This section has been quite difficult for me to write because, I have no traditional learners, as my learners are the entire staff body, amounting to over 6,000 people.
I briefly mentioned in section 1c, that I recently co-created materials for and have started delivering a series of workshops on ‘Creating Digitally Accessible Learning and Teaching Materials‘. As with the previous sections I have decided to continue the ‘meta’ theme, as the vast majority of my ‘students’ are members of academic staff, who in turn wish to replicate their newly acquired knowledge for their own (usually undergraduate) students.
As I mentioned in the previous section (section 2a), I gained an Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, this alongside my completion, and subsequent teaching of TOOC (and FSLT) and the delivery of over a decade of training sessions and workshops has given me an insight into understanding academic staff (my primary learners / students).
It is very important to me when working with staff to ascertain their level of eliteracy skills. I have found that although a lecturer might be the at the top of their field and a subject expert, if they cant switch on a computer, run a webinar or promote discussions within Moodle forums their teaching is drastically hampered. This is not saying they are bad teachers, they are the experts in their field, they just require more intensive support. Conversely, it is also important for me to ascertain staffs levels of teaching experience, as a more in-depth knowledge of teaching and learning practices will come into play if they are new to teaching (or new to teaching in higher education). Knowles, M.S., 1984. Andragogy in action.
Where appropriate in the courses / modules I create, I always build in an ‘Ice breaker’ activity, preferably in either the induction week (week 0 – as soon as they can access the course) or in week 1. I find this helps promotes communication between students and ‘solidifies’ the cohort and (in the case of ‘open’ / MOOC courses) reduces drop off and increases the retention of students. Additionally, it promotes ideas and good practice for staff to embed their own into their own courses / modules.
With courses like TOOC and Train the trainer, the ice breaker is usually to either discuss effective ice breakers that they have experienced, and discuss why they were effective or (in the case of TOOC), to develop their own ice breaker, and encourage feedback as an ice breaker.
TOOC16 Icebreaker task was to:
Create a slide for your activity. Put your name on it, and present your icebreaker activity in that slide. Then comment on, or participate in, some other people’s activities.
TOOC16 Icebreaker task 4
An introduction to Google presentations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yicr2_mZaeo
All ‘students’ (staff members) are unique and have their own preferences on how they wish to learn. I (where ever possible) give my learners the option on how they would like to ‘consume’ the learning materials. I worked with a subject specialist to develop the course ‘Train the trainer’, where each week learning have the opportunity to either watch and listen to a YouTube video, read a PowerPoint presentation or read a PDF (selectable for screenreaders) of the same subject content. I have found the ‘multiple options’ of learning materials is, not only more accessible and inclusive to those that need or require different formats but also increases students knowledge as often students access / use more than one medium, reiterating and ‘bedding in’ the learning material.
I always recommend staff ‘keep in mind’ the following useful mnemonic I.N.T.R.O, when we are designing their modules and learning materials.
- Interest – Gain the Interest / attention of participants
- Need – Establish with the participants their Need for this learning
- Title – A Title which effectively summarises the learning ‘event’
- Range – An overview (Range) of what will be covered
- Objective – Reiteration of the Objectives
I go into greater depth in section 3a, however accessibility for staff and students is in the front of my mind when designing learning materials and course design. Most recently I have created a number of ‘Accessibility at Brookes‘ pages to ensure digitally accessible materials for all.
An example of how my practice has changed would be, a new member of academic staff that had visual impairment. They required assistance as one of their needed scorm packages (that they would teach) was not accessible with their screen reader software, thankfully in this instance I was able to source an accessible (selectable) scorm package for them to use. Now when using scorm packages in my own course design its one of the first things I check, can I select the text and does this work with screen readers.
If time permitting (as usually, projects are one after another) I try and reflect on how I could have made the project (course / module developed, training or workshop delivered) better / smoother and build any changes into subsequent ones. Additionally, all of the courses and modules I run have a feedback form at the end of the course and training and workshops have paper-based feedback.
If I take just one thing away from producing this portfolio it will be that I need to prioritise my reflective practice.