Contrasts in learning: a collaborative evaluation by practitioners and students

This paper documents some of the learning emanating from a learner-centred evaluation of a change from face-to-face to online lectures in an Organisational Behaviour course at RMIT University. An academic and learning technology mentor conducted the evaluation, working as co-researchers with ‘Managing Change’ students. Primarily, the evaluation aimed to illuminate the experience of using the online lectures, as perceived by Engineering students. As preliminary research to a wider study , the evaluation was also formative. The findings suggest that the Engineering students appreciated the flexibility of online lectures. However, they devalued the online experience because it lacked the interaction of face-to-face lectures and consequently adopted a surface approach to learning. The strong message emerging from the student evaluation data was the importance of social interaction for understanding organisational behaviour concepts. The practitioners could not initially ‘see’ this message, such were the demands of managing the logistics of the change to online delivery and the lack of adequate organisational support. The surface level of learning for the Engineering students is starkly contrasted with the deep level of learning for the researchers, leading to transformation for the Managing Change students and eventually the practitioners.