Achieving Our Potential #2

Wow, is it June already? Time certainly does fly when you're looking at ways in which we can reach our potential! This is the second part of a blog post that I started  a couple of months ago in looking at some of the factors that impact on us unlocking our potential to support  and develop quality teaching in particlaur I'm looking at this from a TEL perceptive (for quite obvious reasons). To recap, please read my previous post Achieving Our Potential #1 or if you'd prefer you'll get the jist from looking at the 3 questions I'm exploring in relation to faculty work.

1. How do we support our academic staff in harnessing the potential of tools and technologies to draw out the student attributes that we would associate with quality learning and teaching? (critical thinking, curiosity, analytical, creativity etc)

2. How do we develop quality blended learning that provides extended learning opportunities for those students that want to engage above the 'baseline'. 

3. Are we doing enough?  

It's been a busy coupe of months  since I last wrote on this subject and I've been thinking about some of the initiatives going on at present that serve to the above questions. One project I want to talk about in this post is some work I've been doing with my colleague over in Social Science, Ros Walker who is also a Learning Technologist which is a new staff development course called Teach Online that we have developed.

 

 

The main aim of the programme is to discover how distance and blended learning courses can be supported by technology to engage students online. Through out the 3 weeks we'll be looking at a range of tools and methods used to engage learners online, explore a range of e-learning pedagogy and models which underpin these methods and approaches and exploring the ways in which students learn online  and how that differs from face-to-face teaching.

What makes this programme any different from the rest you may ask? Both Ros and I identified a need for a academic development in the area, more crucially we recognised a need for development in relation to not only the technical side of things which is something that is already available but there seemed to be lack of opportunity to discover some of the theory and reasoning around why we'd want to take an online approach with our students. 

ADDED BONUS- As this is a cross disciplinary programme (open to colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health AND the Faculty of Social Sciences we've got a brilliant blend of disciplines, backgrounds and experiences amongst the co-hort. Today was the first contact session and we had lots of opportunities to for colleagues to discuss issues around blended learning approaches.

We won't see our group of 34 now until the very end of June, in the mean time we'll be be able to communicate with them via our G+ Community, the VLE, via our online activities and our webinar next week. The next couple of weeks we'll work through the themes Online Engagement & Facilitation, Cloud, Collaboration & Connectivity and we'll be asking participants to work towards a self analysis and action plan.

So, going back to the questions above in particular questions 1 & 2. This is just one of the initiatives I've been working on to serve the development of quality online teaching, we hope that our academic colleagues will gain an insight into how they can design online teaching to engage students beyond the baseline using a range of tools and sharing top tips. This is by no means the only staff development available in this area, I tend to run workshops in my Faculty and there are other options available centrally but this is the first one of this slightly lengthier format encompassing technology, theories and discussion with colleagues looking at hot topics around online teaching and beyond just the 'how to' aspect of teaching online. We hope to build a real sense of community on the course and the outcomes will not only be of benefit to the colleagues taking part but also to us to shape future staff development and gain further insight into what support is required by academic colleges in this area.