Future Learn Blended Learning – week 3 summary

Week 3 presented.

In week 3 we looked at: systems, tools and resources for blended learning.

Virtual Learning Environments

First we looked at virtual learning environments (VLEs). VLEs provide teachers with a framework to allow them to organise learning activities and use available tools to create interactive, active learning components. They usually have controlled access, and present material specific to a learner’s course. They often include features to allow learners to participate and generate their own content.

I am aware of 2 VLEs – Moodle and Blackboard. This course allowed us to view an example course set up in Moodle. My institution uses Blackboard, however the library currently has no exposure on it.

More Tools

We were presented with a wide array of possible active learning tools that can be used:

Group / Class Forums Quizzes Padlet Google Slides Video creation Twitter chat Tricider – decision making tool, where contributors can vote Audacity – to create audio content Google Docs

Google Maps Prezi Balsamiq – brain storming tool Typeform – to allow user to enter text Survey Monkey Wordpress Google Hangouts ThingLink – allow creation of interactive multimedia image

Many of these are freely accessible on the Internet. They allow teachers and learners to collaborate, share, create and present material. Selecting the appropriate tool for a learning activity is important; it needs to fit the objective and pedagogy that you are using.

Open Educational Resources OERs

OERs are resources that are created and made available for others to share. They can be created by teachers and learners – helping learners to develop their own digital literacy skills.

Benefits:

• Recognition of learning and teaching abilities
• Recognition of staff member
• Promotion of school / faculty or institution
• Used in marketing / promotion of institution
• Efficiency savings of shared resources in terms of cost and time

OERs are often presented under Creative Commons License, allowing re-use.

The course presented a number of places where you can search for OERs. It was a bit overwhelming and I struggled to find library-related skills resources. Another course member pointed out the Jorum website which had a featured theme of Information and Digital Literacy Skills – here there were 191 resources.

The course presented a number of case studies from teaching staff and learners who had created OERs

Consider:

Looking for OERs was quite difficult as material is often created for a specific purpose or may be too generic to be applicable. However we have found some library skills resources and direct students to them.

Future Learn: Blended Learning - week 2 summary

Week 2 - an introduction to the pedagogy of blended learning.

We started off by looking at different theories and teaching approaches that might be applicable to blended learning:

Teaching Strategies

Constructivist Pedagogy – learners construct their own knowledge & meaning through experience; involves real world experience where teachers act as facilitators. A case study was presented where students were using a recording tool to record their activities which they could then review and discuss with their tutor.

Social Constructivism – individuals learn as a result of social interaction and collaboration with others. A case study was presented where students used flickr and facebook to share images and videos of their work. This gave students an opportunity to share and reflect on what they had done; they could take pride in what they had achieved; the material produced could be used as a revision tool.

Problem-based Learning – individuals learn as a result of active learning, using real-world scenarios; also involves social learning. A case study was presented where students were developing creative skills and were actively engaged in their activities, professional skills applicable to the workplace were also being developed.

I don’t’ have any teaching qualifications so having formal definitions of various pedagogies was interesting. These can provide a framework to use when thinking about how learning can be enhanced by the use of technologies.

Many of the strategies and activities described here would be applicable to teaching and helping learners develop their information skills. We ground our teaching very much in the practical application of skills to solve likely problems encountered in the workplace.

Tools

The week we also started to look at some tools:

NearPod ( https://nearpod.com/ ) – this is a tool that allows you to create teaching content (eg powerpoint presentations and quizzes), which can then be accessed by learners via mobile devices

Interactive whiteboard – within classrooms, this allows teachers to present interactive content that learners can engage with

Video / Audio input using multimedia tools

Google Classroom – activities can be structure ready for learners to follow

These tools are presented as “free” to use.

Matching Pedagogy with Technology

The next section of this week encouraged us to think about what technologies would enhance which teaching strategies

Digital Literacy Skills Audit

We were asked to complete a digital skills audit – my score was 160 / 250. Looking at the results some of my low scores relate to: using a VLE (which we don’t have access to), use social chat / discussion tools and using a webcam.

The library doesn’t have a presence on the VLE and we are not encouraged to participate which I think is a real shame and a big missed opportunity. We do try to encourage academic staff to include our content in their courses.

I am going to try to promote the comments facilities of our blogs to see if learners are interested in using that. We do use Twitter although there is little interaction there.

Using a webcam is something that I could consider when creating our demonstration videos.

Border College & Blended Learning

A case study was presented of Border College which was using blended learning extensively. Some key aspects that were mentioned included:

CPD for teachers – who developed new skills when creating content for blended learning

Learners – contributed to content, were more involved in their own learning, took more responsibility for their learning, had more interaction with each other

Consider:

Another attendee pointed out that evidence of learning may need to be retained for a period of time (for example for proof of qualifications) which may be difficult when using open tools outside the normal assessment structures.

It should be noted that although these tools are promoted as “free” to use, users have to create accounts and provide personal information which no doubt is used by the providers for other uses.

Tools Introduced:

NearPod ( https://nearpod.com/ )

Google Classroom

Future Learn: Blended Learning Essentials – week 1 summary

Week 1 presented an introduction to the course.

We were encouraged to think about what blended learning is from our own perspective, a teaching perspective and the learners perspective.

I work in the library sector where we have limited face-to-face interaction with the many learners who use our resources. Providing learning opportunities online allows us to cover content outside the classroom, reach more learners online and provide support in the online environment where learners use many of our resources. We support both university staff and students as well as working NHS professionals.

Blended learning is not just the digitisation of learning content but the use of technology to enhance or add value to the learning experience. The glossary description of blended learning is here.

What can blended learning offer?

For Teachers/ Trainers

• Flexibility – content can be created and stored digitally, allowing for re-use and sharing
• Active Learning – interactive elements can support motivation of learners, independent learning skills can be developed
• Personalisation – a tailored programme can be developed to address individual learner strengths and weaknesses, rather than delivering the same content to a whole group of learners; theory can be presented outside the classroom followed by classroom practicals (flipped learning)
• Learner  Control – learners take more responsibility for their learning, are more involved
• Feedback – interactive elements can be used to provide immediate response and feedback to users; digital tools can be used to hold online discussions whether via video links or through discussion forums

For Learners

• Flexibility – for learners this covers a range of factors: learners can study in their own time, at their own pace, in a convenient place; multiple learning media elements can support different learners preferences; elements can be developed for different types of learners in terms of experience and qualifications so encouraging inclusiveness
• Active Learning – interactive elements can be developed, different platforms can be used, workplace learning is possible, multimedia formats can be used; independent learning can be encouraged
• Personalisation – a range of options can be presented to the learner so that he/she can determine what they need to focus on, develop their own requirements to attend to their own strengths and weaknesses
• Learner Control – learners are more in control of their own learning experience, taking advantage of the flexibility and personalisation that can be achieved
• Feedback – interactive elements can be used to provide immediate feedback to the learner, digital tools can be used to hold online discussions whether via video links or through discussion forums

Tools Introduced:

Glossary – a course glossary is available, learners can add their own content to the glossary. This is delivered via wikidot.com. I have developed a simple glossary on our website to support learners using our training / tutorial materials. It is an interesting idea to invite learners to contribute.

Padlet – a digital noticeboard where learners could post their own comments about the week’s activities. This was a little overwhelming with so many comments on it.

Blended Learning Essentials: Getting Started

I have just started a free online course by Future Learn, Blended Learning Essentials: Getting Started. I'll use this blog to record weekly reflections of my learning.

Association of Learning Technology Conference 2015

I attended the Association of Learning Technology Conference 2015 in Manchester, 8-10th September 2015. Here are some reflections I recorded at the time.

Overall Impressions:

I hadn’t been to a conference before so this was all new to me. I think I probably over did it with 3 days as it was exhausting! Many of the talks were quite academic, operating at an institutional level. I tend to think more direct and practical so sometimes it was very interesting but likely beyond my “sphere of influence”.

Themes:

All the talks were linked to a different theme.

Keynotes:

Keynote: Steve Wheeler – Meet Learner 2.0

See https://youtu.be/OsmCL5xuK7g

Basically: a whistle-stop tour of recent technology innovations, their impact on education / learning, how students might be using digital technologies, how being “digital natives” may mean that they absorb and use technologies differently from teachers. But that that use / knowledge is set within the context that they are living.

• Teacher-led >> Learner-led
• Recursive (reproducing knowledge) >> Discursive (develop new knowledge)

Steve brought 2 students with him and invited the audience to ask them questions. They were trainee teachers. They felt different when using technology as students as opposed to when they had to deliver it in class.

• Expectations (student) vs Responsibility (teacher)
• Consumer vs Provider

Keynote: Jonathan Worth

See https://youtu.be/3BORMZ8UoUE

Jonathan is professional photographer. He started by talking about how the development of the internet has impacted his business as a photographer and how he tried to control the use of his images.

Internet changing interpretation of images:

• a photograph is evidence :: an image is an experience
• Images shared on the Internet by users - What is the story behind the experience?

He then moved on to talk about an online photography course that he developed and ran and how this led him to think about how much information / data we give out about ourselves online. What responsibilities as educational providers do we have?

Phonar Nation http://phonarnation.org/

Keynote: Laura Czerniewicz – Considering Inequality as Higher Education Goes Online

See https://youtu.be/WEglB5b_msk

Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/laura_Cz/inequality-as-higher-ed-goes-online

Laura is from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She talked about the global North and the global South; global education (MOOCs), the inequalities of society and education.

Emergence of MOOCs (Mass Open Online Courses); now moving into the mainstream

• Conventional >> Flexible
• Fees, complete package >> free / paid, individual elements

Increase in diversity of providers eg non-education institutions like digital media companies, publishers.

Education viewed as an export; increasingly global orientation

“Colonisation” of the online educational space by elite, global north, western-orientated institutions

Institutions not considering widening participation nor addressing inequality

Keynote: Phillip Long – Learning Sciences: Impact on Learning Technologies & Learning Activities

See https://youtu.be/4m37oIYh7fQ

Phillip talked about the difference between learning and performance (ie achievement in assessment); how the 2 are different; these are different aims for teaching activities. He discussed a number of studies that looked at different activities that impacted on knowledge retention and learning.

Invited Speakers:

Speaker: Rebecca Ferguson – Scaling Up Learning Analytics

See https://youtu.be/QsI-yKUsaME

Slideshow http://www.slideshare.net/R3beccaF/scaling-up-learning-analytics

Learning Analytics – “collection & analysis of data about learners and their contexts for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs”

Learners may also want access to their own analytics

Organisation records analytics aligned to their objectives

Is what learners need to know the same as what the organisation may need to know?

Discussion of what the OU is doing – development of a dashboard so that data can be presented to users (academics); allow action and intervention to support learners

See also http://www.slideshare.net/R3beccaF/learning-analytics-fa-qs?related=1

Speaker: Don Chapman – Brockenhurst College – Exceptional Student Experience (ESE) technology

See https://youtu.be/QsI-yKUsaME?t=35m15s

See article http://www.educationinsights.co.uk/brockenhurst-college-to-transform-student-experience-through-personalized-education-using-ibm-smarter-education-technologies-hosted-on-the-cloud/

Discussing the development and implementation of the ESE social learning platform, at Brockenhurst College. Collecting what appears to be a massive amount of data to identify students at risk of struggling and dropping out. Using historical data they believe that they can identify students at risk with 87% accuracy and prevent drop-out by early intervention.

Harnessing the power of the crowd – collaboration and connectivist learning (HC)

Peer-to-peer learning using student-generated MCQs with Peerwise

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/peer-to-peer-learning-using-student-generated-mcqs-with-peerwise-993/

The author presented his experience using a (free) product called Peerwise (see http://www.peerwise-community.org/)

This tool allows students to:

• create MCQs
• share questions
• complete
• rate
• comment on
• provide each other with feedback

This was tried with veterinarian students. There was no monitoring by staff members. No extra credit was given to students for using it but the author reported that it was well-used. The project is on-going but the author believes that they have seen some positive impact on students’ exam marks.

How should we measure and show online learning activity?

See http://www.slideshare.net/studywbv/how-should-we-measure-show-online-learning-activity

This presentation seemed rather rushed and my notes are unclear about any key points. It seemed to be about the lack of information about actual learning as opposed to online interaction (eg page views, session length). I was looking for information about learning analytics but failing to find it.

Author offered this link after the presentation: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/376609/

Who’s the expert? Transforming knowledge and understanding through community collection

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/whos-the-expert-transforming-knowledge-and-understanding-through-community-collection-972/

This session introduced the Oxford Community Collection Model, see http://projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/runcoco/ , “a method of crowdsourcing that blends online and offline activities that engages the public in building datasets of memories and objects (transformed into digital surrogates and made available online) relating to particular historical events or experiences” – in this case WW1 http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/

The author described how they engaged with people across the country to collect artefacts relating to WW1. Artefacts were classified, digitised and made available through a website. “Antiques Roadshow” type events were held and members of the general public turned up with items and stories.

Once the collection was made available online it allowed people to make connections between the objects and their own stories. “Amateur” experts were often more knowledgeable than the academics.

[Echoes from Joanathan Worth’s keynote speech – online presence of people now deceased – do we have a right to do that? People were keen to tell and share their own stories]

Enhancing Lectures with Interactive Teaching Tools

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/enhancing-lectures-with-interactive-teaching-tools-891/

The authors talked about the use of, amongst other things, Articulate Storyline in developing digital interactive learning objects to replace static teaching slides. The objects were hosted on Blackboard. They were used before, during and after class – the Flipped Classroom.

I liked the idea of the Flipped Classroom.

They used google analytics to assess the use of the learning objects and found that there was a peak use before, during and after the lectures, and a large peak in usage during exam time suggesting that students referred back to the objects for revision.

Quizit – crowdsourcing personalised formative assessments

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/quizit-crowdsourcing-personalised-formative-assessments-921/

The authors presented the QuizIt tool – a mobile gaming app. Students can quiz themselves and each other on key aspects of their learning, also create quizzes and interact with each other eg ratings, comments. Leader boards are created based on interactions of the student.

The app will be launched in October – freely available to HE institutions.

Connecting students, staff and employers together for shaping the future of learning

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/connecting-students-staff-and-employers-together-for-shaping-the-future-of-learning-922/

Presentation of a number of Jisc funded projects, looking at the involvement of businesses in the development of learning materials to support “employability skills” and how technology can be used to do this – elearning portals developed with input from both academia and businesses.

• What are “employability skills”? Are they different for different employers? Do they change over time?
• Can education be extended beyond the education institution into the workplace? Placements, mentors, using alumni?
• Barriers to involvement of businesses?

[is this something that will impact on us as nursing education continues throughout their career?]

Learners as agents of change (LA)

We are the Champions! Students as partners at the University of Southampton (LA)

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/we-are-the-champions-students-as-partners-at-the-university-of-southampton-1000/

This project involved recruiting students as digital literacy champions. The students were recommended by their tutors, and worked with the academic and the digital literacy team/technologist to enhance teaching and learning. It was considered a partnership. Students were paid, although the authors seemed confident that students would have done it voluntarily (work was completed without timesheets being submitted for example). Payment was deemed to have “professionalised” the role.

Champions were recruited across disciplines and the idea has been extended to for example sustainability champions, enterprise champions.

Evaluation is on-going with feedback from the champions as well as the student body. An Agile methodology (https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/agile-project-management.htm ) was used to project manage activities.

Delivering a simulated games industry placement to enhance the employability of graduates

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/delivering-a-simulated-games-industry-placement-to-enhance-the-employability-of-graduates-898/

The authors described setting up a simulated project to help students prepare for work in the computer games industry (where placements have been difficult to set up). Activities included building teams, dealing with a client, presenting ideas, completing worksheets(?), delivering a product.

Very interesting though I don’t think relevant to our particular student set.

The Innovation Game: How students are informing our digital journey

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/the-innovation-game-how-students-are-informing-our-digital-journey-858/

The authors recruited students to act as student innovators to promote the use of digital technology within the college. Students reviewed apps, wrote up blog entries, were also part of their class review process providing feedback on lessons and how digital technology could be used to enhance them. Initially driven by the academic team, the students soon started to make suggested about what interested them and other students.

Students volunteered and gained confidence from the experience.

Suggested apps RefMe – reference generating app, Grammarly – grammar checking tool

Professional development with a cup of tea

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/professional-development-with-a-cup-of-tea-827/

Author discussed the process and project to replace current face to face CPD activities with online learning within a pharmacy company.

Learning objects were developed in Articulate Storyline and made available via Moodle (VLE). Agile methodology was used. The aim was to provide short (have a cup of tea) interesting learning opportunities.

Development of learning objects: Replace >> Enhance >> Transform

The project was deemed successful with good feedback from staff.

Open educational practice (OE)

Why Institutions Adopt MOOCs: Breaking Down Traditional Boundaries or Reproducing Privilege?

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/why-institutions-adopt-moocs-breaking-down-traditional-boundaries-or-reproducing-privilege-999/

The presenters looked at some of the driving forces for the development of MOOCs by institutions:

• Institutional visability / profile
• Student recruitment
• Flexible Learning
• Reaching new students
• Some case studies also considered:
• Opportunity for curriculum redesign / reform
• Promotional opportunities

There appeared to be little concern about widening access or participation.

At Dublin City University (authors) they are developing their own MOOCs. They have decided to phrase things as “connected” and avoid the use of “online”.

They suggest that providers of moocs should consider what their drivers are, what their mission is.

[aspects of this were echoed in Laura Czerniewicz’s keynote talk about inequalities.]

See also http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/european_scoreboard_moocs

Open learning at the workplace: scaffolding user’s digital competences

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/open-learning-at-the-workplace-scaffolding-users-digital-competences-1001/

The authors presented details about their Eagle project:

• cross-european
• public administration employees in rural communities
• enhanced CPD
• delivered in the workplace
• using open education resources

This project uses “gamification” and badges to promote learner activity (more like “online socialisation”). Learners:

• can set up profiles
• socially interact with others
• develop skills / competencies
• contribute their own learning activities eg worksheets, videos
• gain status eg creator, adapter
• users gain credit from interacting with the system
• metrics will determine learner status based on activity

Do we need instructional designers?

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/do-we-need-instructional-designers-837/

Basically this guy told a room full of “instructional designers” and “learning technologists” that they were useless middlemen as redundant as the liberal democrats and that academics needed a slap to make them step up to plate and do stuff themselves. I couldn’t decide if he was taking the pee or not.

Participatory approaches to the development of learning technologies (PD)

Pixellation: The Key for Collaborative Online Education

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/pixellation-the-key-for-collaborative-online-education-1002/

“By pixellation we mean the delivery of notions in the most concise and self-contained format possible: a pixel of knowledge”

The author talked about how he and his team of academics developed a range of small, essentially bite-sized, elearning content that could support users ongoing learning of self-contained, mostly maths / science based, concepts.

He reported that this project was well-received by both students and academics.

Are we ready to learn from learning analytics?

See https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/sessions/are-we-ready-to-learn-from-learning-analytics-864/

The authors were hoping to present a taxonomy of learning analytics however they had not got to this point yet which was disappointing. Their project aims to help identify and classify the learning data which will help non-technical academic staff to use it to drive learning design and learning outcomes.

Building an e-learning platform in WordPress

Manchester Medical School discussed how they developed a learning platform in Wordpress. This acts as a learning portal for the medical school online content. Blackboard is the institutional VLE but was deemed not fit for purpose. Contract programmer was used to do a lot of the work. Relevant “plugins” were developed to provide some functionality.

Features of the new system:

• Single sign-on
• Search facility
• Development of taxonomy to tag content and so link related content
• Links to a curriculum mapping tool
• Student can add and retain their own notes
• Video content can be added to videopress and downloaded by student for offline viewing

Social media in learning and teaching (SM)

Didn’t attend anything in this strand.

Reflections

Here are a few of the key points that I picked up.

We’re “pixelated”!

Well, I think we can stand up quite well compared to others. Our offering of short learning objects offers students an opportunity to learn in bite-size (pixelated) bits (with or without a cup of tea); they can be utilised outside of or within training / teaching (flipped classroom). It was comforting to see that other people were also using Articulate Storyline and videos to deliver learning content.

Looking forward:

We perhaps need to think more about how we design our etutorials so that we don’t just reproduce off-line content, but include more interactivity and relate to the real world the learners operate in. The features available within Articulate Storyline may be able to help us with this.

Learning Portal

The idea of a learning portal sounds really good. Since we don’t get any exposure on Blackboard and we need to appeal to non-keele users the idea presented by the team from Manchester using Wordpress seemed very appealing, although clearly very technical.

Looking forward
A learning portal could offer us the ability to:

• Present learning content in an institution-dependent space (ie not Keele-branded)
• Allow use of taxonomy and tags to link learning resources
• Provide search facility
• Allow users to comment / rate content

Learning about Learners Learning
I was really hoping for some practical solutions as to how to collect  and use learning analytics – what to collect, how to collect it, what can it tell you, how you apply the knowledge to improving the product. However I didn’t really find this in the sessions I attended.

Discussions were really about the institution level policy and procedures to develop or they talked about large data gathering exercises at a higher level.

Note that one of the keynote speakers (Jonathan Worth) raised the issue of recording data about learners – what are we collecting, have we asked them, do they have a right to be forgotten? What are our responsibilities to learners?

Looking forward:

I think that this is an area we need to improve to order to gain information about what students find useful / not useful, in order to improve our elearning offering.

Stealth Learners

Two presenters talked about students being used as “agents of change” – champions or innovators. These sounded like really good projects where students are used to educate both academics and their student peers. In both these cases they started off as proponents of the use of digital technologies in teaching / learning. These ideas were extended to other disciplines at the institutions.

Looking forward:

This seemed like the type of thing that could also be applied to library services and students - using students to spread the knowledge, use of library resources and development of information skills.

Gamification or Social Learning

A number of presenters talked about the “gamification” of learning objects; either literally producing game-type quizzes or using the ideas of leaderboards, status, ratings, contribution, social interaction etc used within social media elements to drive learning activity.

Looking forward:

Given that the library service now operates over 3 sites – Keele Campus, Royal Stoke and County (Stafford) – a platform where staff are encouraged to collaborate, share practices and learning, develop social interaction etc might be something to investigate.

More things

I've been away from this blog for a while but am starting some new CPD so I'll try to keep up-to-date with blog posts.

Thing 23 – What Next?

So I am finally at the end, a little late but not too bad.

Reflection of the Programme

I have mostly enjoyed the programme and found it very useful. 
 

I liked the things that dealt with new tools and although I have found that I haven’t taken on the tools I didn’t already know about, I have learnt more about the tools I did know about; and I have taken the opportunity to experiment. This means that our library blog now has a few widgets on it, hopefully providing our users with a more enriched experience when visiting our blog.
 

My enjoyment of this aspect of the course reflects some of my strengths – comfortable with technology, willing to experiment, focused on the practical, looking to improve the user experience.
 

I perhaps had less interest in the aspects that looked at professional networking. Perhaps I need to pick my head up a bit more to look at professional issues in a wider context.
 

Some elements weren’t useful at the moment to me as I’m not looking for a new job and there was perhaps too much focus on new professionals starting out. CPD is after all intended to be continuous. I have gathered together some of the resources that appealed to me most in a Scoop It topic. Hopefully I can refer back to this for useful resources and sources of information. 
 

Sometimes the course felt slightly that CPD was something carried out in isolation, as an independent activity, an end in itself rather that something embedded in a deliverable service.
 

It has been interesting to read other participants reflections and experiences in their blogs. Though slightly disappointing to read that so many are not considering going on to gain professional qualifications. Perfectly understandable given the rising costs but I do wonder where this will leave us in 10 years time.
 

It was a well-paced course and gave plenty of opportunities to catch up which was helpful.

6 word story

Curiosity satisfied :: Experimentation achieved :: Ambition hopeful