Edu 720 Week 11 Facilitating Online Learning Environments

Posted byahdoveyPosted inUncategorized

Summary & Learning Outcomes

Last week we looked again at Designing Online Learning Environments (Part II).

You did the following learning activities:

  • Applied the different Laurillard (2012) learning types to analyse and discuss your current teaching practice;
  • Considered and used an online curriculum design framework, the CEG Pedagogic Framework, to design a fully online learning episode within your current teaching practice and context;
  • Critically evaluated and discussed your designs with your peers, identifying strengths and areas for future development;
  • Reflected on your learning for your CRJ;
  • Explored Digital Resources and where possible, attended the weekly webinar.

This week we will be looking at facilitating online learning environments and managing participants online.

First you will reflect on and discuss your experiences as online participants in this course. Then you will engage with information about some of the typical characteristics of online students and how they compare to ‘non-traditional’ students (i.e.not standard face-to-face 18-24 year old learners straight from school or college). You will consider the constraints of non-traditional learners, and some of the challenges and opportunities that can arise from managing and facilitating online participants. You will also consider different types of online behaviours, such as lurking and flaming, and formulate, discuss and evaluate potential strategies you could use to address these types of challenges. Finally, there are the usual weekly opportunities to reflect on your learning, explore further reading and attend the webinar.

By the end of the learning activities for Week 11, you should be able to:

  • Build and consolidate your knowledge of some typical characteristics of online students;
  • Formulate and critically evaluate potential strategies for dealing with challenging online behaviours, situations and motivating online learners;
  • Critically reflect on what and how you have learned this week, identifying potential implications for you and your colleagues’ current and future practice of developing flexible learning environments, in your local teaching contexts.

Week 11: Forum – Reflect on Your Experience of Being Online Learners

21 21 unread replies. 48 48 replies. Introduction

Consider the type of student you are on this course.

You, as adults and established professionals (and unlike younger students), are likely to be more practical and results-oriented, have higher expectations, and have a lot of things on your minds, with multi-level responsibilities. Today, as professionals, we also feel increasingly obliged to continue learning and take new courses (most likely online, given its convenient format), in order to enhance our skills, keep our jobs (or get a new one) and further our career plans.

With these in mind, it is hardly surprising that it can be a challenge to motivate learners like us, and make us active participants.

It is therefore important for course designers to create useful and relevant learning experiences based on the age group and interests of the learners, and capitalise on the use of their personal experience as a resource. This PGCHE course, for example, has tried very hard to facilitate exploration by giving you the opportunity to construct knowledge in a way that is meaningful to you. This is done through a wide range of activities, materials, references, infographics, short videos, lectures, podcasts and much more.

By constructing this learning environment, we hope to inspire you, and for you to find something that makes you want to learn more. We also worked on building an online learning community, which can be a powerful tool for collaboration, commenting and sharing – notice how quickly you started exchanging knowledge and perspectives, experimenting with new and sometimes radical things, and at times having some fun.

Now is a good opportunity to reflect again on your own experience as online learners. Reflect / Produce / Discuss

Consider the following questions:

  • How did you feel becoming a student again?
  • How did you interact with your peers?
  • How are you juggling your professional commitments with the demands of an online HE course?
  • What are the challenges and opportunities of the online environment, in your experience?

Provide a brief outline of how you have been experiencing this course so far, as a busy professional and as an online student (150 words). Post this to the discussion forum.

Comment on the posts of two fellow students, sharing any reflections prompted by their outlines and explanations. Search entries or author Filtre replies by unread     Write a reply… Reply to Week 11: Forum – Reflect on Your Experience of Being Online Learners

My Experience as an Online Student

  • How did you feel becoming a student again?
  • How did you interact with your peers?
  • How are you juggling your professional commitments with the demands of an online HE course?
  • What are the challenges and opportunities of the online environment, in your experience?

Becoming an online student again brought me to the forefront of a complex mixture of new knowledge, which was a bit daunting. I was excited, though, and when I had to measure my current knowledge against the U.K. Framework, it gave me a clear view of how far I still needed to go. Be that as it may, I felt confident that my previous teaching experience would bridge the gap.

The tasks we needed to complete every day were mostly dependent on having a positive relationship with my peers. I would like to have done this better if it weren’t for me being extremely shy even though my peers were always ready to help, which encouraged me to keep on going, enabling me to finish my tasks sometimes a little late but hanging in there none the less. Communicating with my peers helped keep me on track, with much-needed insight, especially with daily comments on the canvas.

My course tutor was fantastic when giving me feedback he gave me just the right amount of constructive criticism that would help me achieve but not knock me down and sweep me out. With his valuable feedback, I was able to apply the necessary changes to align my tasks with the course objectives, and I’m thankful for that.

Juggling my daily online course commitments with my family was by no means an easy task. Having a husband who is my best friend and partner in everything had suddenly felt that he was all alone in this world. Luckily, after discussing my clear sense of purpose with him, and since we are both teachers, he became part of my support system. Keeping the bigger picture in focus does not mean you won’t have rough times, and I had lots of those. If I had a second chance to go back and do it again, yes, I would do things differently, but life happens, and so did Covid19. Of course, it added a lot of stress that would otherwise not have been there. Being suddenly unemployed in a country that is not your home country is a scary thing. Being forbade to leave your home for any reason whatsoever is something I’ve never experienced before. Being present in the state of the outbreak is frightening. Not knowing what will happen next, dying, war, poverty, starvation, homelessness, destitution, and devastation were some of the harrowing concerns I had to face daily. Giving up on the course seemed natural since the world was literally at an all-time low, but, thankfully, my husband kept me going. Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Wow! Angela, this sounds rough. What tremendous dedication and tenacity you have shown. Truly amazing. Well done and good luck for the future; I hope it all works out. Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Michael Berthaume

Michael Berthaume

Tuesday 11 Aug at 10:35

I second Nick’s comments – that sounds very rough and difficult.

I have had very different problems from you, but in a way it is nice to see others, like yourself, have also found taking this course difficult – it is one of the things that has helped keep me going (misery loves company and all). I have never had a good home/work-life balance, and often when I took courses, it was with a “bite the bullet, this week will be hard but next week it will be over” mentality. I found it quite difficult when, week after week, it wasn’t over. There were two periods of time I needed to completely disengage with the course, and take a much needed mental break. Reply Reply to comment

  • Hi Michael, I really feel for you. The balance of home life etc isn’t easy. Some people are lucky like that and have everything balanced but not me either. It’s great we all hung in there.    Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Anna Dovey

Anna Dovey

Wednesday 12 Aug at 14:41

Hi Angela

You’ve had a bad time. I hope that’s passing and things are looking better. I admire your fortitude in sticking with this course – really puts my problems into perspective!

Well done to your husband for being there for you. I hope he’s had the opportunity to learn along with you so he gets some benefit too 🙂 Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Dario Faniglione

Dario Faniglione

Thursday 13 Aug at 8:49

Hi Angela,
Thanks for sharing this insightful reflection.
Just a few prompts to follow this up, for your own CRJ:
Have you thought about how this experience is impacting on your own teaching practice? e.g. will you be dealing with learners differently? if so, how? Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

    • Hi Dario, I hadn’t thought of it like that till you mentioned it. I know that when I worked in primary school there were students who had problems with poverty and how that impacted on their performance. I’m glad you highlighted this for me. thank you Dario! This is definitely a light bulb moment for me! Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Alex Bailey

Alex Bailey

10 Aug 2020 10 Aug at 11:30

Personally, I never stopped being a student. Being engaged actively full time as a photographer requires constant education, reflection and reinvention in order to stay competitive, this manifests itself in a never ending round of research into creative techniques and the adoption of new technology. What is different is adhering to a structured teaching environment and computing the requirements, both physically and mentally a course such as this PGCHE makes on an individual.

The main platform for interaction with my peers has been on the course forums, in the weekly webinars, when we have been asked to carry out module assignments with each other and I have had a little direct contact by email, so collectively quite a lot.

I started the course with Juggling work commitments and the course, but since the Pandemic I have been off work as my industry closed down. Therefore I have had more time to dedicate to this PGCHE course.

I have found few if any challenges with on line learning, for me it is an extremely time efficient way of participating on a course, although I can completely understand how home learning requires the active cooperation of  family members to support windows of dedication during busy family / home life schedules. That is probably the biggest challenge for most people? Reply Reply to comment (2 likes)

Hi Alex,
True, we never stop being students. If we teach with passion, then the students will be more willing to learn from us. Being actively involved throughout the course shows that online learning is an excellent fit for you. Successful online students are self-motivated, enthusiastic, and inquisitive, which I noticed that you are. Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Hi Angela

Thanks and I am very sorry to hear about your challenges.

There are may times over the last few months when I have been glad of this course not least because in a sea of uncertainly  (particularly as a free lancer working in the media industry that has been particularly hard hit – currently 350k + freelancers – not including furloughed staff – in film and tv have got no work due to the cover pandemic as most productions have been, and still are, shut down or not starting up that includes theatre and live shows) this PGCHE course has been an island of normality.

Alex   Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

    • Hi Alex,   I must say that this type of thing really makes me sad. I hope that soon things will change and get back on track.   Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Nick Raven

Nick Raven

Tuesday 11 Aug at 9:50 Hey Alex, I can definitely empathise with the need for managing family expectations! Working from a home environment during lockdown was the most challenging aspect. I had to adapt to being interrupted by my children every 5 mins!!
Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

  • Hi Nick Yes indeed totally agree – the home working syndrome and concentrated / uninterrupted time – very very very challenging indeed. Alex    Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Dario Faniglione

Dario Faniglione

Thursday 13 Aug at 8:54

Hi Alex,

very good insights here, thanks for sharing these.

For your CRJ, it might to further explore how your attitude towards learning and teaching has been shaped by this experience. Also, acknowledging the challenge of being an online learner, how will you now relate to your learners? Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Stanley Mbelu

Stanley Mbelu

Thursday 13 Aug at 14:45

  • Hello Alex,   Indeed, the main challenge lies on the time that the online material needs, mostly, when there are a  lots of family affairs that needs personal attention. Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Nick Raven

Nick Raven

Tuesday 11 Aug at 9:36

I was very excited to become a student again, however, having never engaged with an online course I was initially overwhelmed. The Canvas platform environment wasn’t intuitive to me. I was working on an iPad and the app was so foreign. And on top of that I had never really engaged in an online community: openly commenting in an asynchronous manner and waiting to see if anyone will respond or comment feels a bit like being a satellite orbiting around some unknown planet that I never get to see the whole of, and only have my own tiny fragment of a perception of what it is and who inhabits it. I definitely need to feel safe and secure, and confident with my peers, to be able to openly converse – something I still struggle with!

Juggling demands and time has been an major issue. Not necessarily the ‘contact’ time, in reading and writing posts etc., but the time it takes (me) to interpret, reflect and synthesise the learning. And how to fit this reflective time into my day has been very difficult. It’s also been particularly difficult in this study block in a period for me without students and where putting things into practice wasn’t as easy.

Online technologies have great potential for supporting the design of learning and teaching. The opportunity for student autonomy, self direction and empowerment are great, but matched to this are the challenges of supporting different types of students to become autonomous and self directed. At post graduate level we could suppose and generalise that the type of learners are more willing and able, but in my local context for the 18–24 year old cohort I must be mindful of their relative experiences and abilities, especially in terms of social and emotional intelligence and how they are able to apply themselves to learning. Reply Reply to comment (2 likes)

i  like your satellite metaphor and can relate! I was luck enough to take my first online course when I was still in high school (in 2005-6), when my school was trialing an online platform. The idea was to provide final year students with the opportunity to take courses not available at the school to better prepare them for university (in the US). I took an online macro-economics course which, from what I remember, was set up quite similarly to this, with readings, forums, and podcasts. I didn’t like it much, but that may have been mostly because I had to report to the library from 1.5 hours every day, where there was only one other student (in another course) whom I was not friends with. We would both often finish all our work on Monday, and have nothing else to do the rest of the week! The librarians were strict, and would make sure we never left the course website, and we were not allowed to do anything else but talk, so it was quite a boring time…

I remember in that course thinking thoughts like what you had here. I think one of the biggest reasons I did not have those thoughts this time around is because I entered this course with targeted goals, whereas the other one was intellectual curiosity. In the other course, I was more interested by the subject, but in this course, I am more interested in doing what I have to to get the certificate, fix my courses, and further my career. As such, I have not cared as much about the forums, as those represent other people’s thoughts to me, and I am much more interested in my own now.  Reply Reply to comment (2 likes) Collapse Sub discussion Harriet Beesley

Harriet Beesley

Tuesday 11 Aug at 17:13

Empathising with our own students is really important and definitely a benefit of this experience. Also helping making us slightly prepared for online learning environments (both the positives and negatives), so that we can guide our students and reassure them. The end of this course also marks the end of my first module as an online tutor, and it has been enlightening to see how much pastoral time is needed, even with small groups. When you don’t see the students in the studio on a regular basis, it’s hard to read them and how they are feeling, so it’s important to keep touching base with them. Reply Reply to comment (3 likes)

  • Agree Harriet on the pastoral / reassurance  front. recently 50% of my time when doing 1 to 1 critiques has been taken up with talking about expectations, career prospects and where do I go from here, what I do next with students – many are very worried about the future in these very uncertain economical times – understandably. In some respects engaging on line does help to keep it focussed and constructive and progressive by providing an ideate short and medium term plan for action with their work opposed to mental health support which I feel the student needs I can direct to some one better qualified to support. Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Toby Carr

Toby Carr

Tuesday 11 Aug at 20:23

Nice font Nick! I also like your satellite metaphor and after reading the texts around percentages of people who would engage with forum posts or join a webinar, I found myself last night trying to figure out how many people might be registered on the module.  I am guessing there may be around 30 of us but who knows!  

I’m interested in your last paragraph as I feel like I have spent a lot of time on this course telling myself things that I would also tell my students or later reflecting on things and thinking that I should have taken my own advice.  I also took from one of the videos this week the need to design environments that our students will enjoy and engage with, not necessarily the ones that we are used to.   Reply Reply to comment (2 likes)

  • I completely agree with you on taking one’s own advice! I think I managed to ignore that one during the first module. Got better during this one… Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Rachel Butt

Rachel Butt

Wednesday 12 Aug at 9:23

Hi

i can empathise with your first paragraph, I too found the new world of totally online course very daunting to start with and navigating canvas was a struggle luckily the student support team were very sympathetic and helped me get going

Rachel Reply Reply to comment (1 likes) Collapse Sub discussion Anna Dovey

Anna Dovey

Wednesday 12 Aug at 14:44

I can relate to the ‘satellite’ analogy too – I found it frustrating.

I’ve struggled with focusing on the reading, so you’re not alone there, and likewise no students… I think we’ve all done increadibly well to stick to it given the crazy year it’s been! Reply Reply to comment (1 likes) Collapse Sub discussion Alex Bailey

Alex Bailey

Thursday 13 Aug at 8:33

Hi Nick

Yes agree overwhelming in many ways and the relative detachment / asynchronous engagement was certainly one, although now having done so much on line from this course / my own sons teaching and teaching and work meetings myself, it is becoming second nature and I do feel by working / teaching / learning from home in a virtual context I am very efficient if not a little lacking in ‘real’ social interaction. In small groups 1 to 1 and upto 4 on screen at once I can mange reading the body language on screen now – more than four and it becomes a mass of faces and to much body info to absorb or compute to read reactions accurately. In larger groups 4 + in virtual meetings I feel one becomes pretty anonymous sometimes I feel you have more personality and impact in the comments section – just my thoughts.

Alex  Reply Reply to comment (1 likes) Collapse Sub discussion Dario Faniglione

Dario Faniglione

Thursday 13 Aug at 8:56

Hi Nick,

Very good points here and it’s great you have mentioned some of the challenges of implementing the approaches encountered here in your own context. For your CRJ, have you thought about exactly what could work with your learners and why? Are there ways to overcome the challenges you have mentioned? Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

    • Thanks Dario, I think Gilly Salmon’s 5-stage model is really helpful in considering steps to support learning, and for not overlooking the social and emotional aspects of learning. And reading Laurillard (2012), how teaching can shape motivation and ‘acculturation’, supporting students so they are able to learn as part of a community, will be aspects to trial and test in my local context of supporting learning. Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Michael Berthaume

Michael Berthaume

Tuesday 11 Aug at 10:29

After finishing my PhD, I continued to take courses in some form of another nearly every year. Most of the courses that I took were only an hour or two long, often put on by the university or institute I was working for. This is the first time I’ve done a course that has lasted more than a few days since 2013, and it has been intimidating. On the one side, I have seen the benefits of this course time and time again both in terms of my own teaching practises and in terms of helping other colleagues who are less familiar with pedagogy and or took this course years and years ago, and therefore have forgotten most of it. But on the other side, it has been a huge time commitment both in terms of completing the work (such as finding time to do all the readings every week) and in terms of needing to dedicate nearly seven or eight months of my life to this course with little break.

I am at very different point in my life from when I was in school before. Then, I did not know what I wanted to do with my life and was studying to figure it out. I did not really have any ultimate goals, and just wanted to continue to read and study what was interesting in the hope that it will get me a job. Now I have a job, and I am doing this to become better at that job. So, before I was quite undirected in my career goals, but now I am targeted.

This has affected how I interact with my peers. Before, I was looking to make friends. Now, I am looking to make professional connections, as it is nearly impossible (for me, at least) to have long-term digital friendships. These friendships also require lots of time – time I do not really have. So, I view my peers now more as people who will help me achieve my goals, whereas before I viewed them more as potential friends.

I find the juggling of my professional commitments and the demands of this course to be quite challenging. It has helped to have set days where I do nothing but this course, but as a result my career suffers. This is time I cannot spend planning my courses, writing Journal papers, writing grants, establishing my lab, and advising students. I understand that this course will help me become better at some of those things, which is why I am doing it, but as I have the same level of responsibilities and there is no more time in the day, it means other aspects of my career are suffering.

I chose to take this course online so that I did not have to worry about walking to and from other universities within London. The closest of the University was a 30-minute walk away, and so by doing this course online I was saving one to two hours of walking per week minimum. What I did not think about, who’s that it would mean I was doing more of the work on the nights and weekends and less during the week. the biggest challenge with taking this course online has been maintaining a balance of work and personal life. The biggest benefit has been that my career has suffered less than if I were to take this course in person. Reply Reply to comment (3 likes)

You’re right Michael, being able to really target your time and energies into the areas that most interest you now as a mature student make the learning experience a lot more rewarding. And that’s a really good point – if we had enrolled on similar courses at campuses, we would have had to adapt or postpone! Such a positive that we have been up-skilling in a really relevant area of education. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Toby Carr

Toby Carr

Tuesday 11 Aug at 20:12

  • I’m glad you mentioned the personal life balance as well as the professional life balance.  I’ve found this hard at times and have driven myself into the ground a bit trying to fit study around what became a really busy summer for us with extended deadlines and several different rounds of marking and assessment etc. I’ve had to give myself a break at some points and have really appreciated the weekly structure so that I can catch up.  I agree with Harriet’s comments below too and am glad to have been studying now as I feel equipped and kind of excited about implementing and testing my learning with our returning students.  Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Harriet Beesley

Harriet Beesley

Tuesday 11 Aug at 17:08

I have to admit to being a bit of a nerd and having enjoyed the learning process during my ‘enforced’ period of education. Over a decade later, I’ve enjoyed it once again, but with a completely different set of circumstances and distractions. As a new mum, I want to be able to balance a career and parenting responsibilities, setting a good example to my daughter while also getting to spend quality time with her. Studying and working part-time with a baby under 1yo might not sound like balance, but hey – parents with babies are already knackered so it’s not too much of a difference!

I have really enjoyed interacting with my peers on the course, the group is a good size and we are from some interesting subject backgrounds. The first assessment of module 1 threw us together with different peers which was quite stressful at the time, but worked well. The weekly webinars are well attended and especially during lockdown it has been a positive to see other people on a regular basis.

It has been easier to juggle study and tutoring during some periods more than others – honestly I am looking forward to not having to juggle the two, but I will miss the challenges of the PGCHE. I look forward to having my weekends back! It does help me empathise with the students I am tutoring, as they are doing part-time online learning too, so I have been able to help advise them with time management, stress and tackling their work volumes. Efficiency, good headphones and long playlists are key!

The challenges of the online environment is the distractions of the internet! Plus the fact that as we’re not on zoom calls all the time, it’s easier to be interrupted. As my husband has been working throughout this course, I have been the main baby wrangler, so my study and tutoring time is wedged into her sleeping hours. One of my students on the MA has a child of a similar age and has deferred a term as the workload was too much, I can totally empathise! The opportunities are basically the glass half full perspective of the same points – you can work flexibly around nap-times and the internet is your classroom!

Overall, I’m glad I have done the course and am very appreciative of the new skills I have gained, but I’m excited to get a few hours back each week – my brain has been exercised, now the rest of my body needs that time and exercise! We should all give ourselves a little clap for getting through this during the weirdest period of time in many years. Well done guys! Reply Reply to comment (3 likes)

Well done you! Lots of challenges. I can’t imagine how it must be with a young baby but did decide that the lockdown was a great time to buy a new house which has increased my stress levels a bit over the past few months! I have enjoyed being in the position of a student studying online and like your point on empathising with your students.  I will be teaching on our Masters course from September which is designed to be flexible and fit alongside work or other commitments that students will have. Being an online learner through this course has made me much more understanding of the related challenges, the need for clarity a familiar structure and the support of peers.  Thanks everyone!   Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

  • Why did I decide to move during a pandemic, with a baby and the hottest August in ages?!? Crazy! My workspace is currently the floor of our new study, with my laptop on a box. Crazy. Reply Reply to comment (2 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Anna Dovey

Anna Dovey

Wednesday 12 Aug at 14:54

  • Completely agree with you about the distractions of the internet! I’m able to empathise far more with students now having done this course. Fellow nerd here but as Michael says, I’ve done this course to improve my career, not out of a fascination with pedagogy (althought I find the psychological aspects of it quite intriguing). It’s a shame in a way; if I’d been able to focus this on teaching Ancient History from the beginning, I might have enjoyed it more. Which has given me a thought for assignment 2…. Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Toby Carr

Toby Carr

Tuesday 11 Aug at 19:53

I was excited to become a student again. Having taught part time alongside my professional role for many years, I have wanted to further my skills in teaching practice for a while. My current role is my first full time academic role and I wanted to learn more about different teaching practices and approaches.  My motivation was also about making myself more employable if my current position didn’t work out.  I have never studied an online course before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I imagined that it would largely be recorded content, self directed study and assignments. I initially found engagement with the pre recorded content strange, watching a talking head of someone I’d never met and couldn’t be completely sure if they were real! As the weeks progressed I became more familiar with the tools and settled into the rhythm of the course.  I’ve found the webinars a great way to connect with the weekly pace and my peers. My enrolment was confirmed just a week before starting and if I am completely honest, I hadn’t read the course documents. I had Canvas downloaded on my phone and thought it was just a phone app so couldn’t work out how the whole thing was going to work. I decided to wing it. On reflection, I can see a change in my motivations possibly moving from the ‘need to know’ to ‘want to know’ approach and becoming part of the group. 

It took me a little while to get into a pattern of working that could fit alongside my teaching. I have tried as much as possible to integrate my learning with my teaching practice and not see the two things as separate. I really enjoyed the micro teach and flipped classroom sessions for this reason. To begin with, I didn’t have a desk set up at home or an area where I would study, I had unreliable internet signal and couldn’t access the online resources.  I spent time in the campus library at the weekends working through the reading and weekly tasks and put time aside three evenings a week. The COVID changes to my practice meant that, like most of us, I was suddenly spending a lot more time online and I found this difficult to balance with the course. It did mean that I had to sort out a fixed workplace at home with good enough internet connection to work with my students and colleagues. I also found out that I could work outside and still get a connection. I have done much of the reading and parts of the assignments sitting in the garden.

At the start of the second module, I decided I needed to be more organised and have files set up on google drive that I can access from anywhere, organised into different folders. I’ve found this immensely useful and wish I had done it sooner. I also try to make sure that my notes are typed directly into the computer to avoid scraps of paper and having to rewrite them later. I will sometimes have a blank document open during the webinar which I can write notes into directly. I found the forum much easier to engage with once I had got to know my peers through the webinar sessions. Following discussion with peers and tutors, I also decided to buy a few key recommended text along with some others that I thought would be interesting. I have found this helpful for quick reference and to be able to mark sections to go back to and highlight key points. 

As you can see, I am still struggling with keeping to word limits  Reply Reply to comment (3 likes)

Hi

i totally relate to making yourself more employable and agree this course will definitely help to take the next step in our careers.

fingers crossed heh!!

Rachel Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Anna Dovey

Anna Dovey

Wednesday 12 Aug at 14:59

It sounds like you had a real struggle with the internet connection etc. initially – I don’t envy that. Luckily my OH has worked from home for over 15 years so broadband wasn’t an issue.

I likewise determined I needed to be better organised during this module. It has helped. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Mia Tedjosaputro

Mia Tedjosaputro

Thursday 13 Aug at 4:43

  • Hi Toby, I hope to say the same thing (re the first full time academic job) in the next few years, it is something I plan on achieving in the next few years once I get enough experience. Inspiring. I started to teach part time beginning of this year (what a year!) and setting up my design studio in two countries slowly (more like thinking how to adapt in this pandemic when we just started) along with another design-produce-export&import business as a completely noob. I found that the skills I need to hone is to be able to switch from one task which is completely different in nature, in the most effective way.  Mia Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Rachel Butt

Rachel Butt

Wednesday 12 Aug at 9:44

Hi

Before starting this course I had recently started a new job as a nurse educator, this job runs alongside my existing full time post and i am “released” when needed to teach at uni.  That in itself is quite a juggle, however this is the first totally online course that I have done and whilst I initially struggled with the IT/canvas, work life balance and way of learning, I soon found that actually the flexibility of the course has really helped.  I have been frustrated about not being able to attend many of the webinars due to work, but am really glad they are able to be accessed later as they tend to reveal invaluable nuggets of info re the assignments, and its lovely to hear others peoples experiences and about what they teach, I have learnt a lot about golf which is great. 

I too have found the whole covid-19 situation very stressful, as i have had to work full time+ as a NHS worker, and this in itself has brought lots of challenges/sadness/stress, however, hopefully we are coming through the worst of this now. I understand how hard it has been for people to work from home with the support/distraction of their children, I have found the opposite as my children had to go to school as they were key-worker children, initially this made me feel guilty and sick, however on reflection they were safe and their were not many other options, although doing geography/history/maths etc after a 10 hour shift was not much fun. Despite this, I have found the course has been sometimes a useful distraction, i have learnt loads and really enjoyed the interactive components of the weekly tasks, the micro teach and the flipped session.  the tutor support has been great and the more I have learnt, the more i realise how much work goes into creating a totally online course like this one. Reply Reply to comment

  • I’ve been thinking of you during this time and wondering how you were doing, working for the NHS. I’m glad to hear you were able to keep this up – I don’t know how you did it with their homework after a 10 hour shift! Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Anna Dovey

Anna Dovey

Wednesday 12 Aug at 14:37

  • How did you feel becoming a student again?
  • How did you interact with your peers?
  • How are you juggling your professional commitments with the demands of an online HE course?
  • What are the challenges and opportunities of the online environment, in your experience?

A. It’s stupidly hot. Do not expect much sense from my melting brain. Note: this sort of thing will also impact our students.

B. Random note – interesting article on BBC the other day about some Indian schools taking to the great outdoors  rather than online, because a lot of their students were not online (could not afford hardware or connection). Affordability of access is still an issue in the UK too. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-53590847 (Links to an external site.)

I felt happy about becoming a student again; I enjoy academic learning. However this course was not as academic (I was soo looking forward to essay writing. Yes, I’m weird!) as I’d expected. However I recognise that the practical elements are likely to support my ongoing practice better than essays.

I didn’t interact with my peers as much as I would have liked with hingsight. I really, really miss the F2F interaction. This was compensated to some extent by the webinars, but pure online learning is not my preferred way of learning (no reflection on this course, it’s just personal preference). However they have been incredibly supportive and helful anyway, volunteering to be my students for the flipped classroom assignment – thank you! 🙂

Juggling professional commitments – they vanished quite rapidly thanks to Covid-19! To be quite frank, I’m not sure I’d have managed to get this far if that hadn’t happened. However Covid presented another major distraction, as did being made redundant and the consequent job-hunting.

To be honest I know I am a classic procrastinator, and I’ve always been better at exams than coursework. Give me a nice essay or exam with philosophical and academic discussion and I’m happy (as Dario spotted!); give me a long piece of coursework and I lose interest. I’m also not a natural multi-tasker, so I’m not ideally suited to online learning.

Doing this online has given me greater empathy for students – sat at a laptop with notifications for FB and other media going off is lethal for a procrastinator, and I’d not studied this way before (I have FB shut down now when I’m working on this course).  I’m well aware of the irony of me teaching students study skills and not putting them into practice myself! I have huge empathy and admiration for those I’ve supported in the past doing distance course whilst working full-time as Police Officers and for those on this course who have been teaching the whole way through or, like Harriet, have demanding little ones. I’ve realised taking on a course of this nature whilst working requires self-discipline and firm organisation, which I’ve started to get to grips with better during this second module.

I wonder if a short section at the start of this course on how to study online, discussing organisation, handling distractions etc. might be of use for those of us who haven’t studied this way before?

I’ve been wondering if MBTI types (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) has a bearing on learning preferences/ styles in general and therefore impacts on online learning? (free version of the test here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality (Links to an external site.). I’ve done both the paid and free version and they came out the same, which would suggest the free version is pretty accurate).

Challenges and opportunities (as students, I take it?) –

Challenges:

  • Requires self-discipline and organisation.
  • Difficult if you’re  a procrastinator!
  • Lack of F2F contact with others can impact.
  • I need LECTURES damn it. I miss lectures. I like listening to another human being. Podcasts don’t cut it for me and somehow videos aren’t the same either. It’s probably a combination of the F2F contact and social learning I enjoy. I know, that’s not what you get with an online course, but that’s the challenge.
  • COVID-19
  • Being made redundant 😀

Opportunities:

  • I do see the benefit of being able to go over the forums and read back asynchronously.
  • Flexibility = increased accessibility. I simply could not have done this course otherwise.
  • Probably being able to see more inputs from other students than might have been the case on a F2F course. The forums do perhaps create a safer space for some to contribute than in a F2F class. I suspect for your standard HE student, it forces some of them to contribute in a more considered, polite manner than they might as it’s in writing and saved…
  • I like the webinars. They’ve been the high point of some of my weeks over the last few months.

Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Hi Anna,

All very good points here and an insightful reflection.

For your CRJ/summary reflection, I am suggesting here a few prompts to explore:
Have you thought about further exploring the concept of a course being “not as academic as you thought”? What does this mean? What is “academic” and what is not?

This course is founded on the broad principles of outcome-based education, where aims and outcomes are stated explicitly and clarified. Is this what you have “issues” with? How would you have done this differently? Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Stanley Mbelu

Stanley Mbelu

Thursday 13 Aug at 15:13

  • Hahahaha,   The warmness is indeed extreme. Moment like this makes me to be grateful that I am not currently teaching as we are currently on vacation. Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Mia Tedjosaputro

Mia Tedjosaputro

Thursday 13 Aug at 6:52

  • How did you feel becoming a student again?

I feel I can relate with my students’ experience better, although I started my first part time gig a week before PGCHE course started. I thought it was not a good idea to do it on my first semester of teaching, but I took the chance and loving it. It grounds me and forces me to put myself on the students’ shoes, “What would I (as a student) want to get out of this session?”

  • How did you interact with your peers?

The  forums mostly and the webinar. I think I am not interacting as well as I should be, which I miss in relation to F2F. 

  • How are you juggling your professional commitments with the demands of an online HE course?

I found the strategy that works for me is to plan the week beforehand in accordance with the load, and have dedicated days just for this course. I know it sounds like a luxury, but it is the most effective way for me to get through the week. Another thing is I tend to leave one or both days of the weekends to just not turning my computer on, squeezing everything on weekdays. Micro adventures or just a bike ride usually sort me out. This first full teaching semester had an impact on my triathlon training (just as a hobby) but I expected and accepted that, and not trying to beat myself. Working on the after math right now 🙂 

2020 is filled with new learning curves from me which I am still really excited about; from running a new business in this tough time, setting up my design practice, research, teaching part time (in two universities) and doing this course. I am sure down the line I will look back and appreciate the hectic 2020 and will recognise being this in PGCHE course is one my best life opportunities.

  • What are the challenges and opportunities of the online environment, in your experience?

Challenges: Lack of motivation without the face to face interaction with peers and technological limitations

Opportunities: Flexibility, opportunity for greater to learners’ autonomy and the opportunity to explore different technology Reply Reply to comment

  • Hi Mia,

    Good point around the renewed relationship with your learners. This might be a point to further explore in your reflection, e.g. what has actually changed, and how? What will you do “more” of? Any challenges? Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Stanley Mbelu

Stanley Mbelu

Thursday 13 Aug at 15:10

  • How did you feel becoming a student again?

Interestingly enough, I have always been a student as I constantly learn and research for new and relevant materials. Being a tutor in Business and in Law constantly means that I need to be in-tune with relevant regulatory policies  and business challenges. The main difference with my learning here is that I have to write a summative assessment, which have to be assessed with mark awarded. That takes me back to the days when I had to stay awake to study and ensure that I comes out at the end a success. Unfortunately, due to other personal commitments, there wasn’t enough time to properly and actively and properly submerge myself with the study process, and Covid-19 makes my whole time structure and management almost impossible to manage.

  • How did you interact with your peers?

The interaction with my peers, especially during the term 1 was absolutely amazing. I was able to learn from my peers, especially those that are in a totally different field from my area of specialty. Their approach to learning and teaching, together with their view towards student engagement, gave me an added overview on how I can work to improve my already existing approach as an academic.

  • How are you juggling your professional commitments with the demands of an online HE course?

I must be honest, it wasn’t as easy as I expected, mostly due to the constant weekly activities that is expected from us. Nevertheless, I knew what I was getting into(though not as intense), as I was determined to work hard and ensure that I have my PGCHE qualification by the end of this module. As an academic as well as a Business Consultant, I now realise the challenges that are out there when one needs to acquire an additional knowledge and certification. 

  • What are the challenges and opportunities of the online environment, in your experience?

Without Covid-19 pandemic, I would like to assume that the challenges might have been slight different than what I experienced. As a proud father of two lovely kids at the age of 4 and 2, constant attention are given to the kids to ensure that they do not fell lonely, while juggling with daily class activity, and work activity.  Nevertheless, the opportunity of an online learning is endless as the flexibility meant that I can keep my full time work, while managing my business and supporting my family. It also meant that I have the time for my amazing partner.

Provide a brief outline of how you have been experiencing this course so far, as a busy professional and as an online student (150 words). Post this to the discussion forum.

– This course have given me a more detailed insight to different pedagogical approach to student learning and support.

– The Tutors understand that majority, if not all here are professionals, which means they have other responsibilities apart from this program.

– The webinar is fixed in a time that falls totally out of my schedule, which I believe if not for this Covid-19, I might not be able to have attended to as much webinars than I did.

– I will always endorse online learning for professionals, mostly due to its semi-flexibility. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Suzanne Strudwick

Suzanne Strudwick

1:38 17 Aug at 1:38

  • Sorry, this is late Everyone, I’m a bit behind but finally here! Like Alex, I don’t really think I will ever stop being a student, I love learning and teaching! (I am already looking at what to do next)! I have been encouraged to complete a PhD (which my sister completed a couple of years ago) so I may give that a go. This course has put a lot of theory, into a practical sense. That was definitely something I was missing. After completing my master’s in psychology in coaching, I had all the theories but none of the practice.  The interaction with everyone has been fantastic, you are all extremely thoughtful, inspiring, articulate and giving. I have learned so much from you all and will miss our weekly interactions so much. I am very late to academia, (if you hadn’t realized already)! I just turned 55 (completing my MSc. at 53) so I feel a bit behind in starting a career in higher ed. but it feels so right.  The challenge of online delivery is the interaction and learners experiences, staying engaged. We are lucky, this group has been fantastic, the core group who have stayed engaged each week have kept us all going. Dario and Andy are a big part of that too, engaging, realistic and encouraging. The MSc. I completed fully online also but I did not have the same experience with the cohorts. That degree was a long slog, really hard, this course has been a pleasure.  Reply Reply to comment

Characteristics of the Successful Online Student

Online courses offer students opportunities to learn in new ways and make learning available to many who cannot attend a traditional class. However, online courses are not for everybody, just as not every student is successful in traditional college classes. In general, the successful online student should possess the following qualities:

1. Be open minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the learning process. Introverts as well as extroverts find that the online process requires them to utilise their experiences. This forum for communication eliminates the visual barriers that hinder some individuals in expressing themselves.

2. Be able to communicate through writing. In the virtual classroom, nearly all communication is written, so it is critical that you feel comfortable in expressing yourself in writing. Some students may find they need to undertake remedial work before their written communication is up to the required standard, or they may need to allocate more time than a fellow student on the same course to complete the same task. This may particularly be an issue for students studying in a language other than their first language.

3. Be self-motivated and self-disciplined. With the freedom and flexibility of the online environment comes responsibility. The online process takes a real commitment and discipline to keep up with the flow of the process.

4. Be willing to ‘speak up’ if problems arise. When students experience difficulty on any level (either with the technology or with the course content), they must communicate this immediately. Many of the non-verbal clues that tutors use to determine if students are having difficulties (e.g. confusion, frustration, boredom, absence etc.) are not present and if they don’t let their tutor know there is a problem, he or she may never know something is wrong.

5. Be willing and able to commit 4 to 15 hours per week per course. Online is not easier than the traditional educational process. In fact, many students will say it requires more time and commitment.

6. Be able to meet the minimum requirements for the course. The requirements for online are no less than that of any other college course. An online course is often a more convenient way to receive your education, not an easier way.

7. Accept critical thinking and decision-making as part of the learning process. The learning process requires you to make decisions based on facts as well as experience. Assimilating information and executing the right decisions requires critical thought.

8. Have access to a computer and the Internet. The communication medium is a computer, phone line and modem or broadband connection; the student must have access to the necessary equipment. Many students prefer to work from home; however, some students may use computers in libraries, open access centres run by their local authorities, or even from within the institutions they are studying with. Although online learning implies the learning takes place ‘at a distance’, the distance may only be one of time and not miles (or kilometres).

9. Be able to think ideas through before responding. Meaningful and quality input into the virtual classroom is an essential part of the learning process. Time is given in the process to allow for the careful consideration of responses. The testing and challenging of ideas is encouraged; you will not always be right and you should be prepared to accept a challenge.

10. Feel that high quality learning can take place without going to a traditional classroom. If a student feels that a traditional classroom environment is necessary for effective learning then they may be better off in a traditional classroom environment. Also, a student who wants to be on a traditional campus attending traditional lectures and seminars will probably not be very happy online. Potential online learners have to feel comfortable that the education experience they are going to receive is what they are looking for and that the teaching will be equivalent to that given to face-to-face students. As much as expectations about the quality of an online course can be communicated to online participants before they sign up, it is in some ways down to the online student to trust that this will be the case, particularly if they have never taken an online course before.

Ooops. 3 and 5 …not so much….I’d love to know if learning style / preference is linked to MBTI type. If the marks on this counted in the same way as a degree etc. I suspect I might have been more organised earlier and devoted more time to it. You definitely need to have a set schedule to manage distance / online learning well – that’s something I’ve learnt from this experience at least!

Now, was does this mean for that part time PhD? I’ve always known I’d prefer to do it full time – to immerse myself in a subject I love, and I know I procrastinate and struggle to focus on longer term goals I don’t enjoy.

Week 11: Challenges in Facilitating Learning of Online Students

laptop keyboard

The six stories below are real accounts of disarray or distress encountered in different online courses, reported by either a course tutor or by another learner (they were collected as part of research conducted by Sian BayneLinks to an external site., Professor of Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh).

All raise some important questions about the design and tutoring of online courses. As you read the stories, bear in mind that we will return to this section as part of your Challenge Activity for this week. Case Studies of Challenging Behaviours

Please click on the titles below to read the stories. The Idler

George was a mature student on a part-time, wholly distance-learning, professional development course. The other people on the course were all adult learners, and the course involved a lot of online discussion and group work assignments. George described his experience as follows:

“The discussion groups we were in it tended to be 2 or 3 people out of six doing most of the work. There was one woman in my group who never did anything. I knew she was there because I could check the messages, she was reading them and didn’t respond at all which I found very odd, rude actually. We did sort of challenge her, we used kind of proxy measures like, ‘Are you having trouble with the technology’; kind of thing. Though I knew she wasn’t! But that really created a certain kind of unease, I mean what d’you do with people like that?

“The course director, well he was emailing me individually saying could I possibly get the people in my group who weren’t talking maybe to do something, which I thought was an odd thing to do. There again I’m not quite sure what else he could have done, he was trying to use the more participative people to try and chivvy along the others. I suppose he didn’t want to be too interventionist and heavy handed and maybe thought he could get the group to chivvy along each other, but it only worked to a certain extent, I wasn’t quite sure if that was my role to do that. I mean I could understand why he wanted to do it but on the other hand, I’m not sure that that was a legitimate thing for other participants to do. It’s a bit like in a face to face tutorial, the tutor saying, ‘Can you make those other people in your group talk a bit more’, I mean a tutor probably wouldn’t do that.”

The Flamer

This account comes from Susie, a first year undergraduate enrolled on a course of about 200 students. This course was run using face-to-face lectures, but with all tutorial activity taking place in online groups of six to eight. The online element included assessed group work.

“I don’t know why it happened but basically we were talking about the Museum of Scotland and how it doesn’t have that much about the future, and my friend was talking about it, and the way she worded it didn’t make that much sense but I think generally everyone sort of got what she was meaning; that it didn’t have that much about the future and what they thought the future would hold and stuff.

“And then this other student, he came in, copied the email and had it like typed out the bottom and sort of said, “Of course it doesn’t have anything for the future because we’re not in the future yet”. And he was just being really sort of bitchy and niggly if you know what I mean and it was just when we were putting stuff forward for an assignment so it was totally uncalled for and unnecessary.”

The Saboteur

This story comes from the tutor on the same course discussed in ‘The Flamer’. Rita was asked what had been her worst experience as an online tutor and she came up with the following:

“Actually it was this year, one very vocal and rather disaffected student who had taken against the university as a whole but then took against this module in particular, claiming that in doing the module online we were trying to do education on the cheap, and that it was an attempt to monitor – sort of big brother style – students and their learning processes, and that what we were trying to teach was banal and beneath his notice.

“And his arrogance coloured the way the students reacted to the whole module. I had to point out to him that in fact the system was not trying to do education on the cheap and that it was costing the university rather more than it would do with traditional methods, and that in no way were we trying to use it as a way of monitoring students because that would be illegal. And that shut him up on that, but what he subsequently went on to do was to start attacking students online for their views.

“He’s a student who has difficulties at home I suppose and he’s very opinionated, particularly about music and politics and the like. He caused quite a lot of disruption and had to be seen by his head of department twice. He tried to encourage students to post loads and loads of messages to flood the system and crash it, and that was clearly not in the spirit of the thing!

“He then posted a message that talked about how to use drugs safely which I immediately withdrew from the system, hoping no-one else had seen it. So I took it off because it was in a sense promoting drugs, and again I felt that that was not what the system was there for. He upset a lot of students with his arrogant approaches to their comments.”

The Black Hole

This tale comes from Patience – a mature student on a UK-wide distance learning course. This particular course was run through a blended mode, with independent study alongside occasional face-to-face seminar sessions. An online discussion board was provided for students to communicate with each other in between these face-to-face sessions.

“Yeah this particular course was awful because basically they just gave us the discussion board and said, ‘Use this if you want to’, and so when I logged in it was just a few other students, you know scattered around the UK. It could’ve fulfilled its purpose, which was to get us to talk to each other and support each other because we were all distance students and this would have been really helpful, but it wasn’t taken seriously as a learning environment. It was mainly people moaning about work and how close the deadline for their essay was. But what was really bad about it was it very, very quickly got cliquey. Within a couple of weeks, there was this clique of awful people on it who just talked about their cats. The whole time. Honestly, I’m not kidding you.

“There were only about 10 students using it, and they were mostly older, I was about 26 at the time but I got the sense that they were all quite a bit older, maybe 40s. And they would just talk about their cats, all the very amusing things their cats had been doing, and I remember sending a message in about learning, about a problem I was having with the module, and it was actually my first ever experience of sending a message up to a message board, and it disappeared into a black hole.

“There was no response to it at all. And I felt really crap, and I felt a bit embarrassed like, ‘Have I said something really naff?’ and then I felt a bit angry about it, and then I thought, ‘Well, actually what’s going on here is it’s just a clique, it’s this group of four or five people, older people, who are using it to talk about something that I’m not interested in’. And from that time on I never really used it.”

This is Noam, another tutor on a first-year course. In this account she is describing an experience not on a discussion board, but on live, ‘real-time’ chat.

“I think probably it is harder to teach online because you don’t get the respect. I mean I’ve had quite cheeky chat requests from students that I don’t think they’d have said face to face. I had one girl, she was sitting in the library and it was 10 o’clock in the morning, her essay deadline was 12.30 and she got me on chat and she said, ‘Oh, can you give me some hints for my essay, I’m doing this topic’.

“And I wrote back and I gave a very bland, ‘Structure it like this, read this book’, and she wrote back and said, ‘Well, could you give me 4 or 5 points about Adorno that I should definitely include in my essay’! She basically was asking me to write it for her. She’s quite a cheeky student anyway face to face, but face to face you sort of deal with it by laughing and saying, ‘Get to the library’ sort of thing, whereas online it’s just like, ‘Hang on, that’s kind of out of order!’.”

The Invisible Student

The final story comes from Jamahl, another mature student on a distance learning course. This one presents not so much a dark side scenario as an example of one of the potentially positive aspects of online course delivery. It would be useful to consider how a tutor might nurture these positive aspects of ‘freedom from the body’. And what do we lose in the online environment by not being able to use our actual physical presence as learners and teachers?

“Quite a kind of pleasing, liberating moment almost, was towards the end of the programme. We had little clips, kind of resumes that you could send to each other, where you presented the kind of identity you wanted to present to the world, and it didn’t have a picture facility in those days, but people just wrote a little cameo of themselves.

“And there was a woman in Australia who’d given hers, and towards the end I said something about – there was something happening in Australia where she lived – and I said, ‘Are you going to kind of go along and take part in that?’, and she said ‘Well no I can’t because I’m a wheelchair user’.

“And that was right towards the end of the course and she had chosen to disclose that at that point. And that was interesting ‘cos there was no way in that environment that that had appeared at all before. And I’m sure had we known that from the outset, if it was in a face to face environment, it’d have been the usual thing, you would have probably treated her quite differently in that sense.

“And I realised that that was quite a valuable aspect of this kind of environment, that it gives the users of it a certain control over what they disclose about their identities. By that point we’d all worked together and it was irrelevant really at that point. And the identity had already been constructed I think for her as a member of the group, and I looked at her as a learner and a group member, rather than as a person with a disability. So that was quite nice.”

The Idler – that may not have been fair. As was mentioned somewhere earlier in this course and by Angela, some may be very shy or have some other issue going on. For the tutor to ask the other students to ‘chivvy’ was out of order – I would have approached the student myself, perhaps by phone, to find out what the issue was.

The flamer / saboteur – sounds like the same student on that course. Yes, one fellow student on the sociology course; kept asking vaguely relevant questions and then leading the lecturer down rabbit holes which disrupted the learning for the rest of us. I was relived when he disappeared after a while…

Black holes – yes, from my time as an MA student. None of the others wanted to discuss Ancient History outside the lectures 😦

The Cheeky one – ooooh, yes, a couple of times at ACM, Students in the Library asking questions about the written work they were working on; one in particular asking me what terms she should search for etc. I told her I couldn’t write it for her. Had a few with dissertations too…

The invisible student – not what it sounds; more of a positive – online, no-one can see your differences, e.g. disability- you are just one of the cohort of students…

Which makes me think; as a student with a hearing impairment, I prefer F2F BUT lecture capture would really have helped back in my BA days when I sometimes mis-heard something – rather than bothering whoever was sitting next to me, I could have played back the video…

Week 11: Practitioners in Action – Federica Oradini and Dario Faniglione

Online Tutoring – Frederica and Dario

So; flexibility = greater diversity (allows people from different parts of the globe, therefore different cultures, teaching different subjects, with different challenges, experiences etc.) to participate.

Flexibility also allows me to procrastinate!! 😀

Resonate – what Frederica says about her MA resonates strongly; the fear of isolation and missing out on that F2F contact and connection. However what Dario says makes sense intellectually – I’ve certainly learnt a lot from Suzanne, and if I had not been on an online course that allowed her to participate I would have not had that opportunity.

And there’s that; what I *feel* (emotions) and what I *think* (the intellect). Western education – indeed culture – has historically tended to view emotions as ‘weak’, ‘feminine’ and generally to be disowned / controlled. Note that even today we medicate or treat as aberrations normal human emotions that are viewed as ‘negative’ (sadness, distress, anger), whereas they may often be the result of long suppresses emotions due to that very Western attitude of ‘stiff upper lip’.

Yet education – and a whole lot else besides- will be unsuccessful if we don’t take a holistic approach and treat both students and staff as whole human beings. The increasing focus on the mental well-being of our students and staff is one step towards an improved approach (but still tends to consider some emotions as an ‘illness’) – and note it’s typically referred to as ‘mental’ well-being, not ’emotional’ well-being. Our emotions, mental and physical health are inextricably linked, and intrinsically linked to our social health (humans *need* social interaction / connection. It’s not a ‘nice to have’; it’s been proven over and over that we suffer mentally, emotionally and physically without it).

Which is why I like Race & Salmon’s comments that emotions are important in education, HOWEVER they tend to focus on those of the students; how do activities etc. make student’s feel. I think it’s equally important to look at teaching staff ‘s emotions too – a happy teacher = happ/ier students? We all know how much more enjoyable a lecture etc. is from someone who is positive and passionate about their topic – add stress from poor line management, job insecurity, a divorce, or political machinations (see the latest furore over grades as a prime example – every teacher I’ve heard interviewed has expressed anger over how little they have been trusted) etc. and that *will* impact student’s experiences.

On those lines – stress has a nasty habit of effecting intellectual thought processes right when you need it the most. If I understand correctly, this is due to the body reacting by sending resources to muscles etc. getting ready to fight, flight etc. and potentially diverting resources from the brain; also your primitive hindbrain take over the driving wheel to prime those primeval responses enabling people to carry out increadible feats of strength and speed in dire situations.

However in the majority of modern day stress-inducing scenarios that does’t work; what we end up with is trying to navigate complex situations and problem solve – retain job, maintain professional performance whilst going though a break-up, moving 5 times with cat etc. (yes, personal experience!) with a brain that’s gone AWOL. This is NOT helpful and the learning / teaching and achievement of both teachers and students experiencing this will suffer.

In these scenarios online may make it harder – on the one hand flexibility may support students in stressful situations to continue; on the other hand there is nothing like a big hug to reassure and help de-stress the average human (that *need* for connection) and I’ve witnessed students receive that support from their fellows. Not possible online.

Now; I am arguing for my own preferred preference. So, I’m biased. Perhaps it’s as simple as; this is THE ONLY WAY I could have done this course. Even finding a local institution to do it at = travelling time, being bound to their timetable etc. So yes, it’s not perfect but it’s as perfect as the existing technology can make it; Dario etc. puts in a lot of work to make it happen (I don’t envy him reading all our forums!).

Week 11: Dealing with Challenging Situations with Online Learners

When considering how to deal with different challenges, and when managing and facilitating online learners, one thing to ask yourself is: how can I most effectively deal with this – through facilitation or through design? Or both? In the short term, sometimes you will have to try to deal with a particular situation by interacting online with the students in some way, but in the long term, many of the kinds of issues you might experience could perhaps be dealt with more effectively through your online curriculum design.

Some curriculum design frameworks strongly recognise this, for example Gilly Salmon’s Five-Stage Model. Here, the consideration of facilitating online participants through effective online curriculum design is embedded in the heart of the framework, across all five stages.

We have already referenced this model in Week 8’s Digital Resources (Chapter 2 of Salmon (2013): E-tivities: the key to active online learning), which you may have read as part of your further reading. Below is a reminder of the model.

The Five-Stage Model

Five-Stage Model
Salmon’s Five-Stage Model (2000)
Source: Gilly Salmon (Links to an external site.)

Developed in 2000 by Gilly Salmon, the Five-Stage Model is a model for describing the online learning process, from first steps to self-directed learning. The model is now used by educators all over the world. It provides a way of ‘scaffolding’ students’ participation in online courses: starting with induction (Stage 1); then fostering a cooperative learning environment where participants engage in mutual exchange of information (Stages 2 and 3); then course participants look towards collaborating to achieve both course-related and personal goals (Stage 4); and finally a return to more individual pursuits (Stage 5).

Being an online tutor is more than simply being a subject matter expert. Tutors must also take some responsibility for technical, administrative, managerial and pastoral areas of their courses – in the online-only context, they are often the only human contact online students have with the institution they are studying with. The Five-Stage Model shows the kinds of technical support you might provide, as well as the pedagogic aspects of the role. Salmon sums up the model by saying “given technical support, good human intervention from an e-moderator (or, in our case, online tutor/lecturer), and appropriate e-tivities to promote action and interaction, nearly all participants will progress“.

The essential role of the online tutor is to promote human interaction and communication through the modelling, conveying and building of knowledge and skills. They undertake this through using the mediation of online environments designed for interaction and collaboration. They also have an invaluable role to play in the successful implementation of the Five-Stage Model:

Stage 1 Access and Motivation: The e-moderator’s role is to welcome and encourage participants to interact.

Stage 2 Online Socialisation: Familiarising and providing bridges between cultural, social and learning environments.

Stage 3 Information Exchange: Facilitating tasks and supporting the use of learning materials.

Stage 4 Knowledge Construction: Facilitating process.

Stage 5 Development: Supporting and responding.

((for some reason this reminds me of Maslow’s pyramid of needs…))

Reflect / Produce

Refer back to the six student stories you read about earlier this week:

  • The Idler
  • The Flamer
  • The Saboteur
  • The Black Hole
  • The Cheeky Student
  • The Invisible Student

Choose TWO of these and consider the following questions:

  1. If you were the online tutor working on and facilitating that course, what would you do to resolve this problem?
  2. How could the problem have been avoided, if a different approach had been taken to the design of the course?

To help you formulate your answers to these questions, consider all that you have learned over this week and in the previous weeks, and your previous experience, that could be relevant to this.

For example: the characteristics of successful online students; anything said in the podcasts; frameworks and models of online curriculum design (such as Gilly Salmon’s Five-Stage Model); any other sources of pedagogical scholarship or practitioner accounts, and so on.

You will be sharing your ideas and thoughts in the discussion forum on the next page.

Reflect / Discuss

When you have completed the activity on the previous page, please share your findings and perspectives as a discussion post in the forum.

Read and give peer feedback on the strategies of at least two of your colleagues.

Consider the following questions when making your comments:

  • To what extent do you think your colleague’s strategy would be effective in tackling the challenges discussed? How would it be effective (or not), and why?
  • How might you approach this differently? How would your alternative approach be effective (or not), and why?
  • What have you learned from this that could be useful for you in the future, when trying to tackle these kinds of challenging situations with online learners in your own practice and teaching contexts?
  • Are there any particular sources of scholarship or practitioner guidance that might support your perspective on this?

Search entries or author Filtre replies by unread     Write a reply… Reply to Week 11: Forum – Share Your Strategies for Dealing with Challenging Situations with Online Learners

The Saboteur – this person is having difficulty getting onto stages 1 and 2 on Salmon’s five-stage model. From the sounds of it, they have set up the system and are accessing it, and they are sending and receiving messages, it is just not being done in a positive manner. Rather than send and receive messages to improve learning, they are doing so to disenfranchise other students, and disengage them from the module. When a toxic personality is present, some students will follow them into a pit, some will stop engaging to avoid them, and some will engage with them to tell them they are wrong: all these groups will have an inferior learning environment and learn less as a result of this student’s presence.

To resolve the problem, I would censure sensitive comments, attempt to get him the help he needs (when a person is acting like this, it is often because there is something wrong), and all the while document the incidents and/or report them to higher-ups as needed. In my experience, when students have outside issues that are leading them to become disengaged with learning and/or cause trouble, there is little you can do to help them if they do not want help. So, I would focus on providing them with the professional resources they need through the university. To protect other students, I would not allow students to freely post but make it necessary for me to OK posts before they become publicly available.

The Cheeky Student – I had one of these last year (in in-person teaching). On Salmon’s steps, they seem to be stuck on 3 or 4. They could be having problems with information exchange, which is why they have waited until the last minute to do the essay and are ill-prepared, or they could be having trouble with knowledge construction. By the time the student is contacting the instructor with cheeky comments, there is little that can be done to help the student in that situation. But steps can be taken to prevent this from happening in the future.

The role of the e-moderator here is too support and facilitate the process of learning. When future assignments come up, the e-moderator can provide more detailed guidance on what is needed (to help support learning), have the students work in groups (so they can aid each other in facilitating learning), or have small assignments that are completed in forums that must be done throughout the week related to the essay so the student is working on it throughout the week. Additionally, better guidance on communication can be provided to the students. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Toby Carr

Toby Carr

Tuesday 11 Aug at 21:24

The Flamer

I have some experience of this in my face to face teaching where one student started to become disruptive in group sessions, questioning their purpose and my use of workshops in my teaching practice, this went on to develop into rants about the motives of the course and the objectives of the university. We were collaborating with a client partner, a key element of our practice which required working in a different way but gaining new skills. It resulted in repeated jibes and snide comments which I found annoying as I had put a lot of time and effort into the course design and materials. It was also disruptive to other students who didn’t share the same view but were less outspoken. I intervened and responded clearly to some of the jibes explaining the reasoning and offered a private meeting to discuss any concerns. At the root of this seemed to be a level of insecurity working in a new way and a lack of trust in me as a new member of staff. Over the course of the year I built a good relationship with this student who has also come to reflect on his own approaches as a learner and is now more confident at taking on new challenges. 

In an online environment I think perhaps a  similar intervention could work in terms of addressing concerns clearly to the whole group in a light tone and then seperate contact by phone or video chat with the individual to discuss their concerns and explain how their actions were affecting the group. Perhaps the problem could be avoided by explaining why the course was designed in the way it was and how the new skills would be of benefit to the students. In my case, this was done in part through the project brief and weekly structure but perhaps not explicitly stating it or backing it up with evidence. 

The Black Hole

This was like my first experience on Twitter. Like shouting into an empty cave and feeling abit stupid and lonely! I think this particular issue could be avoided by curating the forum a bit, using the weaving techniques. Prompting discussion and setting some ground rules on what it was there for. I read in the reading for this week that this should happen in the first few weeks, setting the tone and the intentions. This also fits with Gilly Salmon’s five stage model moving from setting up the system to familiarisation, supporting use of learning materials (information exchange) and moving into knowledge construction. It might mean a more active engagement from a moderator to begin with (but not overbearing) short quick encouraging messages for useful things and no response to the cat threads! Having said that, as an icebreaker sharing common interests could be useful but it sounds like things never moved on from there. 

In terms of the design of the course, if the forum had been more integrated as a tool for discussion related to learning activities and linking to the assessment, it may have been more widely recognised as a learning space not just a social hang out for cat ladies. Reply Reply to comment

  • I like you approach to The Flamer and it seemed to work well in your situation. It requires a lot of one-on-one time and personal attention, so I worry about this situation in larger groups.  And I agree with Twitter and The Black Hole situation – when I started it certainly felt like shouting into a void. I think the methods used in this module would certainly help (as you have discussed), with prompts and such.  Reply Reply to comment (1 likes)

Collapse Sub discussion Rachel Butt

Rachel Butt

Wednesday 12 Aug at 11:09

The invisible student:
I choose this scenario as i thought it was an amazing example of how online courses can help someone create a new identity free from potential prejudice or stereotypical responses. The students who worked with this particular student had no idea she was a wheelchair user as this had no bearing on the course and therefore was in-fact irrelevant. The student was able to be free from her disability for the whole course, which should be common practice but often is not the case in traditional face to face teaching environments.
Online, all aspects of Salmon’s five stage model could be achieved, due to the flexibility that an online course facilitates and thus the student was able to do the course in her own environment without potential restrictions. whereas in a class room environment health and safety measures may be needed to be put in place to support her and thus she may have felt she was treated differently to peers and this in turn can lead to other students not being as supportive (this is a generalisation, but i have witnessed this in practice).

The Idler
I think this was an interesting scenario, I would like to think that the advantage to an online course (as previously noted) is that there is nowhere to hide, as the tutor can always see if the student is an active participant and thus address this if it becomes an issue. I am unsure why the tutor feels the need to get the student to “chivvy” along the idle student as I don’t think this is fair.
In the first module we had on PGCHE course we relied on each other to critique and post our learning conversation tool for each other’s micro-teach. Initially I didn’t understand why there was an “additional student brief” if students did not complete in a timely way, but now I recognise how useful this is. The need to build in a “just in case” back up plan for students in group work who are relying on each other to complete their peers piece of work so that they can pass is extremely stressful, if you have an idle student within the group. As adult learners we could leave this to the group to sort, however is this fair? I believe the tutor in this scenario should have stepped in and had a private conversation with the idler to establish what the issues were and if any help/support could be offered and not rely on the student group to do this


Reply Reply to comment

  • I hadn’t thought about how the Idler situation related to this course, but it is evident now! I always disliked group work when in school because of relying on others, but as an adult, we all want to succeed and are taking the course as a choice (vs. we have to) and it has been much better for me.     Reply Reply to comment

Collapse Sub discussion Harriet Beesley

Harriet Beesley

Wednesday 12 Aug at 15:07

The Flamer

There is a mild Flamer in my current cohort, they rush into the group discussions asking questions (that have all been addressed clearly in the brief) and start to seed doubt in the other students. This is quite simple to spot when it is happening in the public forums, but when it happens on the students’ WhatsApp group, that’s when it can spiral. The issue with a flamer will typically occur in the first three steps of Salmon’s model, mostly the second (Online Socialisation: Familiarising and providing bridges between cultural, social and learning environments). My strategy would be to flag these potential Flamers and make sure that they know to come to me before freaking out with the other students. I would give advice to the group as a whole (so as not to single the Flamer out and knock their confidence) by email and in the live sessions on how to read the briefs and to come to the tutors if they have any issues. Higher education should be about developing independent study and enquiry, so I would encourage them to think thoroughly before acting. If it carries on, I would bring it subtly up with the student during tutorial sessions. I would also identify some student spies, who are more level headed, who I think would feel comfortable letting me know when a flame has been lit in the WhatsApp group chat so that I am aware of the issue before it turns into a wildfire.

The Idler

Within the course I am involved in there are no collaborative challenges that would mean that an Idler could derail the work of other students to an extreme level. They can however miss out on the benefits of the group chat forums, where students and tutors share ideas and comment on those of other people. It is hard to read the Idlers and place them on Salmon’s steps, as they don’t give much away. But with groups that are larger than 10/15, it can be tricky to spot when students are less engaged – this could be a negative of online learning, but I don’t have experience in a campus based course for comparison. I try and keep a tick-list of the students, so that I can keep an eye on how many times I see them engage with others during each week. If they are less forthcoming, I would send them a nudge via email, and make sure to get them to interact during the live webinars (if they attend) by asking their opinion. If they are still slow to join in, I would make sure to communicate this with fellow tutors and student advisors to help. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Nick Raven

Nick Raven

Wednesday 12 Aug at 17:23

The Black Hole

At its heart this example highlights the challenge to maintain from the students appropriate and meaningful engagement in the learning. It’s all too easy to let slip and allow the kind of ‘chit-chat’ that this example describes. In some respect the students were using the forum for their chatter and although it was an inappropriate mode for the discussion I would reflect that the students needed an outlet for this level of communication. It’s common knowledge that we enjoy being different, but what brings us together is shared interests. The cat talk might not have been valuable for Patience, but it could be argued that it is a really strong way with which those so inclined could connect and form friendship groups within the learning community. Fostering a supportive framework for confident happy students can support and encourage happy learners. Perhaps a way to handle this would be to provide a function to facilitate the chat – an alternative chat function for the messaging. This would direct the ‘chit-chat’ away from the forum. The facilitating tutor could then direct away any inappropriate chat from the forum and encourage more meaningful posts for the learners.

Gilly Salmon’s Five-Stage Model would be effective here in supporting student motivation and socialisation. Clear and succinct instruction for tasks and student motivation, in terms of ‘expectancy theory’ (Biggs and Tang, 2011), would also enhance the engagement. Constructive alignment would further enhance this so that the learning be student-centred, appropriate and meaningful for greater engagement. E-titivies with a ‘strong task and action focus’ (Salmon, 2013) can help deepen learning and support student co-operation. This will help foster and support a ‘community of practice’ (Salmon, 2013) whereby students feel part of the community of learners and more willing to engage with the materials and social interactions of the forum, thereby avoiding ‘black hole’ syndrome.

The Invisible Student

The example highlights the kind of prejudices and preconceptions that can be made about people that can lead to discrimination by students and tutors alike. The experience the student describes is, on the whole, a positive reflection of the perception of a disabled person in the context of online learning, or lack of perception due it being undisclosed. But, why should it even matter if the peer was a wheelchair user – whether it was revealed late on or disclosed earlier?

As a tutor I would encourage diversity and the acceptance of diverse learners through appropriately managed guidance and interventions. In terms of widening participation and inclusion we must make the culture of learning welcoming for any type of learner whether they’re physically disabled, mentally disabled, or any other possible context of discrimination in terms of race, culture, sex, etc.

As an example this would be actioned by course design and direction that remained focussed on the objectives and the purpose of the learning. This would be reiterated if there was anything disclosed that was sensitive or personal that wasn’t relevant to the learning context. In this instance whether the student was a wheelchair user or not bears no relevance on their abilities to engage in the aspects of learning. This should be supported and protected by the facilitating tutor.

In respect of the positive implication for student controlled identities this is potentially a large subject; and indeed for us all. We all construct, whether online or off, our own identities through association, perception and implication. And there are positive and negative implications for this, again both online or off. For me, what is most apparent, is that we must be mindful of difference and diversity, but also respectful of people’s identities. As teaching and learning practitioners, I believe we should focus on drawing out, where possible, the positive attributes of a culture of practice that is inclusive, supportive, positive and productive.

Gilly Salmon’s Five-Stage Model (2013) would be really effective here in terms of supporting and focussing on the access to learning, student motivation and socialisation before information exchange and knowledge construction. The establishing of trust and kinship are as important as the ‘learning’ — or perhaps more meaningfully ‘trust’ and ‘kinship’ are the important foundations for learning to take place. If the students are supported in focussing on this through scaffolding then any preconceptions and prejudices should fall away. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Mia Tedjosaputro

Mia Tedjosaputro

Friday 14 Aug at 6:57

The idler. The issue of the student who “never did anything” is actually not unique to online learning, it’s a long-standing problem with group work in any context. It’s one of the reasons why in the classes I’ve taught, it’s loved by the weaker students and loathed by the stronger ones, as the grade for the work is a group grade so some students are artificially buoyed while others are dragged down. The student in the case study was perhaps not meeting the requirements outlined in the characteristics of successful online learners in terms of the first, fifth and sixth characteristics; though from the description it’s unclear if she was introverted or not (first characteristic). Introversion in my experience can also be a barrier in online communication, despite the inference in the character description of successful online students. In terms of the Salmon model, it seems that the student is stumbling at the starting gate- she presumably has access to the system, so in stage 1, motivation may be an issue. Information exchange (stage 3) cannot happen without socialization (stage 2) so she is unlikely ever to progress beyond this point without intervention. The course design could have mitigated some of these issues. In the first instance, establishing a group leader who is responsible for reporting problems to the tutor might have provided an incentive to participate. Next, online learning provides an electronic trail which can me used to track participation. It is possible to stipulate a minimum number of interactions per activity within the group work, and assign a portion of the final grade to participation (e.g. 20-30%, as the process is arguably as important as the end product). Finally, had the issue been reported to the tutor in a timely manner, then an early line of dialogue may have “nipped the issue in the bud” before it became a serious problem resulting in the ill will of the other group members and a lack of cohesion within the group. Imperfect information is often the root of problems such as this one.

In the case of the black hole, many of the strategies employed to mitigate the issue are actually similar to the above, though the underlying problems are different. The issue here is a lack of direction in the forums, which moderation or “weaving” would address. There is also a problem in that with a general discussion forum, it is difficult to sort where students should be asking or answering questions related to specific topics. Any good online public forum in the past 20 years has child boards, with specific focused topics, and an FAQ section at the head. This model could certainly be adopted by module conveners. Again, if a participation element were introduced to the assessment, it might ensure that questions were answered more readily. An example is this very forum here, where the task calls for participants to reply to at least two posts. Relating this case study to Salmon, it seems that most students on the course in question were failing at the second stage- only the cat owners were actually socializing, and perhaps without the desired focus. Information exchange- the third stage- was thus not effectively achieved. In terms of the characteristics of successful learners, it seems that discipline (#3), meeting the minimum requirements (#6- though it’s unclear if these requirements were stipulated), and by extension #9 and 10 were lacking in the bulk of the learners on the course. As suggested above, better control and guidance from the module conveners would have mitigated this. There is always a fine balance between scaffolding and learner autonomy and it doesn’t seem as though this balance was achieved in this particular case. Reply Reply to comment Collapse Sub discussion Dario Faniglione

Dario Faniglione

Yesterday 16 Aug at 23:35

Tutor Summary

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your contributions to this discussion,  which might be particularly useful for you in this iteration of the module, as most of you have been “catapulted” into a fully-online delivery, without some of the necessary adjustments to curriculum design that we would normally expect in such environments. 
I tried to capture the main themes and items of discussion related to strategies of dealing with challenging behaviour. You will soon notice that most of the ideas suggested here are equally applicable to a variety of learning environments, from traditional face-to-face, to fully online learning experiences.

High-level principles

In explaining and justifying your proposed strategies, you have all agreed (explicitly or implicitly) to some high-level aims. These are broadly:

  • Maximising learner inclusion: limiting the feeling of challenging learners being excluded from the interaction, but also preventing other learners being excluded as a result of the challenging behaviour of others;
  • Empathy: being empathic as a tutor towards challenging learners, and also promote an emphatic attitude amongst learners to boost the sense of community and working towards common goals;
  • Value social interaction: as tutors, create an environment where there is a common understanding of how valuable individual contributions are in promoting everyone’s learning.

The high-level principles summarised above have then been applied to a series of suggestions, which are of course dependent on and specific to the learning and teaching context.

Curriculum design

It was good to see that curriculum design strategies have been identified as a way to prevent or minimise challenging behaviour. This is definitely in line with the reflective approach we would like to promote as a corner store of your teaching practice. In other words, if a particular incident has happened, it’s probably a good idea to review the current design and highlight areas of improvement. You have suggested a few:

  • Reviewing the correct “blend”: broadly speaking this can refer to the weight, length, timing, and sequencing of learning activities;
  • Setting mandatory contributions (possibly as part of the assessment)
  • Alignment of learning activities to assessment tasks (yes, our get of jail card!)
  • Time and space to allow for tutor-learner and peer interaction to happen
  • Back-up plans for complex and involved activities

Rule setting

Closely related to curriculum design, you have also mentioned the importance of setting some rules of engagement. These should happen at an appropriate time and should aim to:

  • Clarifying expectations, which clear instructions
  • Explaining the purpose of resources and activities
  • Provide guidelines and guidance
  • Reinforce the appreciation and value of others’ contribution

Tutor interventions

Last but not least, you have rightly suggested a vast array of possible tutor interventions, These could be:

  • Personalised interventions: where we have a one-to-one conversation, through tutorials or different mean of communication, aiming to expose the root cause of the manifested behaviour;
  • Group interventions: where we pull in the learners together (through webinars or discussion prompts) and mobilise the learning community in dealing with incidents/challenging behaviours. In an adult learning environment, these are great ways to share with learners the responsibility of the intervention. It has been suggested by some of you that breaking the routine could help. Examples of this could be heavy-handed moderation or switching to different communication platforms.

Tutor interventions are possible if implement strategies of continuous monitoring of (online) engagement, and this can be in itself challenging and time-consuming.

I hope that the outcome of this week’s discussion can foster some final thoughts for your CRJ, and perhaps some of the topics/themes listed above might be used as prompts for further reflection and learning.

I don’t know what it is about Simon McIntyre, but I really don’t like him! Which is an interesting point I may have already made somewhere; the Ladder of Inference and students just taking against a lecturer. Have I taken against a student? Yes, usually when a clash of wills transpires (‘Please do not eat in the Library’ – response: attitude).

…and musing on why I seem to have finally got organised in time for this last module I’ve realised, no, I was organised at the beginning but with Covid-19 kicking off in March, being furloughed end of March etc. meant my head just wasn’t in a good place for being organised. Since I’ve had the paperwork for this new job I’ve been in a much better place. Which shows just how much stress can impact one without you realising the extent.

Learning Conversation form:

For teaching observation, peer feedback, self-evaluation and reflection on practice in supporting student learning

Note: Due to Covid-19 and being made redundant, I had no access to any lectures or students being operated by an institution other than those at Falmouth. We were advised that using a TED talk etc. was fine.

I am aware that this is a recording of a traditional ‘sage on the stage’ lecture, with minimal interaction with the audience until the Q&A session at the end and no standard LO’s as such

The main reason I wanted to look at Mary Beard was because I’d heard she had a reputation of using down-to-earth, accessible language (even swearing in Uni lectures), which is unusual for a respected Professor and even more unusual for a Classics Professor, and I wanted to see how this worked in practice and what was good about her delivery.

Learning Conversation Form

Observer: Anna Dovey  Observee: Prof. Mary Beard  Date: 6/08/20  
Course: Gifford Lectures – one of a series of 6; ‘”The Ancient World and us: from fear and loathing to enlightenment and ethics”.Year: N/A  
Subject of session for supporting student learning: Tyranny and democracy Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIcmI7XmosE 
Number of students expected to attend: Unknown  Session length: 1.16 hr
Actual number in attendance: Unknown – at least 100 judging by theatre  Observation time (mins): 1:05 hr
Activity(ies): e.g. lecture, seminar, tutorial, supervised studio or location work, one to one tuition, micro-teach session, etc   Public lecture as part of a series of 6.  

“Professor Dame Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, delivers the Gifford Lecture “Tyranny and democracy”. It is the fifth lecture in the series “The Ancient World and us: from fear and loathing to enlightenment and ethics”. This lecture is about politics ancient and modern. What political inheritance do we imagine we can trace back to the ancient world? On what does our admiration for Athenian democracy rest, or our hatred of Roman autocrats?”  
Strengths and effective practice – observer to identify in bullet points: (E.g. strengths could be: e.g. clarity of aims/outcomes, planning and rganization, methods/approach, delivery and pace, content (currency, accuracy, relevance, use of examples, level, match to students needs), student participation/achievement, facilitation of student active and/or deeper learning, use of environment and learning resources, scaffolding on prior learning, diversification of approaches to take account of different learner needs, management of timing and weighting of different parts of session, use of formative assessment to test learning, promotion of positive class climate, encouragement of students to evaluate the session and their own learning, etc. NB sources of pedagogical scholarship discussing aspects of good teaching practice can help suggest ideas for strengths and aspects of effective practice and help support your observations)  

– Clear indication of how to access the recording and the option to leave Q&A before you leave, if have to leave early and also allows for accessibility.
– Assumes a degree of knowledge but not too advanced.
– Apologies for change of topic.
– Uses humour
– Uses very accessible language
– Uses relevant images and examples e.g. Horrible Histories
– Excellent pace and delivery, with good NVC’s – change of tone in voice for emphasis, expressive, uses hands
– Uses down to earth imagery and analogies. Comes across as authentic – yes, an expert in her field BUT not arrogant unlike some.
– Nice asides and little stories
– Poses questions
– Reads out relevant passages to make points
– Highlights lessons to be learnt in terms of argument and debate
– Mentions and weaves in previous lecture subjects to link to overarching topic
– Some absolutely brilliant bits I wholeheartedly agree with and pleased to see she put forward, e.g. Alexander the no-so-great and the fact the Roman Empire was largely formed during the Republic, not by the Emperors – nice clarification of that point.
– Liked her emphasis on seeking the truth r.e. the Latin primer ghost-written by the man’s two daughters…  
Questions, observations and potential suggestions for improvement: ways in which the session could be further developed in the future: (NB sources of pedagogical scholarship discussing aspects of good teaching practice can suggest ideas for further development for the session and help support your observations)  

– Short notice change of topic. For a public lecture by a renowned subject specialist this is acceptable, but ideally to be avoided in an academic module unless it was forced by circumstances, e.g. a necessary space such as a lab was out of bounds. Under such circumstances swapping two lectures around might be acceptable . Recent events are a prime example of courses having to be changed at very short notice!
– More use of relevant images / videos – felt a little 2D.
– Very static – speaker could move around more (potentially limited by the need for notes at a lecturn?)
– Missed an opportunity with ‘Alexander the not so great’ to look at the definition of ‘great’ (possibly due to timing, but could have posed the question).  
The observer to summarise the sessions overall quality in relation to the stated learning outcomes: (i.e. to what extent did the learners seem to achieve and demonstrate the stated learning outcomes of the session and what seemed to help or hinder them to do that?)  

Gifford Lectures purpose: “The purpose of Lord Gifford’s bequest to the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and Aberdeen was to sponsor lectures to “promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term—in other words, the knowledge of God”

I’m very thankful that as an atheist, in this instance this series of lectures did not meet the stated purpose!

Mary Bread stated that the intention of this lecture was to explore some questions about politics. The subject was changed at short notice, for which she apologized.

“This lecture is about politics ancient and modern. What political inheritance do we imagine we can trace back to the ancient world? On what does our admiration for Athenian democracy rest, or our hatred of Roman autocrats?”  

The subsequent lecture looked more closely at Empire, with a particular focus on the links between the Roman Empire and the British Empire. This was a very topical choice of subject which is perhaps why the change was made. The subject was covered well, with some astute points keenly made.

Quality of session, in relation to students achieving the stated learning outcomes by the end of the session:  

I’m a big fan of plain English and an absolute believer that if you are genuinely passionate about your subject (and not your own career – see Bethany Hughes as an example of this…) you surely want to share it, and in order to do that you use language your audience / students can understand. It’s not rocket science.  
Mary Beard gave a comprehensive overview of the subject area in the time allotted. She certainly delivered on using accessible, plain English and relevant every-day analogies her audience could relate to, were humerous but made her point clearly.
I believe the audience would have taken away several point if not the whole lecture; Alexander the not-so-great (I’ve been saying that since my BA), the use of the Roman Empire as a learning example during the British Empire and for me, the main takeaway was that Rome won simply because she had more manpower (That does not explain how she grew in the first place though, before she had conquered areas to draw auxillary troops from. Hmm).
  Ways through which (all) the learners could be supported even more effectively to achieve the stated learning outcomes for the session:  

A FC beforehand could have provided students with a bit more background information before the sessions– a timeline of the Roman Empire v.s. Roman Emperors for example.

Answer questions more clearly and concisely?        

Self-Reflection on Learning Conversation:

For the Observer and Observee (the one whose practice is being observed)

FOR OBSERVER: What have you found helpful about the peer-observation process, for your own learning and practice in supporting student learning?

1. Use of every day language and plain English is absolutely fine.

2. Authentic passion and enthusiasm for your subject is more important than using ‘academic’ language and big words.

3. Images / other media are absolutely essential for providing ‘breaks’ for the audience and tutor in delivery.

4. Tutor moving around holds the attention better than standing in the one place.

5. Be bold!

6. Keep answers tight to the Q and concise.

FOR OBSERVEE:

Strengths:

– What strengths in your practice in supporting student learning can you identify from this process and experience?

– What supports what you are saying about these strengths, in terms of your own observations and reflections, peer (and any student feedback) and observations you have received, and what you have learnt from sources of pedagogical theory & scholarship?

– What might be the potential implications of these strengths for your ongoing practice in supporting student learning? How could you take this further?

Areas and potential actions for future development:

– What areas and specific potential actions, for future development of your practice in supporting student learning, can you identify from this process and experience?

– What supports what you are saying about these areas and potential actions for future development, in terms of your own observations and reflections, peer (and any student) feedback you have received, and what you have learnt from sources of pedagogical theory & scholarship?

– How specifically will you develop your practice in supporting student learning in the future, from what you have identified above? E.g. what specific actions will you take and when?

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