Listening to the Learner

Studies have revealed that students are increasingly expecting information, services, and course material to be available online. In a recent survey, more than 80% of the UW undergraduate student population used a computer daily, and 75% reported using a computer capable of browsing the Web from their residence (Donovan and Macklin 1998). Furthermore, when UW's Office of Educational Assessment conducted a survey asking students to rate the importance of seventeen abilities, among the top five was the ability to work with technology (Macklin 2001).

In response to these expectations, Listening to the Learner (LTL) is a multidisciplinary project that is actively engaging the learner to investigate technology-based educational approaches at the University of Washington. Comprised of three undergraduate students, the LTL team is exploring student perceptions and expectations of educational technology and implementing a variety of methodologies, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, and web design analysis.

Listening to the Learner was launched in winter term 2002 by Beth Koemans (an undergraduate in the UW Information School and Kimberly Gustafson (a recent graduate from the UW School of Nursing who was featured in Learning at the Leading Edge in 2001. Beth and Kimberly intend this research project to inform the design and development of tools and resources that will be utilized by faculty and students at the University of Washington. By applying the sciences of learning to study technology-based educational approaches, this project will investigate effective and innovative strategies for uses of technology that are driven by pedagogical goals. With hopes to facilitate the movement of education centered on the transmission of knowledge to that of the acquisition of knowledge, this research project provides an opportunity for educational technologies to be informed by student learning needs.

References

Donovan, M. and Macklin, S. 1998. New Learning Technologies: One Size Doesn't Fit All. Planning for Higher Education. 28:10-18

Macklin, S. Conference Lecture. 2001. Interfacing: Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with Technology.

Collaborators

• UW Office of Undergraduate Education

Examples of work

• Introductory PowerPoint presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint document)
• Syllabus to guide the three Listening to the Learner students (Microsoft Word document; 3 pages)