A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

312 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
understand Hobbes’ English. ‘Why couldn’t Hobbes write decent modern English
like Descartes?’ as one student put it. So I translated the Hobbes text into modern
English, and ever since, most students report more satisfaction from reading
Hobbes than Descartes.
As for guidance, students need to be led by the hand at the precise point where
there are difficulties. It’s not much use having a dense text on one part of the desk,
and a running commentary beside it, if there is no easy way of relating the
commentary to the text. The simplest solution is to provide all the material
electronically, with a split screen. The text, broken up into short paragraphs, is
presented in the upper frame, with a running commentary in the lower frame.
Hyperlinks enable the student to summon up the relevant commentary from the
text, or the relevant text from the commentary.
In order to make the students’ learning experience more active, I encourage them
to digest the material by creating a dossier of course notes. By splitting the screen
vertically, they can have two portrait windows, one with text and commentary,
and one with a word-processing package; and they can copy and paste from the
former to the latter. They are guided in their note taking by a series of questions,
which are also discussed in face-to-face seminars.
Needless to say, there are serious problems in getting students to participate
actively in this approach to enhancing student learning. Too many students
simply print out the documents (at considerable cost to themselves), and they
lose the benefits of hyperlinking. The module is under continuous development,
and my hope is that by adding more and more features that are available online
only, future students will take full advantage of this mode of delivery.
(George MacDonald Ross, University of Leeds)
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and other electronic resources
for learning
In recent years, a great many universities in the UK and elsewhere have adopted the VLE
as a primary tool in delivering learning materials to students across the institution. In the
arts, humanities and social sciences the extent of such adoption by academics has been
variable. Some tutors have embraced the VLE with great enthusiasm and innovation;
some have been more sceptical, and some simply reluctant. Debates about the advantages
and drawbacks of VLEs have been structured by old and new thinking: old thinking has
expressed concern that the VLE (and other electronic resources) makes information too
quickly attainable, thereby discouraging reflection, consideration and synthesis (at its
most extreme this line of thought argues that information is replacing knowledge); new
thinking expresses concerns that younger students are increasingly to be understood as
‘digital natives’ and that their tutors may be either ‘digital immigrants’ or even digital