Month: May 2019

In my efforts on developing the course I’m working on, I took the concept of the ABC Learning Design workshop back to my department. Together with my colleagues, I tested the concept of mapping the course activities and the integrated learning activities. We agreed that the method is great for visualizing the elements of the course and highlighting needs for alterations.

When marking the activities as grading or not it was clear that we could include more formative feedback elements involving peer review. We, the teachers, agreed that we are reviewing a “lagom” amount of activities. However, there are room for more peer reviewing and peer learning. The students in this advanced course have a lot knowledge to bring to the table, and it became clear that this possibility could be facilitated more effectively. Boud and Falchikov (2006) suggest that assessment activities can, rightly used, contribute to future learning. If we can help the students to become “assessors”, it potentially promotes lifelong learning. The literature show that providing feedback can be beneficial for the provider. In the process the provider is learning e.g. to improve skills of analysis and evaluation. Additionally, providing peer feedback can enable students to become more independent and make them regulate their own learning (van Popta et al., 2017)

While reviewing the course it also became clear that the alignment of the assignments could improve. We decided to alter the first assignment to better connect with the later. By doing so, the later assignments are picking up the thread, and pointing back to the beginning of the course, therefore improving alignment.

The Rethink:Kau work shop got me on the track of integrating a greater variation of pedagogical methods used in  the courses. As individuals learn in different ways (Willingham et al., 2015), a more diverse palette of learning activities will likely target more learning styles, facilitating learning for a wider range of learning styles. For me, not working with digitalization, the workshop was an eye opener on the technical possibilities that are out there.

 

BOUD, D. & FALCHIKOV, N. 2006. Aligning assessment with long‐term learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31, 399-413.

VAN POPTA, E., KRAL, M., CAMP, G., MARTENS, R. L. & SIMONS, P. R. J. 2017. Exploring the value of peer feedback in online learning for the provider. Educational Research Review, 20, 24-34.

WILLINGHAM, D. T., HUGHES, E. M. & DOBOLYI, D. G. 2015. The Scientific Status of Learning Styles Theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42, 266-271.

I mainly teach online courses, but as Bates (2015) points out, learning environment is no only the physical environment – it´s also the climate that we create in a course. The possibilities for creating learning environments are very different online and require some extra effort, as the students to a large extent prefer face-to-face learning (Pomerantz, 2018). A way of bridging the physical gap and creating an open climate that I find useful is to put a lot of energy in to communication with the students. I try to emphasize the importance of them getting in touch whenever something is unclear, and making this easy for them to do so. This can be done by providing multiple ways to connect and making contact details easily accessible. Having several channels of communications available can lower the barriers of establishing contact.

The importance of the physical outline of the room doesn’t apply to my day to day teaching. However, the rare occasions when I do meet the students are exclusive and requires even more planning. As Leijon (2016) points out, one seemingly small, but important thing is the room itself. The room gives us signals on how to behave and on what kind of interaction that can take place in there. As the campus meetings are devoted to discussions and interactions among the students, the room needs to be big enough so that the level of noise is acceptable even for group discussion. In addition, smaller spaces that can hold group discussions are very useful. I find that there are often a lack of smaller rooms and that I end up having to ask the students to find suitable spaces on their own. I try to rearrange the furniture according the number of students that I am expecting to show up. If let’s say there are eight students, a conference seating is probably feasible and will promote good discussions and interactions among the students.

So far, I have mainly used asynchronous discussions due to the technical challenges of connecting synchronous. However, with technical improvements and the many benefits of direct conversations (Laurillard, 2012), is seems to be worth a try.

Despite the difficulties with online learning, for example with a high numbers of students not following though, I am amazed how well it actually works. My experience from candidate level are limited, and maybe when you are new to higher education an on campus setting preferable. However, at the advanced level, the students have the experience of studying and online learning can provide the opportunity for lifelong learning. It is easier to combine online learning with work and it bridges geographical distances. In addition, specialized educations are made available to students were ever they are.