Preliminary survey results: Online social sciences resources

Selected preliminary findings from C-SAP survey on the use of online teaching resources in
social sciences (13 Jan 2011, on the basis of 58 respondents, aiming to get at least 100
responses by end of February)

For more information about the survey, visit http://bit.ly/fgaAtc. The results of the survey
will inform the project currently undertaken by C-SAP (the Higher Education Academy's
Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics) within the national Open Educational
Resources programme: "Discovering Collections of Social Science Open Educational
Resources" (for more information on the project see http://bit.ly/fBfQ6c).

Main role
Professor: 6.9% 4
Reader: 3.4% 2
Senior Lecturer: 24.1% 14
Lecturer: 24.1% 14
Sessional Lecturer: 5.2% 3
Research Fellow: 8.6% 5
Learning technologist: 1.7% 1
Administrator: 1.7% 1
Other*: 24.1% 14
*The responses included the following roles: research student, associate dean, e-learning
developer, course leader, Head of Department

Copyright C-SAP, 2010. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
2.0 UK: England & Wales http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

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Discipline area

Sociology:
19.0%
11

Anthropology:
10.3%
6

Politics:
19.0%
11

Criminology:
13.8%
8

Other*:
37.9%
22

*The responses included the following disciplines: education, environmental science,
health sciences, nursing and allied healthcare, business studies, social policy, public policy,
social work, Social psychology


2

Involvement in research methods teaching
Not in a teaching-active role 24.1% 14
In a teaching active role but not involved in
25.9% 15
teaching research methods
Teaching qualitative research methods only 19.0% 11
teaching quantitative research methods only 1.7% 1
Teaching both qualitative and quantitative
24.1% 14
methods
Other 5.2% 3

Which of the following statements best describes your approach to searching learning
resources online?
I'm often searching for learning resources online,
whether or not I have a specific or immediate 39.7% 23
need:
I tend to only search when I have a specific need
51.7% 30
for learning resources:
I seldom search online for learning resources: 5.2% 3
Other: 3.4% 2


3

When choosing a learning resource, how influenced are you by the disciplinary context in
which the resource was originally developed (provided this information is available)?

It's highly important to choose a learning resource that has been used within a context
similar to mine:
12.1%
7

It's useful to know the original context, but not essential:
79.3%
46

I would not choose a learning resource outside of my own discipline:
0.0%
0

I don't need to have access to this information:
5.2%
3

Other:
3.4%
2

When searching for learning resources, which search sites do you use most often?
(answers add up to more than 100% as it was possible to select multiple options)


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Google: 79.3% 46
Google Scholar: 81.0% 47
Yahoo: 3.4% 2
Bing: 5.2% 3
Amazon: 20.7% 12
Wikipedia: 31.0% 18
JorumOpen: 6.9% 4
Intute: 25.9% 15
iTunesU: 3.4% 2
Flickr: 6.9% 4
YouTube: 46.6% 27
Other: 19.0% 11
*Other field included the following resources:
• Databases: SAGE, Springer, Wiley, Ingenta, etc.
• HEA subject networks resources
• Web 2.0 tools: Delicious.com, Diigo, links obtained via Twitter and Facebook
• Media resources: BBC News, Guardian, Times Education Supplement, New York
Times

When choosing a learning resource from search results, how influenced are you by who
created it?
It's highly important to me: 62.1% 36
It is somewhat important to me: 27.6% 16
It's not very important to me: 6.9% 4
It's not important at all: 0.0% 0
Other: 3.4% 2

How influenced are you by user's comments or ratings (if they are available) about
learning resources that you find?
If user ratings are available I tend to use them to
20.7% 12
make up my mind before using a resource:

5

I seldom rely on user ratings as I don't know the
27.6% 16
context in which the comments are made:
User ratings don't really matter to me provided
32.8% 19
the resource is fit for my purpose:
I would not use a resource that had a bad review,
3.4% 2
rating or comment:
The websites I most frequently use don't have
15.5% 9
user ratings:

When you have found a learning resource that you would like to use, which of the
following statements best describes your approach:
I tend to look for learning resources which are
19.0% 11
licensed under Creative Commons:
I normally ask the author for permission whether
5.2% 3
or not there's a clear licensing statement:
I don't really pay attention to the licensing of the
resources as I only intend to use them for 50.0% 29
educational purposes:
I don't think it is necessary to ask for permission as
13.8% 8
the resource is online anyway:
Other: 12.1% 7

IDEAS FOR A RESEARCH METHODS COLLECTION

(In response to the following question asked in the survey:

As part of the C-SAP OER project, we are building an online collection of social sciences
research methods resources. We are still in the early stages of designing the collection and
so your feedback would be very appreciated. This is your opportunity to tell us what would
be helpful in your particular context - what sort of materials you like to see in such a
collection, how should the resources be presented etc.? Feel free to engage in some blue
skies thinking!)

Overall needs
• Variety, and a good range of resources from various sources
• Fitness for purpose, good value for money, addressing the learning need we have
identified
• Quality, reliability, tracking of the context of provenience (author, discipline,
purposes, etc.)

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• Relevance to topic and the teaching context
• User friendly and in a format which is easy to access/amend

Focus on students
• For students it would be useful to have comments, critiques and analyses of sources
posted by users
• How are the resources used and presented to students; how are they integrated in
the actual teaching.
• Creative format to help students' ability to relate to and understand the message

A research methods gateway
• Interesting research examples, particularly looking into the problems of doing
research such as ethics, but from lots of different social science disciplines.
• As there are so many portals/gateways for subjects, it is useful to know if there is a
central social sciences one that offers links out to all.

Social networking model
• A Facebook page which we could "like" which would alert us to new resources that
have been newly added to the collection in our news feed; an "account" on your
website where we could collect together the resources from the site that are most
useful to us
• An Amazon style algorithm running which suggested new resources to us based on
the ones we had moved to our account, or that other account holders who had also
selected that resource had used.
• Something akin to the Diigo education group would be useful as resources could be
added by users as well as C-SAP, and the tagging and comment functions, as well as
being able to post topics, would help create a more dynamic and interactive
resource.
• You tube clips - I have found some great resources being generated by respected
academics in the US, could we have the same here (e.g. some big names doing two
minutes clips on their speciality?)
• Short videos (or other material, but something visual would be useful)
demonstrating how to use software such as SPSS - very small, max 5 minutes on
specific features of SPSS, so that we can pick and choose the ones we need. This is
the sort of material that can take a long time for individual lecturers to prepare; but
which would be very useful to support teaching.


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Preliminary survey results: Online social sciences resources

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Preliminary survey results: Online social sciences resources