Using virtual and physical learning spaces to develop a successful mathematical learning community, both for on-site and distance provision.

Belinda Huntley, UNISA, South Africa

Jeff Waldock and Andrew Middleton, Sheffield Hallam University

Presentation at the 11th Southern Hemisphere Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics (‘Brazil Delta 2017 for short)

Students and staff need to feel part of community of practice.

Informal learning spaces can:

• Foster a sense of belonging
• Provide a disciplinary ‘home’
• Provide a partnership learning community
• Encourage peer support mechanisms to develop
• Have both a physical and virtual dimension
• Be co-constructed
• Engage students productively outside normal class time
• Be important in different ways

Sheffield Hallam became a university in 1992, previously a polytechnic. In 2017 received a silver teaching excellence framework so teaching is taken seriously. 31 500 students in 672 courses. 78% undergraduates, 80% full time, 60% staff in the maths department are female!

Learning must be collaborative. A learning space should accommodate interactions and recognise the importance of serendipity.

Placemaking – a place can enable a lived experience and its agency for supporting learning.

Online it is harder to create spaces where students can meet, like cafeterias, lawns, libraries and it’s harder for a lecturer to get a sense of the profile of the class.

UNISA has satellite learning spaces where students can use computer facilities.

Blended learning is not just placing notes and lectures online. It includes a variety of online teaching and learning strategies, e.g. e-tutors, face-to-face tutors at learning centres, discussion forums, glossary that students can add to (including explaining words like verify, analyse, justify), weekly announcements with pacing of learning including when to submit assignments, self-assessments with WebWork with instant feedback.

Design spaces that facilitates group working spaces, peer support spaces, professional attitudes. ON Tuesdays board games come out for students to develop strategies; whiteboards; one computer with 5 chairs for group work; “knowledge matters but what you do with that knowledge matters more” – going in big letters on the wall.

Having a space where students can work in breaks between lectures can help them be more productive instead of just go home.

How to simulate the features of a ‘hub’ online?

Virtual learning space – anywhere where learning happens.

In computer science, lots has been done on mashed up personal learning environments, ‘muple’.

Big challenge on how to get students to interact with each other online. Greg Oakes is working on this in his new job where most learning is distance.

Online learning log – students complete every day, lecturer skims and gives feedback via codes every 2 weeks (about a thousand comments can be skimmed in an hour with practice).

Students want flashy, exciting engagements rather than chalk and talk.