Case Study - Manufacturing Management (FD) and Memory / Recall Difficulties

This information has been extracted from the ALERT project website (Accessibility in Learning Environments and Related Technologies) http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/alert/casestudies/pdf/casestudy2.pdf (information accessed and extracted May 2008)

Student 2 is a full-time Business Economics student with memory loss and balance difficulties. She describes how using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) has helped her.

Summary

Student 2 is a full-time Business Economics student who is a confident computer user and who rates her competence in using the VLE as good. She accesses the VLE frequently, several times a week, and believes that it helps to make face-to-face delivery of her classes more effective. Student 2 feels that the VLE has directly contributed to the amount of notes she takes in lectures having decreased.

Student 2 particularly appreciates the advance provision of lecture notes as this helps with her problems of concentration loss, and she also feels that it benefits her learning and revision by providing structure.

“ On learning

The lecture notes before the lecture make things a lot easier, and you can tell when you read back through my notes which lecture notes came up before and which ones didn't because the other ones are so much more disorganised compared to the ones which have been done before hand so…and if I have to miss any lectures because I've got no balance and things like that it means that I have got at least basic notes from which to sort of do some reading to try and catch up.

On the VLE

The VLE is good for me because I have some memory loss and difficulties like that so it reminds me of things like…this is what you're supposed to be writing an essay on, this is what you're supposed to be discussing…cos I can write it down and forget where I've put it and things like that so it's good to have it as a reminder and a backup so, if anything goes wrong it's there to back you up.

On e-tivities

We've done some online assessments, some sort of revision quiz type things which was good because it made you realise which bits were important because obviously they tested the key factors. And also it meant that you were aware of where you weren't quite as strong in one area as another.

On disability

Sometimes cos I space out, if I've got a really bad headache I don't keep concentration, so having the lecture notes means I've got the basics anyway so if I miss something then it's not too bad and I'm not trying to draw diagrams and write everything down all the time, I find it a lot better when the lecture notes are there…”