2b. Teaching, Learning and / or assessment processes: An understanding of your target learners
Details
Requirement: An understanding of your target learners
Statements should how you have found out about learners' needs and the context for their studies, and how you have developed inclusive, accessible and learner-centred approaches that reflect this.
Evidence might include a description of how assistive technologies have been used to support disabled students, how learner feedback has influenced the design of a portfolio, how the needs of work-based learners or overseas students have shaped the curriculum, or records of conversations with product analysts, marketing departments or course teams and the resulting plans for your design. Evidence of changed practice, rather than simply the recognition that this is an important area, is required.
Description and reflection
Context: international students
I have worked with and developed for international students for most of my career. This can sometimes create problems with intercultural communication, particularly in online environments where email is often the only easily available form of communication. Presentation is also a key element I focus on, trying to ensure (where possible) that graphical elements are universal and support any text.
The majority of the international students I come into contact with have English as a second language. Because of this, I also try to avoid using idioms and overly technical language (especially as it does not often easily translate). Where I feel that a student may not have understood me, I try to rephrase what I say into simpler English where possible to increase their comprehension.
Another area I have concentrated on is slower speech. When training international students, I make an effort to speak more slowly to get my points across more clearly. I feel that I have made good progress on this. If I ever make a recording that I feel is too fast but is otherwise correct, I use suitable functionality in Audacity to slow the recording down.
From when I was a student I spent a lot of time with international students outside of work as well. I was heavily involved in the Christian Union's International Café and a church International Alpha course, which I greatly enjoyed. These both provided me with a good chance to get to know international students in a different context, and find out more about a broader range of their needs, such as the tendency for some students to drop everything non-academic near exams and coursework deadlines. This has increased my intercultural awareness and made me better equipped to understand international pastoral issues.
I also try to adapt courses to ensure that all students start on as level a playing field as possible. Our international students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, particularly regarding e-learning experience. Some have completed online courses, whilst others have barely used anything. There is also the issue with the accessibility of social media - some predominantly Western sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are inaccessible (at least via 'official' means) from some countries such as China. I try to ensure that such social networks are not core to any courses or resources, so that students who cannot access them are not disadvantaged.
Likewise, something which has increased dramatically over the past 18 months has been the prevalence of devices, such as many tablets and phones, which do not support Flash. I try to ensure a uniform experience across devices, and have adapted our resources over time to suit. For example, Quicktime MP3 embedding with a Windows Media Player fallback within web resources was my method of choice from 2007-2008, but as we expanded our provision of videos it became clear that container issues meant that Flash was a more suitable solution, using Quicktime/Media Player as a fallback option. In the last 18 months, however, I have adapted resources again to make HTML5 video and audio formats the default option where supported. Flash is now a backup option, with Quicktime/Media Player as a last resource for those who cannot use HTML5 or Flash. I feel that this change was particularly important for international students as they are often the first to adopt new mobile technologies.
Evidence
As a member of the eLanguages team in the department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Andrew is regularly put in contact with international learners both face-to-face and through his work in online developments. A number of our online courses and resources are aimed directly at non-native speakers of English and delivered to them in widespread locations overseas where software choices and connectivity levels may vary. Andrew is extremely diligent in ensuring that full usability testing is conducted and that international learners experience no disadvantage when engaging with our resources or courses. He has been proactive in identifying technical changes (e.g. Flash to HTML5) that need to be made to meet the changing habits of users, teaching himself the necessary skills and implementing such changes. Through his close work with other team members and groups of international learners studying in the department, he has shown himself to be adaptive to the needs of such learners, and has become well informed and practised in working with them both inside and outside the classroom.
- Julie Watson, SFHEA, Head of eLanguages and Principal Teaching Fellow in e-Learning, Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Southampton