This page has links through to various pages, web sites, articles and frameworks that may be of use in the switch to online.

Resources

The Online Instructional Activities page has a list of online activities that could be a source of ideas

We are aiming to use activities to promote social presence; so many of these activities could be adapted for students preparing and presenting to others in their learning sets; providing peer feedback; working together to construct the artifacts in groups f2f or online.

We are using the concept of presence from Garrison’s Community of Inquiry model – in particular 

Teacher presence – trying to ensure that the students see the staff member as being present in the teaching even when online

Cognitive presence – students demonstrating discourse; critical thinking and reflection

Social presence – where students can project their personal characteristics into the community; we will be advocating networked learning and learning sets to enhance the community and social aspects of learning.

The website has links to resources, journal articles and book on CoI. There is more detail here than we may use, but if you want to read around this as a concept the resources are valuable.

The JISC site has a number of useful blogs and resources

Learning and Teaching Reimagined Webinar – the changing needs of students

Teaching in Microsoft Teams

Online learning is this the future

We are using a reduced version of the ABC learning design from UCL; original resources for this are hosted at the ABC Learning Design website. The ABC learning design from is derived from Diana Laurillard’s conversational framework.

An alternate design approach is from Gilly Salmon – Carpe Diem – A team based approach to learning design (Links to an external site.)

The Carpe Diem process is broken up into six steps;

1. Write a blueprint – envision the future
2. Make a storyboard – become a designer
3. Build your prototype online
4. Check reality
5. Review and adjust
6. Planning your next steps

Applying this to our approach we will do 1 and 2 in the CPD and ABC spreadsheet modeller. 3 and 4 will be done in Canvas and in collaboration with staff on the same level (course if PG). 5 and 6 are a natural follow on from this.

We can use Gilly Salmon’s e-moderater framework at the start of a course to address the social presence that is required for community growth (from Garrison’s Community of Inquiry framework). 

Steps 1 and 2 can be combined and done in a single module at the start of the course (we want to avoid the same exercises being performed again in modules as students get bored of it very quickly. CDs and a module leader can plan for this in a single module in the first week.

LSE has a number of scenarios to suggest mixed mode delivery patterns –  these are here and the original is here. Of particular interest may be scenario 3 which talks about an example of using a case study online.

LSE Educause review published a very early article on the difference between Emergency Remote Teaching (i.e. very much what we attempted with TP2 and TP3) and the proper notions of Online Learning.

Barbara Mean’s book in this article provides a useful conceptual framework to describe where we are in the context of design features.

This paper has 10 simple rules for supporting an emergency online pivot. A companion piece to the LSE Educause article.

• Nordmann, E., Horlin, C., Hutchison, J., Murray, J., Robson, L., Seery, M., & MacKay, J. R. D., Dr. (2020, April 27). 10 simple rules for supporting a temporary online pivot in higher education. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qdh25

In fact the rules laid out apply both the emergency and the ongoing changes that we will have to deal with.

Educause has an article on student’s reflections on the switch to remote teaching and learning

These are the most common issues extracted from Twitter posts and comments 

1. Students appreciate faculty who remain positive and calm.
2. Students would like faculty to maintain a proper perspective.
3. Students appreciate faculty who are empathetic, who are flexible, and who have reasonable expectations.
4. Professional behavior norms benefit students as well as faculty.
5. Students want faculty to be comfortable with technology.
6. Not all students are tech-savvy and connected.

Final paragraph from the article

“Considering all of the students’ tweets as a whole, we see that students appreciate social engagement, teacher presence, faculty support and care, and faculty familiarity with online learning, as well as connecting with others. To the greatest extent possible, faculty who are transitioning to remote instruction should follow the consensus among the online learning research community and avoid merely replicating the face-to-face environment online; rather, faculty should continually learn from their own efforts and the advice of learning design professionals and should consider the new, and perhaps unexpected, ways that online learning technologies allow them to improve students’ experiences”

This site has a personal reflection on lessons learned from online learning

Reflections include

• It is important that online provision shows a continued respect for the circumstances of learners and that it does not waste their time
• Don’t waste your time on re-producing content
• Assessment (still) drives learning
• Feedback matters very much
• Group work is still possible, and still equally tricky
• Synchronous learning isn’t always accessible, and it’s rarely convenient
• Foster relationships

More in the original link

Wiley put together a collection of articles on the various aspects of online learning and Teaching. Some of these are more detailed than is needed, but should you wish to read further there are articles on active thinking, engagement, student’s self-regulation, the effects of the tutor on participation and sense of community.

There are a number of videos available from Harvard Business Publishing about moving your classroom online

Topics include

• Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities in Online Case Teaching: Insights from Two Case Teaching Experts 
• Deep Dive Into Case Teaching Online 
• An In-Depth Look at How to Use Simulations in Your Online Classroom
• Moving a Case Class Online

A fuller list of videos is available from the website

The University of London has a annual RIDE conference (research in digital education). There are a number of presentations and links that are interesting (see here)

Digital Skills and Staff in Distance Education T&L aspects that may be particularly relevant include a students insights report that highlights

• Consistency and timeliness is important for students
• Digital skills should be developed though out the course – with clear articulation of study and workplace practices
• Digital teaching uses collaborative work; uses curation as well as using your own slides; polling and quizzes are engaging; regular digital feedback should be regular and built in

We are emphasising regularity and patterns in the teaching that you use, along with Networked Learning (creating connections between our students) to emphasise the collaborative / feedback issues here.

What research says about learning has a summary of the meta analysis of headline principles of learningLearning is most effective when the following conditions are met:

1. A clear structure, framework, scaffolding surrounds, supports and informs learning;
2. High standards are expected of learners, and are made explicit;
3. Learners acknowledge and use their prior learning and their particular approaches to learning;
4. Learning is an active process;
5. Learners spend lots of time on task, that is, doing relevant things and practising;
6. Learning is undertaken at least in part as a collaborative activity, both among students and between students and staff; and
7. Learners receive and use feedback on their work.

There is a summary of educational theories by David Baume  Download educational theories by David Baume which is a starting point for those wishing to get an introduction to different pedagogies 

There is a free ebook from learntechlib on various issues