Transforming distance learning

So… I’m in the middle of an exciting project that aims to bring together the two teams for the ICM and EPS programmes. It’s going to be based around an online area where all the tutors, administrators and other staff involved in the programme are invited to join in a fortnightly discussion related to teaching [...]

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I’ve just been looking over the notes I made when Steve Wheeler came to talk to us on Monday (I love the name of his blog btw). I wrote down a couple of quotes:
Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school – Einstein

I can’t teach anyone anything – I can [...]

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

…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, [...]

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I’m attending a course on leadership and team-building on Tuesday. Before then I want to reflect on my own fledgling team of part-time distance learning e-tutors, and where we are now in terms of our effectiveness as a team.
The blurb I’ve been given on the ‘characteristics of effective teams’ lists them as having:

Clear objectives
Good decision-making [...]

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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, [...]

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The idea that today’s students lack critical thinking skills isn’t a new one – but the growing abundance of poor quality and unreliable information on the web means that actively teaching these skills within our courses has become a priority (Ron Cooke, JISC Chair). I’ve recently been involved in the design of an online study [...]

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The clearest return on investment in e-learning is found for projects that aim to solve a simple, well-defined problem, and for those geared towards automating systems rather than totally transforming the learning experience. This doesn’t mean complex, transformational projects aren’t worth the effort – but benefits may take longer to be realised, and evidence may [...]

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What, or who, is shaping the market for continued innovation? The increasing number of part-government funded knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs) that are springing up between universities and industry may be a significant factor (Ron Cooke, JISC Chair). This was good to hear as we’re hoping to develop a KTP programme as an extension of the [...]

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John Heron developed the six-category intervention analysis model for interpersonal skills training in 1973. Although it was initially developed for the medical profession, it’s actually applicable to a wide range of settings, including education. In Learning in Groups (4th ed, Routledge 2007), David Jaques and Gilly Salmon explain how it can be used to analyse the role of the online tutor.
The model [...]

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I’ve been checking out Twitter on Andy(Ramsden)’s suggestion in order to get ideas for its possible use in HE. I’ve found a couple of Twitter buddies who’ve been helping me out – a guy I met when working for the Judo Foundation Degree (hi Lance) and Dave Parry, who is a bit of an expert [...]

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