An Interview with Kristin Demetrious
(“Int” refers to the interviewer, “Kristin” refers to Kristen Demetrious)
Int:	I’m speaking with Kristin Demetrious who teaches in public relations in the Faculty of Arts. We want to ask Kristin some questions about her use of role play as an approach to online assessment. What was your rationale for using role play Kristin as an approach to online assessment?
Kristin:	The online environment is obviously one which has got numerous possibilities that you can explore. My rationale for using the role play as an approach to the online assessment was that I could utilise things within that environment that weren’t as easy or the logistics of doing so were more difficult in the classroom. So you have a convergence of text, audio, video and a whole range of interactive elements and they can draw together to sort of develop new approaches to experiential learning, particularly sort of collaborative learning. We tried a few different techniques on the DSO site, and the role play being the most complex of those, so I wanted to develop a learning technique which utilised those elements in creative ways to develop group learning, collaborative learning, comparison and experiential learning and it all came together in the role play.
Int:	Were there any philosophical issues that arose? What would you say about the pedagogical aspects of the role play?
Kristin:	Well the pedagogical aspects of the role play were very exciting. When I started I wasn’t quite sure of what I was doing and where it was going but in the end I think that what revealed itself was that it was a very powerful tool for learning, and that collaborative learning could happen online in ways which were similar but different to face-to-face teaching, so it was a very positive experience. The type of evidence I suppose that I had to say… this was based on the anecdotal student response which I got quite frequently with my on campus students who were participating and last year there was an elaborate survey of students involved, so I did get feedback through that. So from the students it was apparent that it was different, they were excited by it, they came together in a group in a way that they hadn’t in other forms of group work that they had done in other units and that, you know, essentially it held some surprises for them. They were engaged with the activity, they really did go through that immersion, which is a word often used in regard to role plays, and that I think surprised them and so they were really catapulted into an experience and it was demanding, but through that process I think that they really felt that they understood the issues and they could identify the learning outcomes in a way which was really significant for them, and in a way they hadn’t experienced before in other type of assessments.
Int:	What administrative and technical issues arose during the implementation of the role play?
Kristin:	Well I think the technical and the administrative issues on the role play are complex and I’ve run it twice now and I think each time different things come up and the overriding comment that I’d have to make about the administrative and technical issues are that it is a highly managed experience. You can package up the role play and you can develop it in such a way as it is. It is all there, it’s sitting there waiting for the students to do, but that doesn’t mean you as a teacher have no further kind of role to play. It’s a continual management of the groups and in a sense fine tuning of the whole experience to make it flow properly. It’s as much an immersive experience for me as a teacher as it is for the students involved with it and even though they don’t see me, in terms of messages and things like that I keep very much in the background, I’m continually there making sure that things are running smoothly. Technical things can come up and they did come up where, you know, there were messages that the students couldn’t see and things like that. There are also administrative issues such as some students sort of were away doing research, they weren’t posting messages and therefore other students thought they weren’t participating and they were on their own so there was a whole range of different issues that came up. So it is a constant monitoring and management of that program while it’s running. So it does reveal itself in different ways every time it plays out.
Int:	Generally what impact does your teaching and use of digital media have on your students learning?
Kristin:	Well I think again it just provides a richer learning environment for the students. My view is that the online environment has helped develop the teaching and learning materials in such a way as a more rigorous approach than I would have in other circumstances because you have to pre-package everything and you have to develop things such as, you know, a video or other types of learning materials which supplements it. So it ends up being a very rich and complex learning experience for the students, that’s you know, a work in progress that I’m continually working on. In regard to that, the first time that I ran it, you know, I developed a short video with actors which was great and then pretty much asked the students to go into groups and work on a group task and then post the result in a public meeting. The second time I ran it, I developed websites to house the information that the students drew on to develop their arguments and this meant the two activist… the activist group had a website called ‘Save Wallaby Forest’, which was the action group, which had media releases and all sorts of information. The developers had their website which was called ‘Envision Construction’, which housed you know their media releases and blurb and all sorts of things. That was another layer if you like that I added this year which I think really has built on and enhanced the whole experience for students. In fact, the take up rate of the role play because it was an option was you know about trebled this time round, so it had really increased quite dramatically and the students were finding it really appealing and as a result of it, I’ve spoken to them and they feel that it’s quite different, unique and powerful and yeah that’s an ongoing type of enhancement to the project. So I think yeah rigour generally speaking to develop a richer more complex learning experience than perhaps I would have if I was just doing face to face teaching.
Int:	Have you given thought to how you might like to further develop your materials for the future?
Kristin:	Yes.
Int:	and your environments?
Kristin:	I think in terms of, I’ve got a video, I’ve got two websites and I think that side of it is working really well. The students, it all makes sense, the arguments were there and pretty much, I mean, there might be a bit of tweaking of that, but pretty much I think that that can carry it for the moment. I could develop further videos and other types of audiovisual resources for them to draw information from, but I think what we’ve got is quite solid. But I think where I would like to develop it is on a larger scale. How do I do this exercise involving off campus students, on campus students? What are the sorts of things in administering it that I need to do to get it legs in a sense and to run in smoothly? So the content is there, I feel confident about that but how do I get it to go from what is an exercise which has really involved about 30 students to one which has going to be running with a 100 plus students. So that’s where I see myself developing it, and it might not be sort of exciting in some ways as developing the learning content but I think that that’s where I want to take it in the next stage.
Int:	Okay, thinking more broadly Kristin, what do you think is required to enhance staff member’s involvement with online teaching and learning?
Kristin:	I think this is the second time I’ve run this role play and yes I think how staff members are involved with these things, what are the management issues, what are the administrative issues in the long term of complex digital and online pedagogical approaches is a really, really relevant question. You can develop these techniques and these exercises and assessments but how do they pan out in the long term? That’s a really big question. I think that there needs to be a local level of support which is really quite intense. I felt in a sense a little bit lonely running the role play. I was managing the unit, I’m the only lecturer and tutor in it and I think that’s quite overwhelming when you’ve got quite a complex pedagogical exercise like that, that’s really dependent on technology and all sorts of other issues. So I would like to have a level of local support which was factored in from the start rather then one that was reactive such as, ‘oh you know something’s happened, quick help somebody!’, you know that type of approach. So I found that quite stressful. I’ve actually started to re-think the assessment strategy for the unit and I’d like to re-evaluate how I approach it, doing some sort of staged development. Next year I’d like to disable the role play for a short period of time and concentrate on another online assessment technique that I’ve developed. The following year I’d like to take away the student’s option and just have the role play as the only first assessment option. The third year I’d like to actually look at making the online role play the second assessment option and the other theory in case studies discussion area the first option. So I think I have got a plan, a staged development plan to do it because to some extent I think that the… It is an elaborate teaching method that requires careful management and development and I think the best way to do that is to look at what are the issues, how can I address them, what are the timeframes that I need to do that, how can I build in support so that when I do take it to a larger scale level such as looking at involving, you know, a 100% of the students which is what I want to do the next time I run it, that I’m not going to be caught out with technical issues or administrative issues and that it’s going to be as successful as it possibly can be. And I think when you start these things you think yes they’re exciting but when you actually implement them, there’s a lot of bugs and there’s a lot of things that need to be ironed out before they sit really comfortably with everybody and I’m at that stage. I’ve run it twice, the next time I run it, it’s going to be in such a way as I’ve really looked at those issues well before I’m involved with it and that it runs successfully for both me and the students.
	close this window