Talk about Walkabout: student feedback on a flexible learning initiative

David Murphy, Des Casey and Janet Fraser
Monash University
Australia


Monash University has embarked on a number of initiatives aimed at increasing flexibility for its students, often through the application of educational technology and online learning environments. This study reports on the use of the Walkabout u-learning (ubiquitous learning) environment; an initiative of the University's IT faculty.

The Walkabout Learning Project aims to develop 'flexible learning models for on-campus and distance learning students. The models give less emphasis to formal classes but incorporate web-based applications, together with audio and video technologies, for content delivery, learning tasks and teacher/student and student/student interaction.' (http://neptune.netcomp.monash.edu.au/sonec/research/research.aspx) This includes the ability to display course content on mobile devices, as well as the more usual desktop/laptop or tablet PCs.

The u-learning environment has been through a number of iterations, and has now been formally evaluated through the analysis of student results and the use of quantitative and qualitative measures. While providing a brief summary of overall evaluation measures, this paper concentrates on the qualitative data, gathered through the use of student interviews. The main themes covered in the interviews were participants' lifestyle, approach to learning, use of technology, delivery methods and general issues. Overall, the interviews supported the quantitative findings of the evaluation, and confirmed the positive reactions to maximizing flexibility in learning.