This document outlines an agenda for a workshop on flexible learning. The workshop aims to enable participants to identify flexible attributes needed for students to contribute to a globally connected society. It will examine flexible attributes suggested by scholarship to be important for 21st century students and discuss how educators can respond. The agenda includes introducing reports on flexible pedagogies, focusing on one report's discussion of flexibility in higher education. Participants will discuss drivers of increased flexibility and implications for their practice through group work and plenary discussions.

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Flexible Learners for a global future
27 November 2014
Dr Alison Le Cornu, SFHEA, FSEDA
Table of Contents
Aims
Objectives
Opening discussion
Introduce set of HEA Flexible Pedagogies reports
Focus on overarching report: Professor Ron Barnett’s Conditions of Flexibility: securing
a more responsive higher education system (2014)
Introduce draft flexible learning framework
Group work
Plenary discussion
New Pedagogical Ideas
Group work
To conclude…
Thank you!
Aims
This session will enable academic colleagues to identify a range of flexible attributes
that will enable students to contribute to a globally connected society, and explore
the implications for their practice.
Objectives
Participants will:
● examine a range of flexible attributes that scholarship suggests will be
important for students to develop in the 21st century;
● discuss these attributes in relation to the wider global context;
● consider ways in which they might respond to the challenges in terms of their
practice as educators.
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Opening discussion
What does flexible learning mean to you?
What are the benefits? Challenges?
Introduce set of HEA Flexible Pedagogies reports
Part­time learners and learning
New pedagogical ideas
Technology­enhanced learning
Employer engagement and work­based learning
(Review of credit accumulation and transfer policy and practice in UK higher education)
Focus on overarching report: Professor Ron Barnett’s
Conditions of Flexibility: securing a more responsive higher
education system (2014)
Discuss key messages
Group work discussion of two key questions:
● What do you see as the most essential part of Barnett’s message? Why?
● To what extent do you agree with Barnett’s suggestions of why a move towards
greater flexibility in UK higher education is being encouraged? (Bullet point 4
above)
Introduce draft flexible learning framework
Focus on outer circle: Global fluidity, employment agility and sector responsivity.
Offer reasons why these are important drivers for increased flexible learning.
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3.
Group work
Divide participants into 3 groups to focus on the key changes: employer flexibility, and
technological mobility.
Provide small selection of resources for two of the three groups. Extracts and excerpts
from these resources are provided with links to the full version. These should stimulate
discussion.
A third group will engage in independent research, drawing on their personal experience
as well as conducting web searches to provide evidence ­ for or against ­ of the increasing
breakdown of the traditional 8hr work, 8hr sleep, and 8hr ‘leisure’ lifestyle with particular
emphasis on the role of mobile technologies and the 24/7 culture.
Plenary discussion
● How persuaded are you by the evidence that suggests the employment sector
is becoming increasingly flexible?
○ What are the characteristics of that flexibility?
○ What are the drivers behind that flexibility?
● To what extent do you perceive the same characteristics coming to bear upon
higher education?
● Does this call for learners to acquire relatively sophisticated skills of personal
flexibility?
● What is HE’s role in equipping them?
● How do you respond to William Locke’s recent comment below?
As universities are looking for myriad things from their employees, early
career academics must be flexible in their career expectations. “I’m arguing
for an approach where people might move from concentrating on research in
their early career to a teaching role later on; not going down one track to the
exclusion of the other,” he said. Academics need “an ability to negotiate
where your priorities will lie without preventing you from changing them in the
future”, he added. “Flexibility is going to be key to keeping in employment, but
they need to try to manage that flexibility on their own terms and not simply
give it away to their employer.”
(http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/take­charge­to­steer­your­career­in­t
he­right­direction/2016188.article; 09 Oct 2014)
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4.
New Pedagogical Ideas
Discuss key features of the report
Group work
Group discussions focusing on the six pedagogical ideas contained within the report.
To conclude…
Plenary discussion
● Is flexible learning part of your own institution?
○ What form?
○ How does it compare and contrast to the understanding of flexible learning
within Barnett’s and Ryan and Tilbury’s reports?
● Is flexible learning something you feel is crucial to develop, both within the sector
and within your own institution?
● How might the ideas and reports you have engaged with during this workshop
influence your practice?
● What one thing will you take away with you from this workshop?
Thank you!
Thank you for attending this workshop.
Please keep in touch with us.
Follow us on Twitter: @HEA_flexible
Email us on: flexible.learning@heacademy.ac.uk
Email Alison Le Cornu on: alison.lecornu@heacademy.ac.uk
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