early student evaluations showed that initial concern that the mature cohort of students might find this games approach trivial or patronizing we re found unprove n .
T h e re was a marked contrast between the professional students who we re confident of their IT skills and the undergraduates of whom about 25% had difficulties logging onto the network, opening a browser running and accessing the site and could only access the site with assistance.(Holley & Haynes 2003).

. 2 Basic Probability
Students on science courses often have limited understanding of numbers, p robability and experience difficulties understanding the basic concepts of statistics and data analysis as a result.A range of interactive e-activities we re developed for a c o m p u l s o ry second year re s e a rch methods module for sports scientists (N=30) with the intention of ove rcoming this barrier.Many people say they are "afraid" or "no Journal of In t e r a c t i ve Media in Education, 2004 (16) good at maths".These feelings often arise from poor learning experiences during p revious education, students have failed to grasp a basic understanding of numbers.
The intention of the materials described here was to initially present a basic concept, ratios and probabilities, in a simple context using a games approach.In this example d i f f e rent coloured swimmers we re used and the student invited to play with the model.Fu rther activities provide subject-based context for the concept.Because this activity is simple and decontextualized these materials can be used for a variety of classes and levels of student and are now used for year 0 (400 Hi Tec students) and first year undergraduates across the science faculty in scheduled IT classes. http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2004/16/demo/sports_science/index.htm

. D i s c u s s i o n
The paradigm underpinning these developments was to provide a rich interactive s t u d e n t -c e n t red learning experience placing the user in control of their enviro n m e n t within a constructivist framew o rk.Engagement with the e-learning materials was intended to stimulate deep learning (Ramsden, 1992;Biggs 1999) although in some cases, for example Epacks and Incoterms, the learning invo l ved was essentially by rote.Littlejohn (2003) discusses seven issues relating to the reuse of learning objects.
A number of which we re demonstrated during the present study.The deve l o p m e n t s described here resulted from collaboration between learning technologies and academic subjects specialists, some developments invo l ved larger collaborations, becoming part of a larger change involving team teaching and complete re s t ru c t u r i n g of the curriculum.The LO was no longer an added extra to enhance teaching but an integral and integrated part of the curriculum.In t e rventions are designed individually and are specific to the needs of the situation, indeed projects are a p p roached from the problems that need solving not the technology.Gi ven a collection of content-free templates where it is technically easy to add content and repurpose creating bespoke re s o u rces for different disciplines is re l a t i vely simple.T h e templates themselves are small and may be used and reused in alone or combined to c reate a series of events.An unforeseen effect was the number of different ways a single academic would find to use an object.These materials can be used with a data p rojector and staff frequently used them for demonstrations during face-to-face l e c t u res in addition to scheduled CAL classes and distance learning tools via the V L E and the we b.Some groups of students accessed the materials extensively from open access PCs on campus, effectively working as distance learners whilst on site.T h i s p re f e rence did not appear to result from limited external access to PCs but from the o p p o rtunity for informal collaboration with colleagues.Ex t e n s i ve use of the materials was noted during revision periods.

Using In t e ra c t i ve Elements Be t ween Disciplines
Sieber et al ( 2004) These RLOs have a number of advantages over bespoke CAL in that there are clear economies of scale, once a routine has been created, content can be added easily and the object repurposed.The development cycle itself invo l ves repeated eva l u a t i o n s , once a re s o u rce has proven itself technically robust, further evaluations become re l a t i vely minor.An understanding of the interactions develops each time an object is used in a different context and student evaluations compared.T h e re would appear to be considerable commonality in response.For example, initial concerns over the reaction of the two different cohorts of students studying international mark e t i n g and supply to Incoterms proved unfounded as the mature cohort did not re p o rt finding the games approach patronizing or facile.The objects are popular with students and are themselves reused by students and staff.
Each of these re s o u rces was developed with the intention of using them in specific teaching situations."Incoterms" for example was designed for use in a scheduled class in an IT laboratory run by academic staff but to remain available via the we b and for distance learning by resit candidates.Early evaluations indicated that students made extensive use of the re s o u rce for private study at a distance.
h t t p : / / w w w -j i m e .o p e n .a c .u k / 2 0 0 4 / 1 6 / d e m o / n u r s e s / a b o u t u s .h t m The need for staff to introduce themselves to students is increased on courses with a high pro p o rtion of virtual delive ry and e-learning.During the development of a distance learning, part-time MBA the talking heads template was used to intro d u c e teaching staff to their students.h t t p : / / w w w -j i m e .o p e n .a c .u k / 2 0 0 4 / 1 6 / d e m o / b r i d g e t _ s a u n d e r s / s a u n d e r s _ h e a d s .h t mThe talking heads template used again for a franchised computing degree delive re d in Hong Kong by London based staff.The majority of teaching was via the VLE with l e c t u res from visiting UK staff.Gi ven that Talking Heads had produced positive student feedback in two previous incarnations, it was used to introduce UK teaching staff prior to their arrival in Hong Kong.Un f o rt u n a t e l y, we had not understood local c u l t u re and offended many of the students, probably by breaking the taboo of photographing people.The teachers re p o rted an unexpected hostile reaction fro m their students, who we re also unwilling to cause offence by talking about the picture s but we re pleased when they we re re m oved.Demonstrating that cultural differe n c e s can have strong influences in responses to e-learning materials.
h t t p : / / w w w -j i m e .o p e n .a c .u k / 2 0 0 4 / 1 6 / d e m o / n u r s e s / p a i r s .h t m This template was originally created for a series of intro d u c t o ry foreign language courses aimed at novices.He re the game is to match the word with a picture of the object, for example picture of an orange with l'orange with the intention of i n c reasing the students vo c a b u l a ry.Clearly changing the words needed from one Journal of In t e r a c t i ve Media inEducation, 2004 (16)  language to another is simple, Epacks have been created for a number of Eu ro p e a n languages including French and Sp a n i s h .http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2004/16/demo/ePacks/pairs/epacks_pairs.htm h t t p : / / w w w -j i m e .o p e n .a c .u k / 2 0 0 4 / 1 6 / d e m o / e Pa c k s / t e s t _ i n s e rt / t e x t _ i n s e rt .h t m l h t t p : / / w w w -j i m e .o p e n .a c .u k / 2 0 0 4 / 1 6 / d e m o / In c o t e r m s / i n d e x .h t m Student feedback was positive and exam performance appears to have improve d .
T h e re s o u rces generally remain available via the web until the end of a module.An u n f o reseen advantage of these developments was the variety of ways staff used them: during scheduled IT classes, smaller components included in Powe r Point pre s e ntations for large group lectures, as demonstrations at the start of practical classes and to initiate group discussion.