NeWorkers
TISIP
An on-line course for on-line tutors
- professors and staff members as students
Trondheim, September 19, 2005
Presented by
Bodil Ask & Harald Haugen
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
1
Why this course ?
 Demands for global distribution of H E
- e-learning and on-line courses may be a solution
- need for qualified e-learning tutors
 Quality of content
- university staff knows their subject matter, but often
not so much about e-learning
 Pedagogical theories and methods
- not always in focus for university professionals
 Managing new technologies, insight and skills
- a challenge for well established / senior staff
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
2
Managing change
”One of the greatest pains to human nature is
the pain of a new idea”. Walter Bagehot
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
3
Initiative & collaboration
Urgent need for on-line tutors by GVU
- the Global Virtual University under UNU
Joint development of the POL course
3 institutions with 3 authors / tutors
- GVU w. Aake Bjørke as course leader & tutor
- Stord/Haugesund U. College, academic resp. (HH)
- Agder University College, tutoring (BA)
POL based on PiOL, pioneering since 1996
- by the Norwegian R&D group NITOL
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
4
Guided course development
POL – ’Pedagogy for Online Learning’
intends to spread experiences and ideas
about e-learning
– practical uses of technology and collaboration
– pedagogical background
– learning by doing
• practising online learning environment
• experience tutoring of courses on-line
• guided construction of own courseware
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
5
The course preparation
Basis for the course:
 a study guide to clarify learning aims and
objectives; content, level and credits
 choice of pedagogy / strategy / structure
 provision of learning resources; develop
content, exercises & assignments, links, . . .
 choice of technology & platform
 organise content in study blocks
 make room for reflection in & on learning;
pauses for thought
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
6
Course content I
Outlined in the Study guide
• Module 1: The virtual classroom
• Log into the LMS. Asynchronous and synchronous conferencing. Threaded discussions. Tools, folders and files.
• Module 2: Online learning and learning
environments
• Collaborative learning environments. Communities of
practice. Online tutoring skills, e-moderating: the 5-step
model (Gilly Salmon, E-moderating. The key to teaching
and learning online.
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
7
Virtual learning environment
(Gilly Salmon, 2004)
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
8
Course content II
• Module 3: Pedagogical approaches
• Instructivism, constructivism, socio-cultural
approach. Theoretical background for
communities of practice. Deep & surface
learning, collaborative learning, DPBL, Activity
theory. Student types and personalised follow-up
• Module 4: Online technologies
• Tools and media, hyper structures, LMS, mixand-match suitable media
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
9
Course content III
• Module 5: Implementation
• Developing students' online skills, scaffolding
• Conferencing: planning, starting, maintaining, moderating, reflecting and negotiation of meaning, threading,
weaving
• Academic writing & referencing. Plagiarism.
• Support & feedback to students
• Assessment methods. Course evaluation (formative &
summative) Revision and updating
• Module 6: Making your own course (optional!)
(Earns extra 5 credits if completed.)
• Structuring of educational material. Iterative prototyping
& peer tutoring. Publishing
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
10
Course material
• A set book, a CD-ROM + online resources in different
structures:
– Texts for each module, made available on the LMS
• The LMS was organised in
–
–
–
–
–
an Archive of more permanent texts
a Forum for group work, threaded discussions etc.
a Portfolio keeping track of student activities
a Chat room and a Whiteboard for interactions
in addition there were a class list, a message board and a newsroom
• Independent and guided activities and tasks to be
performed/solved by students
• Minilectures and messages posted on the LMS when
tutors found it useful or necessary for further
progress
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
11
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
12
Course enrolment
GVU/UNU urged their partner institutions
to apply in order to qualify for tutoring
19 professionals from around the world,
registered as students
representing 10 different countries on 4
continents
and even more cultures and traditions
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
13
Experiences
Unusually high activity on Forum debates
200 – 600 visits during 5 months (> 1200 !)
up to 150 written contributions by one person
also some ‘lurkers’ and a few passive students
Challenges observed & solutions used
different time zones
asynchronous work
minimal infrastructure & equipment
CD-ROM
Results were encouraging
About 50% sat for the exam; obtained diploma
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
14
Feed-back
Student feed-back during the course
Comments to course content & structure
on Forum were dominantly positive
Activities on the LMS indicated interest
Individual e-mails to tutors varied
mainly positive to mini-lectures and assistance
some students wanted more tutor involvement
Technical problems were reported
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
15
Formal course evaluation
A questionnaire with 10 items at the end
 On a scale 1 (poor) – 6 (perfect), the average
score came out 4.7 for all questions
 Particularly encouraging scores:
 Was course interesting, a rich learning experience? 5.3
 Tasks & activities appropriate to achieve goals? 5.1
 - and not so encouraging:
 How did group work function? 4.1
 Sufficient time for activities? 4.3
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
16
Free text course evaluation
The questionnaire opened up for comments
 Some very positive comments:
 Wow! Yes! This was a great learning experience for me. I could not
wait for time when I would knock off from my regular job to visit the
internet café
 Truly this was a community of practice, true collaborative learning
 - and not so positive:
 I thought it would be a more practical course, designed on setting
up online learning courses
 this (function of LMS) was largely due to the fact that my connection speed is very low, making the program very frustrating to use
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
17
Further plans for POL
The course is again open for registration this
year
 Partly revised version this Fall:
 an updated Study Guide, based on previous experiences
 an extra issue added on the use ECTS for online courses
 Students (23) are now registering from 15
different countries
 The course description and conditions:
 http://gvu.unu.edu/courses.cfm?pageid=1031&courseid=1002
 Course fee: US$ 1000, for 10 ECTS credits
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
18
International student group in POL
POL students
2004
2005
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
19
Thank you for listening
and
good luck with your e-learning ventures
http://gvu.unu.edu/courses.cfm?pageid=1031&courseid=1002
Ask & Haugen
HØGSKOLEN
STORD/HAUGESUND
20