Blogging for course content and information literacy: our use of Medium in two taught units - Millson & Hirst
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This document discusses using the publishing platform Medium to develop open online courses. It notes Medium could lower boundaries between students and staff by allowing all to contribute and share materials. The approach outlined develops critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills through authentic research and publishing assessments of real value on open topics. Both the benefits and risks of using an open platform are considered, such as giving learners genuine experience but requiring support managing online identities and expectations. Boundaries in traditional learning management systems are compared to the open approach enabled by Medium.
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Blogging for course content and information literacy: our use of Medium in two taught units - Millson & Hirst
- 1. #lilac18 Blogging for course content and #infolit Chris Millson and Dave Hirst @asameshimae @davehirsty The University of Manchester Library
- 2. 10-credit unit open to all undergraduates on the intersections of ‘digital’ and ‘society’. Interdisciplinary approach and cohort. Develop: being critical; collaboration; communicating online; ethical awareness. medium.com/digital-society
- 3. 15-credit taught option for staff on the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education. Open, flexible approach; broad cohort. Develop: critical view of open practice in HE, public and online communication, network medium.com/open-knowledge-in-he
- 4. Considerations Aligning with the outcomes of the wider programme Understanding the learners Authentic representation of learning outcomes Purpose of assessment
- 5. ‘Medium for learning’ Using a publishing platform to share and build on ideas; to lower the boundaries between students and staff, and between the course and real-world discussions on the topic. OUR APPROACH
- 6. Materials Take the form of open online publications Mostly participant-written If you wrote it, you own it Mix of topic exploration, skills development and course unit practicalities Authentic assessment: research and publish something of real value Spaced, increasing weight (summative+formative) Many opportunities for formative development Experience/development Critical reading, thinking and writing; self-reflection Collaboration, community of practice, peer learning Communicating online, licensing, publishing Engaging with others online Assessment SHARED ELEMENTS
- 7. Using an open platform ‘Good things that could happen’ versus ‘Important considerations/risks’ ACTIVITY
- 8. Let’s be honest ‘Specific to an open platform’ versus ‘Actually we could do that already’ ACTIVITY
- 9. Public content Medium gives us… Learners get ‘open practice’, add to something ‘real’ We practice openness and ‘do good’, may build reputation Should consider candour/confidence Must cover ownership/licensing Must consider pseudonyms/verification Must consider risks e.g. reputation
- 10. ‘Real’ (=public) blog content Medium gives us… Genuine, valuable experience for learners Exists alongside other ‘real world’ content Can connect with the ‘real world’ Can/should cover online identity Must clarify referencing/tone expectations
- 11. Highly learner-owned course content Medium gives us… Built-in feedback and improvement Community of practice feel, all contributions valued Content not just ‘for assessment’ Assessment copies must be carefully captured
- 12. Shiny new things Medium gives us… ‘Nice’ experience may motivate learners Must remember role of central systems – easy to find, familiar, assessment, enrolment, communications, grades/feedback, contact details, session details… Greater in-house support requirement (learners and self)
- 13. VLE versus Medium What are the different permissions? What boundaries do they create? When do these help/hinder us? A COMPARISON
- 14. Materials Students see materials but often can’t contribute. If they can, it’s fenced-off, e.g. wiki, discussion board Staff can contribute at the top level. This looks different. No visible author, date, license, comments. Public have no access. Students usually see only their own submissions. They may not see past or current cohorts’ work. Students are asked to follow certain rules! Public have no access Experience/development Students can read but usually can’t respond. If they can contribute, likely have little/no control over their work afterwards, and few if any others will see it. Public cannot take part Assessment PERMISSIONS IN A VLE
- 15. Boundaries in VLEs The cohort and the world The course and the public Other students’ assessed work Student and staff content
- 16. Materials Everyone can discover, view, like, share, respond to all materials Students, graduates and staff can submit materials Everyone can post to the unit tags (wider discussion) Posts have author, date, license, maybe comments Assessed posts are the same as materials – same permissions, but also: Students are asked to follow certain rules! Experience/development Everyone can contribute in a way (tags, comments) Students’ work forms part of the materials, but remains theirs indefinitely Graduates/guests remain writers for the publication; can submit anything any time! Assessment PERMISSIONS IN MEDIUM
- 17. Lowering boundaries Everyone can see, respond Students/staff are equal participants Everyone gets to own their work All assessed work is public
- 18. #lilac18 Thank you Chris Millson & Dave Hirst @asameshimae @davehirsty The University of Manchester Library
Editor's Notes
- To discuss the motivation for using Medium to support the unit Explore the reach of alignment of assessment To evaluate Medium and Blackboard as a platform to support teaching
- Some stats… COHORT SIZE: Last four years through redevelopment and stronger marketing, we have gone from 12 students to 24 (after marketing increase), 43 (after redevelopment), 50 (current cap) POST OWNERSHIP: 71% of posts (112 of 158) are by students/graduates of the unit and have been since year 1 post-relaunch ONLINE DISCUSSION: 194 responses across all posts (1.23 mean per post) COMMUNITY: Students required to reference each other in one assessment, many chose to do so in the final one WRITERS: 95% of writers (91 of 96) are students/graduates Some notes: Authentic assessment – the blogs are owned by the students more significantly than an essay. They are free to edit/delete them at any time (outside of the marking window). They choose how they are licensed and they will remain online and attached to their profile beyond the end of the unit. Thus the students feel and can exercise the ownership of what they write more so than a Word doc in a VLE. Formative opportunities for blogging exist through mini missions. Pecha Kucha presentation develops presentation skills and (formative only) gives experience of performance (optional).
- Some stats… COHORT SIZE: 15-20 each year (although all staff on PGCert can attend all units, and choose which they are assessed on flexibly; we expect around 20 to be assessed this year) POST OWNERSHIP: Most posts are by students/graduates of the unit and have been since year 1 COMMUNITY: Students required to reference each other in final assessment WRITERS: Most writers are students/graduates, with a growing number of external contributors. Some notes: Authentic assessment – the blogs are owned by the participants more significantly than an essay. They are free to edit/delete them at any time (outside of the marking window). They choose how they are licensed and they will remain online and attached to their profile beyond the end of the unit. Thus the students feel and can exercise the ownership of what they write more so than a Word doc in a VLE. Formative opportunities for blogging exist through mini missions. Pecha Kucha presentation develops presentation skills and (formative only) gives experience of performance (optional).
- So the development of the assessment was an integral part of the unit development. We were very fortunate to be in this position with developing a new unit.
- Around about the same time we started exploring this approach for OKHE, we did some background reading and saw that others were doing likewise in the US – see our references. Medium has been described as a critical thinking platform (by Ervin[a], Stommel[a,b]), and an ideas platform (by Faghmous[d]). There are a few examples of others working in this area [b,c]. While it appears to be a blogging tool on the surface, it is not exactly the same as a traditional blogging tool. It is a single social network site of writers and posts, whereas most blogging platforms are arguably a vast number of separate websites, each with their own writers and posts – but in most cases each having one or very few writers, and existing more as islands. Medium is more like Twitter without the character limit, or YouTube for text. While this sounds pretentious, it does highlight a key difference – the social nature of the platform. Medium is not the only such platform – arguably any public social network can support this. Notably, Tumblr is a blog/social hybrid although is more focussed on images, short posts and short replies/reshares. Other blogging platforms support social networking to some extent, but crucially Medium doesn’t really give you a ‘blog’, more so just a user and associated posts. Also it’s very low-tech and focussed on writing, so it’s easy to get into regardless of your experience/confidence. In some respect we are using medium to fulfil many of the roles traditionally served by a VLE. However some of these roles are still filled by the VLE and that’s worth remembering. We have not cut out Blackboard, simply cut down our reliance on it. Equally Medium does many things which were of interest to us, better than Bb, or more likely where Bb simply does not do it. Blackboard comes with a number of deliberately imposed boundaries. In general this is for good reason and it means that Bb is very safe to use ‘out of the box’. However we wish students to learn in an environment which is – by OotB Bb standards – less safe. [a] https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-06-03-how-students-and-faculty-think-critically-with-medium [b] https://dgst101.com/ [c] https://medium.com/cinema-studies [d] https://medium.com/@nomadic_mind/how-to-make-medium-the-worlds-greatest-collaborative-idea-generation-and-distribution-platform-c666fcdc91a0
- Some notes: Authentic assessment – the blogs are owned by the students more significantly than an essay. They are free to edit/delete them at any time (outside of the marking window). They choose how they are licensed and they will remain online and attached to their profile beyond the end of the unit. Thus the students feel and can exercise the ownership of what they write more so than a Word doc in a VLE. Formative opportunities for blogging exist through mini missions. Pecha Kucha presentation develops presentation skills and (formative only) gives experience of performance (optional).
- What’s the alternative? Bb blog/wiki/forum – none of the pros, none of the risks. Very different set of aims. What’s common ground? Both support peer-to-peer discussion and learning. Don’t fixate on this when looking at Medium! https://medium.com/open-knowledge-in-he/advantages-disadvantages-of-openness-bb9790c06c1b#.e273bwafb
- What’s the alternative? Simulated blog content in Blackboard.
- What’s the alternative? LOC is possible in Blackboard, but it is always fenced-off to some extent. Medium allows this fence to be lowered or removed
- What’s the alternative? We do not advocate shunning Bb, so the amount to which you use external tools can vary as you like. This is just an example of an extreme within a sensible range.