Researching E-learning Summer School

I’m currently doing the Researching E-learning Summer School module at UCL’s Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT). This is a 30-credit module within CALT’s MA in Education, consisting of five face-to-face days spread over several months, over which one carries out a small individual research project in e-learning. Monday 30th March was our last face-to-face day.

My project is on barriers students experience to creating and sharing material online. This is a common problem with online courses; medical schools seem to be developing a reputation as being particularly resistant to things like asynchronous forums and wikis. There was much discussion in class as to why that is, with speculation around the hierarchical nature of medicine and how the heavy workload promotes a strategic learning approach. Hopefully, I and my peers on the course will be getting our work published, so more on it then.

The Researching E-learning module and others are available to UCL staff, with UCL offering 60 credits free. Students can also take these modules as part of other qualifications in some situations.

Dr Henry Potts