MY FINDINGS:

A link to a spreadsheet of my survey findings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b-3RDfFp7vd4OwqVeqL6ZeQkZLirUdc4zLp2qQweRQU/edit?usp=sharing

For my study I asked if STEM students would be willing to participate; I  wanted to take on board what chemistry/ science students were saying more than anyone else, and so using the keyword STEM was useful.  This is because I don’t know of many specifically chemistry students and wanted a large range of different answers. I asked my participants for their name, age, and degree title at first in order to see how age of the person as well as subject matter being studied affected the results.

AGE:

 

 

WHICH DEVICE?

I then moved onto the question of which device they found the most useful when learning new information using an online learning tool.  The majority of people chose laptops/ computers; after asking why this was I found that using a phone for educational purposes is hard due to distractions, and that iPads weren’t as intuitive/ comfortable to use.

 

 

HOW DO THEY LEARN INFORMATION BEST?

I followed this by asking what type of learner they were – this would help me to understand how people that need to take in large amounts of scientific information operate when studying, and how I could bring this into my own learning tool.  I gave them the four different learning styles and asked which sounded most like themselves.  The result was interesting and not one I was expecting; I’m definitely more of a visual learner and when studying science myself revised by drawing diagrams and detailed drawings that I would remember come exam season.

However, the results suggest that stem students learn by doing as well as writing the process down rather than just simply seeing an image or drawing of it.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

To me, this means i’ll need to make the material interactive – possibly using animation and moving elements.  Making the experience as close to the real thing as possible will really work to make the information stick for these students.

WHICH TOOLS HAVE CAUSED FRUSTRATION IN THE PAST?

Some people didn’t understand what I was asking at first (they said phone or iPad instead of an app or software).  This caused me to alter my question – giving an example within the question of an online learning tool (quizlet).

I got some repeat answers and so I’ve compiled them into a list:

• blackboard
• turnitin
• kahoot
• quiz apps and pre-recorded videos
• canvas
• photomath
• geogabra
• anki flash cards
• quizlet
• google docs
• powerpoint
• microsoft teams

 

WHY IS THIS?

• blackboard
  • lack of personal interaction
• Kahoot
  • Questions show up too fast and means only fast-reading people do well – not representative of how well you know subject matter
• Pre-recorded videos
  • Not enough detail, animation style isn’t detailed enough
• Canvas
  • Modules are disorganised and can sometimes be hidden at the bottom, should be sorted by year and module automatically
• Moodle
  • Too slow, badly laid out, information could be sorted better and hierarchy of info doesn’t make sense
• Geogebra
  • Badly laid out, needs two tabs open in order to function correctly
• Anki Flash cards
  • Terrible formatting, Information not laid out well, issues transferring between devices and different apps
• Quizlet
  • Difficult to find topics that are relevant to you, have to manually input information in order to quiz yourself or rely on other users previous work
• Microsoft teams
  • Difficult to navigate, hard to understand what buttons meant and layout wasn’t intuitive
  • You have to scroll for ages to find pics n vids sent
  • can also be jumpy.

WHICH TOOLS HAVE WORKED WELL IN THE PAST?

To summarise:

• Blackboard
• Youtube
• driving theory test app
• Udemy
• Coursera
• Teams
• Solo learn
• Quizlet
• Kahoot
• Osmosis
• Adobe PDF
• Goodnotes
• TeachMeAnatomy

 

WHY HAVE THEY WORKED?

• Blackboard
  • Simple layout
  • good information hierarchy 
  • easy to navigate
• Youtube
  • can save your favourites and bookmark things for later
  • Animations showing how processes work help break things down more easily
  • Great variety of videos and animations
  • varied explanations
• Driving theory test app
  • Fake tests and repetition work well
• Udemy & coursera
  • Fake testing and repetition of material help information stick
• Teams
  • Easy to use interface on both computer and phone
  • all chats are in one place and teams are in one place
  • any calls that are scheduled via teams are in a calendar section. 
• Coursera
  • Constant quizes
  • In depth tutorials
  • had annoying but useful audios for right and wrong
• Quizlet
  • quizzes
• Kahoot
  • social aspect makes it enjoyable
  • Fun to play in class
• Osmosis
  • Very simple, quick breakdowns of topics that have taken hours to be covered in lectures (very to the point explanations, no waffling)
• TeachMeAnatomy
  • Intuitive layout
  • syncs with other apps
• Goodnotes
  • Intuitive layout
  • syncs with other apps

 

WHAT DO YOU WANT IN AN ONLINE LEARNING TOOL?

To summarise:

• Putting info in a fun way like a game or a video 
• learning it and then being tested on it
• Splitting the topic up into clear categories and quizzes at the end with flash card learning
• colours and pictures
• More animated videos shown and pictures.
• A game 
• quizzes and puzzles
• Make it as much like real world application as possible
• make it more interactive (ie kahoot: the social aspect really helps)
• interactive diagrams to show theory in different situations
• Short practice questions! (quiz throughout the learning to ensure engagement and check understanding.)
• would be useful to have a tool that could take a textbook sample and create questions
• some animations when learning boring stuff would be helpful..
• Make it more engaging than just reading reams of PowerPoint slides
• Learning terms for muscle / health conditions would be easier if it was in a game form.
• When learning material, user interactions such as games would improve the users attention span when learning.
• Better interactive interface with videos

 

WHAT I’VE LEARNED – A SUMMARY:

• students found the following to be the most helpful components of an online tool:
  • repetitive quizzes
  • games & puzzles
  • animated videos and pictures
  • splitting the topic up into clear categories
  • make it as realistic as possible – good, detailed animation style and make sure components are represented accurately
  • interactive diagrams
• keep the fact that the most common favourite learning style was kinaesthetic – this means people will learn and understand information better if the components can be interacted with and moved about like real world application
• reading/ writing is the second most common learning style – this means I need to include lots of repetition of information throughout in order to ensure it sticks better