Firstly, we need to know what experience is. Experience is not the product but it is in the interaction. And experience can be influenced by environment, time, place, other people interception, and previous experience.
Keeping that knowledge in mind, our group (including Peiting, Roger and me) decided to employ Ethnographic and interviews as our research method. The reason is that :
- Ethnographic allows us to observe how students " interact" with the lecture theaters is dependent on time, environment around them as well as places that lecture theaters are located.
- Interview allows us to ask respondents in-depth information about their previous experience with the lecture halls.
Based on data/ information collected from the two mentioned research methods, our group comes up with both technological and cultural solutions for improving learning experience in lecture theaters.
A/ Research methods: Ethnographic <> and interviews ( 12 subjects in total)
B/ Findings : C= cultural solution/ T= technological solution
Technical problems :
- Some equipments are not user-friendly enough so that lecturer doesn't know how to use. As a results, lecture is started late --> Solution: Providing training session for lecturer ( C) or getting tech-idiots to choose the audio visual equipment themselves based on what they want/ need as well as their ability (C) . Besides, a technician may be attached to these lectures but note that it is better to teach lecturer how to fish than give him fish (T).
- The air-conditioner is of poor temperature control. However, this issue is very subjective because it depends on each person --> Solution: Those who feel cold should bring along sweater, and those who who feel hot should wear less. ( C)
- Low screen leads to the poor visibility by shorter students sitting in the back --> Solution: taller positioning of the screen(T).
- Seating chairs are cramped which do not have enough leg space ---> Solution: designing seats with more leg room(T).
Student problems:
- Bad view of screen --> Solution: tall people should just sit behind ( C) or having taller positioning of the screen(T).
- Some students ( especially foreign students) are shy to speak up in the lecture --> Solution : cultural change ( C) or designing a real-time system in front of students which allows them to key in their questions(T)
- Laptop charging facilities are only available at the back of the theaters --> Solution: build more power supply socket ( T)
- Late comers are disruptive --> Solution : Building 2 level- theater like in UCC but this solution might be not feasible if money becomes the case ( T). Besides, we can impose fines on later comers but this solution might not affect the rich who are willing to pay money to come late ( C). Therefore, solution might be getting students scan their matriculation card as attendance ( T)- however, people might get their friends to help scan the card. So, fingerprint scanning sound the best option to ensure attendance ( T)
- Loud keyboard typing sounds and talkative students --> Solutions: use of technical equipments such as soundproof headphones- those who are hygiene freaks or are feeling too rich can purchase a personal set or coax the school to change new sets every few years ( T). or lighted student seat. Lighted student sea can prevent talkative from talking personal in class by making them feel a little embarrassed ( T) . Soundproof bell allows students point out those having personal talk in class (T).
Lecturers' problems:
- Some lecturers peak in monotone/ high pitch --> Solution: using technical equipment to adjust pitch as lower pitch with varying tone have been proven more beneficial for maximal absorption ( T)
- In the meantime, other lecturers speak too fast --> Solution: However, if we design a technology to slow down pace, what will happen is that when people reach home, you might still be in the lecture theater listening to the recorded lecture. ( T)
- Pronunciation of English and foreign accent which makes student feel hard to listen --> Solution: Very sensitive issue , hard to improve because it depends on each lecture's effort to improve their his/her English speaking
- Too much information in a single lecture - information overload --> Solution: Get lecturers to better manage workload and cater to students' tastes by holding surveys. Lecturers should resist temptation to impart a lifetime of knowledge in one and a half hours ( C)
- Some lecturers are not sensitive to students' needs/ Refuse to end punctually. As a result, the students who may need to leave earlier for a next class may miss crucial things like exam tips and be deprived of a chance to listen through a lecture in its entirety --> Solution: Alerting system to let lecturers to stop lecture on time (T). Besides, performance points of lecturers might be deducted ( C)
- Boring lecture. As a result, student might doze off --> Solution : lecturers might bring gadgets, memorize some related jokes to warm the lecture up. (C)
- Some lecturers do not upload lecture notes beforehand/ quality of lecture note is very poor --> Solution: feedback to lectures from students ( C)
Bad points of cultural solutions: 1/ It takes a long time to implement and see changes. 2/ People can not be controlled. Even, there are some people who are too stubborn to change.
After all, our group still prefer a cultural over technical solution as tools are only as good as the user. Besides, majority of the people surveyed listed the ' interesting' level of lecturer as a good point facilitating paying attention and hence enhancing their learning experience ( the more interesting the lecture is, the easier to recall, and the easier to follow through). However, if lecturer is the case, then it all depends on the lecture which is a very subjective issue. But then again, our group realized that we could be biased about the solutions because we are students and not lecturers.
