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20 Jan 2005 15:09:48
Three funding grants awarded to the Psychology department at the University of Luton will help people in higher education achieve the ultimate student experience.
The £175,000 project, in three phases, has come about as part of a unique collaboration among three universities in the South East - Essex, Hertfordshire and Luton.
Ian Robertson, Head of Psychology at Luton, explained: “Phase one will look at virtual learning environments and how they can be integrated to provide the ultimate learning experience.
"Phase two will execute the various methods in the partner institutions, then in phase three, Luton steps in to evaluate the system and its effectiveness.”
The evaluation will involve, among other things, talking to the institutions that carried out the experimentation, asking people to use the virtual tools and determining the difficulties found with them.
Two further grants have been secured through the Higher Education Funding Council for England, totalling £3,000.
The first £1,500 will be used to evaluate a research project carried out at the University of Luton in 2004, which looked at the student experience of higher education, from the point of view of existing students.
“The 2004 project asked students what could be done to improve the experience of being a student and we’re now acting on the results,” explained Ian.
“One main area has been the introduction of ‘study groups’, student-only groups as part of the timetable, with a staff acting as a personal tutor. This provides independent study and learning, with support in the background, something students felt was important for them to experience.”
A further £1,500 will look at computer software designed by Ian, and how it can be used to aid learning.
“I designed this software two years ago,” explained Ian. “Online and virtual learning is developing rapidly and this project aims to evaluate what we already have in place at the University and how useful it is to students.
The software called the Virtual Statistics Tutor, uses diagrams, voiceovers and concept maps to portray information. It doesn’t use a great deal of text.
“For example,” Ian said. “If you’re looking at a diagram on the computer and having to read text next to it, then refer back to the diagram, you’re not going to learn as much as you would if you were using this software.
"It enables you to look at the diagram and listen to a voiceover, not taking your eyes away from the image and therefore associating the image with what you’re hearing. This should boost understanding and make learning new material more efficient.”
All three of these funding grants make up part of the £750,000 that has been awarded to the University of Luton in recent months, helping to develop the higher education student experience.
Latest news» 2005» Jan» Creating the ultimate learning experience – for £175,000
