Handing back responsibility: Moving away from traditional tutorial structure

Fiona E. Richards

Abstract

A flexible approach was adopted in the delivery of a first year School of Business subject at James Cook University.  The subject, Quantitative Studies BU1010, is a core component of the B. Business and B.Admin (Tourism) degree structure at James Cook University.  This paper examines the design and evaluation of the teaching method adopted in an effort to provide students with a greater responsibility for their own learning experience.

A move away from the traditional structure of 26 hours of lectures and 13 hours of practicals and workshops was desirable due to an increase in enrolments from 30 to 173 in 1999.  The subject had been taught in a previous form to B.Admin (Tourism) students.  The nature of the subject lent itself to flexible delivery with a large computer based component, which was previously covered by tutorials and practicals. It was felt that the subject could be restructured and delivered more effectively, particularly focusing on this practical element.

Twenty-six hours of lectures were delivered to students, with a demonstration of the week’s practical program at the end of each lecture.  Students were provided with a step-by-step hard copy of this program, which they were to complete in the own time, either at home or in one of the University computer labs that are open 24 hours and have suitable hardware and software required to complete the tasks.  In addition to lectures, 3 two-hour help sessions were run to aid those students who were having difficulties completing the week’s requirements.  A website for the subject was created to allow students to access on-line copies of each week’s practical exercises as well as lecture notes and other subject information.  Mock exams and on-course assessment were run to allow students to assess their progress. At the end of the course a student survey was conducted to gauge student response to the delivery approach.

Introduction

Increasing enrolments in subjects that traditionally cater for low student numbers can seriously alter the provision of adequate lecturer time. Patry (1995 cited Taylor, 1998, p.67) believes, “traditional education systems throughout the world have been stretched to the limit by the population explosion, scarcity of resources and expansion of knowledge”. As such, methods which can best use teaching contact hours for existing staff while ensuring maximum learning for students should be investigated.

Principles of self-directed learning were applied to the redesign of the course (Knowles, 1975).  Self –directed learning took the form of reducing timetabled practicals and workshops, and using lecture time to demonstrate and explain practical applications as well as the traditional theoretical information.  In the place of practicals, a series of self-paced exercises were developed.  This made students responsible for their own learning of the practical applications. Candy (1991), believes that traditional courses do not encourage life long learning due to the predominantly teacher directed learning approach.  A move towards self directed learning encourages the ethos of life long learning to be developed.

Restructuring within the School of Business at James Cook University gave the opportunity to redesign an existing subject, Quantitative Studies BU1010, which had been a specialized subject within Tourism with an average enrolment of 30 students per year. In 1999, this subject became a more generic business subject and thus, enrolment numbers jumped to 173. This dramatic increase in enrolments led to a subject restructure to enable best use of teaching contact hours with the existing staff. This paper examines the design and evaluation of this adopted flexible-learning method, which provided students with a greater responsibility for their own learning experience.

Subject Alterations

Prior to 1999, the pattern of the subject was 26 hours of lectures and 13 hours of practicals or workshops over the 13-week semester.  With the increased enrolments, the subject contact time was restructured to include 26 hours of lectures broken down into 13 hours of statistical theory and 13 hours of practical computer demonstration.  Thirteen self-paced practical exercises were also developed for students to do in the place of timetabled practicals.  In addition, 4 one-hour help sessions were run each week to assist those students who required assistance with their self-paced exercises.

Learning Structure / Tools

A series of learning structures or tools were put into place to provide students with support throughout the subject.  These included demonstrations in lectures, step-by-step self paced practical worksheets, regular scheduled help sessions, mock exams, regular assessment to enable feedback, and a subject website.

Lectures

Each week for the 13 weeks of semester, a two-hour lecture was conducted with a scheduled repeat lecture.  Lectures were broken down into two distinct sections that included one hour of statistical theory, and one hour of demonstration and explanation of the computer based statistical package used for the subject (SPSS).

Practicals and “Help Sessions”

At the beginning of the semester students were introduced to the concept of self-paced exercises in the place of timetabled practicals or workshops.  Each week in lectures, students were given a step-by-step worksheet involving the analysis of data using the SPSS computer package.  Each week’s self-paced exercise related to the topic explained in the demonstration component of the lecture and was placed on the subject website for students to download at their convenience.  Students were instructed to attempt the exercises initially in their own time and working with other students was strongly encouraged.  Students experiencing difficulties were invited to attend one of the scheduled help sessions.

Assessment and Mock Exams

Regular assessment was an important component of the newly restructured course.  Ramsden (1992) stressed the significance of assessment and its impact in determining how and what students learn. This new method enabled students to gain feedback on their success at an early stage and hopefully stressed the importance of completing the exercises set each week.  Two practical exams were held during the semester worth 20% and 30% respectively.  The first exam was held early in the semester to allow students to monitor progress and adjust behaviour accordingly.  Another learning tool associated with the assessment was a mock exam.  Good (1983) believed that the way a student perceives their tasks and activities will greatly influence their approach to learning and their use of available time.  In line with this, Ames (1992) states that, “embedded in tasks is information that the students use to make judgements about their ability, their willingness to apply effortful strategies, and their feelings of satisfaction” (p.263).  This was the reasoning behind providing students with mock exams and enabling them some insight into the type of questions, and layout of the upcoming exam. A series of mock exams were provided to students as their weekly self-paced exercises for the week prior to each of the practical exams.  A final theory exam worth 50% was held during the end of semester exam period.

Website

A website was placed on the James Cook University server to act as an addition information source for students (http://www.jcu.edu.au/~coe-fer/BU1010-intro.htm).  The website had the following components:

Subject Evaluation

A total of 76 responses were obtained from a population of 126 students who sat the final exam during the exam period. Data collected was by way of a self-administered questionnaire that examined participation and satisfaction with various elements of the subject. 

Subject component participation

The following figures and tables highlight trends in the data collected from participation answers to the questionnaire. A majority of respondents (57.9%) attended the help sessions regularly and 61.3% of respondents attempted the practical tasks on their own.  This was a pleasing result and indicated that by the end of the course the majority of students had realised the worth of completing the self-paced exercises. Just over half of the respondents (55.3%) indicated that they regularly made use of help sessions to assist in the completion of the self-paced exercises, and more use was made of the website (63.2%) of respondents indicating this usage. Although mainly an additional information source, with the majority of information assessable in other places, the website was the easiest way to gain the data needed for analysis as part of the practical exercises.

Helpfulness Indicators

Table 1 shows the mean scores and standard deviation of the helpfulness ratings associated with various elements of the subject.  The mock exams appear to have been the most helpful learning tool for students during the subject with a mean rating of 4.67.  The demonstration component of the lectures and the website were also rated favourably.

Table 1:  Satisfaction with aspects of the subject in terms of helpfulness. Means are on a 5-point scale where 1 is the least helpful and 5 is the most helpful.

Participation and helpfulness comparisons

Using the data collected, a series of cross-tabulation tables were formulated. As indicated by Table 2, students who attempted the weekly self-paced practical tasks on their own were more likely to find the help sessions the most helpful. Table 3 highlights that students who attempted the weekly practical tasks on their own were more likely to find the website helpful to very helpful. Attendance at help sessions was not an indicator of web usage (Table 4).

Table 2:  Cross-tabulation – Attempting task on own by helpfulness of help sessions.  (1 being least helpful to 5 being most helpful)

Table 3:  Cross-tabulation – Attempting tasks on own by helpfulness of website.  (1 being least helpful to 5 being most helpful)

Table 4:  Cross-tabulation – Regular attendance at help sessions by use of website.

Conclusions

Overall, the new structure of BU1010 was an efficient way to run a subject of this nature with large enrolment numbers and limited staff resources since it provided students with experience in self-directed learning whilst encouraging life-long learning (Candy, 1991).

Students who attempted the practical tasks in their own time, and therefore adopted the concept of self directed learning, were more likely to take advantage or gain more worth from the other learning structures put into place. It was encouraging to find that the majority of students found the learning tools implemented to be helpful in their learning experience.  Changes suggested by students in relation to the practical component centred on the need for confirmation of their answers to the self-paced exercises.  A run through of the previous week’s exercise during the demonstration segment of the lecture would overcome this problem.

In the future a discussion session relating to the results of the first practical exam will be undertaken to inform students how they can alter their work patterns to improve their performance in the subject.  This will in turn give students a greater understanding of the role of their self-paced tasks and the important role that these play in the outcome of their learning experience.

References

Ames, C. (1992).  Classrooms:  Goals, Structures, and Student Motivation.  Journal of Educational Psychology, 84 (3), 261 –271.

Candy, P. (1991).  Self direction for lifelong learning:  A comprehensive guide to theory and practice.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Good, T. (1983).  Classroom research:  A decade of progress.  Educational Psychologist, 18,127-144.

Knowles, M. (1975).  Self Directed Learning:  A Guide for Learners and Teachers.  New York:  Associated Press.

Ramsden, P. (1992).  Learning to teach in higher education.  London:  Routledge.

Taylor, J.C. (1998). Flexible delivery: The globalisation of lifelong learning. Indian Journal of Open Learning, l 7 (1), 67-78.