A student-generated glossary (ARNE1001)

From Elearning

ARNE1001 – Archaeology of the Near East (2006) Designer – Ms Emma Thompson Unit co-ordinators – Ms Emma Thompson

Contents 1 What she does 2 The results she gets 3 Where it might go in future 4 Cite as 5 Add a comment

What she does

• Students develop an online glossary for the unit by writing up a glossary item every week, as part of their tutorial preparation.
• Students submit their draft glossary entries via the WebCT discussion area. If satisfactory, the entry gets copied into the WebCT glossary. If not, the glossary item comes back for students to try again.
• The activity runs for most of the session, from week 3 to week 11 with some breaks where students are about to submit major assessment items.
• The glossary task carries specific assessment loading of its own but is reflected in tutorial participation marks (10% of total) *.

Student numbers in 2006 = approx 60.

The results she gets

• A glossary of substantial extent covering the majority of problematic terms in the unit. Total number of entries is over 170. Students can actually do this kind of work if given the opportunity. View an example from the glossary.
• Library /information seeking practice with discipline specific content and level of challenge matching 1st year student capabilities. The task is achievable for most students but not guaranteed. Repeat attempts are required on many items.
• Motivation. Students readily get into routine of their weekly glossary task and request items to research of their own accord, even in weeks when the glossary task is not running.

Where it might go in future

The glossary currently plays a fairly limited role in the unit, due to lack of space in a very crowded assessment schedule. With rearrangement of assessment load, the glossary task might be extended and improved in a number of ways.

1. Broader student role. As well writing up glossary entries, students could also play a part in deciding the items to be covered and in editing and revising the items submitted.
2. Treatment of sources. The task does not have the status of a formal written assignment and there are no requirements for acknowledgement of sources used. Putting the task in a more formal academic writing framework would be assisted by having students check entries submitted by others as part of the task. This would enable a broader sharing of responsibility for maintaining academic standards.
3. Integration of glossary into other learning activities and tracking of glossary use. There is no mechanism to get students viewing glossary items created by other students and no link with other required tasks. The overall impact on student learning is currently unknown. WebCT version CE 6 starting from 2007 will allow better tracking of student activity in the glossary area
4. Ways of reducing staff workload in copying and pasting glossary submissions from the WebCT discussion board. A wiki type arrangement where students make their own entries directly into the web interface would leave staff with nothing more to do beyond approving or rejecting.

* Recorded during an interview with Tim Lever of USyd eLearning, December 2006.

Cite as

Thompson, E.(2006). ARNE1001 - Archaeology of the Near-east. Sydney: University of Sydney. http://wiki.arts.usyd.edu.au/elearning/index.php/Using_a_wiki_to_facilitate_a_student-generated_glossary_%28ARNE1001%29

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