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WHY, WHAT, WHO, HOW: BUILDING UP ONLINE COURSES.A REPORT FROM A SOUTHERN ITALY UNIVERSITY

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This work is based upon an online experimentation realized by the didactical area of sociology at the University of Salerno (Italy). It seeks to identify its points of strength and of weakness and to establish guide lines for further planning. In particular, it systematically describes and compares two courses which have used different approaches, methodologies and platforms and their results. To conclude the authors underline the importance of the study of the context, of giving an active and significant role to the students as well as to the teachers and of building up a dialogue between traditional and ITC-based tools.
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WHY, WHAT, WHO, HOW: BUILDING UP ONLINE COURSES
A REPORT FROM A SOUTHERN ITALY UNIVERSITY
Bianca Arcangeli and Paolo Diana
Dipartimento di Sociologia e scienza della politica
Università degli Studi di Salerno
Italy
Cinzia Massa
Smile
Italy
Vincenzo Moretti
Area didattica di Sociologia, Facoltà di Lettere
Università degli studi di Salerno
Italy
Abstract
This work is based upon an online experimentation realized by the didactical area of sociology at
the University of Salerno (Italy). It seeks to identify its points of strength and of weakness and to
establish guide lines for further planning. In particular, it systematically describes and compares
two courses which have used different approaches, methodologies and platforms and their results.
To conclude the authors underline the importance of the study of the context, of giving an active
and significant role to the students as well as to the teachers and of building up a dialogue
between traditional and ITC-based tools.
Introduction
This work reflects on some aspects of the online experimentation conducted from
2001 to 2008 at the University of Salerno, in the three yearly studies course in
Sociology. The success of the initiative amongst teachers and students determined
the on setting from 2008 of the entire three yearly online course, alongside the
more traditional teaching
(http://www.lettereonline.unisa.it/Sociologia_online/index.php).
Through the systematic comparison of two courses, suitably selected, we
endeavour to identify both the weak and strong points within such an experience
and to establish guide lines as to improve further courses, making them more
consistent to the needs of the students. We also hope that our experience will be of
interest to other teachers in different contexts.
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Before we go into the specific course’s description, it’s important to offer some
brief considerations on the context to which the courses belong and on the students
for which they were created.
The quality of a learning product, that will bring us to a better learning, it is the
result of the confrontation and negotiation with specific users and their needs, and
specific contexts (Elhers, 2007, p. 8).
The Context
During the academic year 2006–07 the University of Salerno offered to its
students 31 first level degree courses, 24 second level degrees, 29 doctorships of
research, and 10 first and second level masters.
In the same academic year the students enrolled were 39,029 (2.6% of the Italian
university students). The Sociology degree, which belongs to the Faculty of Arts,
registered in the year 2006–2007 230 students within the first level and 46 students
in the specialist degree.
In the University of Salerno the dropout rates between the 1st and 2nd year have
grown over time, from 23.1% in the year 2001–2002 to 30.1% in the year 2006–
2007.
For the students enrolled in the Faculty of Arts in their first and second year, the
average dropout rate is of 22%. By the third year, however, abandon a further
15%. For the Sociology students drop out rate are still higher, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Students Enrolled in Sociology Courses (2001–2004):
Early Dropout Rates
Enrolled
Not enrolled
2°year
% early drop out
a.a. 2001-02
418
151
36.1
a.a. 2002-03
315
124
39.4
a.a. 2003-04
275
129
46.9
These difficulties are much more serious where students are lacking an adequate
preparation for third-level study. Here it is relevant to refer to the concept of
cultural capital, comprising different forms of knowledge, skills, education and
advantages (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970). Considering as indicators of this capital,
parents’ educational attainments and the students’ final mark in their secondary
school diploma, it results that our Sociology students have a very weak cultural
background (Arcangeli & Diana, 2008).
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Two Courses in Detail
To locate the weak and strong points in the produced experience we confronted
two sociology courses, one of which was a methodology of the social sciences and
the other the sociology of organization. Both teachers agreed that learning must be
a collaborative process and that the students must be at the center of it, but their
courses were different under certain profiles. They in fact:
are addressed to students belonging to different years of the three
yearly course in sociology (and partly also to those students belonging
to other didactical courses).
have privileged different priorities and objectives.
have been built, thanks to a certain freedom of experimentation left to
the teachers, on different platforms.
have produced different results that concern the entire didactical
experimentation.
For each course the more general logic will be described clearly and the different
needs to whom the teachers and designers have tried to respond and the results of
their work. Then, comparing the two courses, conclusions of a general nature will
emerge.
The Methodology of the Social Sciences Course
The first course we will discuss is the Methodology of Social Sciences course.
This begins on the first year of the Sociology degree. It was proposed to the
students in the years from 2001 to 2009, both in the classroom, blended mode, and
online (Arcangeli & Diana, 2009). In this section we will dwell only on this last
experience even though the parallel running of the two courses has constituted an
important experience that profoundly changed our teaching methods and would
deserve further discussion, since it would also be of interest to those colleagues
that have had no online experiences.
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Table 2: University of Salerno, Sociology First Degree. Methodology of Social
Sciences Course
Course Title
Year
mode
Time
Adressed to
Number of online students (average)
Total number of students enrolled
2001/09
Platform used
Teacher
Tutor
The course designers were aware that the scheduling of the course at the beginning
of the university curriculum implied some general and specific difficulties that
needed to be confronted for their significant relapses on the students learning.
As far as the general difficulties were concerned, it was necessary first to confront
the disorientation, typical of many students in their transition from school to
university (Coulon, 1997), often resulting in the dropping out from the course or
in a significant reorganization of the expectations and activities to a medium or
lower level. To the “regular” student, entering the university way of schooling and
to the working student, to whom particularly the online courses are addressed and
also generally lacking reference and support points in the university context, it was
necessary to offer simple, meaningful, easy accessible learning contexts and
pathways, and the possibility to develop good communicative and collaborative
networks with the students and the teachers.
Secondly, the course had to confront the reduced abilities in logical conceptual
organization, in writing, in the learning methods, the bad reading habits that were
common to many students. It was therefore necessary to produce clearly scheduled
learning routes, enriched with the support of reference texts, glossaries,
dictionaries etc., but especially to favour the regular, creative, individual and
collective use of these tools, building also opportunities for interaction between
traditional and multimedia documentation.
Among the problems singled out there were those related to the discipline itself.
They stemmed from the “metaskill” character of methodology (Meraviglia, 2004),
from the continuous references that it operates in history, epistemology, in the
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philosophy of the social sciences, that put into difficulties the students who do not
possess expertise in these areas.
Other difficulties arose finally by the fact that students must assimilate the
language and the theoretical heritage of the discipline and to be able to translate it
into operative choices tied to the empirical experiences (Bruschi, 2005).
The course should therefore foster familiarity with disciplinary language and tools
and encourage the growth of the disciplinary identities, but also offer to the
students the opportunity to put into practice, with some simple exercises, the
acquired knowledge.
To achieve the above mentioned program, teachers and designers decided to place
the student in the centre of the course, to connect him to collaborative social and
learning networks (Siemens, 2008), and on the other hand not to forget the role of
the teacher. The latter was considered in fact a central figure in course’s content
production and design, as well as organizer and manager of individual and
collective communication and guidance in the processes of internalization of
knowledge.
The online course was organized with reference to a printed Introduction to social
sciences methodology. It was first of all divided in areas, modules and units to
develop or integrate the manuals subjects and to organize and facilitate the
students work.
Particular attention has been dedicated in establishing regular and structured study
habits and practices.
A key role in this direction has been attributed to the unit’s working page realized
on the Web CT platform which has been adapted, as you can see in Figure 1. The
original text, enriched with images, animated figures, audio files, graphic images
is configured in the two lateral bars that allow and guide the students activity,
proposing on the right side the work to carry out, possible web research on the
subject, downloaded materials, spot video conferences, on the left side, the access
to the general resources of the course (glossary, syllabus, etc.) and to the
communicative instruments (mail, forum, chat, virtual class, virtual conference).
Amongst the work instruments the asynchronous ones, like forums, have been
privileged, while not excluding an occasional use, for particular topics of the
virtual classroom.
On the whole the results have been quite satisfactory, both for the high rate of
passing the final exam as for the low rate of drop outs (10%).
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A crucial role was played in this direction from the formation of a compact virtual
community that has accompanied the students also from one course to another and
helped them to overcome individual difficulties.
It may be noted however that this community was rarely able to move beyond
forms of encouragement and support to become an effective learning carrier. A
limitation that we feel is due to an inadequate attention in the design, to the
construction of specific collaborative processes supported by appropriate tools.
Figure 1: A Page from the Online Social Science Methodology Course
The Sociology of Organization Course
The Sociology of Organization course is foreseen from the Faculty of Arts
educational disposition on the second and third year of the sociology primary
degree. It is also borrowed from the Communication Course, at the postgraduate
level, and from The Faculty of Public Administration in his primary degree. This
attendance of students from different faculties, from diverse types of degrees, from
different ages represents one of the course more interesting characteristics. The
course has been offered from 2005 to 2009 in the “blended” and “online”
modality. This double teaching experience however suggests that in the growth of
the class as a learning organization, (Argyris & Schon, 1998; Nonaka & Takeuchi,
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1997; Chun Wey Choo, 2006) the division between teaching in the classroom,
(with the blended learning activities) and teaching online loses much of its
relevance and can be considered as referring to learning contexts and
environments rather than teaching, to usages rather than methodologies.
What we seem to learn from all of this is that the key words to learning are
exchanging, communicating and sharing (Siemens, 2004, 2006). To each student,
whether in blended or online classroom, should be afforded the opportunity to take
an active part in class, to develop his skills /learning opportunities through
interaction, collaboration, participation. In this context, the open source (in the
specific case Moodle) seems to favour the constant evolution of the internal and
external resources available (You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, Business Exchange,
etc.).
Table 3: University of Salerno, Sociology First Degree. The Sociology of
Organization Course.
Course Title
Sociology of Organization
Year
2°/3 Sociology primary degree
3° Public Administration. primary degree
2° Communication course, secondary
degree
Mode
Online
Blended
Time
2005-09
Adressed to
Second and third year sociology students
Third Year Public Administration students
Second year Communication course
students
Number of enrolled students
(average)
25/35 (Online) + 40/50 Blended
Number of enrolled students
from 2005/09
120 (Online) + 180 Blended
Platforma
Moodle
Teacher
Vincenzo Moretti
Tutor
1
Characteristics of the Online Course
The online course is divided into three modules each of which is divided into 11
didactical units (UD). The first and the second modules are for everyone’s use,
whereas the third is for sociology students only.
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The main page of the course is divided in three parts. In the central part there are
three modules and areas and interactive tools referring to methodology (questions
of method), to the contents (adesso forum, adesso wiki etc.), to communication
(adesso chat, adesso news), to the evaluation (adesso posso).
On the right side of the page we find, for student’s service, calendars, the different
course programmes for students belonging to different areas, activities, users
profiles etc; on the left hand of the page, instead, a group of containers/contents
(think thing, I am a blogger, in the past, to look at) to encourage interaction and
participation.
As far as modules are concerned, the page is divided in two parts.
In the main part the course is presented and a guide to the reading and the studying
of the text books is offered to students. The contents also of these books and the
diverse activities are critically analysed. Finally the contents of the 11 UD are
proposed and the different interaction tools regarding the basic texts study (adesso
studio, about), its contents (adesso forum, adesso chat), the learning verification
(adesso posso).
In order to stimulate the student’s curiosity, interest, motivation, their ability to
establish relationships and therefore to learn, each UD is opened by a film, video
clip or songs linked to the proposed contents. Those latter, also, are structured in
such a way to prompt questions, interest, curiosity, interaction and to yield more
profitable the study of text books (which still remain an essential component of the
learning process). The ultimate objective is to enhance the knowledge and skills of
students and to support their capacity to apply to social world what they have
learned.
It’s with respect to this broader context that find their meaning the lessons, mostly
in an asynchronous format and enriched by files, videos, mp3, the weekly
discussions on chat with the teachers and tutors and the exercises designed to give
students the tools to connect with each other, to contextualise the content of
modules and units, to identify causes and consequences of each of them, to
establish relationships between what is studied and what happens every day in
family, work or social worlds.On the right of the page are proposed instead some
containers and contents and some service functions (search in the site , tasks, user
profile, etc.).
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Figure 2: A Page from the Sociology of Organization Online Course
Results
Together with the specific knowledge, the course has encouraged the acquisition
by students of tools useful for their knowledge and understanding of learning, to
enhance their identity, to improve their ability to problem solving, to seize the
opportunity and then multiply them, to activate a process of conversion between
tacit and explicit knowledge (Chun Wey Choo, 2006; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1997).
A paradigmatic example is that of the AM, a working student, who in the face of
the request by the manager of his office to settle “quickly and well” the still
unsettled affairs demonstrated that within the decision-making process doing
quickly can not be an alternative to doing well and that if you choose to do soon
regardless of doing well the outcome of the administrative action can not
legitimately be called a decision.
(http://www.eformazione.unisa.it/mod/resource/view.php?id=1690)
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Conclusion
This discussion highlights the importance of some points that must be placed on
the base of our future planning for the three-year degree. Generally, at the primary
degree level, good teaching and good learning seems to need:
an accurate analysis of the context.
simple didactical pathways enriched with visual aids, clearly
structured, enabling regular and methodical studying and working
habits and continuous assessments of ones own learning abilities.
support instruments such as glossaries, dictionaries etc. combined with
creative exercises.
the development of a collaborative learning processes within the
classroom, between the students and between students and the teacher
and the tutors, as well as outside the classroom by the identification of
qualified landmarks into the web.
the building of a systematic integration between the traditional and
new forms of communication based on ICT to facilitate the growth of
skills in both areas.
technological choices based on technology’s ability to give voice to
the need of relating, connecting, constructing, participating and
therefore learning by the people, and to respond to the specific
objectives set by the teacher.
On the other hand, it seems important to try to building up new products that
achieve, if compared to the examples presented, a better balance between:
the focus placed on the student in the learning process, on his practices
and processes of internalization of knowledge (with all the consequences
that this implies for the course structure) and
The awareness of the central role to be attributed to the teacher, and of its
many dimensions. The teacher in fact can not be regarded only as a
content’s producer or as a regulator of collective communication, but
rather as: 1. a producer of contents that are conceived and designed
according to the specific needs of users, both in language and in the
exposure and that must to be translated into activities, thus requiring a
continuous and creative relationship with the designers and multimedia
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developers. 2. an organizer and facilitator of the collective communication
3. a fundamental guide to the acquisition and internalization of knowledge
of individuals and groups.
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Full-text available
La didattica e-learning costituisce una risorsa flessibile in grado di rispondere tanto ai problemi dell'istruzione di base quanto a quelli dell'istruzione avanzata. L'articolo ripercorre in dettaglio l'esperienza di un corso di Metodologia delle scienze sociali (laurea triennale) mostrando come tale modalità didattica, grazie alle specifiche soluzioni adottate (didattica collaborativa, learning by doing etc.) renda possibile affrontare sia l'insufficiente prepazione generale comune a molti studenti al loro ingresso nell'università, sia le più specifiche difficoltà della materia.
Article
The article emphasises the importance of viewing quality development not as an add-on to eLearning, e.g. as an isolated evaluation approach at the end of a course. Quality development, rather, is viewed as a key aspect, occurring in every single development and delivery process of eLearning courses and programmes. From research, three concepts can be utilised and combined to form a new, comprehensive concept of quality development: 1. Quality development has to lead to better learning. This viewpoint can be called education-orientated quality development and emphasises that quality development has to take into account the learners' situation. Learners' preferences are analysed to show that they cover a multitude of factors and preference profiles. This suggests that quality approaches have to be highly flexible and allow for individualised quality. 2. Quality development, however, has to take into account not only the learners' needs; it is a process in which the interests and requirements of the eLearning stakeholders have to be considered as a whole and combined to form a comprehensive concept. Quality in this respect is seen as a relation between the demands and needs of a stakeholder group and the actual delivery of eLearning. In order to shape this relationship in the best possible way, a negotiation process is necessary, involving all stakeholders and integrating their preferences and situations against the background of the given economical and organisational situation. These negotiation processes occur in different positions of the learning environment. We suggest utilising process models such as the ISO Reference Model. 3. The third part of the concept is concerned with the question of how existing concepts, approaches and strategies can be used for quality development. A decision cycle is being suggested that makes it possible to find a suitable quality approach for a given context. However, to decide which quality approach is suitable, to choose from a set of possible strategies, and to adapt those strategies to the specific situational context, certain competencies are necessary. For these competencies, we developed the concept of quality literacy. It covers competencies such as knowledge of quality development, experiences in using particular instruments, modification skills and the ability to thoroughly analyse one's own situation and needs.
L'impatto della riforma universitaria del " 3+2 " sulla formazione sociologica
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Cultural capital, learning and ICT in a southern Italian university In Knowledge construction in e-learning context: CSCL, ODL, ICT and SNA in education
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Arcangeli, B., & Diana P. (2008). Cultural capital, learning and ICT in a southern Italian university. In Knowledge construction in e-learning context: CSCL, ODL, ICT and SNA in education (pp. 176–180), vol. 398, Cesena, 1-2 settembre 2008, AACHEN: M. Jeusfeld c/o Redaktion Sun SITE, Informatik V, http://ftp.informatik.rwthaachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-398/S6_ArcangeliEtAl.pdf
Metodologia delle scienze sociali The knowledge-creating company — Creare le dinamiche dell'innovazione
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Meraviglia, C. (2004). Metodologia delle scienze sociali. Roma: Carocci Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1997). The knowledge-creating company — Creare le dinamiche dell'innovazione. Milano: Angelo Guerini e Associati,
Apprendimento organizzativo
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