Student Workload: a Case of My Learning Experience in the PGDHE Program at Botho University

Student Workload: A Case of My Learning Experience in the PGDHE Program at Botho University, 2016

Robert F. Nyabawa (PGDHE Student, 2016)
Faculty of Education & Distance Learning

Botho University

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Date: 09/07/2016

Student Workload: A Case of My Learning Experience in the PGDHE Program at Botho University, 2016

Robert F. Nyabawa (PGDHE Student, 2016)

Faculty of Education & Distance Learning

Botho University

Summary

The PGDHE is a one-year program that is offered through distance learning at Botho University via the Faculty of Education & Distance learning. The course has a weightage of 60 credits equally spread along three modules, namely E-learning Technology, Research in Higher Education and Curriculum Design & Development. This report is a reflection of my learning activities and student workload in the Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education (PGDHE) program at Botho University, which I recently completed in June 2016. The program is entirely offered online and is delivered through a learning management system called Blackboard Learn. It incorporates quite a number of learning activities in all the three modules, some that were individual in nature and some that involved groups. All the learning activities were very effective in the learning process especially at my level where holistic learning is the approach to success. The program outline provided adequate time that allowed me to correlate and make a distinction between new and previous knowledge. This enabled me to relate concepts to the everyday experiences thereby organizing and structuring content well.

Table of Contents

Summary...………………………………………………………………………………….i

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1

Workload-Learning Activities……………………………………………………………1

3.1 Research………………………………………………………………………………...2

3.2 Discussion Forums……………………………………………………………………...2

3.3 Practical Work………………………………………………………………………….2

3.4 Essays…………………………………………………………………………………...3

3.5 Collaborative Work……………………………………………………………………..3

3.6 Reading Lecture Slides…………………………………………………………………4

3.7 Library Research………………………………………………………………………..4

Time vs. Activities…………………………………………………………………………5

Private & Professional Commitments……………………………………………………5

The Future…………………………………………………………………………….6

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….6

References………………………………………………………………………………….7

2. Introduction

In order to successfully complete a program of study as a distance-learning student, it is very essential to engage in numerous learning activities. In my experience as a PGDHE student at Botho University, I figured out that student workload is one of the most undeniable variables that have strong effect on our learning outcomes. Student workload is defined as the duration of time taken by a learner to complete the learning activities in a program of study (). As a student you are expected to move at a tempo that satisfies the instructor’s anticipations of the workload to be completed in a prescribed period. What I am not sure of is whether these instructors or curriculum developers conduct an evaluation of the student, workload before the program commences to measure whether the workload is realistic. It would be very helpful in my opinion, to involve students in the process of finding out if the student workload is achievable; maybe asking the students to complete some questionnaire during the learning process or after the course is completed. After all, learning in the 21st century is now student-centered, so it will be an excellent idea to involve the students in designing the learning curriculum at some stage. As students, we are now the main focus point of the learning process where we are thriving to be owners of our own content through various learning activities like discussion forums, research etc.

From my experience in the PGDHE program, as you engage in higher studies, more time is now required for planning and critical thinking. There is need to formulate an awareness of how you intend to tackle your studies and establish convenient times of the day you are able to think best. Time management is a crucial factor in managing your workload if you are to achieve the intended learning outcomes.

3. Workload (Learning Activities)

Understanding your workload as student is of fundamental importance in the learning process. As mentioned earlier, we need to engage in more learning activities if we are to achieve effective learning. Study time is very limited for distance learning students and the fact that we learn differently and our abilities also differ, there is need, as students, to come up with a detailed outline or plan of how study time is going to be devoted to each module you are taking per week. For me, I maintained a workload log to document the time devoted to study after each work session as well as time for private commitments. This helped me to reflect on my study pattern and plan well for the upcoming week. The program incorporated a couple of learning activities including internet research, lecture slides, research activities, group work, practical work, discussion forums, library reading, wikis, and case studies. My experience with these learning activities is discussed below.

3.1 Research

Engaging in a real world research project on investigating the “Impact of Blackboard Learn on Students’ Academic Performance” based on a case study, helped me to enhance my critical thinking skills through deep learning; going beyond the superficial. I was able to make well informed discussions on the research findings and gave sound conclusions. With my enhanced critical and analytical skills, I am now able to investigate issues from varied perspectives. The use of the case study was a very effective way of exploring a complex project. I was exposed to new practices and trends in Higher Education and Technology that opened opportunities for professional and personal growth. My research adopted a mixed method approach and I spent an average of 16 hrs per week.

3.2 Discussion Forums

During the learning process, we engaged in discussion forums on given topics in all the three modules. This was an exciting learning activity as it helped me to enhance my communication, writing and thinking skills. The forums built in me skills that practically apply in the real world from assessing the quality of information provided by peers to conveying complicated ideas from different points of view. Time spend on discussion forums was limited as most of the students in the program were working professionals during the day. On average I spent 5 hrs in a week on online discussion forums on all the three modules in the course.

3.3 Practical Tasks

Engaging in a practical based project was fascinating and edifying. My task was to design an e-learning course using MS PowerPoint 2013 and it was continuous task till the end of the module. This task developed my critical creativity and innovative skills that I can apply in the modern workplaces. I was able to think out of the box and came up with an interesting and effective e-learning course design that was quite interactive and appealing in nature. Fig.1 below shows a screenshot of part of my design interface. I spent approximately 5 hrs in a week for this task.

Fig. 1 E-learning Course Design Interface

3.4 Essays

Part of the learning process involved essay writing on given topics across all the three modules. The essays were graded to contribute to the final score. One of the essays in the “Research in Higher Education” module required me to act as a reviewer of a journal paper of my choice. Attempting this assignment enhanced my critical thinking and abstraction skills. I was able to develop my analytical skills by cross-examining somebody’s work and ideas, and in the process came up with new knowledge that paved way for new research. As I tackled these essays, I was able to exercise academic honest on putting up my ideas. All essays were submitted through an application called “Turnitin” to check for plagiarism and this taught me be original in thought always. I exercised professionalism by acknowledging the work done by other authors through proper referencing whenever I used their ideas to develop my own concepts. The essays in all the three modules in the course had a minimum of 3500 words and I spent on average, 5 hrs per week on eight essays.

3.5 Collaborative Work

According to Caruso & Woolley (2008); Mannix & Neale (2005), collaborative tasks build a horde of skills which are very essential in today’s professional workplaces. As the course progressed, we were assigned into groups of 5 that were selected by the instructors at random. We were all from different countries and we didn’t know each other at all. Our task was to create a project to share ideas and opinions on “How best a teacher can use technology in the classroom to enhance learning”. For this task, we were to use an application called PADLET. It was my first time to learn about PADLET and this was very engaging as it built a lot of anxiety in trying to understand how this application works. I learnt to work with different types of people who have their own learning styles that I didn’t know. I was able to listen to my peers without judging, enabling me to elaborate and extend their ideas for the better. My cooperative skills drastically improved as we worked towards a mutual goal in a conduct which echoed communal ownership and responsibility. On this task, I spent approximately 6 hrs in a week and our efforts, mutual understanding and cooperation paid as our projected was voted the best project among all the groups in the course. Fig. 2 below shows a screenshot of the PADLET group task.

Fig. 2 Educational technology Group Task

3.6 Reading Lecture Slides

Part of the learning process involved reading lecture slides that were posted by the instructors via a learning management application called Blackboard at beginning of the course. Each module had lecture slides covering the whole milestone structured on weekly basis. As I perused through these slides, I took down notes and this exercise helped to me sharpen my memory and recall what I had read. I was able to use multiple senses and perform multiple activities. My brains and muscles were working at the same time as I engaged in note taking using listening and writing skills. This was a very cruciallearning activity that helped me to focus, stimulatemyaptitude to recall, and getorganized. I spent on average, 4 hrs in a week to go through the lecture slides and take down notes.

3.7Library Research

My level of study required me to collect information of greater academic standards than I used to. As a result I had to visit the university library on a regular basis to dig for quality information from various sources available in the library. Interestingly, the exercise of visiting the library was also graded and it contributed to the final GPA. With the help of the librarians, I was able to find quality information developing in me search and reading skills. I am now able to use the search facilities effectively and can read much fasterengaging more attentively with the author’s principal ideas. I visited the library 3 times a week, spending approximately 6 hrs in a week.

However, having discussed all the learning activities that I partook in, the only missing elements were written examinations. The PGDHE program had no written exams so in this regard, comparing time spend on learning activities during the learning process and during exam time is not applicable. The assessment criteria for this program were based on the learning activities as each activity was graded to contribute to the final scores for each module. A candidate’s final GPA would then be calculated based on the average scores of all the learning activities, that is; research, discussion forums, essays, reading lecture slides (Individual notes from slides), collaborative work, library research and practical work. Table 1 below shows the breakdown of the assessment criteria for this module.

Table 1. Assessment Criteria based on learning activities.

Activity / Weightage / Assessment Type
Research / 20% / Journal Paper
Practical Work / 20% / Designing an E-learning course
Discussion Forums / 15% / Contributions
Essays / 25% / Written
Collaborative Work / 10% / Group project
Library research / 5% / Attendance
Reading lecture Slides / 5% / Notes written

When it comes to evaluating which activity is the most effective, that depends on an individual. I mean, if you want to get the most out of a learning activity that solely depends on your skills as student, basically, your ability to locate and evaluate information for quality, among equally important material and, ICT skills.From my experience, all the learning activities that I engaged in are an incrediblecollection of enrichment activities that all contribute tremendously to the intended learning outcomes of the course.

4.Time vs. Activities

My experience as a PGDHE student has taught me that time is one of the highly treasured resources for the learning process if you are to achieve the intended learning outcomes. I have discovered that when you learn by yourself, it changes the meaning of “learning time” as I take charge. I have learnt to become a micromanager who makesexplicit decisions on how much time I should spend on each learning activity and often when to devotethe time too.

Of course for me, doing research for journal publication requires more time. In conducting a research project, a lot of activities are involved from choosing the research topic to discussion of results and conclusion. You are likely to be hindered by constraints that are imposed by forces beyond your control and as a result you need to expand the time in certain activities. For example, when collecting data for your research participants may not be cooperative enough maybe due to language barriers and this definitely slows down your pace and would call for more time.

Well, I want to believe that this course had quite a commendable number of learning activities per say but it would have been a blast if instructors had incorporated video-conferencing as one of the learning activities. With video-conferencing you are able to see all the other students in your group bringing in the feel of physical human interaction. From my previous experience with video-conferencing, itstimulates an intrinsicflairfor public speaking. In actual fact, it will make us lose ourdiscomfitures and mature into self-confident individuals, who will beentirelycompetentin putting across ouropinions and ideasforthrightly.

5.Private & Professional Commitments

Apart from my university work, I am involved in consulting and soccer coach. I take coachingsessions three times in a week. A session is 2hrs long with a cohort of 30 players in the field. This means in a week, I spend approximately 6 hrs including gym sessions. I also do consulting work in IT and Education. Well, this activity doesn’t take much of my time as it is not on a regular basis. I take roughly 2 hrs consulting in a week. Only when the demand is high, is when I can spend at least 3hrs in a week.

6.The Future

Becoming a top researcher & consultant in Education and IT is my dream in the near future and I intend to remain in that position till death do us part. I have always grown up with a passion for impacting the world with new knowledge, through investigating societal issues that impact on our day to day activities.

For me, to land such a job there are specific qualities and skills that I need to develop. First and foremost, I need to develop people skills that can allow me to communicate effectively on an interactivelevel and be able to manage conflict constructively, achieving integrity and ethics that motivate others. I also need to have a very solid understanding of the foundational concepts of the areas of consulting and research. With more knowledge in these areas, I will be able to ascertain gaps in knowledge and then develop strategies that solve problems. I have to develop critical thinking and analysis skills that will help me to be aware of divergent techniques and instruments to conduct research in an unprejudiced way.

In my own opinion, demonstrating my research and consulting abilities to an employer is through publishing papers in high impact factor journals, writing newspaper articles, presenting new knowledge at conferences and writing books, in the concerned areas of interest. As we all know, engaging in research entails the ability to delineate problems distinctly, recommend solutions to the problems, and finally execute the solutions well on time. In executingmyresearch and consulting projects, I would have demonstrated my abilities to solve problems, knowledge of content, analytical thinking, and the ability to writeunmistakably. In short, I will have shown my abilities to get what I want in professional and acceptable manner.

7. Conclusion

The learning process was so exciting and engaging given the variety of learning activities that developed various skills and competencies which one could carry into the modern workplace.

However, inasmuch as the instructors provided all these learning activities, feedback, guidance, illustrations and real life examples to make the subject content comprehensive, involving, applicable and effective, I noticed a challenge on them, that is; achieving effective learning within the given time frames. It was quite difficult for some of the instructors to provide the required learning material on Blackboard in time due unforeseen constraints like technological constraints. In discussion forums, I figured out a delay in responding to or commenting on students’ contribution for direction or clarity simply because the concerned instructor would have traveled abroad to a conference or some official duties imposed by the institution. Otherwise in a nut shell, I enjoyed the course!

8. References

Caruso, H.M., & Wooley, A.W. (2008). Harnessing the power of emergent interdependence to promote diverse team collaboration. Diversity & Groups. 11:245-266.

Mannix, E., & Neale, M.A. (2005). What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 6(2), 31-55.