User:Jtneill/Teaching/Flexible learning - Getting ready

From Wikiversity

Jump to: navigation, search
Nuvola apps edu languages.png To be presented by James Neill at the University of Canberra, 11:40-12:00, Friday September 11, 2009, at an on-line and blended delivery seminar: Taking the Faculty of Health forward in Steps 17 & 18 of the strategic plan
Attention yellow.svg Note: Feel free to edit and improve and/or leave a message on the talk page.
75%.svg Completion status: this resource is ~75% complete.

Contents


[edit] Flexible learning: Getting ready

“ Flexible learning: Retro-fitting pedagogy for a free and open 21st century ”

This 20 minute presentation aims to sow some seeds about how we might make (so-called) "best use" of educational technologies, and in particular it discusses how educational technologies can be used to promote flexible learning (which largely encompasses blended and online learning, work-based learning etc.).

University of Canberra's (UC's) online and blended learning review (August, 2008) (despite its name) is really about flexible learning'. For example, flexible learning is the vocational sector's overarching nomenclature (see the Australian Flexible Learning Framework). Flexible learning encompasses but is not limited to online, blended, and work-based learning.

The key ideas I discuss are:

  1. Flexible learning: What is it?
  2. Modularisation of content
  3. Digitisation of content
    1. Use of Open educational resources
  4. Userification - continually adapting materials to suit learners
To explore further, see the flexible learning presentation (prezi.com).

The rest of what follows are some additional notes/ideas in development.

[edit] Getting going with flexible learning

Embrace and develop your pedagogical practices to incorporate flexible learning. This will improve your teaching practice, educational materials, and students' experiences. Ways you get ready for flexible learning include:

  1. Develop and adapt your philosophy of education to incorporate flexible learning strategies
  2. Within the constraints of learning objectives and resources, maximise student choice and options
  3. Modularise your content
  4. Build on open educational resources
  5. Use open source software where possible
  6. Communicate with students early and often
  7. Seek to improve all aspects of assessment
  8. Gather continuous feedback and act continuously - don't wait

[edit] UC strategic plan: Steps 17 and 18

University of Canberra's developed a strategic plan for 2008-2012 which contains 39 steps. Of particular note, two steps (17 and 18) are currently receiving attention:

  • Step 17: Review our semester system and modalities of course delivery with a view to being attractive to new kinds of well-qualified students.
  • Step 18: Make the best use of educational technologies and work-based learning opportunities.

This has been followed with a more detailed review and online and blended learning, and subsequent adoption of a series of X recommendations.

Whilst I welcome UC's newfound, high-level enthusiasm for blended and online learning, I am somewhat suspicious of the suddenness of the enthusiasm and a possibly naive expectation that blended and online learning might offer some kind of magic bullet for the new "winter" semester problem. Denise Kirkpatrick, from The Open University in the UK recently indicated in her opening keynote address at the Moodleposium 2009, that a new course takes three years of development before its ready for full production - this is for a university which has been recognised as a global leader in flexibly delivered tertiary education with 40 years of experience. It makes the current UC initiative, whilst laudable in its ambition, also somewhat naive and hopeful.

In my experience with online and blended learning, Amara's law seems to have applied — i.e., that "We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run". UC should be prepared for mixed success in its online and blended learning endeavours, although risk-taking should be encouraged. Clarke's Second Law seems relevant: "the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible".[1].

[edit] Step 17: Review semester system and modalities of course delivery

[edit] Review semester system

  1. As far as I know the Vice-Chancellor conducted a review of the semester system and came to the conclusion to change from two 15 week semesters to a trimester system of 13-7-13 weeks. However as far as I know the review has never been released to staff, although the VC has generally argued in email updates and presentations that the introduction of the winter term will provide greater flexibility for students and will thus be attractive to students. Anecdotal and straw poll results suggest a muted response (the VC described the response as muted in a Sep 2009 email to staff - he also indicated that this was a euphemistic description).
  2. So, we have a trimester system. Former 15-week semester-long units now need to be redesigned down to 13 week units (with a one week teaching break instead of a two week teaching break). There is currently relatively little attention on this, even pretty much all academic teaching staff will find that they are doing this, whilst a relatively smaller number of staff design units for the 7-week winter term.
  3. The reason for the current attention on blended and learning is that planning and preparation for the 2010 academic year is well underway - and with new academic calendar, consisting of:
  4. a new, 7-week Winter Term
  5. shortened Semesters (from 15 to 13 weeks, and going from 2 to 1 non-teaching weeks)
  6. Note that the semester/trimester/term nomenclature is confusing: the official calendar refers to Semester 1, Winter Term, Semester 2. This nomenclature strikes me as an awkard compromise and it hasn't been explained. Are we going to a trimester system or not? If so, why not refer to Trimester 1, 2, and 3?

[edit] Step 18: Educational technologies and work-based learning opportunities

This an awkwardly worded strategy in large part due to its double-barrelledness (educational technology may or may not overlap with work-based learning. What is the common, underlying theme? I suggest that its about flexible learning which can include online, blended, and work-based learning and other ways of learning - in fact, it is about exploring and embracing a wider repertoire of learning processes and methdologies.

[edit] Blended learning

  1. All the units I teach are officially "face to face", however I seek to deliver them as "blended learning" (by personal choice/action), i.e., I use a combination of face to face teaching and online learning. But the more fundamental principle for me in the design and delivery of my tertiary teaching is flexible learning - by this I seem to provide multiple pathways (e.g., face to face and online) by which students can meet the learning objectives. For online learning, I use a combination of institutional and externally hosted platforms to serve online materials.
  2. In the process of seeking to provide flexible learning, I've gravitated towards a "free pedagogy" philosophy - or open academia - i.e., I strive to maximise the "freeness" of all content, processes, and outputs in my teaching, research, and service.
  3. I have found that "blended learning" and "openness" can make a very tasty and exciting menu for teachers and learners - as long as one is prepared to bleed at the edge. Teaching using open educational resources is not for the faint-hearted and a good dose of gall will probably be needed to overcome institutional barriers/disenablements/inertia/conservatism/blindness with regard to online and blended learning and particularly with regard to openness. However, pursuing an open blended learning approach in a conventional tertiary institution such as University of Canberra s important territory to explore and develop. And there are some promising developments, such as adoption of Moodle as a free and open source LMS software.

[edit] Benefits derived from blended and open learning

  1. Archiving/Redundancy/Mobility
  2. Transparency
  3. Student review
  4. Peer review
  5. Internationalisation
  6. Marketing
  7. Alumni
  8. Ethical
  9. Abundance mentality

[edit] Challenges in pursuit of blended and open learning

  1. Cultural resistance - this is changing e.g., free culture - see also Wesch ALT-C 2009
  2. Institutional resistance - e.g., policy, tools
  3. Skill deficit i.e., skill level / task difficulty ratio
  4. Current bad habits
  5. Tendency to focus on short- rather than long-term
  6. Impoverishment consciousness (Scrooge-syndrome)

[edit] Example sites

  1. Psychology 102 - Moodle
  2. Survey research and design in psychology - Moodle
  3. Social psychology (psychology)

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Arthur C. Clarke, "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962). See Clarke's three laws

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Jtneill/Teaching/Flexible_learning_-_Getting_ready"