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Evaluating a virtual summer school
Author(s) -
Issroff K.,
Eisenstadt M.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of computer assisted learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.583
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2729
pISSN - 0266-4909
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2729.1997.00027.x
Subject(s) - mathematics education , psychology , computer science , work (physics) , medical education , engineering , medicine , mechanical engineering
The Open University’s Virtual Summer School took place in 1994 and was an experimental project which aimed to use technology to support students who were unable to attend a conventional campus‐based summer school. Students on many courses at the Open University are expected to attend summer school, but for some students this is impossible. In the Virtual Summer School, 12 students used a wide range of software to communicate with tutors and each other, attend lectures and tutorials, access resources and complete projects in groups. The students were studying Cognitive Psychology and the work involved a range of activities including programming, carrying out experiments and statistical analysis. The evaluation used a series of questionnaires to the students, which were compared with those of students at conventional summer school. This paper provides an overview of the Virtual Summer School, presents a selection of the results of the evaluation and discusses the issues which arose out of the evaluation.