I felt I knew everybody, by Chrissi Nerantzi (APT Conference, University of Greenwich, 8 July 2014)

“I felt I knew everybody”

Learner experiences

in an open cross-institutional CPD course for teachers in HE

Chrissi Nerantzi Academic Developer Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @chrissinerantzi

APT Conference: Connected Learning in an Open World, University of Greenwich, 8 July 2014

Ner

antz

i, U

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& K

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Summary

This session will provide insights into the experience of learners who participated in PBL groups during the second iteration (FDOL132) of the open course Flexible, Distance, Online Learning (FDOL). FDOL132 is a case study, part of a PhD project in open cross-institutional academic practice for professional development of teachers in Higher Education (HE). Ethical approval: Edinburgh Napier University

Voices • ecological university (Barnett, 2011)

• personalisation, collaboration, informalisation (Redecker et al, 2011)

• blending of formal & informal learning (Conole, 2013)

• call to open-up, join-up (European Commission, 2013)

• the danger of monocultures (Weller, 2014)

• lifewide curriculum (Jackson, 2014)

• recognising the positive impact of human interaction for learning

(about) collaborative learning in Openland

http://www.dipity.com/chrissinerantzi/collaborative-learning-in-openland/

http://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/

http://fdol.wordpress.com/ 2+ cases

Phenomenography (Marton, 1981) Main data collection individual interviews Complementary data via survey instruments (initial and final) Collective case study approach (Stake, 1995) Case study 1: FDOL132

PhD research: to develop a flexible collaborative learning framework for open cross-institutional Academic Development courses

• Open cross-disciplinary professional development course for teachers in HE

• Developed and organised by Academic Developers in the UK and Sweden

• Developed using freely available social media

• Offered from September – December 2013

• Pedagogical design: simplified Problem-Based Learning

Numbers

• Registered: 107

• FDOL132 community in G+ until now: 72

• Signed up for PBL groups: 31

• PBL groups: initially 8-9 in each x 4 > then 3 (group 2: 6, / group 3: 5 / group 4: 6)

• PBL facilitators: 4

• Participants in webinars: 10-25

• Participants who completed in groups : 31 (42% of participants learning in groups)

•Countries

• UK - 66

• Sweden – 17

• Canada – 4

• Ireland – 2

• also participants from: Hongkong, Argentina, Greenland, Switzerland, New Zeeland, Slovenia, Belgium, New Zealand, Norway

FDOL132 info

Organisation of FDOL132: multi-mode participation

Nerantzi, Uhlin & Kvarnström (2013)

Step 1: Focus What do we see? How do we understand what we see? What do we need to find out more about? Specify learning issues/intended learning outcomes

Step 2: Investigate How and where are we/am I going to find answers? Who will do what and by when? What main findings and solutions do we/I propose?

Step 3: Share How are we going to present our findings within the group? What do we want to share with the FDOL community? How can we provide feedback to another group? What reflections do I have about my learning and our group work?

FISh a simplified PBL model

Nerantzi & Uhlin (2012)

Findings: initial survey

17 completed Countries: UK 37%, Sweden 37%, other 26%

Age range: 35-54 82% Gender: 35% male, 65% female Qualifications: 53% Doctoral qualification, 35% Postgraduate qualification, 12% undergraduate qualification

•All employed ( 88% HE and 12%Public Sector) •Participated in online courses before 88 % •Participated in an open online course before 47%

Learning values to be an open learner To connect with others To collaborate To be supported by a facilitator Application to practice

Prior experience Working in groups 77% Problem-Based Learning 30% Online collaboration 38% Social media in a professional capacity 50%

Findings: final survey

Final survey: 11 completed Mode of participation

Group member 91% Autonomous learner 9%

Study hours per week 55% 3 h, 27% 5h, 18% over 5

Main reason for not participating in a specific aspect of the course: TIME

Learning values •Structured course •Variety of synchronous & asynchronous engagement opportunities •Flexibility •Resources •Communication •Feedback from facilitators, peer and others •Recognition for study •Group work > participation was often a struggle

Personal Learning goals achieved 100% Learning goals

•Technologies for learning •Problem-based Learning •Learning in groups •Open learning •Open course design

Facilitation (satisfaction) Support 100% Participation in online discussions 100% Provision of regular feedback 64%

Key observations importance for learning

initial survey final survey

group work 100% 74%

feedback 61% 97%

recognition for study 47% 94%

independent study 100% 100%

facilitator support 100% 100%

45 h transcribing

292:57 mins

audio

37,274 words

7 interviews

Case 1: FDOL132

“Why should cooperative or collaborative learning be effective for learners, who are, after all, exchanging only imperfect understandings of the content, if the teacher is not present to advise or correct them?” (Slavin, 2004, 287)

cooperative vs collaborative cooperative learning collaborative learning

shared product/outcome shared product/outcome

focus on individual goals within group goals focus on group goals

the individual constructs learning learning is co-constructed, challenged, modified, agreed, shared understanding

product consists of individual contributions product is co-constructed

roles/responsibilities pre-defined/imposed (not always)

roles/responsibilities negotiated/agreed

process is clean and defined (not always) process is fluid, responsive and adaptive

focus more on individual achievement focus more on collective achievement

Group related data Preliminary thematic analysis PBL groups

Knowing each other “It's about being able to read the other person's body language, and, and things like that. I don't know. That's what I assume it is. I just feel that it, it was that that gave it the personal feel [...]. I felt like I knew everybody because I knew what they looked like and, you know. And I think that made a difference. Then they weren't just, […]. you know, an icon on a computer screen, that I'd recognised them as a human being if that makes sense.” participant F2

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2453/3599597595_4542f11554_o.jpg

Group related data Preliminary thematic analysis Motivation

Feeling useful “It was good to, I think that I felt good of contributing with my experience to what they're doing. So when, they ask something, and I saw that it can work in a certain way because we have done it here in UK I could tell them what we have done and then they can experiment. So from that point of view it felt good, of sharing[...]” Participant F7

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/099/b/f/crazy_chick_by_billiejett-d4viqcr.jpg

Group related data Preliminary thematic analysis Tensions

Lack of choice “I think there's quite a contradiction in PBL actually, in terms of that kind of liberal social constructivist ethos. But at the same time, it, it can be quite rigid, and, I'm not convinced that using one particular, educational approach is necessarily always the best thing. Particularly if you're trying to bring people together in a. OK, structuring, is, is important , and, putting people in groups but like the, to kind of feed them through, a certain educational approach, I'm not, I'm not all-, I'm not always convinced by that. “Participant 1

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Piano-keyboard.jpg

Group related data Preliminary thematic analysis Value

Doing stuff “If you're gonna prepare people for complexity then prepare them for complexity and put them in complex situations. Don't, don't kind of prescribe everything and then say ‘well we, prepared you for the real world now’ -oops! So if, we can have some degree of controlled anarchy and some controlled chaos which is done in a reasonably, safe environment, I think that much better prepares learners in the twenty first century than, prescribed curricula.” Participant F1

Open CPD to collaborate and join-up initiatives

1. Could open courses, such as FDOL be adapted more widely and become part of wider CPD offers for academics and other professionals who teach in HE?

2. Are there now opportunities for the co-creation of curricula among institutions & industry to create innovative, contextualised and sustainable solutions that can be scaled up?

Hard fun?

“I enjoyed the process of collaborative working, work that was struggle, it was fun, it was interesting to communicate with others, especially due to the […] multi-national structure. So I can encounter the […] different, other […] backgrounds. […] it's, interesting for me, in contrast to me communicating with our other, colleagues […] So this was inspiring […] .” Participant F4

FDOL131 > FDOL132> FDOL141

Course FDOL131 FDOL132 FDOL141

Course duration 11Feb – 7 May 13

12 weeks

12 Sep – 5 Dec 13

12 weeks

10 Feb - 23 March 14

6 weeks

Thematic units 6 7 6

Learners 80 107 86

Learners from the UK 42 65 38

Learners from Sweden 21 20 27

Learners from other countries 17 22 21

Groups 8>4 4>3 6>4

Learners in groups/% 64/80% 31/29% 27/32%

Facilitators 4>3 4 14>11 (in pairs/threes)

Learners per facilitator 27 36 7 or 14 (in pairs)

Learners that completed in groups 16 13 17

Completion rate based on the whole

cohort

insufficient information insufficient information insufficient information

Completion rate based on group

participation

25% 43% 63%

(Nerantzi, 2014, 55)

• Continue data analysis of case FDOL132 using NVivo, define categories of description

• Continue literature review (cooperative, collaborative learning, open learning)

• Finish paper about FDOL132 conceptions of learning in PBL groups

• …

Next steps

Astin, S. (1993) What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Barnett, R (2011) The coming of the ecological university, in: Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 37, Issue 4, 2011, Taylor & Francis, pp. 439-455. Barrows, H S (2000) Problem-based learning applied to medical education, Southern Illinois School of Medicine: Illinois Browne Report (2010) Securing a sustainable future for higher education, Department for Employment and Learning, available at http://www.delni.gov.uk/index/publications/pubs-higher-education/browne-report-student-fees.htm [accessed 1 November 2013] Conole, G. (2013a) Designing for learning in an Open World, London: Springer. Dillenbourg, P., & Schneider, D. (1995). Collaborative learning and the internet, available: http://tecfa.unige.ch/tecfa/research/CMC/colla/iccai95_1.html [accessed 12 May 2014]. European Commission (2013) High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education. Report to the European Commission on Improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher

education institutions, European Union, available at http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher-education/doc/modernisation_en.pdf [accessed 20 February 2014] Gibbs, G. (2013) Reflections on the changing nature of educational development. International Journal for Academic Development, V. 18, Number 1, March 2013, pp. 4-14. Gibbs, G. (2012) Implications of ‘Dimensions of quality’ in a market environment, York: The Higher Education Academy, available at

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/evidence_informed_practice/HEA_Dimensions_of_Quality_2.pdf Gibbs, G. (2010) Dimensions of quality, York: The Higher Education Academy, available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/evidence_informed_practice/Dimensions_of_Quality.pdf

[accessed 8 November 2013] Galley, R., Conole, G, Dalziel, J and Ghiglione, E. (2010). Cloudworks as a ‘pedagogical wrapper’ for LAMS sequences: supporting the sharing of ideas across professional boundaries and facilitating

collaborative design, evaluation and critical reflection. LAMS and Learning Design. A. Alexander, J. Dalziel, J. Krajka and R. Kiely. Nicosia, University of Nicosia Press. 2: 37-50.

Jackson, N. J. (2014) Lifewide Learning and Education in Universities & Colleges: Concepts and Conceptual Aids, in N.J. Jackson and J. Willis (Eds) Lifewide Learning and Education in Universities and Colleges. Chapter A1 Available at: http://www.learninglives.co.uk/e-book.html

Johnson, D, W & Johnson, R (1999) Learning together and alone. Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning (5 th edition) Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. & Smith, K. (2007) The State of Cooperative Learning in Postsecondary and Professional Settings, in. Educational Psychology Review, 19: 15-29. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. & Stanne, M. B. (2000) Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta-Analysis, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota, available at

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=Cooperative+learning+methods:+a+meta-analysis&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=uoKJU7TXMMb6PNLIgZAL&ved=0CCsQgQMwAA [accessed 31 May 2014]

Marton, F. (1994) Phenomenography as a Research Approach, Husen, T. and Postlethwaite, N. (2nd ed) The International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol. 8, Pergamon, pp. 4424-4429, available athttp://www.ped.gu.se/biorn/phgraph/civil/main/1res.appr.html [accessed 3 Jan 2014]. McKeachie, W., Pintrich, P., Yo-Guang, L. & Smith, D. (1986) Teaching and learning in the college classroom: A review of the research literature. Ann Arbor, MI: The Regents of the University of Michigan. Nerantzi, C. (2014) A personal journey of discoveries through a DIY open course development for professional development of teachers in Higher Education (invited paper),Journal of Pedagogic

Development, University of Bedfordshire, Volume 4, Issue 2, pp. 42-58 http://www.beds.ac.uk/jpd Redecker, C., Leis, M., Leendertse, M., Punie, Y., Gijsbers, G., Kirschner, P. Stoyanov, S. and Hoogveld, B. (2011) The Future of Learning: Preparing for Change. European Commission Joint Research Centre

Institute for Prospective Technological Studies EUR 24960 EN Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=4719 [accessed 21 February 2014] Ryan, A. & Tilbury, D. (2013) Flexible Pedagogies, new pedagogical ideas, York: HEA, available at ttp://www.heacademy.ac.uk/news/detail/2013/new_pedagogical_ideas [accessed 21 November 2013] Sallivan, W. (2005) Work and integrity: The crisis and promise of professionalism in America (2nd edition), Stanford, CN: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Schwartz, D. (1999) The productive agency that drives collaborative learning. In: Dillenourg, P. (ed.) Collaborative learning: Cognitive and computational approaches, New York: Elsevier Science/Permagon. Stake, R. E. (1995) The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. The UK Quality Code for Higher Eduction (2012) Glouchester: Quality Assurance Agency, available at http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/quality-code-brief-guide.aspx [accessed 5 December 2013] Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Weller, M. (2014) The Battle for Open Webinar, The Ed Techie, 21 March 2014, available at http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/ [accessed 22 July 2014] Wiley (2006) a shift towards ‘openness’ in academic practice as not only a positive trend, but a necessary one in order to ensure transparency, collaboration and continued innovation Wiley, D. (2006) Open Source, Openness, and Higher Education, innovate, Oct/Nov, Volumne 3, issue 1, available at http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol3_issue1/Open_Source,_Openness,_and_Higher_Education.pdf [accessed 20 February 2014] Wiley, D. and Hilton, J. (2009) Openness, Dynamic Specialization, and the Disaggregated Future of Higher Education, in: International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Volume 10, Number 5, 2009, pp. 1-16., available at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/768 [accessed 20 February 2014]

References

cross-institutional #BYOD4L

14 – 18 July

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Manchester Metropolitan University Sheffield Hallam University University of Sussex University of Ulster London Metropolitan University

“I felt I knew everybody”

Learner experiences

in an open cross-institutional CPD course for teachers in HE

Chrissi Nerantzi Academic Developer Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @chrissinerantzi

APT Conference: Connected Learning in an Open World, University of Greenwich, 8 July 2014

Ner

antz

i, U

hlin

& K

varn

strö

m (2

013)