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UQ-VN PDSS
eLearning: Teaching and learning for a
twenty first century world
Dr Trish Andrews
TEDI
The University of Queensland
April 2012
Overview
• Some information about TEDI
• What is eLearning in your context?
• Trends in eLearning – and implications for teaching and
learning activities
• Examples of eLearning
• Skills for learners and teachers
• Learner expectations
• Quality considerations for eLearning
TEDI
• The teaching and Educational Development Institute
(TEDI).
• Established in 1973
• Supports teaching and learning at the University of
Queensland
• Has been involved in a number of programs for supporting
learning and teaching in developing countries including
Vietnam and Thailand
• http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/
What is eLearning?
• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/sets/
What is eLearning?
Activity:
•eLearning can mean different things to different people – in
your groups, what is eLearning in your context?.
•What institutional and non-institutional technologies are you
using?
•What kinds of teaching and learning activities are you
adopting? How is this changing the way you teach and the
way your students are learning?
Drivers of eLearning in HE
• Accessibility of technology
• Anywhere-anytime living
• Changing school practices
• Changing learner expectations
• Expectations of 21st century workplaces
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Some Trends in eLearning
• Social Software
• Mobile Learning
• Open Educational Resources
• Cloud Computing
• Learning Analytics
Social Software
•Allows people to communicate, collaborate and build
community online.
•It can be syndicated, shared, reused or remixed or it
enables syndication
•It allows people to learn from each other:
http://www.slideshare.net/librarianmer/social-software-inhigher-education
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Social Software
• http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/social-software
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Mobile Learning
The mobile learning experience
•Underpins a conceptualization of mobile learning in terms of
the learners’ experiences and an emphasis on ownership,
informality, mobility and context that will always be
inaccessible to conventional tethered e-learning (Traxler,
2009)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/382720296/in/set-72157600086195383
The Concept of Mobility
On the one hand “mobility” refers to the capabilities of the
technology within the physical contexts and activities of
the students as they participate in higher learning’s
institutions. On the other hand, it refers to activities of the
learning process, the behaviour of the learners as they
use the technology to learn. It also refers to the attitudes
of students who are themselves highly mobile as they use
mobile technology for learning purposes (El-Hussein &
Cronje, 2010).
Mobile Learning
• http://www.slideshare.net/jiscinfonet/mobile-learning-infokit-overview-for-slideshare
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Open Educational Resources
•https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/248
36860/What%20are%20Open%20Educational%20Resource
s
•http://alternative-educate.blogspot.com.au/
•http://moodle.org/?lang=vi
•http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=45
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Cloud Computing
A general term covering the delivery of hosted services over
the internet
•http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/cloud-computing
•http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloudcomputing
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Learning Analytics
Learning analytics is the utilization of intelligent data, learnerproduced data, and analysis models to provide learners with
relevant content resources and social connections, predict
learner success and perform necessary interventions.
(George Siemens, 2010)
http://groups.google.com/group/learninganalytics/browse_thread/thread/88c2e55
a7079da8f
•http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/LearningAnaly
tics/39193
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eLearning Trends
Activity:
• What are the trends driving eLearning and change in your
environment?
• How are you addressing these trends in your context?
• What issues might you be facing in addressing these
changes?
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Skills for 21st Century Learners
• Creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Communication and collaboration
• Information, media and technology skills
• Social and cross–cultural skills
Skills for 21st Century Living
Activity:
•How might the trends discussed previously assist in the
development of these skills?
•How might you design your eLeaning activities to encourage
the development of these skills?
Learner Preferences
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/sets/
Technological Determinism v
‘Networked Individualism’
• The ubiquitous nature of certain technologies,
specifically gaming and the Web, has affected the
outlook of an entire age cohort in advanced economies
(Jones, 2011, p. 42).
• The new technologies emerging with this generation
have particular characteristics that afford certain types
of social engagement. (Jones, 2011, p. 42).
The Net Gen debate
It is an increasingly common view that students of
recent generations do not have a defining set of
homogeneous generation-based characteristics
related to their use of technology.
Variation in students’ technological skills and abilities
influences how they use technologies.
However, ‘the new technologies emerging with this generation have
particular characteristics that afford certain types of social engagement’
(Jones, 2011, p.42)
Students’ use of their own
technologies
Use of technology and
space can be highly
individual and utilised to
meet a range of
learning, work, social
and personal needs.
Connectedness
• Evolving use of social
and networking tools
for a range of learning
activities
• Students are seeking
out peers as a first port
of call
• Use of ‘loose networks’
and ability to ‘dip in
and out of’ a variety of
peer learning activities.
Mobility
‘Anywhere’ learning is
seen as highly desirable
Personalised Learning
• Students are already doing a lot to create their own
personal learning experience either by sharing notes
using online tools, collaborating through social media
with like-minded learners or most recently, downloading
educational apps.
Learner Expectation
• Present-day students are heavily influenced by
school methods of delivery so that shifts in
educational practice there can be expected to
impact on expectations of approaches in higher
education
• Face-to-face contact with staff – the personal
element in study – matters to students
• Imagining technology used for social purposes in a
study context presents conceptual difficulties to
learners as well as a challenge to their notions of
space. They need demonstration, persuasion and
room to experiment in this context.
Learner Expectation
Not all learners are school
students, but mature age
learners are also seeking
more engaged, connected
and mobile learning enabled by the
affordances of widely
available technologies.
Learner Expectation
• Staff capability with ICT is a further dimension of the
digital divide and effective use of technology, ie to
enhance learning, is as much of an issue as practical
operation, ie getting it to work.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/sets
Today’s Students
• Generally speaking, todays’ students take for granted
and get on with doing all that available technologies
allow – talking, messaging, playing online games, sharing
images, finding things out – often simultaneously.
The consequences of this include:
• A strong sense of group identity
• A disposition to share and to participate
• A preference for instant answers
• A downgrading of text in favour of images
• A casual approach to evaluating information and
attributing it
(Hughes, 2009, p 39).
An Emerging Gap
• Available and emerging technologies provide an endless
range of of affordances
• However, still a strong focus on transmission of
knowledge - little change in the way the majority of
university teachers teach.
Learner Preferences
Activity:
•What are the preferences of your learners?
•Do you think there is a gap in your context between learner
expectations and leaner experience?
•What activities might you undertake to better understand
your learners’ preferences and expectations?
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Critical Issues - Immediate and
Fundamental
• The digital divide:
– ensuring access to technology for all and the
development of practical skills in its use.
• Information literacies:
– from the student perspective it means ensuring
they possess the skills and understandings
necessary to operate effectively in a digital world
(Hughes, 2009, p.7)
Supporting Learners
• HEIs need to be aware of the prior experience and
expectations of their student body
• HEIs need to ensure access to appropriate
technology for all students and continue to provide
for the development of their technical skills
• HEIs need to treat information literacies as a
priority area and support all students so that they
able to identify, search locate and retrieve, and
especially, critically evaluate information from a
range of appropriate sources – and organise and use
it effectively attributed as necessary, in an
appropriate medium (Hughes, 2009, p. 41).
Familiar
Instant messaging
Using social networks
such as Facebook as
a formal part of the course
Administrative
Text message
admin updates
materials online
Not comfortable
With using
Submitting
Assignments
online
Using existing online social
networks to discuss course
work
Comfortable
With
Using
Emailing tutors
Using podcasts
Course specific
Materials online
Making podcasts
Making wikis
Unfamiliar
Hughes, 2009
Developing Digital Literacies
Activity:
•How can we help our students develop digital literacies?
•What can you realistically do in your classes to achieve
this?
•Think about this individually for a few minutes, then
discuss with your group?
Digital Literacy Needs of Staff
From the staff perspective it
means maintaining the
currency of skills in the face of
the ongoing development of
web-based resources and tools.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/sets/
Supporting Staff
Activity:
•What skills do you need to meet the changing needs of
learners?
•What support is available for staff?
•What are the barriers to getting appropriate support for
staff and what do we need to do to overcome this?
Some Strategies to Support Staff
• Encourage staff to be aware of research into
teaching and learning so they can make informed
decisions about teaching and learning methods
• HEI’s need to support staff to become proficient
users of an appropriate range of technologies and
skilled practitioners of e-pedagogy through
appropriate professional development programs
• HEI’s need to explore ways in which the
tutor/student relationship might be developed
based on the Web 2.0 skills and attitudes of
students
• HEI’s need to provide ongoing support for staff to
maintain the currency of their information literacies
(Hughes, 2009, p.42).
Quality eLearning
Quality in eLearning is complex and needs to be considered
at several different levels:
•individual level
•course level
•program level
•institutional level
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Different Approaches to Quality
There are several different approaches to quality processes
for teaching and learning. These are:
•quality as conformance to standards of conventional
education
•quality as fitness for purpose
•quality as meeting customers’ needs
•continuous quality improvement.
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Quality Considerations
There are many considerations and challenges in relation to
quality eLearning including:
•Institutional commitment
•materials/content/activities
•assessment policies
•support infrastructure
•student experience
•IT support
•staff training,
•student training/prep/digital literacy
•evaluation strategies.
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Quality Considerations
• Activity:
• What kind of data do you need to gather to evaluate the
success of your eLearning strategies? What areas do you
want/need to understand better?
• How might you use this data to improve the quality of
student experience?
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Some examples of eLearning
ALTC project of collection of videos and resources for online
learning:
• http://online.cofa.unsw.edu.au/learning-to-teachonline/ltto-episodes
JISC teaching and learning practice
• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/topics/learningteaching.as
px
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References and useful Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
El-Hussein, M. O. M., & Cronje, J. C. (2010). Defining Mobile Learning in
the Higher Education Landscape. Educational Technology & Society, 13
(3), 12–21.
Hughes, A. (2009). Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World: Report of an
independent Committee of Inquiry into the impact on higher education of
students' widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies, JISC.
Jones, C. (2011). Students the Net Generation and Digital Natives:
Accounting for Educational Change. In M. Thomas (Ed.) Deconstructing
Digital Natives: Young People, Technology and the New Literacies,
Routledge: New York.
On the horizon:
http://apo.org.au/research/2011-horizon-report
Ryan, M. (2011). Students as change agents in a digital age, ELSIG
newsletter, 4, Spring, pp1-3.
Traxler, J. (2011). Education and the Impact of Mobiles and Mobility In B.
Bachmair, Medienbildung in neuen Kulturräumen (trs. Media literacy in
new cultural spaces), Weisbaden: VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft,
pp103 – 113.
QUESTIONS??