The first half of this presentation is about academic use of social media and the second half is about recent findings from my current HEA-funded audio feedback project: http://lebioscience.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/audio-feedback-evidence-is-mounting.html Sorry, now audio for these yet, but the first half is rather similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgU5Gx5bh3o and I'll try to put up a commentary for the feedback section soon.

1. Academic Use of Social Networks
- a talk of two halves
Alan Cann, University of Leicester bit.ly/AJCann
Mapping engagement Dark Social

2. Why me?
• Visitors and Residents: mapping student attitudes to academic use of social
networks. (2013) Learning, Media and Technology, 38(2). A ramble through the
history of online learning (2012) The Biochemist 34(4); 2-5.
• An efficient and effective system for interactive student feedback using Google+
to enhance an institutional virtual learning environment (2012) Leicester
Research Archive.
• Beyond marks: new tools to visualise student engagement via social networks
(2012) Research in Learning Technology 20: 16283.
• Reflective Social Portfolios for Feedback and Peer Mentoring (2011) Leicester
Research Archive.
• Observing Emerging Student Networks on a Microblogging Service (2011)
Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7 (1)
• Social media: A guide for researchers (2011) Research Information Network.
• Assessment 2.0: Wikipedia writing projects (2008) Case studies of E-learning, the
HEA Centre for Bioscience.
Search on scholar.google.com

3. What is social media?
Internet services where the online content
is generated by the users of the service
( = Web 2.0, participatory media, etc)

4. Why?
• Education as professional training
• Transferable and employability skills development
• Students as producers – learning partnerships
• Intellectual ownership of media and content
– producers not consumers

5. @daveowhite
- Visitors and Residents
blip.tv/tall-research/visitors-residents-2733992

6. Network
Context Content

8. Extrinsic
Intrinsic
Assessment as driver?

10. Emerging concept:
Dark Social
scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/search/label/DarkSocial
Why?
Ownership
= engagement?

11. “Engaging by Talking: An Agile and
Effective Approach to Audio Feedback”
HEA STEM
Students express widespread dissatisfaction
with academic feedback. Teaching staff
perceive a frequent lack of student
engagement with written feedback, much of
which goes uncollected. Published evidence
shows that audio feedback is highly
acceptable to students but is grossly
underused. This project will explore
methods to produce and deliver audio
feedback to a wide range of students
engaged in a variety of academic tasks with
the aim of maximising student engagement
while working towards a framework which
increases the use of audio feedback by
teaching staff.
goo.gl/yehf7

12. Phase 1 - GradeMark
N = 31
A trial of the TurnitIn GradeMark system in a mixed information economy. (2012) figshare.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.98134

13. Phase 1 - GradeMark
BUT:
• Marks before feedback - pedagogically broken
• Learning analytics – what analytics?
• Personal tutor shutout

14. Phase 1 - GradeMark
• I really liked the voice comment. It was useful being able to listen to it again. I would
have liked it to be longer and with more improvement points.
• It was very useful, I thought that they said a lot about the essay and that it was more
useful than the text comment.
• The most useful aspect was that you can access the feedback whenever and I liked
the fact that it was interactive and had voice comments.
• The most useful aspects of feedback was the voice recording as it let me hear in the
tone what my tutor felt towards my essay. The least helpful aspect were the
notes/comments within the essay. This at times was crowded to read and should be
listed on the side with bullets as to where to comment is referring. [GradeMark]
• Could be improved by making it easier to find. [GradeMark]

15. Phase 2 - SoundCloud
{{Mail merge}} students (& tutors)
[Module Tag] - filters
Feedback
then
Marks
n = 170 (never again…)
Processing time, cost.
Engagement (downloads): 94%

16. Phase 2 - SoundCloud
• I was able to listen to it at home and did not have to collect it from campus - as is
the case with written feedback.
• It removes the difficulty of reading bad handwriting that lots of markers have!
• Useful that it's accessible on the computer instead of being on paper, which can be
mixed up or lost. The voice was really clear and understandable even for
international students.
• It feels more personalised and also easier as it doesn't require picking up work
from the office, can access at home.
• Criticism seemed more constructive and less negative when given in audio form.
Sometimes written feedback comes across as too negative.
• I found the length of the feedback to be ideal as it was both concise and
informative. As it was sent by email, it was extremely easy to access. I was
impressed by how quickly we had received the feedback, even before we were
able to get the marks for assignment.
• You also have to listen to the whole thing as instead of skim reading feedback...
this is both positive and negative.
• I see no weaknesses in this form of feedback rather it was more elaborate than
most feedback I have given in the past.
• Please use again and tell other staff to do so!

17. Phase 3
Local recording Dropbox {{Mail merge}}
Audacity
GarageBand
n = 25
Processing time, free.
Engagement (downloads): 91%

18. Phase 3
• Very useful. The feedback was easily accessible and was given very quick (very
much appreciated, thank you).
• Most useful aspect: we don't have to keep a paper record of what could have been
improved in our plan/essay, and can be accessed at any time.
• It was useful as I received feedback which were specific, compared to written
feedback which I have noticed tend to be somewhat vague in most parts.
• The most useful was probably was that the feedback would seem more personal,
and therefore feels more comprehensive. However, sometimes having feedback
written has its advantages in the ease of re-accessing the feedback.
• I would prefer written feedback by email as it is easier to go back over and review.
The audio feedback took quite a long time to load on my home computer as my
internet is very low speed but this was not a problem on the University computers.

19. Convenience
Evidence
Assessment as driver?

20. Pedagogy
not
technology