The purpose of this post is to provide a summary of the E.L.F.S. 2011 iPad trial by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Adelaide, just prior to the second semester intake of students.
Mid 2011 observations
1. The iPad has proven to be a very good choice of device. It is robust (out of about 700 given out to date, one did not work when unpacked and one has failed since). It is also clear that students are bringing the iPad in to University and they are actively using it in and out of classes. ITS surveys of mobile device traffic on the university wireless network also indicate a large increase wireless traffic in 2011 over previous years.
2. There was a significant increase in First Year enrolments in Sciences in 2011, beyond our modestly aggressive targets.
3. The appointment of First Year Directors and 50% level A teaching staff has led to a great deal of shared information and streamlining of processes within First Year. It has also provided a great deal of continuity to students.
4. Staff involvement in the project has been very positive. First year lecturing staff are loaned an iPad if they do not already have one. Uptake and use by staff has been very good. All lecture material is tested for use with an iPad, and is loaded on MyUni two to four weeks in advance of the lecture time. The 10 Big Questions have been used effectively to anchor our first year courses to our research excellence.
5. A reduction of paper for lecture notes and other course materials.
6. Only 24 iPads were returned. The returned iPads were used for loan to first year teaching staff.
9. We are beginning to see an uptake of the 10 Big Questions in South Australian Secondary Schools. As a result we have instigated a project to provide much more supporting material around these questions and around our first year Sciences programs. This has great potential as a way to market University of Adelaide Sciences to both teachers and students.
10. Support from ITS was excellent, with all venues working well beyond expectation for wireless capacity and ITS staff willing to assist at every opportunity.
11. We had a significant improvement in our pastoral care of First Year students. All students were allocated to mentor groups, each assigned to an academic staff member and this ran very well. We also ran several voluntary sessions for students in the first term, with a variety of themes. The hand out of iPads brought some interesting issues to light. A surprising number of students were not confident about how they well they could use any electronic device. This led to unexpected and increased workload for staff in the early part of the semester, but also allowed many other issues to be addressed that we would not normally have known about. These include assumptions we make about student use of email, Access Adelaide, and computers in general for data processing and data presentation.
12. The tender process for the iPads was very effective. Datacom provided high level of onsite technical support during distribution and post-distribution support for both staff and students.
13. Support from T-Life (Rundle Mall) was also to our advantage as they provided a special deal for 3G connection for students and staff. Their data deal was a $30 Pre-Paid Micro-Sim Starter Pack, which included 3GB data, for $20.
The Future
If this project proceeds in to the future then it offers some significant challenges. The most important of these are:
1. It facilitates a significant shift to on-line learning, but this will require a major commitment of resources over a long period of time. The potential of this is very high in terms of taking more of our undergraduate instruction to external mode. The iPad could be a very important part of the package for remote students.
2. In light of point 1, there is a major challenge for our approach to face-to-face learning. We remain committed to this, but the way we do it must change significantly. We will have to move quickly to self-directed learning if we are to remain competitive in the 21st century.
3. A major issue remains a change to our methods of assessment. This is not directly related to this project, but was raised in the ThincBeyond sessions, and is seen as a major impediment to students in its current form.
4. Partnering secondary (and possibly primary) schools presents a major opportunity arising from this project. That partnering and better engagement has commenced, but has enormous potential for the future in terms of making the University of Adelaide a destination of choice for any South Australian student interested in studying science.
*caveat: any figures, data presented here should not be compared with any prior-year ‘equivalents’ because all prior-year data would be for a full calendar year which includes the second semester intake, further attrition & lengthly processing of manual evaluation process such as s.e.l.t.
Fang – Mike Seyfang
