Dr. Victor Tan, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics began using IVLE since it was “born” in early 1998. An early adopter of educational technology, he has actively used most of the tools and resources on IVLE to engage and interact with his students.

His passion and pro-active approach has won him the Science Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (2000-2003) and the University Excellent Teacher Award (2002-2003). Faculty Voice wanted to find out from Dr. Tan whose teaching assignments include linear algebra, advanced calculus and engineering math how he incorporates IVLE into his teaching style.

Q: How did you get to know about IVLE?
I knew IVLE since it was born (or do you call it version 1 ?). I remember CIT staff came down to Math Dept to give an introduction of IVLE when it was just launched. I attended the session.

Q: What prompted you to use IVLE?

I have always been interested in using IT in teaching. Before IVLE, I created my own course webpage (which won an honorable mention in the NUS IT in teaching award) and designed some simple online quizzes for my modules. When IVLE was launched, I was excited to see quite a number “tools” that can be incorporated into my teaching, especially the much more sophisticated “assessment tool” (I think then it was called “online quiz” or something like that). I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Q: How do you use IVLE?

(1) Course webpage - I don’t really use IVLE as the course webpage. I still create “official” course webpages for my modules as I can customize the look and display of the pages. Nevertheless, I use IVLE as a “gateway” to access to these course webpages as it is the common place for students to get information about any module. So I usually put up some basic information about a module as well as a link to its official webpage on IVLE before the term start. This will facilitate students in module selection.

(2) Assessment - As mentioned in the earlier question above, this is the tool that I like and use most frequently. I use it for self-assess online quizzes, mid-term tests and “online-tutorial”. The last one is an online version of the regular tutorial sessions that provide more guides to students who need more help. Of course, you need to put in effort to create the online quizzes and build up your question bank.

(3) Discussion Forum - I always create at least one forum for each module for students to interact with me as well as among themselves. To encourage participation, students can submit their postings using nicknames. Sometime, I use the forum as continuous assessment by posting additional problems there for students to attempt. However, discussion forum is usually not quite successful if the class size is too small (e.g. < 70), as there are too few active participants to generate the discussion.

(4) Chat room - I chat with students on the day before mid-term test and final exam. To the students, it serves as a chance for them to clarify some last minute doubt. To me, I take it as an opportunity to collect feedback from students.

(5) Announcement - I send updates and reminders regarding the modules to students regularly. The announcement tool makes this job easier. It will be posted on the IVLE module page as well as sent out as a group email to all students in the class. If the message is not too long, I can also send it to the students’ mobile phone via SMS.

(6) Survey - This is the spin-off of the assessment tool. Mid-way through or near the end of the semester, I will use this tool to design online survey form to get the students’ responses to specific questions.

(7) Workbin - I only use this tool for students to upload document. In fact, I only used it once so far for a student to submit homework online due to chickenpox.

(8) Class roster - If I want the most updated status of my class enrollment either before the term start or throughout the semester, I will go to IVLE class roster. You will also get to see how each individual student looks like.

Q:Would you consider IVLE easy to use?

Yes. I must say that IVLE has made much improvement since its infant stage. If you have been “growing up” with IVLE, you will find it getting more user-friendly (after listening to all the comments and suggestions from the users). I have contributed my fair share of suggestions when I first started using the “assessment tool”. At one stage, I was communicating with the IVLE team almost daily and even came down to CIT with a list of “problems”. The CIT staffs were helpful and responsive. If there was a quick fix, they would eradicate the problem right away. Otherwise, they would promise to rectify it in the next version.

So, to me, it is not a problem using IVLE, although it is still quite tedious to type in mathematical symbols and equations. However, first time users may find it a bit lost. There are many items on the main page and almost all items are “clickable”. Sometime you just don’t know where to start or where to find the appropriate link.

Not to worry! Just call extension 1169 and the nice lady Yasmin will patiently guide you along. Once you get the hang of it, you will realize that in fact, there is a similar sequence of steps to create the various IVLE tools.

Q: Did using IVLE influence a change in your teaching style?

With the help of IVLE, I have more variety to the continuous assessment components of my modules using tools such as “Assessment” and “Forum”.
“Discussion forum” and “Survey” serves as channels for the students to feedback to me about the module throughout the course. This allows me to have a chance to make timely clarification or adjustment to my teaching accordingly.

Well, I don’t really regard Webcast/Breeze lectures as IVLE tools. But in a broader sense, they are also part of “virtual learning”. In this regard, I have extended my teaching beyond classroom and contact hours. I have made additional preliminary and revision Webcast lectures to supplement the regular lectures.

Q: What is the response of the students?

They are generally happy with all these tools and facilities that enhance their learning. They are grateful that I webcast all the lectures and archive them for their review; they are excited about the chat room sessions (response have been overwhelming); they appreciate that I have conducted online survey for them to voice out their concerns etc.

After all, a tool is just a tool. To receive positive response, you need to use the tool appropriately. For example, for the discussion forum tool, if you just create a forum without actually being involved in it, it does not add much value in their learning process. But if you keep track of the discussions and respond accordingly, it will be more beneficial to the students and they will be more willing to participate in the discussion.