Hygiene Factors: using VLE minimum standards to avoid student dissatisfaction (537) Members : Annual Conference 2014

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Public Group Active 8 years, 6 months ago

Wed, Sep 3 2014, 1:35pm – 2:45pm

Description

Despite the range of innovations taking place related to the use of technology to support and enhance learning, teaching and assessment, we are still battling with more basic issues related to supporting students in their studies. In particular, the introduction of minimum standards to the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a topic of particular interest across higher education ( Ahmed & Morley, 2010), and has been raised locally by the Liverpool Guild of Students (Bee, 2013). A pre-research exercise, supported by the ALT-Members Jiscmail list, provided data to demonstrate the importance placed on minimum standards across the higher education sector (Reed, 2014).

This presentation will share primary data to demonstrate staff and student perspectives towards the inclusion of minimum standards. This research has also led to the proposal of a conceptual framework for the introduction of VLE minimum standards, suggesting specific factors that influence student satisfaction (motivators) and dissatisfaction (hygiene factors), based on the classical work of Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of employee satisfaction (Herzberg, 1966).

The research demonstrated that generally, staff and student responses follow a similar pattern in relation to criteria for inclusion, however items were consistently more important to students than staff. These results suggest staff perceptions of what should be included in minimum standards, although correlated (r=0.560), are not an accurate indication of what students feel should be included in minimum standards – extremely significant differences were present between staff responses (M=53.93, SD=14.60) and student responses (M=77.29, SD=14.24; t(26)=4.28; p=0.0002) for at least some criteria.

Kregor et al (2012) suggest differences between staff and student attitudes towards the use of technology may exist due to the respective roles of the different groups i.e. ‘time and saving flexibility gains for students may inversely require additional workload or skill demands for staff’. It is therefore suggested that automation of key criteria is critical to effectively implement VLE minimum standards.

References

Ahmed, J., & Morley, G. (2010). VLE a blessing or a curse : VLE use by HE Academic Staff. In Global Learn Asia Pacific 2010 – Global Conference on Learning and Technology. Retrieved from http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/8901/

Bee, T. (2013). Making the Most out of IT: report to TELWG. Liverpool

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Block Synderman, B. (1967). The Motivation to Work (Second Edi.). New York, New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Kregor, G., Breslin, M., & Fountain, W. (2012). Experience and beliefs of technology users at an Australian university: Keys to maximising e-learning potential. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 28(8), 1382–1404. Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet28/kregor.html

Reed, P. (2014). Sector-wide subscription to VLE minimum standards. The Reed Diaries. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://thereeddiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/sector-wide-subscription-to-vle-minimum.html