Document Type
Article
Rights
This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only
Disciplines
*pedagogy
Abstract
Part time students must content with a large number of logistical factors which may inhibit their ability to attend all required instruction sessions. The vast majority of part-time students are in full –time employment and due to either family or work pressure may be unable to attend all classes. This can have a significant impact on the student learning experience. Students can quickly fall behind, become de-motivated and can increasingly seek deferrals from with examinations or the programme itself. Given the current economic climate it is to be expected that the numbers of students interested in upskilling will be increased in the short-to-medium term and that the numbers forced to miss instruction sessions due to increased family and wok commitments will also increase. This project investigated how a ‘Blended Learning’ approach, combining traditional and online delivery, and specifically, the use of podcasting could be used to address some of the problems encountered. Some teaching materials and classroom sessions from selected core modules on two M.Sc. programmes in the DIT School of Computing were to be recorded and made available as podcasts to students. In addition students were encouraged to annotate these podcasts and to develop companion podcasts to support the transfer of knowledge between classmates.
Recommended Citation
Lawless, Deirdre and Gordon, Damian, "An Examination of the Use of Blended Learning to Support Improvement of Engagement and Retention of Part-Time Postgraduate Level Students using Student Edited Podcasts" (2011). Teaching Fellowships. 8.
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/fellow/8