The engagement of academics in professional development for e-learning

Engaging academics in professional development for e-learning Mira Vogel Goldsmiths, University of London ~~~ M25 Learning Technology meet-up, 27 th March 2009 Published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Why this review?
An episode with a reluctant staff member
‘ Machiavellian’ (subversive) approaches from others
Managerialism
Libertarianism and anarchy
Web 2.0 and new possibilities
Interest, but little uptake
Difficulties with individual support / development
The need to review my department’s vision

Background
Academic development received intense attention 1999-2001
National
Technification
Marketisation
Change agenda  Innovation agenda
Dearing Report (1997) ‏
Local
Commodification of knowledge
Externalisation of staff development
Quality

Model of academic development Simplified from Land, 2001
Tips and hints on practice
Critical theory
Postmodernism
Humanistic psychology
Enterprise
Workbased learning
Partnerships
Change management
Organisational behaviour
Change management
Learning organisation
Accreditation
Lifelong learning
Quality assurance
Liberating POLICY INSTITUTION INDIVIDUAL Systems definition Domesticating Person orientation CRITIQUE

Basis for literature search
Within these constraints, what are good circumstances for engagement?
Engagement as
intrinsic motivation; enthusiasm
internalisation of new practices
faciliation by management
Not as simply
signing up, turning up, doing it
rewards and remuneration
making time or equipment available

Search terms
Academic / education/ staff development
Online learning / e-learning / educational technology / learning technology / technology-enhanced learning
Higher Education, academic, university
Pedagogy / andragogy / theory
Recruiting / Engaging
Compulsory / Coercive
Recognition / Reward / Incentive / Compensation

Consensus among authors
The role of academic teacher is changing
Required adaptations won’t happen on their own
Change is superficial unless academics engage
Change viewed as end in itself is resented
Change is slow and hard to inculcate
Professional identity is an overriding factor
Constructivist, situated approaches work best
One-to-one individual attention is unsustainable
Helpful: reward, recognition, time, kit, support

An academic perspective
Post-colonialism of Erica McWilliam
“colonisation of … time and activities”
“predicated ... on the assumption that academics are deficient as teachers”
Technification – bought-in solutions
Transparency slides replaced by PowerPoint slides
“charming absurdities”
“professional development must be seen to be done”
“the effects mono-cropping for the market has on local subsistence mixed croppers”

An academic perspective
“ In declaring itself to be ‘much more than training’, professional development is geared up to producing … an individual in keeping with the needs and demands of enterprise culture, underpinned as it is by … understanding … the most appropriate ethical comportment of the individual – any individual - in a society, and what their relationship to the economy should entail.”
(McWilliam, 2000) ‏

Engagement as a series of continuums

Learner-centred / teacher-centred
Difference of interests?
Learners used against tutors in attempt to gain legitimacy
Involving learners in encounters for programme design is valued by teachers
Giving teachers full autonomy in small groups and acting as enabler works well
Tying CPD to Quality agenda resented

Learner centred / teacher centred
“ The course team introduced the idea of quality assurance. I grew impatient … I was really intrigued that as a learner I had done what I see my own students doing all the time; lagging behind and not seeing the relevance until after the event.”
(Clegg et al, 2001) ‏

Motivation – extrinsic / intrinsic
Extrinsic stuff we are aware of
Time, kit, recognition, reward eg publications, grants
Intrinsic: personal satisfaction
Intellectual
Aesthetic
Student experience, outcomes
Intrinsic: fit with professional identity
Academic values – inquiry, scepticism, evidence, theory
Learning as collegial, social

Motivation – extrinsic/intrinsic
“ Identity is crucial to social learning systems for three reasons. First our identities combine competence and experience into a way of knowing. They are the key to deciding what matters and what does not, with whom we identify and whom we trust, and with whom we must share what we understand.”
(Wenger, 2003) ‏

Formal / informal
Formal
Externalising CPD is to some extent commodifying
Institutional agenda clash with autonomy  subversion
Formal arrangements, fixed sessions – difficult for academics to come together
Informal
Asking for descriptions of practice (rather than prescribing)
Builds in opportunity for reflection
Unhitch CPD from Quality agenda
Measuring outcomes?
Enjoyment, use of resources, sophistication of use
Or make design explicit and invite critique

Formal / informal
“ In designing the Plymouth modules, my colleagues and I have been very clear about allowing opportunities to critique the underlying agendas from an informed perspective.”
(Beetham, 2000) ‏

Centralised / local
Central provision is valued - and suspected
Tying to other agenda eg Quality is resented
Can be hard to fit it
More visible, easier to reward and resource
Local
Principal allegiances to the discipline – not institution
Collegial – a major (threatened) ethos of academic work
Learning in such organisations is inherently social
CoP - but cross-fertilisation cannot also be situated
Not very visible, hard to reward and manage
Can be parochial
High level of satisfaction

Centralised / local
“ [The local model] has legitimacy on several fronts. Because it takes the cultural context very seriously, it has high credibility. It is situated within the discipline of the academics involved and does not disregard curriculum and discipline-specific pedagogic concerns … Without central support, however, this structure would never have been established and sustained”
(Hanrahan et al, 2001) ‏

Individuals / course team
Individual
‘Early adopters’
Lone individuals shouldn't be responsible for delivering strategy
Unsustainable
May become ‘oppressors’ in turn
Team
Can be task-based
Situated, collaborative - collegial
More joined-up, cohesive
Allows for necessary division of labour

Individuals / course team
“… when the champions retire or move on they may sometimes be replaced by staff who are not as enthused. Faced with many demands on their time and not fully briefed about why and how blended approaches have been developed, incoming teachers may drop or reduce the online components. They may feel unable to defend the approach when questioned by colleagues or students.”
(Davis, 2007) ‏

Support / development
Support
Timely – based on recognised needs
Necessary to build confidence with a technology
Hard to position the technology within practice
Development
A contextualisation of technology
Involves reflection; requires slack time
No matter how conscientious and reflective, it cannot occur without understanding the ins and outs of the technology

Support / development
“ Staff … need to undertake a huge amount of professional development and personal work to make a significant start. The fact that so many academic staff have not yet made this significant start might suggest that institutional and government strategies underestimate the magnitude of work, development and time commitment needed. Perhaps they also overestimate the motivation of academic staff to undertake these activities. The analysis also suggests that extensive support mechanisms are in place but that these focus primarily on supporting professional development, rather than providing specific and direct support to individual teachers. It is therefore necessary to look at the focus of support in more
detail.”
(Shephard, 2004) ‏

What works?
Fit with professional identity of academics
Maintain awareness of national and institutional values, directives – make meaningful
Perception of vision of management is v. influential
Academic values – evidence, theory, question-finding
Gain attention
Promote sessions/practices to academics with needs
Stress positive attributes of technology
Avoid the ‘praxis gap’
Work consistently with inquiry-based values
Encourage critique of your own designs
Avoid change / innovation as ends in themselves

What works? (2) ‏
Balance academic values and institutional demands
Setting up structures for encounters between course team members; them and students.
Situated, task-based, inquiry-based - guidelines
Promote to academics; also immediate practical needs
Minimise subversion with supportive informal atmosphere
Disseminate, rather than impose, practice
Elicit descriptions of activities and disseminate these more widely
Make it a key occasion for reflection

Limitations and future work
Professional academic developers write most of the literature
Most development still happens informally
Many academics don’t have the discourse or theoretical background to write for educational publications
Books, interviews, survey
Literature on e-learning is poor on engagement
Theoretical perspectives
Post-colonial theory seems very relevant to professional development
Cf psychology of behaviour change eg 'libertarian paternalism'

The (growing) digest repository
A public Google spreadsheet at h ttp://tinyurl.com/cy4j9y
Mira Vogel - m.vogel@gold.ac.uk
Thanks for listening.

The engagement of academics in professional development for e-learning

by miravogel on Mar 28, 2009

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