EXTRAS
Extras occasionally post to the front stage discussion board. Their performance is consistent at the start of a semester and then drops-off dramatically after about four-weeks or tapers off over time.
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JULIA
40 years old, full-time and part-time enrolment that fluctuates throughout the degree
Hours spent completing university-related tasks during a 12-week semester
Font stage: 64
Backstage online: 36
Backstage offline: 52
Julia's story
I get slightly intimidated by the way people write on the discussion board – total and utter intimidation. The live webinars are not any better. I sit there and say to myself: “Should I write that? Should I say something? What if it’s wrong? What are they going to say? Do I take the risk? What are these people going to think about me?” Then I participate and it’s not so bad. But I can’t go through that all semester. Especially not around assessment times.
Facebook is good actually, because you can post bits and pieces and whatever, no big deal. It feels less formal than the discussion board. Even though we were probably talking about the same thing, but to me personally, it feels less structured. Less academic, is probably the word I am looking for.
Maybe I do better in small groups. Early on in my degree I made two friends (one in Cairns and one in Townsville). We message through Facebook all the time. I did a brainstorming exercise with one of them yesterday for 3 1/2 hours.
I get so excited when I learn something new. I bombard my poor seventeen year-old daughter with all this information and she’s like “right, and I care for what reason, Mum?”
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KATHY
23 years old, full-time worker, full-time student
Hours spent completing university-related tasks during a 12-week semester
Font stage: 22
Backstage online: 48
Backstage offline: 48
Kathy's story
Harsh! Feedback from tutors is harsh. When it’s not harsh they are asking me to move posts from one discussion board to the next. I had a tutor interrupt a conversation related to my learning to request that I copy and past the conversation somewhere else.
I took control of my learning experience and joined a Facebook group. It turns out, I wasn't the only student who felt this way. I found others that were also unhappy. We started a Facebook study group. We met weekly to complete the activities together.
Now I like talking on Facebook more than the discussion board. I am able to learn from my classmates in that way. We send videos out on Facebook, like examples that make sense to us, like YouTube videos of the content.
Also, I grew up on a farm and there was never anyone around, so I know how to study by myself. Online learning suits me because I need to work to pay for things but sometimes I wonder if I would get more one-to-one support from teachers in an on-campus program.
ACTIVITIES FOR EXTRAS
Activities will be created at ASCILITE 2017