Vignettes from the Field
Snapshot
Margaret
Student with a disability
Discipline
Social Work
Enrolment status
Full time, on campus
Year
2 nd year
Experience
Positive
‘I have a learning disability, but I’m not alone in getting overloaded on lectures – the lecturer can talk until the cows some home and I wont be able to remember or take down enough notes to cover all that’s been said.’ Margaret
Margaret’s story
Margaret is currently enrolled in her second year of a postgraduate Social Work program. She has studied as a part-time student while working in the past, but for this degree is studying part-time and working part time.
Margaret has a memory-related learning disability and also a mild case of RSI (do we need to spell this out?). Although she attends most on-campus lectures, she has trouble summarising as a result of her condition and can’t write very fast to take effective notes during lectures. She describes herself as ‘enjoying coming to lectures and hearing lecturers and guest speakers present their ideas and viewpoints’. She also enjoys meeting fellow students on campus.
WBLT and learning
Margaret uses the lecture recording technologies in conjunction with the online presentation slides, readings and other resources to supplement her lecture attendance.
Margaret usually downloads the lecture to her own computer and listens to the whole lecture. She listens to WBLT recording regularly throughout the semester and frequently revisits the lecture recordings more that once to ensure she has grasped the main concepts. An example she offered was when preparing for an assignment she may go back and review several different theoretical approaches to make sure she has covered all that is required. She used WBLT to revise for exams toward the end of the semester.
Impressions of using WBLT
‘I have done online courses before the introduction of (WBLT) and it wasn’t as good – I didn’t like online without lectures; having to just plough through the pages of readings by myself.’
Margaret’s experiences of WBLT have been positive. The technologies provide her with a valuable ‘safety blanket’ to take pressure off her note taking and summarising skills:
I really love the fact that I can go back and listen to lectures again and again - especially for revision, for understanding of difficult concepts, for clarification of ideas and assessment tasks.
She also appreciates the flexibility the technology offers:
‘You can listen at your own time; at 2 o’clock in the morning if you can’t sleep.’
Learning Futures
Margaret acknowledged that the University experience is changing:
I have already seen changes since my first degree in 1980's in that small workshops (10-12 students) are now a thing of the past. I would hate to think that listening to lecturers and guest speakers in lecture theatres would change too much.
Margaret appreciates the flexibility offered by WBLT but would like future learning environments to retain some on-campus lecture experiences:
The only thing I wouldn't want to see is videos being shown instead of "real live" lecturers - as there may be the tendency to cut costs and show the same videos over and over again - causing stagnation and courses that are
no longer relevant to today's issues (which is what happens when lecturers don't update their material and give the same lectures year after year). It is also very hard to ask questions of a lecturer who is not there. I have tried online learning through discussion forums and I still prefer to come to lectures and meet people face-to-face.
 |
 |
 |
 |