ELESIG webinars may be of interest to you. ELESIG is a community of researchers and practitioners from higher, further and skills sector education. We are involved in investigations of learners’ experiences and uses of technology in learning.
If you would like to join ELESIG, please visit the Ning group: http://elesig.ning.com/
How do learners experience the development of digital capabilities in the curriculum?
TĂĽnde Varga-Atkins, University of Liverpool
12 – 1pm British Summer Time, 2 May 2018
The development of digital capabilities has received much attention in education in the last few years. My doctoral study, adopting JISC’s digital capabilities framework, aims to explore how the development of digital capabilities are planned, enacted and experienced in the curriculum in particular disciplinary contexts using multiple-case study methodology. The units of analysis will encompass undergraduate modules from two disciplines (engineering and management), drawing on a range of informants’ data, including academic, employer/professional, student perspectives – and documentary sources. In this webinar, I will focus on reporting students’ experience of their development of digital capabilities. I will also discuss the research methods I have drawn on. These include documentary analysis, interviews, surveys and observation and what I have learnt about using these methods for learner experience research.
Moving from consultation to conversation: Shaping how we understand where technology and learning intersect with the lives and experiences of students at the LSE
Peter Bryant, University of Sydney
4-5pm British Summer Time, 8 June 2018
Research is a critical part of any consultative process to inform strategic pedagogical change. Exploring and understanding the student voice is a complex part of that process, and one which is often rent with policy, institutional and disciplinary tensions. This webinar will discuss some of the ways in which the student voice can be better represented in evaluative and consultative research about teaching and learning. Using our three-year research project called LSE2020 as an example, we will explore the use of conversational techniques, video interviews and other methodologies to expose and integrate student voice at a strategic level.
How do students respond to seeing data about themselves presented via a Learning Analytics Dashboard?
Liz Bennett, University of Huddersfield
12 – 1pm British Summer Time, 16 July 2018
How do students respond to seeing data about themselves presented via a Learning Analytics Dashboard?  For instance, how does it feel to know that you are 150th in a cohort of 160? This webinar reports on the findings of a scoping study funded by the Society for Research in Higher Education. The findings challenge the dominant ways that learning analytics is being addressed by the Learning Analytics community. They also help to understand the individual way that a student responds to their data.  The consequences for institutions as they develop their use of learning analytics will be discussed.
What can participatory methods contribute to learning technology research in HE?
Jane Seale, Open University
4 – 5pm British Summer Time, 4 September 2018
At the heart of participatory methods is the principle of researching and designing with rather than on people. Participants are encouraged to own the outcome of the research or design process by setting the goals and sharing in decisions about processes. Participatory methods attempt to engage participants in the whole process from design through to evaluation. In this presentation, I will draw on examples from my own research into accessibility and the use of technologies by disabled students. I will discuss who is silenced and ignored in the field of disability, accessibility and learning technology. I will also discuss why, and what opportunities and challenges might arise through the use of participatory methods to give voice to those who are silenced and ignored?