I spent two days at the Third International Blended Learning Conference last week – here’s a digest of what I picked up:

1. …an exciting picture of what distance learning could look like. Two of the sessions I attended used Elluminate, a web-based ‘live e-learning solution’ that allows participants to log in, view a speaker, listen, comment, ask questions, and – most excitingly – have a sneaky conversation among themselves (about what the speaker was saying, I assure you) while still keeping an eye on the presentation and without disturbing any other participants. I could even communicate laughter, applause or a ‘confused’ face at the click of an icon. It was so engaging – there was certainly no risk of falling asleep – I actually had questions I wanted to ask at the end, which I was much more willing to ask through Elluminate than I would have been if I were required to speak into a microphone in front of a hundred strangers. Did I also mention that both these sessions were jointly facilitated by speakers in two different continents?! Great stuff.

2. …an interesting keynote from Professor Betty Collis with an emphasis on learning in the workplace, drawing on her experience assisting Shell with their organisational learning strategy. She highlighted the importance of integrating the many forms of learning that take place within an organisation, and emphasising learning that benefits the organisation as a whole. I agreed with her view that one of our key objectives is to prepare the learner for lifelong learning that is orientated towards the workplace – this is the driving force behind our move to problem-based learning, collaborative content construction, transparent feedback and reflective work with the ICM programme – but Professor Collis’ speech made me think about the links we have with our students’ employers and whether we should be working towards a more collaborative approach to supervising/mentoring on our programmes, and a greater emphasis on improving professional performance rather than on examinations. Wow, that was a long sentence.

3. …a example of self-directed learning through video blogging (vlogging) from Myles Dyer, a second year Psychology student at the University of Hertfordshire. Myles’ presentation skills were impressive as he showed us his progression from shy sixth-form student to confident media performer, achieved through posting regularly on Youtube with opinions, thoughts and questions on a variety of topics and engaging in dialogue with his audience.

4. …a reminder of several good reasons to introduce peer assessment of group work from Steve Loddington of Loughborough University and the WebPA project. Some important findings from Steve’s research were:
   a) Although students preferred to select their own working groups, they felt richer learning experiences were gained from random group selection;
   b) 40% of students admitted that friendship loyalties affected the marks they gave;
   c) It is important to explain the point of peer assessment to students at the outset.

5. …inspiration to get our students to write the assessment criteria for their online negotiation exercise (from David Nicol’s keynote).

6. …a very interesting workshop with Mark Russell on curriculum design for blended learning that asked the question ‘what constitutes a good learning experience?’. Drawing on Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles for good practice in UG Education (1987), Mark suggests examining educators’ frustrations and turning them around into productive action using one of the seven principles. This could be a useful tool for working with e-tutors on future course development.