Fostering collaborative approaches to blended learning development [657] Home : ALT's Online Winter Conference 2020

Public Group Active 2 years, 3 months ago

Tue, Dec 15 2020, 4:30pm – 5:20pm

Authors: Dave Barber, and Elliott Lelaure

Room: Holly Room

Type: Webinar (25mins)

Description

Session Description

At the University of Winchester, principles of blended learning were published in May, defining what students should expect from an approach to curriculum delivery that would combine a hybrid of face to face and online teaching. However, it was left to staff to define exactly how such principles would be implemented at a programme and module level.

To support this process of implementation the technology enhanced learning team created a structured set of activities, branded as an “online teaching course”. These were designed to be undertaken by academic teams, as well as individuals, and encouraged design and decision-making at a programme level.

A consequence of this was that staff began to very quickly and spontaneously share and collaborate in the development of digital artefacts and assets, not just within but between programme teams. Tools like the Canvas Commons facility were appropriated as a means of showcasing and sharing content and colleagues soon learned to mine it for content and inspiration.

In this webinar we will look at the emergence of this phenomenon and the evidence that we have for its impacts. We will look at the experience of one team and how the benefits of collaboration manifested in creative approaches to the engagement of students over the summer and preparations for a new academic year. However, we will also look at how this process of sharing manifested at an institutional level. As an example, we will look at how people collaborated in the development of page templates, to enhance the design of VLE content, but also to explore difficult questions about student engagement with online content.

As we look at these issues we will explore how the technology team worked to create the conditions for this phenomenon, to promote and it and ultimately build on the benefits. This will involve reflection for we were taken by surprise by the response and there were opportunities missed. Indeed, we end this webinar with some sober reflection on lessons learned and how this experience will influence the work of the TEL team in the future.

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