Teaching paleoradiography theory using e-learning – a participatory action research study with undergraduate archaeology students

This article presents the development of an e-learning paleoradiography short course for undergraduate archaeology students using participatory action research. The use of x-rays in archaeology is well known and yet studies exploring the pedagogic preferences of students are lacking, particularly for online learning. To address this shortfall 100 students in groups of 50 were invited to participate and provide feedback on an e-learning course which ran in April-May and July-August 2021. Participants required internet access, a university email address, and four hours to complete the course. Initial feedback was used to improve the course for a second iteration. The course attracted international interest with students from 22 unique universities in nine countries. The majority were females in their mid-twenties with a slight dominance of second year students.

A total of 52 participants (52%) completed the course to receive a certificate. Free-text responses provided rich and valuable feedback for course improvement far superior to blunt Likert scales of evaluation. Results highlighted critical issues including webpage navigation, device compatibility, and alternative formats for learning content. While the integration of a discussion forum failed to encourage inter-participant engagement, universal requests for the judicious use of images and videos were apparent for online learning.