During this week I observed my PGCHE colleague Adrianne Arendse as he undertook the face to face element of his blended learning activity at Falmouth University. The Learning Conversation Form is available on the following link

Click to access learning-conversation-form-rtv1-completed.pdf

When I reflect back upon this module it is difficult to pin point a single experience as this really has been a journey for me. If I was able to go back to the beginning of this PGCHE and write down what I thought the role of a lecturer should be and compare that with the image of the lecturer I now carry in my mind the contrast would be pretty shocking.

Learning about flipping back in week 2 of this module was probably a key moment for me. My understanding of how the role of a lecturer could be more of a guide to support those students who would benefit from embarking on their own learning path, was growing on me as we progressed with the course. Listening to Katie Gimbar’s podcasts where she makes such a clear case for how flipping has worked for her students left me excited by the possibilities of offloading some of the more routine learning tasks my students have to endure onto an online platform freeing up some of our face to face time for a more interactive learning through doing the type activities where I would be able to spend time addressing individual learners and their specific needs and thus far better target my support and make the best use of my time in the interests of students achieving their LO’s

Why is this so valuable to me? Before this course I would have probably said that the role of the lecturer was primarily to impart knowledge and information to his students. I entered HE with a rather outdated view of the lecturer as the person on the podium handing down wisdom through powerpoint. This opinion of a lecturer went against my natural instincts for how I wanted to teach as in my own career I had plenty of experience of mentoring and teaching through working alongside junior colleagues who clearly had no interest in learning through absorbing endless facts and naturally learnt by experience where my role was to steer them in the right direction. My first experiences of being an AL introduced me to seminars and workshops and reinforced my view that I was more suited to this approach to teaching and my students more likely to benefit from being more actively engaged in their own learning. However the modules I teach still have an element of “this is content you need to know” and I had no real understanding of how to avoid some seminars becoming out and out lectures. Then along comes the concept of Flipping and a lightbulb went off in my head. It just seemed to make so much sense not just to shift  the knowledge “download” to free up time in face to face but also to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and have a chance to benefit from the flexibility in choosing when and where you study in a “safe” environment without any risk of isolation or falling behind unnoticed.

I immediately started thinking of how I could use this approach in my own modules and the assignment to create a flipped experience became a way of trying this out which added a huge incentive and made the experience feel even more worthwhile.

So there are a couple of ways in which I will take this particular experience on. Clearly developing more effective ways of bringing technology to bear where appropriate in my teaching and seek to find further ways to blend my teaching is something I am extremely keen to pursue in current and future modules. As importantly the experience of seeing how relevance of what you are learning can inject a real enthusiasm into my own learning experience is something I want to use to benchmark my own future planning to ensure what and how I teach is as relevant for my own experience.

This week has been a real lesson in the flexibility of online learning. Technically the study block is over and yet I am still able to continue my studies albeit under the same self imposed handicap of working so far behind the cohort all my posts languish with no response on the forum.

Looking back on this week and specifically reflecting on the “Characteristics of the successful Online Student (Illinois Online Network, 2007) I’m struck by the thought that were I to list the characteristics of a campus based student, aside from the obvious technical ones, the similarities would outweigh the differences.

As for how well I personally meet these criteria, I would say that I am comfortable in areas like technical competence, writing ability, critical thinking, and having an open mind. When it comes to setting aside enough time and as importantly managing the time one has, I am not so strong and these are areas I would benefit from developing higher skills. I certainly do not think that online learning is an easy option and if I did, I soon learned how wrong that assumption could be. In fact I would have benefited from a greater understanding of the commitment required but take responsibility for not researching carefully this before beginning the course.  Likewise I do agree that that it is important to match the requirements for the course in order to get the benefit and a successful outcome. I would say on this I am a borderline case, with so little experience of HE either as a student or a practitioner.

This course has been my only experience of learning online. I think the big learning for me has been how important it is to quickly get to a place where you are comfortable being an active participant in the community of learning. This has a lot to do with confidence. Starting late and so behind from the start had a really negative impact on my confidence engaging with the student cohort as we were in such different places. I assumed that the flexibility of online learning would support late starters like myself. This is very much not the case. In fact I would go as far as to say that falling behind in the online sphere at any point in the course is at least as damaging if not more so than in the face to face environment. This is definitely something I was not expecting and has proved a painful but necessary lesson.

As to what is lacking in the summary of characteristics, I know this is linked to self discipline however I would put good Time Management skills as a key factor in successful online learning. On the positive side the course has certainly helped me recognise my weakness and up my game in this area.

The fact that our cohort on this PGCHE seems to be pretty much entirely made up of well balanced supportive learners has meant little first hand insight into dealing with challenging situations with difficult online students. I don’t know if this is a result of the student base being possibly slightly older and very focused on wanting to achieve a positive outcome but whatever the reason I have not come across any Flamers or Saboteurs in this PGCHE

What I do have first have is my own experience of struggling being a “Lurker” and failing to rise quickly through Salmon’s five stage model. I am sure this experience has given me a real empathy with students who may struggle to engage, and I am confident that I will be far keener to dig a little into the reasons a student maybe struggling before condemning them as an “Idler” I would hope this will reflect positively on how I approach dealing with any challenging students in the online environment.

Thank you for taking part in this Flipped Learning Exercise.

Click on the video below to get started.

Now to find out a little more about the BARB Panel and why we need it watch the video below.

Now to find out how BARB knows who is watching and what they are watching watch the  video below.

Now watch the video below to take a closer look at how to pull data on TV Shows from the BARB website

Having watched the videos it is now time to try these exercises that will get you used to using BARB to pull viewing figures on shows.

Exercise 1 Dragons Den Versus The Apprentice

The first episode of last seasons Dragons Den aired on BBC2 on Sunday Aug 12th 2018

The first episode of last seasons The Apprentice aired on BBC 1 on Weds 4th October

I want you to use BARB’s site to pull as much data as possible on both seasons and draw whatever conclusions you can about the performance of both these shows from the data you pull.

Questions you might use the data to answer include…

How successful are these seasons of both shows relative to previous seasons?

Do the audience grow/hold firm/drop during the seasons?

How successful are theses shows relative to shows they are up against in similar slots on different channels?

How successful are the shows relative to each other?

How successful are the shows on their channel relative to other similar shows on that channel?

Face to Face Seminar 10th July 2019 Falmouth University

Test your knowledge of BARB with this Kahoot! Quiz

https://create.kahoot.it/share/the-barb-quiz/b3cb513b-2b49-4650-b5c7-8dd5bf334f03

Exercise 2 Gentleman Jack

Would you feel comfortable re commissioning another series of either or both of these shows?

First episode of BBC1’s flagship Sunday night series Gentleman Jack first aired on BBC1 on Sunday 19^th May at 9pm. Use Barb to pull whatever data you can on the series and comparing Gentleman Jack to at least one other Flagship Sunday night drama on BBC1 Using this data make a case for whether or not you feel Gentleman Jack is a hit for the channel. 

The first episode of season 2 of BBC3’s hugely popular Killing Eve ran on BBC1 at 9pm on Saturday June 8^th. Looking at the 4 screen data for this show with the episode of Gentleman Jack which ran on Sunday the 9^th June which of these shows had a higher relative audience on PC’s and laptops and why do you think this was the case.

The first episode of season 3 of Channel 4’s Emmy award winning hit series The Handmaid’s Tale returned to C4 on Sunday June 9^th at 9pm. Did the return of this hit show have an impact on the episode of Gentleman Jack which ran at the same time on BBC1

Looking forward to seeing you at the face to face session when we will discuss the conclusions you draw from the exercises and how this kind of research can be used in your future proposals.  We will also look at a couple of other useful sources of programme data and consider possible shows to feature in future assignments.

I have had to take time away from engaging with my learning for 2 weeks in order to complete my marking for the 2 modules I teach. Before then I completed and uploaded my week 10 activity, the CEG Pedagogic Framework and it has been interesting coming back now and re reading this week.  It is really frustrating that just as I managed to find time to catch up with my learning to a point I was moving from a committed “lurker” to a far more actively engaged contributor I fall behind again.

Despite this, on reflection I feel confident that I have achieved this weeks learning objectives. The fact this course is created within the CEG Pedagogic Framework has made understanding the thinking behind the structure of the learning both easier and more interesting.

This weeks challenge activity also proved really interesting. I enjoyed the process of looking at section of a module I have delivered and see how the weeks content and activity can be adapted into an online delivery. Indeed this process will inform how I deliver this section of the module in future as I would hope to take a far more blended approach next time.  Considering the Toro-Troconis Benchmark of 70:20:10 formed an important part of our activity this week as it is at the heart of the CEG Pedagogocic Framework. From reading the forum posts this week, I am not alone in wishing to challenge these numbers. Whilst I understand the benefit in focusing learning on the deeper more active learning activities around enquiry, practice and production, as compared to the shallower, more passive activity of acquisition, I find myself agreeing with several student colleagues in viewing discussion and collaboration as being more significant than the 20% stated in the benchmark.

I am also quite shocked by how much the traditional lecture approach is devalued. I am fully on board with the idea that deep learning is best supported by learning through doing, however I do feel there is a level of acquisition that is necessary to inform a student’s thinking and I am surprised this is seen to be as little as 10% of a student’s time. We talk a great deal about supporting diversity in student learning techniques and I am sure that some students value the opportunity to acquire information from a lecture format and so I would question as low a value as 10%

Having said all this I came across a really interesting paper this week “Active Learning: Engaging Students to Maximize Learning In an Online Course” which makes a compelling argument for placing active learning experiences such as discussion and collaboration at the heart of the online learning process.

https://issuu.com/academic-conferences.org/docs/ejel-volume15-issue2-article581

It also illuminated Poll and Weller’s (2014) outline of the six strategies to help develop best practice in the online environment, which I find a useful checklist.

1) Building a community

2) Clearly outlining course expectations

3) Utilising online tools for interaction

4) Promoting the exchange of ideas

5) Providing timely and relevant feedback

6) Creating an environment that is student centred

This week reading chapter 2 of Rennie and Morrison’s E-Learning and Social Networking Handbook was fascinating. As well as learning a completely new term “Distributed Learning”, a method of optimising flexibility of learning to a diversity of learner types,  (see image below)  I was challenged by a couple of far deeper questions.

Do Learning Outcomes strangle flexible student centered approach? 

“As we become more learner-centred, instructors move from covering content to helping students master learning outcomes. (Rennie & Morrison 2012 p31) 

Until now I have been very comfortable with the practical approach of working backwards from a defined objective of what you want the student to be able to do at the end of the process.  I am beginning to grasp the potential benefits of a more flexible approach when students have greater autonomy in structuring their learning and this is shaking my confidence in relying on a Learning Outcomes driven approach.

“A significant problem with this approach is that if the outcome-based approach is too rigid, it flies in the face of demands for more student autonomy in learning choices. How can it be a truly self-directed learning experience if the outcomes and the paths to these outcomes are preselected before the student even signs up for the course?” (Rennie & Morrison 2012 p32)

How much flexibility is in the students best interests?

This whole notion of encouraging students to self select what and how they learn does raise the question of what level of autonomy is in their best interest. Is it right for a student to choose to head down a blind alley and spend hours researching and reading the wrong material?

Rennie, F, & Morrison, T 2012, E-Learning and Social Networking Handbook : Resources for Higher Education, Routledge, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [24 May 2019].

I have been excited and a little overwhelmed this week with the number and variety of excellent e-learning tools that fellow students have brought to my attention in the forum.

I am sure I will be using Kahoot, Prezzi, Padlet, Mentameter, Poll Everywhere, Frame,io.and  Deck of Brilliance to name but a few of the excellent suggestions.

It is interesting that it’s not only software specifically designed for education but rather harnessing technology students are already comfortable using in their daily lives and using this as a learning tool.

Faced with such a multitude of options it is easy to choose tools on the basis of how impressive they are as opposed to how well they support the specific LO’s

In reflecting upon how one goes about selecting a digital e-learning tool it strikes me   that selecting digital tools is really no different to planning any educational activity. What is the pedagogical problem the tool needs to address? How will the students background and environment effect their ability to engage with the tool? How will I as educator make an effective intervention using the tool? Where will the tool sit within the overall teaching and assessment strategy? These are questions one asks oneself in any planning task.

In (Salmon 2013 p 118) we come across the difference between tools that create “Sparks” or information that inspires learning and those that encourage communication and collaboration. In the learning resources for this week on the EDU720 module site, we learn that “the option of ‘a technology that encourages more connectivity’ might be chosen over one which ‘seems to encourage more passive, individual learning’ (Peisley, 2019) Whilst this is true I do think that in the spirit of embracing variation in learning styles there is room for technology with interactive features and functionality that supports individual learning (sparks) alongside that which encourages a more group led approach.

My reading this week included chapter 3 of (MacDonald, J 2017 p 21) where she talks about tutors perceptions of effective intervention and my new words for the week are…

affective- confidence building

dialogic – tailoring to individual needs

focusing­ – bringing study to the fore

reflective – allowing time to think

timely – arriving when relevant and useful

reversionable – using support to individual as well as group

accessible – available to maximum number of students.

Peisley, A. (2019) Week 9: Choosing Technology for Online Learning: Developing Flexible Learning Environments EDU720 18/19 Part-Time Study Block S2, Falmouth University. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/344/pages/week-9-choosing-technology-for-online-learning?module_item_id=19573 (Accessed: 29 March 2019).

Salmon, G 2013, E-Tivities : The Key to Active Online Learning, Routledge, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [21 April 2019].

MacDonald, J 2017, Blended Learning and Online Tutoring : Planning Learner Support and Activity Design, Routledge, Abingdon. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [23 April 2019].

NO LONGER A LURKER

This week started well. I was pleased that my 3 priorities for online learning did not alter significantly after participation in the forum.

Reflection this week has focused on my engagement with this PGCHE course which is my only direct experience of online learning.

Salmon’s explanation of the 5 stage model (Salmon 2013 p44) made a great deal of sense and I found the description of lurkers and vicarious learners (Salmon 2013 p67) something I can readily identify with in how I interact with the course. Whilst this week I can celebrate no longer being a lurker as my forum posts received feedback for the first time and I engaged in a useful dialogue, I must somehow find a way of elevating myself from Stage 4 to Stage 5 before it is too late.

I had not fully grasped the importance of building communities of group working if online learning is to work well. Learning online should be flexible but not solitary. Salmon 2013 p88 explains the importance of both co-operative and collaborative group working and makes a strong case for its importance in generating successful outcomes.  In planning my online course I shall include some means of encouraging group working as early as possible in order that students quickly gain the confidence to fully engage. This will in some way take the form of Affective Interventions,  (Macdonald 2017 p23) probably face to face or synchronous phone conversations designed to build students confidence and establish a relationship with individual learners.

Salmon, G 2013, E-Tivities : The Key to Active Online Learning, Routledge, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [9 April 2019].

MacDonald, Janet. Blended Learning and Online Tutoring : Planning Learner Support and Activity Design, Routledge, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central,

This weeks useful definition…

“Reaching a learner’s heart is often referred to as “affective engagement” and engaging the mind in the content is often called “cognitive engagement.” (Stein and Graham 2014 p 52)

In my reading this week  I came across a useful “Blended Course Checklist” (Stein and Graham 2014 p 195) which I shall certainly refer to when designing a blended session.

I feel confident in saying the learning outcomes of the week have been achieved.

This weeks forums are really strong. Interesting how many people including myself struggled with what appeared on the face of it to be a reasonably straightforward exercise.

A couple of useful benchmarks for evaluation both came from reading other students posts in the forum this week.

The 3’Es as described in Stein and Graham’s essentials for Blended Learning (Stein and Graham 2014 p 52) are a particularly good framework for evaluation

The 3 E’s

Effectiveness—refers to how well students are able to achieve the learning outcomes for a course.

Engagement—refers to the emotional and mental energy that students are willing to expend during a learning experience.

Efficiency—refers to the resources (teacher/student time, effort, money, etc.) invested in the development and implementation of an instructional activity

And I also read how checking an activity against the 4 Pillars of Flipped Learning is also a useful tool in evaluation.

The 4 Pillars of Flexible Learning

Flexible Environment–Students study where and when that best suits them

Learning Culture In a Flipped Learning model, in-class time is dedicated to exploring topics in greater depth and creating rich learning opportunities.

Intentional Content Flipped Learning Educators determine what they need to teach and what materials students should handle on their own.

Professional Educator The role of a Professional Educator is even more important, and often more demanding, in a Flipped Classroom than in a traditional one. During class time, they need to observe students, providing them with instant feedback and an assessment their work.

(Lynch M, 2015)

A couple of general points from reading this weeks forums.

It was interesting that very few people included questions along the lines of “what might I improve next time in their evaluation checklists, myself included. Clearly this is one of the most important questions to ask oneself when evaluating a flipped session.

However it was clear that most people felt strongly the student feedback on evaluating this type of exercise was essential.  If students are not motivated to fully participate with the online activity there is a risk they will fail to engage and turn up to the face to face unprepared and so be unable to participate in the intended deeper learning session leaving the lecturer in the difficult position of having to try and teach different levels to different groups of students. This has a demotivating effect on all students not just those who failed to engage.

It is fair to say that this weeks LO’s have only been partly met. I am confident that the online and face to face elements of my flipped classroom design are reasonably well integrated. It passes the “could you run the face to face without the online test” as clearly in my case you could not. However I am not as yet ready to pilot my Flipped session.

If the PGCHE has taught me anything it is empathy with my students. Attempting, and failing, to keep up with this course has left me with a far better understanding of the stress from the workload they are under. This week I have spent a lot of time working on my deferred recorded micro teach assignment from the previous module. To do this I have enjoyed looking back over all of the cohorts micro teach video submissions. Apart from how skilled everyone else is, compared to me, one thing that struck me was how many of the sessions would have leant themselves to an element of flipping and a blended approach. I am absolutely sure that given sufficient time to plan and bring students along with the flipped approach would mean I would be a keen advocate of increasing the level of flipped learning within our modules.

Reading the forums this week I am impressed by how many people are making sure their flipped sessions are well integrated and aligned to the course to give them the best chance of engagement.

Macdonald excellent Blended Learning and Online Tutoring (Macdonald 2017 p129) is very clear on the importance of adhering to Biggs explanation of aligned teaching (Biggs 2003, p 27) in which he explains that clear objectives are achieved through choosing teaching methods that are most likely to realise those objectives.

This goes right back to “why am I flipping” this element of the course through to making sure students understand the relevance of the flipped activity to achieving their assessed LO’s and whether or not the specific tools used in the Flip are the right ones to again support the achievement of the LO’s

Reading Macdonald this week I found useful her explanation of the 3 principle factors she believes affect blended learning, “Purpose of Learning, Context of Learning and Preferred approaches to teaching and learning. “  (Macdonald 2017 p71) and then particularly useful how she explores how Blended Learning techniques may vary for each of the 4 distinct approaches to learning as written about by (Reynolds et all 2002) namely Learning as behavior, Learning as Understanding Concepts, Learning as knowledge Construction and Learning as social practice.

Andy’s Pod casts this week were useful in re-enforcing this. He succeeded in his sessions when he focused on the content and the structure supporting the learning and desired outcomes, rather than getting hung up on over producing and paying less attention on the learning strategy and alignment.

Before I build the specific elements of my online activities I need to find time to go through my plan to ensure it is fully aligned with the relevant module LO’s

MacDonald, Janet. Blended Learning and Online Tutoring : Planning Learner Support and Activity Design, Routledge, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Reynolds, J., Caley, L. and Mason, R. (2002) How Do People Learn?, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The engagement of the imagination is the only thing that makes any activity more than mechanical. John Dewey, Democracy and Education

I would say that this has been another week of achieving the LO’s

Perhaps more about re-inforcing my growing belief in the power of blended learning rather than challenging any of my pre conceptions.

The Pod Casts this week were great. I understand Kate Gimbar’s assertion that you need to create your own online content to ensure it connects with your students however there is fantastic ready made content out there that I also want my students to enjoy and benefit from. I would say it is about getting the balance right.

Andy Peisleys warning to avoid “procrastination” and focus on the content not the movie production values rang very true with me.

The framework from Koumi (2015) offers a really useful summary of pedagogic design principles. I love the idea of ensuring every podcast has a “hook”

I found the Impala model exercise useful if for no other reason than giving me confidence in my approach on my assignment. I was struck by the range of tasks that online can offer the educator from replacing lectures to step by step “how to” videos.

This week has been about refining my online plan in light of the understanding of what it takes to engage hearts and minds and why it is critical to ensure that students have the genuine desire to engage which is so necessary to ensure the commitment to follow through on the challenging mental tasks necessary for them to succeed.

At its essence an effective blended learning experience can provide exactly the mix of experiences to inspire the “heart”  (affective engagement) in order to engage the “mind” (cognitive engagement) (Stein & Graham p52)

I fear for my students as amongst other things this gives me licence to inflict some terrible “Dad” jokes in my podcasts in the interest of providing the “hook” and capturing the hearts to engage the minds.

Another thing that came home to me this hard this week was the danger of repetition. Having to repeat seminars for different groups as we all have too, has a real risk of loosing “freshness” it struck me that my video podcast to all 4 groups would stay as fresh as I managed to create it.

My reading this week mainly Stein & Grahams excellent Engaging learners in a blended environment” which has given me my latest mantra “take advantage of their strengths and diminish their weaknesses.” As well as setting me a lifelong challenge. “This is why rethinking everything you do in the traditional face-to-face classroom is critical for a transformative blended course. (Stein & Graham p115)

Essentials for Blended Learning A Standards-Based Guide Jared Stein and Charles R. Graham

First published 2014 by Routledge

I would say that this week I have pretty much achieved the learning outcomes, and if nothing else cemented my view that Flipping, in the right place is a really powerful weapon in the educator’s armory but like any powerful weapon it needs to be used with care!  Care to ensure the online and face to face time both remain intimately aligned to the learning outcomes and assessment strategy and weave together to ensure one compliments the other.

I really liked the idea of mixing up the online activities and using something like podcasting with its relaxed more intimate approach to try and build up a more personal relationship with students.

The value of using humour to hook students and the overall effect of blended learning is made very clear in the Palitha Edirisingha & John Fothergill (2009) case history with compelling data on the improvement in results when blended works. Student feedback clearly showed how much students value the flexibility of being able to view a lecture or listen to a podcast at a time that suited them.

My draft is very much a draft and I have learnt a great deal from the forums and reading. Need to get it a lot thinner…keep it simple is a mantra I could do well to adopt. I found : Palitha Edirisingha & John Fothergill (2009) description of how they break down the content into small learning units really interesting and will need to focus on that.   Also need to really examine what I am planning to ensure I am making the most of the strengths and minimising the weaknesses of the blended approach.  With this in mind I am going to look at Kahoot! And see if it makes sense to build into my proposal.

 I liked the “backward design” approach as described (Stein & Graham 2014 p69) and I will have to back engineer that into my planning. 

The importance of providing a high level of support to students to help them adapt to this blended approach comes across in all the reading and obviously should not be underestimated. This starts at having to be clear about desired learning outcomes so that students are able to test themselves against these criteria. The requirement for self-directed learning can be a challenge to students who may be dealing with a range of distractions (Palitha Edirisingha & John Fothergill (2009) There is no point expecting students to engage with more activity between face to face unless it is planned to avoid overload and made abundantly clear the advantages to the students in making the effort to engage in this way. To ensure blending works it is really important to provide the right support and encouragement so that students have the desire to acquire the range of self-directed study skills they will need to succeed.

Palitha Edirisingha & John Fothergill (2009) Balancing e-lectures with podcasts: a case study of an undergraduate engineering module, Engineering Education, 4:2, 14-24,

DOI: 10.11120/ened.2009.04020014

Author: Jared Stein And Charles R. Graham. Pages: 223 Size: 11.84 MB Format: PDF Publisher: Routledge Ltd Published: 03 January, 2014

eISBN-13: 9780203075258 Show more