This is the fifth in a series of posts exploring the 6 guiding principles behind why we promote e-learning at Sheffield Hallam University. Each of the principles underscores the benefits of integrating e-learning opportunities into the curriculum, and each is supported here by student quotes from research into how our students use technology to support and enhance their learning.  Today’s guiding principle:

Opportunities to take control of their own learning, enhancing engagement and improving attainment

Encouraging students to take control of their learning allows them to fit it with their lifestyle and choose their personal learning preferences.  Online activities can enable students to have this control, with some students preferring to read lecture slides before the lecture, and choose how much they want to engage with revision materials and activities based on their personal learning needs.

“My learning is supported in many ways through Blackboard, I love the fact that we are able to gain access to the lecture slides prior to a lecture because I like to be able to have a head start and go over what the lectures are about because then I can also plan how much work needs to be done on it.”

When students set their own schedules for when they engage with learning activities and have a role in determining what and how they study, they learn valuable time management and lifelong learning skills.

“I don’t have somebody saying to me from 8 to 4 you’ve got to study all the time and then after you can have 15 minutes break like it was before. I have to organise myself and I know that I need to finish certain things by certain deadlines… to a huge extent I shape my studies.”

For further information on all the guiding principles, you can read them in a handout we’ve created.