Armellini's keynote, SOLSTICE conference, Edge Hill, 5 June13
Vle day armellini
1. Foresight and choices
for 21st Century learning
Professor Alejandro Armellini
University of Northampton
Ale.Armellini@northampton.ac.uk
East Midlands LETB, 22 March 2013
2. 2
Outline: today’s journey
Context and trends in online learning
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
Designing for effective online learning
Going open – really open
Throughout:
Implications for practice
Ideas for inspiration and innovation
3. 3
One learning outcome?
By the end of the session, you will be…
…inspired to try out one new thing, with the
potential to further inspire your learners.
5. 5
UK context
Technology needs to enhance student choice and meet or
exceed learners’ expectations
A strategic approach to embed online learning
Development and exploitation of open educational
resources to enhance efficiency and quality
Source: Collaborate to Compete, OLTF, 2011
6. 6
US context
31% of all HE students take at least one online course
67% of academic leaders rate learning outcomes in
online education as the same or superior to those in f2f
education
Online learning is a critical part of the long-term
strategies of 65% of HEIs
Source: Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011
7. Multimedia resources
80s
93
The Internet and the Web
94
Learning objects
Learning Management Systems
95
Mobile devices
98
Learning Design
99
Gaming technologies
00
E-Learning timeline
01
Open Educational Resources
Social and participatory media
04
http://halfanhour.blogspot.be/2012/02/e-learning-generations.html
Virtual worlds
05
07
E-books and smart devices
08
Massive Open Online Courses
09
http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/a-ramble-through-history-of-online.html
8. 8
So you have a VLE?
What is a VLE (or LMS)?
What a VLE is not
9. A VLE or LMS
Communication
Library Content
tools
Registration
Collaboration Assessment
Finance
tools tools
Timetabling
Student Upload Tracking
records tools tools
Conole, forthcoming, UNESCO briefing paper
http://www.iite.unesco.org/policy_briefs/
10. 10
Our Moodle VLE
Is Moodle a solution looking for a problem?
What is the problem to which Moodle is the
solution?
CC Image by rosipaw on Flickr
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For example…
I want to teach online but don’t know where to
start
Everyone has a VLE so I want one too
Limited skills (pedagogical, technical)
+ little time = poor learner experience
I want a safe repository for course content
We need a safe environment to host our
discussions
My course is not interactive enough
12. 12
Imagine…
You want to learn to write academic articles
Someone gives you MS Word
Image by St0rmz on Flickr
13. 13
In course design terms
You want to design effective online courses and…
Widen access
Add flexibility
Save time
Promote engagement
Impact positively on the learner experience
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Is a VLE the solution?
Someone gives you Moodle.
Surely, that’s your problem solved.
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Bad news
It isn’t.
Image by the University of Tennessee
16. 16
I can fix that!
That’s ok, I can get training.
…but what you often get is training that
focuses on the tool itself (e.g. Moodle).
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Effective training for course design
Instead, the training should:
Focus on and address your problem, your
needs, your course
Use a team approach to course design
Enable you to capitalise on the VLE’s
features, as and when those features
address pedagogical problems
Build capability and autonomy
22. 22
VLE design targets
Level Focus Key features
Foundation/ Delivery Absolute minimum expected
Threshold/ Course information
Learning materials
Bronze/ ‘Red’
Intermediate/ Participation In addition to ‘Delivery’:
Silver/ ‘Yellow’ Online participation designed into the course.
Tasks provide meaningful formative scaffold.
Essential in blended
Online participation encouraged and moderated, but not essential
courses for achievement of learning outcomes.
Advanced/ Gold/ Collaboration In addition to ‘Delivery’:
’Green’ Regular learner input designed into course & essential throughout.
Participative tasks provide meaningful scaffold to formative and
Essential in DL courses
summative assessment.
Collaborative knowledge construction central to a productive
learning environment.
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Good RECOVERY
Delivery
Bad WHAT A WASTE!
Bad Good
Design
27. Review learning
outcomes & assessment
Draw map of course
Gather my materials &
borrow materials from
colleagues
Identify gaps
Download stuff
‘Write’ the rest
Check consistency & go
28. Draft a blueprint
Build a storyboard
Create a scaffold
Gather materials &
identify gaps
Select and adapt OERs
Design missing bits
Reality check, adjust & go
29. Interactions in design and delivery
Good
TEACHER’S PERFORMANCE
DURING DELIVERY
Poor
Learner-Content Learner-Teacher Learner-Learner
MAIN TYPE OF INTERACTION DESIGNED INTO
COURSE
30. Interactions in design and delivery
Good
TEACHER’S PERFORMANCE
Expected practice
DURING DELIVERY
Low impact on Missed
Poor
course opportunity
Learner-Content Learner-Teacher Learner-Learner
MAIN TYPE OF INTERACTION DESIGNED INTO
COURSE
31. Interactions in design and delivery
Added value:
Good
TEACHER’S PERFORMANCE
Tangible
personalisation, co Expected practice
enhancement
DURING DELIVERY
urse ‘humanised’
Low impact on Missed
Poor
Bad practice
course opportunity
Learner-Content Learner-Teacher Learner-Learner
MAIN TYPE OF INTERACTION DESIGNED INTO
COURSE
32. Interactions in design and delivery
Added value:
Good
TEACHER’S PERFORMANCE
personalisation, Tangible
Expected practice
course enhancement
DURING DELIVERY
‘humanised’
Low impact on Missed
Poor
Bad practice
course opportunity
Learner-Content Learner-Teacher Learner-Learner
MAIN TYPE OF INTERACTION DESIGNED INTO
COURSE
33. 33
Principles
Low cost, high value
Sustainable: design once, deliver many times
Forward-looking: alignment, assessment for
learning, rapid feedback
Connected with industry & community
34. 34
Development Research
Future, potential
Creative applications
technologies for
new of existing tools to
emergent learning &
target new markets
learners
Missions Innovation
Markets
contexts pipeline
Well-established Established
learning & teaching + programmes and
University-owned & approaches
present
supported embracing new
technologies technological
opportunities
present new
Technology
& Pedagogy
35. 35
Back to our VLE: Moodle
Presence on the VLE is not an add-on to the
course. It is the course.
36. 36
Open Educational Resources (OERs)
Teaching, learning and research materials in
any medium, digital or otherwise, that
reside in the public domain or have been
released under an open license that permits
no-cost access, use, adaptation and
redistribution by others with no or limited
restrictions (UNESCO, 2012)
37. 37
OER repositories (1)
JORUM
OER Commons
MIT OpenCourseWare
OpenLearn (Open University)
iTunesU
41. Format
Text & Audio Video Slides (eg Other (eg Adobe
Content graphics PowerPoint) Presenter)
What I already
have
What I find and
reuse as is
What I
find, tweak and
use
What I find,
repurpose and
use
What I create
for this module
42. Design Planned Strategic
Enhancement Enhancement
Curriculum
Delivery
Just-in-time Reflective
Enhancement Enhancement
As is Repurposed
OER use
43. 43
From Moodle to MOOCs
Massive Open Online Courses
and free
47. 21st Century learning
Knowledge and learning as open,
mobile, connected and scalable
Flexibility as the norm
New forms of communication and
collaboration
Rich multimedia representation
Regularly renewed expectations
Harnessing the global network
48. Implications
Blurring boundaries
New business models
Open practices
Changing roles
Digital literacy skills
Disruptive and complex
Unpredictable challenges
49. 49
Summary
The few concepts you should not escape
without…
Image by Quayarts
51. 51
Effective course design…
Is team-based
Focuses on the different types of interaction
Is not obsessed with content
Offers low cost but high value
Requires digital literacy skills
Must be innovative, participative and fun
May benefit from a VLE
52. 52
Moodle…
An enabler, not a barrier
Can help you design courses
Should meet your needs and those of your
course, your learners, your team
Not a content dump
Not an add-on to your course: it is your course
53. 53
OERs…
Content is not king
Free, high-quality resources will hit you (and
your learners)
Browse and use OERs to enhance your
courses
Contribute your own: don’t agonise over the
family silver
54. 54
MOOCs…
Register on one
Consider contributing to one
Put yourself and your organisation on the
global MOOC map
55. 55
Our chance to shape the future of learning
Professor Alejandro Armellini
University of Northampton
Ale.Armellini@northampton.ac.uk