Amanda: [one-on-one interview] Hi, my name is Amanda White and I'm a lecturer at the UTS Business School. I teach Assurance Services and Audit, which is a third year subject in the Accounting major. So, how our lecture was structured today involves students completing a small knowledge quiz, and then actually using Learning Catalytics to display student's answers, and then going through all of the responses. One of the key benefits of this is having students see whether they got it right or not, but also looking at the wrong answers, and I find that for our students, looking at the answers that are incorrect, and correcting misconceptions or misunderstandings is a really important way of learning.
Amanda: The idea is that not every student learns in the same way. Some students really get one topic and not another, so if you can pool your collective knowledge and discuss: 'Well I had A, and you had B - what were your reasons?' And that really helps, we find, with accelerating student learning. It's learning from mistakes, it's realising 'ah, I've misconceived something' or 'I misunderstood something', 'I didn't take into account a piece of information', and it's about building that sort of, conscious level of understanding of the topic.
[Amanda is standing at front of lecture theatre, presenting to class]
Amanda: So A - where Rihanna says 'Expletive better have my money, pay me what you owe me', is of course auditing accounts receivable because that's money that you owe us as customers. Maybe next time you're out at the club you know, you hear this and you think auditing hopefully. Now there won't be any questions in the final exam like this [students laughing], so there will be no musical questions in the final exam. But I've just proven to you that audit can relate to anything and everything.
Amanda: [one-on-one interview] So the key with using team-based learning is questions that are not google-able. Students have their assessment, it's open-book, so they bring textbooks, they bring their computers, they do this on their devices, so they can search the internet, but it's about designing things for a practical application. Let's take the theory, let's put in a question that requires students to understand the nuance of something, or the interaction of something, or interactions of multiple pieces of information, to be able to generate the correct answer.
Keywords: practice, team work, social media
Faculty: Business
Number of students enrolled (Autumn session): 350
This is a third year undergraduate subject in the Bachelor of Business. In the subject, students are introduced to assurance services and audit practices, including the various steps involved in an audit process, such as ways of gathering information about a client’s operations and risks, planning and executing an audit, and how to report findings to relevant parties. Students discuss professional, ethical and legal requirements in relation to assurance tasks.
What is happening?
The subject is divided into 1.5 hour lectures and 1.5 hour tutorials, which are both held weekly. In both classes students are encouraged to be actively involved, with interaction mediated via a software tool called Learning Catalytics (Pearsons Education).
Learning Catalytics is designed to encourage team-based learning and student participation in interactive tasks through use of their own smartphones, tablets or laptops. In large lecture theatres, Learning Catalytics allows for the monitoring of student responses and progress through collection of real-time data. The tool accommodates the use of different types of questions, including multiple choice, ranking, matching, drawing and short answers. Approximately 25 types of question-response are possible. In tutorials, Learning Catalytics is used as a way of facilitating team-based work.
Interweaving theory and practice
In large lecture theatres, the use of Learning Catalytics is interwoven with theory, practice and 'concept testing'. Students are introduced to a theoretical concept and invited to individually consider how it could be applied in practice. Their responses are collected via Learning Catalytics, and used to generate the next part of the activity, a class-wide discussion. For example, if a student chooses an incorrect response, the lecturer uses this as a prompt to discuss why students may have opted for that particular response, provoking further discussion and responses from the class. Students explain their reasons for choosing a response, and the lecturer addresses any misconceptions so that the class can not only learn from mistakes, but also cultivate a deeper understanding of the concepts being discussed.
Freeform questions
The lecturer may suggest that students use this freeform question-response to identify points for revision in a particular topic during a large lecture. In these types of questions students write a short account. Some of the suggestions from students are then used as input for discussion, as the lecturer may choose and build on a particular posted response to elaborate on a specific aspect.
Individual and team work
In tutorials, Learning Catalytics is used as a team-based tool, with the aim of building students’ understanding of concepts and of their misconceptions. For example, students may work individually on a quiz and subsequently share their individual responses in teams to collaboratively determine the correct answer. When students report their group discussion, they share their process with the class, and explain how they reached an agreement about their response.
Participants in tutorial groups rotate on a weekly basis. Each week a group of six students is formed, three group participants would have worked together in the previous week, and three new students join the group.
Variation, surprise and fun
Tutorials always involve an element of surprise and unexpected activities for students. Many of them involve games, which have an important role in making learning activities fun to participate. For example, a group of students may be invited to use crayons to imagine and represent what the subject is all about.
Other types of activity may be adapted from well-known games, such as the “celebrity head” - where students use a headband and instead of having to guess the name of a celebrity, they need to guess the name of a concept.
Social media engagement strategy
Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are part of a social media strategy to engage students in the subject matter. These social networking sites are integrated back in Canvas, where students see updates related to their class work but also interesting links to newspaper articles, university elections, job opportunities – with a view of stimulating students’ interest in following what is happening in the subject, and being part of the group.
Amanda Loves to Audit is a YouTube channel created to house videos produced by the lecturer about various topics in Auditing. The channel has grown significantly since its inception, with over 100 videos available to both UTS students and the general public.
In having over 100 videos and being an open public channel, Amanda Loves to Audit has also reached beyond the UTS community, successfully impacting others’ learning, for example by helping students as far away as Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Since 2012, the channel has reached over 9000 subscribers and almost a million views.
Why do we think this is successful?
Writing questions that are non Google-able
When using Learning Catalytics, a key element for organising successful activities for students, is to write questions that students will not easily find the response on a quick Google search. Questions need to deal with practical application of theory, or show that students understand nuances of a concept, how a concept interacts with something else, by for example, requiring that students bring together multiple pieces of information in order to generate the correct answer.
Using everyday examples to explain concepts - taking the dryness away
Another important aspect is to show how theory can be applied and relates to the students’ own context and interests – for example using movies, music, the life of celebrities, and other popular culture moments, as a way of designing an activity that connects theory to practice. The use of music quotes and popular culture may also create a small memory point, to help students remember a concept.
Variety in group arrangements
The variety in groups’ arrangements helps all students to develop teamwork skills, as well as their communication and presentation skills. Students are exposed to different people, diverse ways of thinking, different communication styles, through the weekly re-arranging of groups in tutorial groups. This has showed to be of particular benefit for students who speak a language other than English at home and also for international students.
Novelty and laughter
Using games as a learning activity encourages students to think in different ways and offers a break from routine tasks and ways of thinking, adding an element of fun. Not knowing what to expect from a class, and having a range of tasks helps to motivate students to come to lectures and tutorials – to see what will happen. Students have a range of opportunities to express their knowledge, in recognition that many students might learn in different ways.
Audit education evolving with real practice
Technology is important in facilitating the creation of a learning/professional community – not just with current students, but past students, students from other universities and other countries may join Amanda Loves to Audit to discuss the topic, professional aspects, etc. This is important, as students feel they can “connect” to others with similar interests – and when students feel connected they are more likely to engage in the sessions, discussions and participate. Social media allows the lecturer to facilitate many opportunities for connection.
Exchanging and adapting ideas from other academics
The lecturer also highlights the importance of attending events, such as the First Year Experience Forum and the Teaching and Learning Forum to keep in touch with what is happening in the broader community. Academics attending these events are exposed to a range of teaching strategies and idea, which they may then successfully adapt to their own practices. Other places to gather ideas are blogs, Ted Talks, and speaking to academics in other disciplines. She also recommends that academics learn how to recognise their own strengths and what they are comfortable with.
Photo credit: Anna Zhu.