e-teaching: from digital shyness to confidence with Blackboard Learn

Sue Watling 17

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July 2014

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About me: Sue Watling Senior Lecturer in Educational Development CMALT Learning Technologist HEA Accreditation Fellow Status

http://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/swatling

MA in Open and Distant Education Doctoral research ‘e teaching’ suewatling.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk

@suewatling

About my work and research... Education Development

• Digital Pedagogies • Digital Design • Digital Literacies • Digital Culture

e-teaching

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Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age (TELEDA)

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TELEDA 1

digital design and delivery •

TELEDA 2

social media and e-resources 3 Image from http://www.comunidadunete.net/boletines/img48/contenidos1.png

Research

• PhD e-teaching • Digital inclusion • Open Education ‘Embedding OER Practice’ ( HEA / JISC ) • Supporting transition ( HEA / ALDinHE )

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e-teaching

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Research Drivers

 UCISA Surveys http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/~/media/groups/ssg/s urveys/TEL_survey_2012_with%20Apps_final  HEA Flexible pedagogies reports http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/detail/Re search/FP_prep_for_future_research  NMC Horizons Higher Education http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon report-he-EN-SC.pdf

NMC Horizon Higher Education report

“Faculty training still does not acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession. Despite the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher education and non-existent in the preparation of faculty.” 6 NMC Horizon Higher Education (2014: 23) http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN-SC.pdf

HEA Flexible Pedagogies T.E.L. report

BC - Before Computers

8 Dial up modem sound file page http://www.soundjay.com/dial-up-modem-sound-effect.html

Digital Pedagogies

9 • Heutagogy (Case and Kenyon 2001) self-directed learning http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/pr/Heutagogy.html

• Alignment of the Curriculum (Biggs 1999) • Deep and surface approaches to learning through critical reflective practice (Biggs 1987, 1992; Moon, 2004 2008) • Community shared practice and inquiry (Garrison and Anderson 1999, 2012) • Conversational framework (Laurillard 2001) • Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer, 1990)

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Teaching and Learning in a Digital age (TELEDA)

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Module1. online design, communication, collaboration, assessment, feedback, open education Module 2. social media in teaching and developing e-resources

• 24 weeks (30 M level cats) •

Delivered and assessed through Blackboard

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Research engaged practice

• Evidence based practice • Research informed/engaged • Action research cycles: evaluation, reflection, action • Experiential learning opportunities • Shift from Blackboard as repository to Blackboard as generator of learning activities

LB 1: Online Design and Delivery LB 2: Open Educational Resources LB 3: Communication and Collaboration LB 4: Assessment and Feedback LB 5: Social Media 13 LB 6: e-resources

Group Tools Reflective Journal Blogs Activity Wiki TELEDA Learning Blocks Discussion forums Grade Centre eportfolio

TELEDA Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the open education movement, the theory and practice around learning in online environments and the challenges for students, tutors and institutions in higher education; • Critically evaluate a number of freely available digital learning tools and resources, including OER material, which extend and support teaching and learning in online environments for specific learning outcomes; • Reflect upon, and demonstrate a critical awareness of inclusive practice in relation to online teaching and learning resources, communication and collaborative working with and between students; • Design or select and critically evaluate a learning activity which includes assessment and feedback and has the potential to enhance student learning in online environments.

• 14 Demonstrate a scholarly approach to the development of teaching practice in online and open contexts through making critical and developmental use of the relevant published evidence-base

Digital Literacies for e-teaching

15 Image from http://www.iacbe.org/pdf/2014-region-9-conference-brochure.pdf

Digital Literacies (JISC model)

16 Image from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/digilit-7elements.png

17 I do feel slightly more confident about trying things and if they’re not successful to learn from it and try something else instead.

I have used a website creating tool for the first time, I have used it, I have found it relatively straightforward.

YouTube is going to prove to be a more useful resource than I ever imagined I’ve realised this through the way TELEDA is structured – I love the video clips!

This has been quite revealing in terms of the way I previously organized materials on Blackboard, and perhaps missed opportunities to integrate digital tools and materials more fully into my teaching

Seven TELEDA Tips for e-teaching

Myths of digital confidence Text mis-communication Identity blur Activity Based Content Signposting Do a MOOC!

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Pedagogy of ‘Uncertainty’

TELEDA Tips 1: myths of digital confidence

19 “…I have made assumptions previously about the skills of students I am working with and presumed that they would find learning in an online environment ‘easy’ as this was something that they had chosen. Preparation is not just about being technically competent, it is about ensuring learners are able to deal with the social and emotional challenges of learning online too…”

TELEDA Tips 2: text mis-communication

20 “…the whole digital learning experience is changing the way I think about communication…” “…I realise now how naïve I was in the past to simply open the discussion board with a question and expect the students to participate. As a tutor I have to make it possible for my students to participate through the design of my tasks…”

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TELEDA Tips 3: identity blur

“…there is no doubt that the transition from being an effective classroom practitioner to an effective online practitioner is complex and challenging…”

TELEDA Tip 4: Activity Based Content (ABC)

“…I need to know more about e pedagogy, differences between learning and teaching online and face to-face and how to redesign sessions for an online environment…” 22 “…I recognise that online learning is all about the activity of the student and what you get them to ‘do’… I would like to find out more about how I can encourage students to be active and construct knowledge in an online environment…”

TELEDA Tip 5: signposting

“… It seems obvious now that the lack of student engagement with my online resources was due to inappropriate design. I placed too much emphasis on text based, self-directed learning and didn’t recognise the important roles of self and peer assessment, interaction between students and probably most importantly, investing time in building solid foundations and helping students develop skills for online learning.” 23

TELEDA Tip 6: do a MOOC!

“…the experience being isolating and lacking human connection also supported my feeling about the importance of the social in the learning experience “…This activity has opened my eyes about the strengths and weaknesses of OER’s. They are many, many resources out there that can be used but the search process is daunting because of the sheer number and adapting resources for a specific purpose is time consuming and often more complex than starting from scratch…” 24

TELEDA Tip 7: Pedagogy of Uncertainty

25 “As a tutor in the classroom you can be on hand to make connections for students or clarify activity instructions. This is less easy online, you have to almost pre-empt questions…” “…Being an online learner is confusing and disorientating. There is no tutor to check what you are doing ‘is right’…” “The reasons why people have not necessarily contributed to activities …may be because they were unclear about what was expected and/or afraid of getting it wrong and looking silly.”

…made me appreciate the issues students would face such as feeling unsure and not finding it as easy to talk. adopting the role of student is a useful experience, it reminds me of the pressures…and enables greater empathy to students and their experiences.

What fascinates me about this process is how as a novice online tutor I instinctively reverted back to what many novice classroom practitioners do and focused on transmitting content. This is something I would always try and avoid in a classroom setting.

Undertaking this activity, and reading about online design has made me realise that I need to approach online design …. and stop being scared of it!

Digitally shy to digitally confident with Blackboard to

Summary

• e-learning success requires e teaching attention • Practicing practice: value of experiential learning • Relocate staff as students on VLE • Shift from Blackboard as repository to Blackboard as generator of learning activities 28 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX SjgQvQ&list=RDUOorZQLsmuA (2.44) Medieval Helpdesk

Thank you

Contact details

Sue Watling

University of Lincoln, UK

Email [email protected]

Twitter @suewatling 29 Blog http://suewatling.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk

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