Transforming distance learning

We’ve just had the opportunity to take part in a Pathfinder project funded by the HEA that involves getting a group of teaching staff and e-learning specialists together to redesign a module of study into a student-centred blended format - in just two days.

My colleague Roger Gardner has posted a summary of what took place, and his reflections, on his blog. There’s nothing there I’d disagree with (great minds think alike), so I’ll just add a few further reflections…

The part of the process I found most interesting was the emergence of various conflicts and frustrations over the two days. It’s often said that implementing a blended learning strategy, and shifting the focus towards student-centred learning, forces a deep examination of underlying pedagogy and objectives (e.g. Beetham 2007). From the first morning, a sense that the foundations of the module were becoming unsteady, and a subsequent feeling of becoming overwhelmed, was communicated by some of the teaching staff through open and emotive speech and body language. I hadn’t experienced this level of emotional honesty in the staff I’ve worked with before (it was quite refreshing). Although the facilitator dealt with these expressions of frustration quite well as they emerged, I wonder whether it would have helped to warn the teaching staff at the start that these feelings were very likely to arise. Perhaps having this forewarning would have helped them to observe their feelings in a more objective way.

Another frustration I observed was the participants’ reaction to forced creativity. Some people are happy to churn out ideas and solutions on the spot, and in front of others, when asked to do so. Many are not, and prefer to have time and space to chew a problem over by themselves. I definitely belong in the latter category but my job often forces me into on-the-spot creativity. Becoming acclimatised to this didn’t happen overnight, and I empathised as I observed other participants struggling with the requirement to think of a solution NOW. The danger here is that if participants feel too overwhelmed then they are likely to completely withdraw from the experience. This blocks their input into the process, which is not only bad for the process itself but also for the participant, who may end up feeling that they’ve let the team down.

If we are going to run similar projects internally, then these two issues are the ones I feel are most important to address. We could try to address them through variables such as timescale and format, for example by allowing for participants to take some time out by themselves to work on ideas and solutions. However, I agree with Roger that the intensive 2-day schedule was quite powerful in fostering an efficient & effective working group. It might also be the case that experiencing these frustrations and stresses together can help to form a strong bond between the participants. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the final hours of the project so I haven’t got a final impression of how the participants felt at its conclusion - but I’m sure this will emerge

Beetham, H: Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: designing and delivering e-learning, 2007, Routledge