Paper Presentation participating LTEC Conference 2015 in Maribor

1. KNOWLEDGE-MANAGEMENT BY »SOCIAL WRITING«
The Launch and Establishment of an Online-Writing Lab
Using the Example of Citavi-Online-Tutorials at the Faculty of Cultural and Social
Sciences of the Distance-University in Hagen Germany
Sabine Siemsen

2. THE IDEA OF „SOCIAL WRITING“
Distance-University:
Learning Communities in Study-Courses
 Great Heterogeneity (Age, Learning Background, Full- and Parttime Students)
 Most parts of the study courses take part online (Moodle)
Target Group (Educational Science, Cultural Sciences)
 A wide range of themes – numerous of those individual
 Supervision and support often individual – lacks exchange, peer-support etc.

3. KNOWLEDGE-MANAGEMENT IN STUDY
COURSES
At the Distance University Students are „supplied“ with written printed study-
material each semester (not completely digalisized)
 The Target Group of the Writing Lab first takes „class-exercises“ but later
predominantly term-papers and a final thesis
 One Study-Course – Different fields of teaching – Students „re-meet“
theories/content
 In addition to the study material they use lots of scientific discourses – printed and
in a raising amount also web-resources
 Latest in the final thesis they have to „bring strings together“ – to combine, to
compare, to rethink

4. ACADEMIC WRITING AND COMPETENCES
Students are expected to be familiar
with rules of citation,
and copyright,
and aspects such as an »appealing« formatting, clear structure
to find resources,
to do research on the state of art
and to critically reflect on recent discourses

5. KNOWLEDGE-MANAGEMENT IN STUDY
COURSES
The Software Citavi enables to collect literature, quotations
 and to annotate it with own ideas on it on different levels
 Enables to „manage“ individually gained and created Knowledge
 Enables to share projects (team version)
 Citavi is free up to 100 titles per project
 A similar open software is Zotero

6. POTENTIAL AND BARRIER OF TECHNOLOGY AND
TOOLS
Self-organized learning requires skills that do not arise just because of the
availability of new technological opportunities
The aspect of heterogeneity is widened through the affordance of media-
competence
Need of information about preconditions of the participants in regard to knowledge,
software- and technological equipment
Need of information about the students “feeling” towards the “tools”
“A good teacher can make up for poor technique, but never technique could save
poor teaching”

7. THE OPEN MOODLE COURSE "WRITING LAB" AS AN
STUDY-ACCOMPANYING COURSE FOR ACADEMIC
WRITING
Started summer term 2011
“Open” learning environment
help students to gain academic writing-skills while working with study
material, and additional literature
provide students with a wide spectrum of tools and techniques
Provide students with competencies to efficiently use those in order to
improve their academic working skills

8. THE OPEN MOODLE COURSE "WRITING LAB" AS AN
STUDY-ACCOMPANYING COURSE FOR ACADEMIC
WRITING
»Citavi- from the Management of Resources and Literature to Writing a Study-Thesis«
 Guided Workshop
 Self-paced autonomous learning-environment
Future Plans
 »Citavi for Working with study materials and preparing for exams«
 »Academic Writing using word processing programs”

9. THE OPEN MOODLE COURSE "WRITING LAB" AS AN
STUDY-ACCOMPANYING COURSE FOR ACADEMIC
WRITING
pursued a holistic approach: To offer of an open course that
is not limited to terms, specific courses of studies, or course content,
enables to acquire and exercise academic working;
takes place in the secure and familiar learning-environment of the
University Moodle
combines the support of tutors and tutorials with a social community, peer
support and collaboration and therefor
uses a broad spectrum of digital media.

10. THE OPEN MOODLE COURSE "WRITING LAB" AS AN
STUDY-ACCOMPANYING COURSE FOR ACADEMIC
WRITING
Flexible location and time of learning,
elements that can also be used offline,
discussion forums,
a virtual classroom
 where learners and teachers can see and hear each other
But also use text-based elements such as presentations
and chats complementary,
so that participants who do not have headsets and / or camera,
(or do not want or dare to use it) can participate

11. MOODLE AS A COMMUNICATION AND LEARNING
PLATFORM IN ELEARNING COURSES
The Distance University uses Moodle already as LMS
Moodle is an open-source-software which
 supports interactions in many different ways (Immediacy of Feedback),
 offers efficient and diverse channels for communication (Variety of Symbols),
 allows simultaneous communications using different channels (Parallelism),
 students can correct their posts (Reversibility)
 and the messages and statements that resulted from and through this communication may
be followed up and re-used in form of a kind of FAQ (Reusability).
The latter makes it possible to use the tutorials and forums not only as a workshop, but also as
a sustainable work of reference.
(compare Boos, M. (2011). Wissenskommunikation in virtuellen (Lern-)Gemeinschaften)

12. THE CITAVI TUTORIALS: DESIGN AND DIDACTIC CONCEPT
 a modular structure for the workshop »Citavi- from the Management of
Resources and Literature to Writing a Study-Thesis«. The workshop took
place over a period of six weeks and had weekly units.
 Each unit included 2 vodcasts, an integrated task, and had a forum of the
week
 »Plauderecke« (a German term describing a place to have a chat) where
the students had the possibility to discuss topics connected to the writing
lab and the workshop, and a »news forum«
 As the course "Writing Workshop" is neither mandatory nor relevant to the
exam, motivational aspects played a particularly important role

13. EVALUATION OF THE TUTORIALS AND THE ADDITIONAL
BENEFIT THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF THE VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
In regard to Questions like
Consideration of the participant’s being heterogeneous in regard to
requirements, experience, skills and expectations
Enabling cooperation, collaboration and communication
Fostering Peer-Support
Helping to gain competences and practice in academic working
Support of improving self-organized learning, motivation and knowledge-
management

14. EVALUATION OF THE TUTORIALS AND THE ADDITIONAL
BENEFIT THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF THE VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
The project »Writing Lab«,
the use of a product (Research tool, on the example of Citavi),
and the efficiency of (a combination of) peer- and tutor-support.
Results should improve the offer and the conception of further courses within
the Writing Lab.

15. EVALUATION OF THE TUTORIALS AND THE ADDITIONAL
BENEFIT THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF THE VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
Preconditions ( knowledge, software- and technological equipment)
 Moodle’s voting-Tool (questions by using options)
 kept open for new participants to enable recent views on changes

16. EVALUATION OF THE TUTORIALS AND THE ADDITIONAL
BENEFIT THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF THE VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
Students experiences with and expectations to the implementation of a Virtual
Classroom into a Moodle course:
 Which aspects of such a combinations are regarded as most important
additional benefits
(Efficiency? The »social factor«? Motivation and Satisfaction?)
 which are regarded as barriers and inhibition thresholds
(Technology? Time-Consume? Fear of embarrassing oneself by interaction
synchronously and using Camera and Microphone?).
 10 closed questions (offering the possibility to give additions) and one open
question.

17. EVALUATION OF THE TUTORIALS AND THE ADDITIONAL
BENEFIT THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF THE VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
Students experiences with and expectations to the implementation
of a Virtual Classroom into a Moodle course:
 The closed questions were analyzed quantitatively using Excel,
 the open question and supplemental free answers qualitatively
using MAXqda, a Qualitative Data Analysis Software.

18. RESULTS

19. RESULTS

20. RESULTS

21. CONCLUSION AND PROSPECTS
The analyses of the discourses (forums)
and
The high demand* for a course which is optional and does not (directly) lead
to grades or certificates
There is a need for courses on competencies for academic work and
research
The heterogeneity of the students is a resource for peer support
*After opening the Writing Lab, the Moodle course had about 80 participants
at the end of the first term (summer term 2011). Recently (end of the winter-
term 2014/2015) 2.519 participants have enrolled.

22. CONCLUSION AND PROSPECTS
fostering media-competence is important but by far not sufficient to
compensate a lack in social presence.
Social skills that enable to cooperative and collaborative learning, to
give and accept peer account, are equally important.
learners have to be enabled to communicate and interact in a way
that makes them become conscious of the potential
of using different and various tools and approaches to generate and
manage learning.

23. CONCLUSION AND PROSPECTS
social aspects and the question of needs like self-confidence
experiencing peers as »real persons« are important
high importance of communication in such courses
Approaches like
 the use of peer-tutoring
 and a scaffolding of interventions of course-instructors,
 but also changed roles of learning and teaching
will become more important as questions on how to design a
didactically and technologically perfect course.

24. SABINE SIEMSEN: SOCIAL WRITING - DIE NUTZUNG DES VC IM RAHMEN EINER MOODLE-SCHREIBWERKSTATT
LG BILDUNGSTHEORIE UND MEDIENPÄDAGOGIK, FAKULTÄT KSW