This presentation reflects on a certificate course aimed at teaching faculty eLearning officers the skills to become instructional designers. The course covered topics like learning theories, technologies in teaching, and instructional design over 12 weeks with activities like discussions and a wiki. While participants engaged well and evaluations were positive, explicitly using a theory of transformational learning may have better helped officers question assumptions and see themselves as instructional designers. Specifically, incorporating reflective activities grounded in Mezirow's work on meaning perspectives and critical reflection could have facilitated transformative learning.

1. Pedagogy for Professional LearningPedagogy for Professional Learning
Dr. Iain DohertyDr. Iain Doherty
September 21September 21stst
20132013
The University of Hong Kong

2. Outline
Professional Learning
eLearning Strategy
eLearning Pedagogical Support Unit
Faculties
Certificate Course Example
Certificate Course Analysis
Reflections

3. Professional Learning
Professional learning is defined as
formal or informal learning that leads
to the knowledge, skills and personal
attributes necessary to carry out
professional duties
This presentation critically reflects on the
pedagogical approach underlying an eLearning
Certificate Course which aimed to teach faculty
based eLearning officers the necessary practical and
theoretical skills to become instructional designers.

4. Professional Learning
This presentation critically
reflects on the
pedagogical approach
underlying an eLearning
Certificate Course which
aimed to teach faculty
based eLearning officers
the necessary practical
and theoretical skills to
become instructional
designers
Whilst the course was successful –
judged in terms of the pass rate
and course evaluations – the
underlying pedagogy could be
improved
The proposed revisions are discussed with
particular reference to a theory of
transformational change that might have helped
the eLearning Officers to become instructional
designers.

5. eLearning Strategy
eLearning @ HKU
In 2011 The University of Hong Kong
Senate endorsed an eLearning
strategy to be implemented
commencing 2012.
The aim of the eLearning strategy is to
enhance teaching and learning
through the creative, appropriate and
effective use of technologies.

6. eLearning Pedagogical Support Unit
About EPSU
The EPSU website:
http://epsu.cetl.hku.hk
The EPSU is a relatively small unit consisting of
4 dedicated staff. The rationale for establishing
a small unit was that the eLearning Strategy calls
for Faculties to appoint local eLearning Officers
to support teachers with their eLearning
requirements. EPSU liaises with the eLearning
Officers to support them in their roles.
A new unit – the eLearning Pedagogical Support
Unit (EPSU) – was set up in January 2012 to
provide and co-ordinate eLearning pedagogical
support to Faculties, to evaluate eLearning
initiatives, to disseminate good practices and
innovations in eLearning, and to conduct
research into educational technologies.

7. Faculties
There are ten Faculties at
The University of Hong
Kong
Nine of the ten Faculties complied with the
requirement to appoint an eLearning
Officer.
However, eight of the Faculties appointed
individuals with a technical background i.e.
no background in teaching and learning
theory and therefore not able to advise
Faculties on how to make use of
technologies in teaching and learning.

8. Certificate Course
Developed an eLearning
Certificate Course to turn
the eLearning Officers into
Instructional Designers
Course was offered over 12 weeks
starting March 2012.
eLearning Officers from nine of the
ten Faculties enrolled. One Faculty
sent two eLearning Officers. A
colleague from the Centre for the
Enhancement of Teaching and
Learning also enrolled giving a total
of eleven enrolments.

9. Certificate Course
The topics were as follows:
Orientation and Introduction to eLearning
Learning and Learning Domains
Technologies in Teaching
The Role of the Teacher in eLearning
Assessment in eLearning
Quality in eLearning
Instructional Design Theory and Practice
Emerging Technologies and Cutting Edge eLearning
Connectivism
Being an Instructional Designer

10. Certificate Course
Developed Two hours face-to-face
teaching each week
• Participants asked to review content prior to session
• Mini lecture at the start of each session
• Group discussion / activities to consolidate knowledge
• Discussion forum after face-to-face session
• Wiki exercise for knowledge construction

11. Certificate Course Example
Orienting participants
to eLearning through
readings and discussion
forum questions
What experience do
you have with the
use of technologies
in teaching and
learning?
What experience do
you have with the
use of technologies
in teaching and
learning?
How does your experience fit with
the model that this week’s reading
suggests for making purposeful
use of technologies in teaching
and learning?
How does your experience fit with
the model that this week’s reading
suggests for making purposeful
use of technologies in teaching
and learning?
What recommendations
would you make to
someone who asked you
how to make purposeful use
of technologies in teaching?
What recommendations
would you make to
someone who asked you
how to make purposeful use
of technologies in teaching?

12. Certificate Course Example
Aim of the wiki exercise was to reflect
collaboratively on how the Certificate
Course might help them to meet the
challenges and realize the possibilities of
eLearning within their Faculties.
This aim was chosen because completing
the wiki exercise would – in principle –
require the participants to draw on the
topics from all ten weeks of the course.

13. Certificate Course Analysis
Students were required to
post to the discussion forum
once per week for the first 10
weeks of the course
Students were required to
post to the discussion forum
once per week for the first 10
weeks of the course
Students were
required to
post to the
discussion
forum once per
week for the
first 10 weeks
of the course
There were 11
participants so
minimally there
had to be 11
posts per week
Posts always
significantly
exceeded this
figure and
some weeks
the posts
totaled well
over 100
Students worked
collaboratively to
produce a concept
map that represented
the relationship
between the various
concepts that had
been covered in the
first 10 weeks of the
course
They related the
course concepts
to their roles as
eLearning
Officers which
shows ability to
apply knowledge

14. Certificate Course Analysis
The Course was evaluated
using The University of
Hong Kong’s standard
evaluation questionnaire
The questionnaire contains 10
items and students respond in
terms of 5 point Like scale
ranging from “strongly agree”
to “strongly disagree”

15. Certificate Course Reflections
The Course was evaluated
using The University of
Hong Kong’s standard
evaluation questionnaire
The questionnaire contains 10
items and students respond in
terms of 5 point Like scale
ranging from “strongly agree”
to “strongly disagree”
• The primary teaching challenge on this
course was to have students question
their assumptions so that they would
become open to seeing themselves as
potential instructional designers.
• Although the course was successful,
the learning design might well have
been more efficacious had it been
explicitly premised on a theory of
transformational learning.

16. Certificate Course Reflections
The Course was evaluated
using The University of
Hong Kong’s standard
evaluation questionnaire
The questionnaire contains 10
items and students respond in
terms of 5 point Like scale
ranging from “strongly agree”
to “strongly disagree”
• Mezirow’s work in this area suggests
itself as potentially useful.
• According to Mezirow “Meaning
perspectives refer to the structure of
assumptions within which new
experience is assimilated and
transformed by one’s past experience
during the process of interpretation”
(Mezirow, 1990).

17. Certificate Course Reflections
The Course was evaluated
using The University of
Hong Kong’s standard
evaluation questionnaire
The questionnaire contains 10
items and students respond in
terms of 5 point Like scale
ranging from “strongly agree”
to “strongly disagree”
• The learning design might have surfaced
students meaning perspectives through
reflection “understood as an assessment
of how or why we have perceived,
thought, felt or acted” (Mezirow, 1990).
• Appropriate reflective moments could
have been achieved through a learning
design that incorporated some key
interaction types that would have cause
participants to reflect and to achieve
resolution as a result of their
reflections.

18. References
Students were required to
post to the discussion forum
once per week for the first 10
weeks of the course
The Course was evaluated
using The University of
Hong Kong’s standard
evaluation questionnaire
The questionnaire contains 10
items and students respond in
terms of 5 point Like scale
ranging from “strongly agree”
to “strongly disagree”
Mezirow, J. (1990). How Critical Reflection Triggers
Transformative Learning. Fostering Critical Reflection in
Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative and
Emancipatory Learning. San Francisco, CA.: Jossy-Bass
Publishers.