ORDENANZA MUNICIPAL DE PROTECCIÓN CONTRA RUIDOS Y VIBRACIONES
Artículo 4. Comprobación y puesta en funcionamiento de la actividad
5.9.2.1.
Advantages of the integration
Tutors revealed that applying such a project has several advantages that helped both students and tutors:
Day by day mentorship
Some tutors found the intervention contributed to improving the mentorship and giving and receiving feedback. In addition, it encouraged the peer assessment in which students give feedback to each other:
“So you can see for example what the students have studied the day before and then you post questions. So it gives you like an interactive way of monitoring their self-learning. This is the most important thing I think for me from a staff point of view or a tutor point of view.” (Tm1)
“The students shared their resources with each other, asked questions and answered, mainly by their colleagues, not mainly by the tutors, by their colleagues, and also by the help of the tutor. Giving the feedback to each other” (TF2)
“I think on the point of feedback there is improvement,....Not only you either, but students will monitor each other by posting material and saying “that is ok, that is not”, so this feedback itself is a form of feedback as to your performance.” (Tm1)
Starting earlier leads to less effort before exam
They noticed that the experience of online discussion encouraged students to engage with the weekly problem as soon as the discussion started on the forum. One tutor believed this makes the exam review easier:“It encourages the students that late to start to research as early as possible. Usually students start to study or collect data on Tuesday or sometimes Monday not before that so it helps the students to start from the very beginning from Saturday to start working and I notice that.” (Tm2)
“That they have already discussed their ideas and their objectives for the first session maybe on the same day, not waiting until they meet.” (TF3)
“Student came to the exam; he found himself knowing all this knowledge and did not have to spend more time to study these things.” (TF2)
“Rapid access for the objective, and how to share it, before they meet today” (TF3)
Overcome the current issues of the conventional
PBL
Tutors commented that integration of online discussion was an effective solution to some current issues. For instance, some shy students were not talking in the face-to-face session; however, they participated effectively online:
“Shy students, there are shy students in the session, and I noticed that some students were very shy, and whenever you tackled some tips to let the students engage with me in the discussions, still their performance in the session was a little low. But it surprised me, the least talkative students would express
themselves beautifully in the online forum, by the help of the tutor and the motivation and the encouragement.” (TF2)
“I notice some students who are not very forthcoming in discussions.” (Tm1)
Tutors found that the PBL was not over at the end of the first face-to-face session; it continued during the whole week, which filled the usual gap in interaction. Online discussion, in addition, helped overcome the time limit. Subsequently, that increased contact time between group members:
“To have interaction the whole time or the whole week because usually there is gap between Saturday and Wednesday.” (Tm2) “It gives extension to the activities of the PBL and also it is a continuation of student communication and student interaction for the other steps of the PBL.” (TF1)
“I think one of the main advantages is that the group will continue to function and the group after the PBL session is over, because online they have access to their resources and to their tutor online” (Tm1)
“The contact between the student and the tutor becomes more, because the tutor is engaged in other activities, but if it is in the online discussion, they are exposed to the tutor more time than in the college.” (TF2)
“And they can access me any time; they can find me any time.” (TF2)
“Between the students and with the students and tutors” (TF1) “Well the main advantage is going beyond the time limits; I think this is the main advantage. It gives the students more space and more time to think and to participate in the area of discussion and this is the main thing” (Tm3)
One of the existing problems is that students do not cover all the learning issues, but with integrating the discussion forum all students are exposed to all learning issues:
“Filling the gaps of knowledge of each other of course, this does not only enable the students in the group to be exposed to all the
objectives, we have some fallacies in the PBL that some students are exposed to some objectives and not exposed to the others.” (TF2)
A female tutor pointed out an issue particular to female section is that their time is limited, as they have to leave the school in a particular time. Thus, they do not have time for their students and can’t give feedback:
“One point of the advantages, that it may be specific for us as the female section that we have limited time, so this extension of the time gives more study time, more study time for the students, we are open, this is a good solution for certain specific problems of limited time.” (TF1)
Sharing knowledge and multimedia resources
Sharing knowledge was a perceived advantage of the integration of the online discussion. Some of this knowledge was presented via multimedia, using illustrations and video clips. A tutor stated that this helps students understand the weekly problem:“Share their knowledge and resources with each other” (TF2) “Advantages they post for example video clips, which is really, I think is very nice. It gives them the idea and the concept for some scientific things so they can understand.” (Tm3)
“Furthermore, being based on computers, multimedia can be used. It encourages the use of graphics, videos, not just talking as in the BBL session. It encourages the use of multimedia.” (Tm1)
Miscellaneous advantages
The group members of the same group became closer, including the tutor:
“After the online forum, the group that I work with, we are very close after that with each other. They came after that to ask me, it shortened the distance between the tutor and the students.” (TF2)
In addition to the learning issue, students sometimes expanded their discussion to other topics depending on their needs:
“Expanding some relevant issues, there are some relevant issues that were expanded more than the objectives, upon demand or according to the need of the students.” (TF2)
A tutor pointed that when the discussion forums were accessible and opened to all students; it helped them see the different points of view of different groups:
“Benefit from the experience of other colleagues of other groups.... other groups work with other tutors with different visions or
different discussions” (TF1)
A tutor noticed that students were stimulating each other by posting new information, so it helped all students to contribute:
“Another thing is that students encourage each other and one goes and reads something and posts it online, it will stimulate other people to go and study. It is better than having someone going and searching alone.” (Tm1)
5.9.2.2.
Limitations of the integration
Tutors revealed that the integration had some limitations, either for students or tutors:
Time consuming
Some tutors pointed out that the integration consumed students’ and tutors’ time, especially since students and tutors have other activities to do. For example, students have lectures and seminars to prepare for:
“Time consuming for both the students and tutors” (TF1)
“It is like an obstacle for this. I did not find it a disadvantage, but it is sometimes time-consuming and not every student has the time to go to the end of the unit and they start posting and reading only the student responses. This is the main disadvantage.” (TF3) “I think so for the tutor or the student because I think not the whole thing they do. They do lectures and seminars and many other activities. So in this way I think it takes more time than usual. (Tm2)
“I think it is more a constraint for the student than the tutor.” (TF3)
A tutor with a busy timetable criticized that it should not be opened on all weekdays. He also claimed that it is not convenient to do it from home:
“It should not be open because neither tutor nor students are really willing or able to function all the time” (Tm1)
“I think yes, here is a problem. Maybe this is only me or other people, you see administrative duties in the college differ. I personally have a lot of administrative duties. I attend a lot of meetings; sometimes four meetings per day. May be that’s a factor limiting my online participation.” (Tm1)
“It is less than what I want. Because my duties. Now why don’t I do it from home? Again there are limitations there. It is much easier for me to do the online discussions from the college, to be frank with you, than to do it from home. At home I find many things that distract me from getting engaged in to online discussions with students, and that’s what I said earlier about solving the problem. You should not assume that staff when they go home will go and open their computers and communicate with students, no. They have other things to do frankly. So it is during the college hours that most of the interactions will happen, and because of my many responsibilities I did not do as much as I would have liked to have done really.” (Tm1)
There is unequal participation on the discussion forum; a tutor claimed that there were differences in students’ interest toward the use of the discussion forum, and some students decided not to share:
“Some students are interested and some are uninterested, so there is an unequal share, some predominant students and others.” (TF1)
“Except some students decided from the start not to share but people” (Tm2)
Internet connection was an issue mentioned in the female section:
“Slow or disconnected net may be somewhat frustrating” (TF2) “Internet access is not present all the time for us” (TF3)