PGCE – Unit 9 2009-10 Mid-Cheshire College

Sarah Whitfield PGCE – Unit 9 Independent Study

PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM

No. What you need to do

Task 1 Proposal
Identifying the area of investigation which should be a
current debate/initiative/policy within your own area of
professional practice. You should include proposed methods
of investigation, consideration of the ethical dimension, and a
time line for completion (500 words)
This must be agreed by your tutor before progressing
further.

Proposed Title of project –

How E-learning can be integrated with existing practice to improve
student achievement for students attending the Interactive Media
course at Mid-Cheshire college.

Aims of Project –
I teach on the second year Interactive Media National Diploma course
at Mid-Cheshire. There are weaknesses in the current pedagogical
methods used. This is reflected in a high percentage of target grades
not being met in the group. I intend to investigate what opportunities
e-learning offers in improving motivation, flexibility, collaboration and
extended learning for this specific type of student who are computer
literate digital natives (Prensky, 2001). Specific areas for attention are
any written aspects of projects such as, research, continual reflection,
critical self-evaluation and collaborative work including peer feedback.

Current practice is repetitive and does not cater for all learner needs
and learning styles. The main area in need of improvement is the
research aspects of projects, I will be focusing on this in particular. In
response to the student needs, data from questionnaires and from my
investigation into other good practice I will design a learning activity
incorporating e-learning to give greater opportunities for all students
to achieve their potential.

Context of previous work (brief details of existing work your

study is based on)
Case studies of e-learning in practice selected by the JISC Effective
Practice with e-learning guide are starting points for ideas for specific
problems. I will focus on the main problems I have identified in the
group I teach (research, written work, evaluation, collaboration). The
Abingdon and Witney College case study looks at the challenge of
learning difficulties preventing learners from achieving their potential.
Assistive software and mind mapping software could be of use in my
group if used appropriately. Learning Activity Management System
(LAMS) could be useful in building a series of online activities that can
engage all users whatever their learning style. This can also be used
as a collaborative learning environment. This needs more
investigation.

http://Designsonelearning.psu.edu contains information from a

conference about e-learning in the creative arts. Web 2.0, virtual
worlds, blog and games are some of the technologies being used to
enhance teaching and learning. An article on creating blogs for
evaluative toll for a postgraduate course is relevant to my
investigation. Using Web 2.0 to teach programming elements on an
Interactive Arts course is also a good resource.

Data collection and Analysis

I will create a questionnaire to give out to other members of staff on
the creative arts courses to get feedback of if/ how they use e-
learning as part of their programme, specifically how it is used to help
with written work. This data will also be used to evaluate best practice
before I design the learning activity.

My research into wider use of good practice of e-learning and

specifically in creative arts field will also inform my decisions in
creating the activity.

During my intervention of integrating my e-learning activity I will use

observation method of data collection using a journal to keep notes of
how they interacted with the activity.

To assess the effectiveness of the intervention I will hold a focus

group with the students to discuss the ease of use, advantage of
existing practice and areas for further improvement. This will be part
of the continual reflective cycle needed for the analysis of the action
research.

Participants (who? How many? Ages?) –

14 students in the group – age range between 17 – 19

Aprox 20 other members of staff will be given the questionnaire. A
percentage of these could be to courses of other subjects.

Ethical Issues and Recruitment procedures –

Confidentiality and anonymity will be maintained throughout the
research project. Reference to individual learning styles and needs will
not be made available for other people to read. Use of this data must
PGCE – Unit 9 2009-10 Mid-Cheshire College

be used sensitively and with thought. Participants must be willing will

give consent to be part of the research. They will be able to see the
findings from the investigation it will be open and honest.

Time Line for Completion

Task Completion Date – Month
ending:
Literature review