Mendeley for Open Distance Learning (ODL) research projects in Environmental Sciences: a social network experiment
L.S. Adriaanse
Unisa
Johannesburg, South Africa
H.J. van Niekerk
Unisa
Johannesburg, South Africa
Abstract:
In 2011, Unisa implemented a Sakai driven Learning Management System (LMS) which ushered in a change in the distance education offering from Distance Education (DE) by correspondence to ODL online delivery. The LMS, called myUnisa, created a platform with websites for all the courses allowing online delivery of courses. Unisa plans to have all postgraduate modules developed for online tuition in 2014 and all undergraduate modules by 2015.
The development of a fourth-year honours module developed for online tuition in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES), namely Earth Systems and Processes (HES4801), created the ideal opportunity to pilot social networking tools as new online technology. The online content of HES4801 included readings from a carefully selected e-textbook, completing Self-Assessment activity, opinion sharing on the Discussion Forums and writing reflective Blogs, on a weekly basis for the first 13 weeks. Weeks 14 to 18 comprise a research project in collaboration with the Unisa Library. Students must choose an environmental topic from a myUnisa Wiki, search for Open Educational Resources (OER’s), write a summary report and submit it via the myUnisa Drop Box. Weeks 19 to 22 are devoted to a peer review exercise and during weeks 23 to 29 emphases is placed on a group activity.
Both the academic and librarian saw the potential to incorporate social networking tools to support the existing Sakai LMS. There was the understanding from the onset that this venture would be an online experiment .Strong emphasis was placed on focussing on online delivery and online tools readily and freely available on the web. A need for information retrieval and reference management was identified as crucial in a postgraduate course. Mendeley was the online information retrieval and reference management tool of choice because of its excellent online functionalities. In essence, Mendeley as social networking tool allows each student to effortlessly utilize the online reference management tool in a familiar social networking environment similar to Facebook, while conducting research.
The experiment allowed for Mendeley training material to be created and uploaded into myUnisa for accessing by the HES4801 student group. The HES4801 group was invited to register on Mendeley and download the desktop version for citation and reference management. The HES4801 group was actively encouraged to retrieve information using the Unisa library e-resources as well as the existing items within the Mendeley part of the crowd-soured catalogue.
The statistics of usage from the myUnisa HES4801 webpage on myUnisa and the Mendeley HES4801 group administered by the librarian was analysed to determine the effect of the social networking experiment on the HES4801 postgraduate students. A total of 57 students registered for HES4801 for the year 2013. The myUnisa statistics indicated 100% participation on myUnisa. The most active tool on myUnisa was the additional resources tool. The additional resources folder included the guidelines for written tasks, marking rubrics, project details and the Mendeley information and training material. The Mendeley HES4801 group indicated 30% registration and participation on the online Mendeley HES4801 group. Unfortunately, no statistics could be drawn for the Mendeley desktop usage as this resides on individual PC’s. The general feedback from the students on being introduced to Mendeley as information retrieval and reference management tool was very positive and encouraging. Some even indicated they used Mendeley for other courses as reference management tool of choice. The outcomes of the experiment include the valuable lessons learnt in creating training material for an online audience. The experiment with the new technologies meant taking risks and learning from the mistakes made. New and emerging technologies take time to become established.
The experiment in social networking was a novel initiative by the academic and librarian with the vision of creating online library participation for students where seamless retrieval and management of information using the available online technologies, was made possible. The experiment will continue for the next enrolment of HES4801 and hopefully more students will be encouraged to actively make use of Mendeley than in the first pilot run.
Keywords: e-learning, online tuition, online research projects, Sakai learning management system, Mendeley, Environmental Sciences, Earth Systems and Processes.
1 Introduction
1.1 Unisa as ODL HE institution: History and reason for existence
Unisa was established in 1873 as an examining body for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It was then called the University of the Cape of Good Hope. Initially the headquarters of Unisa was situated in Cape Town but in 1916 it was renamed to the University of South Africa (Unisa) and relocated its headquarters to Pretoria. Since its inception, Unisa served as a founding university for numerous other universities in South Africa (Boucher, 1973).
In 1946 Unisa became a “teaching university” when it was given a new role as a DE university (Spies, 1997). This was probably the main reason why Unisa managed to stay interracial during the apartheid years of South Africa. In 2004, Unisa merged with the Technikon Southern Africa (TSA) and Vista University Distance Education Campus (VUDEC) and kept the name Unisa to become the largest university in South Africa and one of the largest distance education institutions in the world. Today, Unisa is one of the mega universities of the world and is organised by different schools within nine different colleges (University of South Africa, 2012).
1.2 Unisa: Vision, Mission and Sustainability
Sustainability resonates in the vision of the Unisa as being “the African university in the service of humanity” (Unisa Service Charter, 2007) and “to become Africa’s premier distance education provider, serving every country on the continent, transcending language and cultural barriers” (University of South Africa, 2012). From this it is clear that the focus of Unisa is to serve the people of Africa in terms of its national educational, developmental and social challenges (UNGC report, 2011).
Unisa’s mission: “the University of South Africa is a comprehensive, ODL institution that produces excellent scholarship and research, provides quality tuition, and fosters active community engagement. We are guided by the principles of lifelong learning, student-centredness, innovation and creativity. Our efforts contribute to the knowledge and information society, advance development, nurture a critical citizenry, and ensure global sustainability” (Unisa 2015 Revisited, 2010).
In its 2015 Strategic Plan (2005), Unisa declares that it ‘aims to establish itself as a leading provider of world-class higher education (HE) opportunities through open and distance learning (ODL); nationally, on the African continent, and internationally’. ‘The promise of ODL to increase access, widen participation and promote quality is now widely recognized, and is influencing HE policy in many developing countries’ (Unisa 2015 Revisited, 2010). Unisa is the only dedicated ODL HE institution in South Africa. It is also the only truly national university since it attracts students form all the provinces in South Africa. Unisa’s size, aggregated resources and capacities, ensures that Unisa makes vital contributions to education and development in Southern Africa (Strategic Plan, 2005).
A defining characteristic of Unisa is its comprehensive nature, which means that it offers a combination of vocational courses usually associated with technikons and general formative courses usually associated with universities. More than 400,000 students are currently registered for formal undergraduate and post-graduate courses in a diverse choice of study fields, which represents more than a third of all students in HE in South Africa. Additionally, 60,000 students are registered for a wide variety of non-formal short learning programmes. Unisa has a strong outreach to the SADC countries, other African countries and international students in 130 countries all over the world (University of South Africa, 2012).
1.3 Organization/systems of operation
Unisa is Africa’s leading DE institution and offers comprehensive, flexible and accessible ODL programmes. To make HE more accessible to students who do not meet the minimum requirements for access into HE, Unisa introduced their Access Programmes. In an attempt to service and support students, Unisa expanded its student counselling facilities and peer help groups to the entire network of learning centres. To promote active two-way communication with students, Unisa established several different forms of electronic technologies, such as Students Online, where students can register for their studies, access study material, submit tasks and find results (University of South Africa, 2012).
1.4 Values espoused/inherent to the institution
The official website of Unisa (University of South Africa, 2012), indicates the key values of Unisa as based on the following:
· Excellence in all practices and continuous attention to improvement in quality
· Integrity (to truth, honesty, transparency and accountability) in all actions
· Social justice and fairness by endorsing equity of access and opportunity (Unisa Service Charter, 2007)
On 17 January 2007, Unisa became the first university in South Africa to become a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) signalling Unisa’s commitment to the goal of sustainable development (UNGC report, 2011). Unisa therefore committed itself to imbue and integrate the following UNGC principles into their curriculum and research focus areas:
· human rights,
· labour,
· anticorruption and
· environment (UNGC report, 2011).
To define the type of institutional culture appropriate for Unisa in this regard, Unisa’s leadership introduced a novel concept in 2011 of 11 C’s plus one. These are Communication, Conversation, Conservation, Community, Connection, Care, Collegiality, Commitment, Cooperation, Creativity, Consultation and Courage (UNGC report, 2011).
One of its core principles is: ‘Service to humanity - Promoting human universality, producing and disseminating knowledge, promoting cultural diversity, and serving causes which advance society and humanity’. It further states that Unisa will not compromise on ‘allocating adequate resources strategically’ or ‘engaging in mutually beneficial partnerships with various communities’. To achieve the above, Unisa ‘undertake to provide visionary, quality and visible leadership at all levels that gives clear direction’ and ‘align resource allocation to strategic priorities’ (Service Charter, 2007).
2 The Unisa Tuition Model
2.1 Model of teaching and learning
When Unisa became a Teaching University in 1946, courses were offered through correspondence education. Students received printed study material, submitted written assignments which were graded and had to write a final examination. Unisa became a fully-fledged ODL institution in 2007. ODL is a “student-centred approach” which provides students with flexibility and choice over what, when, where and how they learn. Other important aspects of ODL at Unisa are:
· wide-ranging student support
· alternative assessment methods
· the use of a variety of technologies to support teaching and learning (Celebrating Teaching and Learning at Unisa, 2011).
2.2 Technologies used
Initially, Unisa used print-based materials as its main form of teaching through correspondence education. In the 1970s the use of radio, audio and video cassettes increased. The first pilot project for ‘onscreen marking’ in CAES was established in 2008 and provided valuable feedback for the enhancement of the systems. In 2010, the executive Dean of CAES made a decision that all modules offered in CAES have to be marked ‘on screen’ from 2012 and in 2011 the Dean decided that all postgraduate courses in CAES must be offered online through myUnisa, the Unisa Learning Management System (LMS) in 2013. CAES also established an ODL research focus in 2011.
To achieve the above, Unisa implemented myUnisa, a Sakai driven LMS with websites for all courses (Celebrating Teaching and Learning at Unisa, 2011). The first project was the development of one postgraduate course per College, offered online in 2012. The second project was the development of an online undergraduate Signature module for 2013. The next step is the development of postgraduate modules for online tuition in 2014 and undergraduate modules by 2015.
The fourth-year honours module developed for online tuition in the CAES is Earth Systems and Processes (HES4801). Since both the honours degrees in the Department of Environmental Sciences are open to any student with an accredited first degree, students without sufficient background of environmental issues may enrol. To accommodate these students, HES4801 was included as an elective - a 12-credit course (120 notional hours) offered over one year (30 weeks). A team consisting of the lecturer, instructional designer, language editor, IT specialist and Personal Librarian (PL) developed it for online tuition on myUnisa.
HES4801 is divided into 30 weeks requiring the average student to spend 4 hours per week on it. The first 13 weeks consists of readings from selected e-textbook, completing Self-Assessment activities, opinion sharing on the Discussion Forums and writing reflective Blogs.
Weeks 14 to 18 comprise a research project in collaboration with the Unisa Library. Students must choose an environmental topic from a myUnisa Wiki, search for Open Educational Resources (OER’s), write a summary report and submit it via the myUnisa Drop Box. Students are also required to actively participate in the Discussions and add to their weekly Blogs.
Weeks 19 to 22 are devoted to a peer review exercise. Students have to review the research report of a classmate, focussing on plagiarism. The peer review report and rubric is submitted via the myUnisa Drop Box and students must participate in the weekly Discussions and Blogs.
During weeks 23 to 29 emphasis is placed on group activity. Students are placed into groups of approximately 20 classmates. Groups, must choose one of 16 controversial environmental topics, and divide into two ‘camps’ - for and against - choose a leader and allocate specific tasks to each member. Then they must research, debate, write a report, compile a presentation and submit it via the myUnisa Drop Box. Week 30 include course evaluations and polls regarding the textbook, activities and myUnisa.
The rest of this paper will focus on the participation of the library and the application of Mendeley during weeks 14 to 18 in in the online honours module HES4801 (Earth Systems and Processes).
3. Research Design
3.1 Problem Statement
How to introduce social media tools into an online course at Unisa to enhance information discovery and reference management.
3.2 Sub problems
· Identifying an appropriate social media tool for online information discovery and reference management.