eSTEeM Seminar Series: Scholarship Showcase - November 2021

Dates: 

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 - 14:00 to 15:00

Location

Via Microsoft Teams

Contact

eSTEeM

eSTEeM continues its seminar series next month with presentations from the winners of this year’s eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards, who will be discussing the methodology and findings of their scholarship projects.

Developing programming problem-solving skills using individualised screencasts

Sarah Mattingly, Chris Gardner and Richard Walker

Does video screencast TMA feedback help novice computing students develop skills in problem-solving in programming? Is creating such screencasts for individual students feasible for tutors in the normal course of correspondence tuition?

Prompted by successful use of problem-solving screencasts in the TM111 module materials, this project investigated whether screencasts might be used by TM111 tutors to provide feedback on TMA answers, tailored to each student’s misconceptions, mistakes and areas for improvement.

Based on analysis of student and tutor feedback, and the screencasts themselves, the project team constructed pedagogic and technical guidelines for screencasting TMA feedback, now disseminated across the tutor cohort.

This seminar presents our methodology and results, highlighting pedagogical and practical considerations.

How do STEM students use digital and non digital learning resources?

Laura Alexander, Alexis Lansbury and Sharon Dawes

Students on 3 different stage-2 modules in Physics, Maths and Computing were asked to complete questionnaires around how they used the different on-screen and paper-based learning resources on offer to study both their current modules and their stage-1 modules. 225 students responded to the survey. In-depth interviews were carried out with a subset of these students.

This talk will focus on the key findings from this project, including that age is not a predictor of whether students would prefer more books or more digital content and that STEM students:-

1. Use a mix of digital and paper-based study methods, regardless of whether a module is presented entirely digitally, or has a mix of paper and digital resources.
2. Prefer to have a combination of book based and digital resources.
3. Particularly value digital visual content and online quizzes
4. Find two devices with large screens are required to study entirely digital material
5. Find books better for studying while travelling, both for ease of use and because of poor internet connectivity while travelling
6. Want to be able to access digital module material offline
7. Want to be able to access a digital version of any paper module books.

Registration

This seminar is open to OU staff, please vist the registration page by Monday 15^th November to book your place. 

Related resources: 

Attachment	Size
How do STEM students use digital and non digital learning resources.pptx	769.35 KB

Project presentation

Attachment	Size
Developing programming problem-solving skills using individualised screencasts.pptx	483.64 KB

Project presentation.