New case study: Enhancing access, equity and student learning through the use of virtual microscopy

We've just made available another new case study. This time it comes from Dr Lucy Webster, who was awarded a Flexible Learning Institute Teaching Fellowship in 2010 to complete this project as part of BMS337 (Histopathology), and has this year been honoured with both CSU's Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence, and an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for 'for creating flexible and engaging resources to enhance student learning in the Biomedical sciences'.  

One of the slides that Lucy used with her Histopathology students. Both internal
and distance students were given various samples in which they made an
initial diagnosis, followed by a virtual meeting where Lucy was able to
address any incorrect diagnoses through discussion and shared annotation
on the slide on the electronic whiteboard. Following the session,
students would write up a case study report on their final diagnosis and justifications

From the case study:

The teaching of microscopy-based subjects is currently severely hindered by issues surrounding infrastructure, access and equity. In particular, distance education and offshore students are largely restricted to viewing samples on glass-microscope slides during intense residential school periods where they are under immense stress and time pressures. In this case study, Dr Lucy Webster shares how she has used virtual microscopy to digitally reproduce glass slides for normal tissue histology and histopathology so that images can be viewed and manipulated at remote locations. 

This blended and flexible learning strategy has had positive impacts on student access, equity, learning outcomes and engagement. Feedback from students was extremely positive and students have requested that the technology be used in other microscopy-based subjects. Widespread implementation of this technology has the potential to transform the teaching and flexible delivery of all microscopy-based subjects within the Faculty of Science at CSU. 

In this video, Lucy talks about her project: 

You can read Lucy's full case study here.  

Lucy is currently working on a ALTC-funded project with Professor Geoff Meyer at the University of Western Australia on a project entitled “New paradigms for learning and teaching histology; changing focus from microscopy to 3D reconstructions and animations”.

New case study: Using simulations to help students recognise common patterns

For those of you who have seen our DVD, Exploring Good Practice in Blended and Flexible Learning: The Practitioner's Voice, you'll recognise Chris Bushell who teaches in the Associate Degree Policing Practice (ADPP) and had the 'last word' on that video about designing for BFL: "You're only limited by your imagination". 

Well, Chris had a lot more to say than just that when we interviewed him...as did all the other Fellows we interviewed. We're slowly pulling together that footage into short (10-12 min) video case studies, supported by a PebblePad webfolio that outlines the project in a bit more detail, and offers resources for those who might want to follow in their footsteps.

In his case study, Chris talks about Dahl's (1951) notions of observation as a key ingredient in policing. He'd previously completed some excellent work creating filmed scenarios of policing incidents, and the students also act out roles in a live scenario village called Rossiville. 

However, once students entered the final distance component of their course, the linkages between theory and practice weren't as strong. So Chris created a simulation to help the students, then probationary officers, gain a better understanding of the realities of policing and, in particular, responding to domestic violence situations. It helps them recognise and practice patterns of actions that successfully resolve both volatile and sometimes fatal policing incidents.

The simulation has had positive responses from students who appreciated the ability to learn in a safe environment which also allowed them to repeatedly practice the simulation to improve their skills.

Take a look! 

Digital storytelling: Hippedy, Hippedy...

Recently Miriam Edwards shared an update on the digital storybook project being run by Dr Noella Mackenzie as part of CSU's ESL201 – Literacy Studies in the Primary School. The project was part of a Border Mail story, and really caught my eye. This is the third year the project has run from the Albury, Dubbo & Bathurst campuses, and a quick look at the following video will leave you with no doubt about the benefits for our pre-service teachers...and their younger 'buddies'!

Digital storytelling involves 'combining narrative with digital content to create a short movie' (Educause, 2007). It's a perfect fit for a range of genres - instructional, persuasive, historical, reflective...or in this case, children's narratives!  

The students are tasked with helping K-2 children become confident readers and writers through the co-writing of a digital narrative. Noella specifically made it a digital narrative to build the students' digital literacy skills and prepare them for the digital classroom. This is how it happened...  

Pre-production 
Each pre-service teacher was ‘buddied’ up with a K-2 child, who they met beforehand to 'build rapport'. The students were prepared for the task ahead through a series of topics relating to the K-6 English Syllabus including Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Viewing and Representing.

Some specific technology knowledge was needed as well, and so the students were prepped on how to use Microsoft's Photo Story to create a video (wmv) from digital photos and audio content (narration, music or other sounds). Several of the students used their phones to capture audio and allowed the children to narrate the stories. Along with a face-to-face workshop, the team provided the students with a tutorial on digital storytelling and a 'how to' video available on YouTube.

Production 
The students and their buddies both arrived with previously discussed props and costumes to spark the imagination, and were seen wandering around dressed as explorers, fairies and bats! The students had also come prepared with digital cameras and laptop computers, and they were kept busy taking photos, recording audio and writing notes. In many cases it was the CSU pre-service teachers’ first experience of teaching a young child.

In this video, Noella discusses the process:

Post production 

After lunch, the students and children worked on developing their stories, and by the end of the day, they had a rough draft to continue working with. The process was creative and quite open ended. Some of the students opted to create traditional illustrations which were later scanned, while others woriked with photo editing software. The final stories were shared on the subject site, as well as with the buddies (via CD/DVD).

The task does a wonderful job of leading students into their 20-day practicum. As Noella says, 'With the digital stories each student got to work one-on-one with a child. This gave them real insight into just how diverse the needs of young students can be.'

Miriam Edwards, who provided the educational design support for Noella and her team, says that she's 'very proud of this project because it not only speaks to several ideas within the Degree Initiative, it creates strong ties with local schools and makes kids happy.' Couldn't agree more. :)

Those from CSU can find the full learning design on the About ICTIntegration wiki (CSU login required).

But are digital stories only useful with pre-service teachers? 

Well, are pre-service teachers and K-2 children the only people to tell stories? Storytelling is an ancient art, and there have been many, many projects around the world that cement this as an excellent pedagogical technique to engage students in a wide range of issues, from community medicine and sustainability to history, culture and scientific research. Researching the story, distilling key concepts, developing a point of view and engaging the audience ... not to mention digital literacy...are just some of the skills that students can expect to develop through digital storytelling. >

Here's a few resources to explore:

• The educational uses of digital storytelling
• The many dimensions of digital storytelling in higher education (check the case studies) 
• University of Wollongong's digital storytelling site
• QUT's digital storytelling site

The International Conference on Digital Storytelling will be held in Valencia, Spain on March 21 - 23, 2012. 

The CSU Library - a university-wide BFL strategy!

While we have lots of activity related to developing BFL strategies at course level at the moment, whaat we often don't think about are the BFL strategies of those areas of our university that are engaging with much larger groups of students on a daily basis. Enter left stage, our CSU Library.

Our library has been using a wide range of strategies for sharing resources and interacting with both staff and students for some time. In this case study, they are with us how they use virtual and physical spaces to 'foster research, study and interaction in an environment where diversity and ideas are embraced and respected.' 

CSULibrary has developed a BFL case study to show how a university-wide division is using blended and flexible learning strategies to remain current with the changes to information-seeking behaviours of both staff and students.

The inspiration for this case study came from a conversation I had with Tabitha Merrill in Orange after the CSUDegree Bookclub event on Blended and Flexible Learning (archive available here, CSU login required). One of the topics that was discussed was multi-literacies, one of the five BFL perspectives that we're encouraging CSU Course Teams to consider their courses from when developing a comprehensive strategy. Of course, information literacy is a key skill our students are expected to master during their time at university, but it's clear that the times when this meant knowing how to look up a card catalogue are long gone.

As the library team notes in their case study, competition from search engines, the abundance of freely available electronic resources and time-poor staff and students has meant that information-seeking behaviour has changed dramatically. Resources and help options need to be available when and where they are needed, and there are significant challenges in developing library research skills online.

This case study looks at how the Library is engaging with staff and students - from access to thousands of eBook titles, subject and research skills support to Live Chat - how it's all working, and what they are working on for the future. If the development of your students' library research skills are important to you, it's definitely worth taking a look. Do you know all that is available to your students - are you making use of all that's available to you? What can you learn from the Library's lessons about what works for them on a large scale, and what doesn't?

Our many thanks to the team who developed the case study: Tabitha Merrell, Vanessa Salway and Carole Gerts, with help from the Library's new Information and Liaison Services Manager, Lars Rutz.

Congratulations to our new BFL Course Symposium recipients!

We were offering three, but somehow we ended up with, wait for it, nine blended and flexible learning (BFL) course symposium grant winners for our second round of offers in 2011! If you haven't heard of the BFL course symposium grants yet, here's a quick background from Assoc Prof Merilyn Childs:

Each proposal was incredibly worthy, and offered insights into how a course-based BFL strategy might be used to provide insights and solutions to a wide range of risks and challenges. Let's take a look at just some:

• In the Faculty of Arts, Brett van Heekeren and his team of Advertising academics will be evaluating their current approaches to BFL in light of their industry's movement towards digital, social and mobile communication strategies. Their aim is to develop a 'future-driven' BFL strategy for the course that maintains currency and continues to develop leading edge students in this world of change. In the same school, Sharon Schoenmaker and her team of Public Relations academics will be looking at, among other things, how to create equivalent experiences in the highly practical components of their course for distance students. And on the Wagga campus, Bill Anscombe and his team in Social Work will be focusing on their residential school program, and how they can enhance their practice to ensure maximum equivalence and engagement for their students.
• In the Faculty of Business, Jason Howarth and his team have been busy with the STAR project, and will now be looking at how a blended and flexible learning strategy might fit with (and extend) work already completed in relation to the first year experience.
• In the Faculty of Education, Wendy De Luca will look at how she and her team can develop a more coherent and consistent course experience for their students despite increasing casualisation of staff. Margaret Torode and her team in Human Movement will be looking at how good practice can be maintained in the changing nature of their courses, with more flexible movement into and between courses in the near future.
• In the Faculty of Science, Gayle Smyth, Janelle Wheat and their teams will be looking and how they can best engage their distance students in authentic learning experience, especially in clinically based subjects;
• Finally, the Robin Wills and his Study Link team will be evaluating their current BFL approach, and explore how they may best foster multi-literacies in a world where the required literacies are moving and changing with developments in the digital age.

The full list of recipients is listed here:

At the moment, each of the Course Directors/Leaders are busy planning their symposiums, with some happening in a matter of weeks, and others involving a series of pre-symposium activities to prepare staff before a face-to-face strategy meeting early next year. Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding the teams to the BFL Course Symposium webfolio, so you'll be able to check in with their plans and progress. The outcomes from each symposium will be a BFL course strategy/plan, a series of sharable learning 'objects' or designs and a School-based presentation on the process and outcomes of their work.

Congratulations once again to all the successful teams! If you missed out, more symposiums will be on offer next year. :)

Simulations for professional practice

Our first guest contributor, Deb Murdoch from the Division of Learning and Teaching Services has kindly offered to share her insights into the kinds of things academics need to think about when first considering developing a simulation.

Deb was a project member of the ALTC-funded project on esimulations with Deakin and RMIT, and has developed a number of simulations with staff from the School of Policing and School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She has also contributed to the new book, Professional education using e-simulations: Benefits of blended learning design which is due for release later this month. She is currently working as an Educational Designer with the Faculty of Arts, and as an Academic Lead in the STAR Program with the Faculty of Business.

Why develop a simulation?

In this simulation, students 'practice' the skills involved
in suicide risk assessment, something that would be impossible
with real clients at this stage of their professional development.

E-Simulations use text to speech technology to enable students to put themselves in the place of a counsellor in a simulated situation.

Simulations have the potential to help students through experiential learning to make connections between theory and practice. They can see what’s happening, make decisions and see the consequences of those decisions, thus learning through discovery.

Practice in a safe environment, multiple times, can help build skills and confidence in processes while supporting student cognition about their practice. By providing the simulation in an online environment students can practice when and where they need to, building skills in a trial and error approach. By modeling reality, students can gain a state of readiness to enter their profession.

While there are no ready-made prescriptions or formulas for universal success in simulation development, breaking down a simulation project into its components can make the process easier.

How do I get started and what do I need to think about before I decide to build a simulation?

Here are some questions that you'll need to tackle before deciding to go ahead with a simulation:

• What is a simulation? Is it what I really need? Why should I build a simulation? How does it fit into my subject and course?
• What sorts of simulations are possible? Can I use a paper-based scenario I’m already using?
• What sort of experiences do I want my students to have? Think about both inside and outside of the simulation.  
• What goals does the simulation have?
• How would I deliver it?
• What sort of time lines do I need?
• Who needs to be involved? Do I need a team? What resources do I need?
• How would I brief the students on the experience?
• How would I engage them?
• What support or scaffolding would I need to provide? When is it needed?
• How ‘real’ would it have to be? What sort of interface do I need? Do I use real characters or avatars?
• What sort of script do I have to write? Do I need more than one?
• What is out of scope for this project?

A Gantt chart outlining the steps in the process and the amount of time that could be allocated to each section can be found at p.58 of the ALTC project's Resource Guide.

Some things to think about are scenario, interaction and experience design.

Scenario design

When deciding on your scenario, use something that has real world relevance, requires students to solve problems, be complex, allow students to create products as a result. If you can work on a simulation as a group that will meet the needs of several different subjects or courses you can save on resources and meet the needs of many while keeping costs down. Consider and develop possible scripts that encompass several (3-5 minimum) possible outcomes.

Interaction design
Determine what software you might use and understand its limitations. Captivate, SBLi, Second Life, LiveSim and Articulate are all possible software for simulations.

Here’s some links to check out.

a.     Softchalk                                
b.     Captivate                              
c.     Articulate Engage            
d.     SBL interactive                  
e.     LiveSim (contact Jacob Cybulski) 
f.      Smart Builder                  

It's important to explore how the simulation will work with the other online and offline tools, resources and activities you want students to complete. Think about what interactions you want in the simulation and how they might happen, and work with technologists to find the best solution for you.  Find out what options you have in developing characters for an online environment; will you have real characters in video or still shots, or use avatars? Decide on how you might deliver your simulation. Think about different physical environments, learning management systems, and the available online environment. Consider whether you intend for students to work together or alone, and the overall makeup of your cohorts.

Experience design
When it comes to designing the experience, you'll need to think about what participation you want students to have in the simulation, what feedback they might need and when it’s needed, how the eSim connects with other contexts in the subject to provide a blended learning experience and what formative and summative assessment is to be aligned to the simulation. Also, think about how you are going to connect all the components in your subject together to blend the simulation into the learning environment. Consider the experiences you want students to undertake during the eSim. What do you want them to do and in what environment?

Things to consider in the blended environment (Cybulski et al, 2010)

Most important of all, plan your simulation. Break all the above components down and organize them into tasks with timelines to help keep you on track. Consider your blended environment, characters, students, interactions and experiences, scaffolding, user interfaces, and software. Finally, evaluate your simulation to keep in mind how students are experiencing it so you can fine-tune to meet their needs.

For more information on designing a simulation, check the literature review, eSimulations for enhancing teaching and learning in Australian higher education and the ALTC guide, Designing, Developing, Using and Evaluating eSimulations for Professional Learning in Australian Higher Education. You’ll find other useful resources on experiential learning and simulations, including many case studies and examples, in FLI’s Delicious site.


Are you doing something interesting in blended and flexible learning? Check out the 'guest posts' page and get in touch...we'd love to hear from you!

What questions do you want to ask your peers about blended and flexible learning?

How often do you get asked to complete a survey, have the results returned to you, but really, they haven't asked the kinds of questions you'd want to ask? For me, that happens quite a bit.

So I was a pretty happy gal when, thanks to the ever-wonderful Tom Kuhlman's Rapid eLearning blog, I came across Urtak this morning. It touts itself as 'a tool for collecting opinions', and is made of up 'yes/no' questions, with a 'don't care' option as well. The creator sets up to 10 questions which are asked in random order. This means you can't choose which questions to answer, and this urked me at first - I wanted to skip over some questions and see what all others were. But I soon caught on that if I wasn't interested in a question, I just responded 'don't care'. The more 'don't care' responses there are to a question, the less likely it is that it will be asked again - so the better questions get asked more often.

But the bit I like is that the participants are able to ask their own questions. It immediately engaged me - what do I want to find out from my peers? Are the issues that are critical to me the same as they are for you? Are the assumptions we're making about what are the critical issues to our staff really warranted? And what questions are others asking?

As soon as you answer a question, you get to see a pie chart of how others have responded. And asking is as quick as type and click, once you've signed up (email address and password), which I admit is a bit of a draw back, even though it only took a second or two.

I tried it out with a few simple questions, but I'm more interested in the kinds of questions you are asking about blended and flexible learning at CSU. Have a go, and add some questions of your own!

Blended and flexible learning

The value for blended and flexible learning?
As Tom says in his post, the value is in its simplicity and the potential in using the questions to engage people. He suggests asking questions that elicit strong opinions and prompt some thought, then following this up by offering on- or offline facilitated discussion where students can qualify and strengthen these opinions after more in-depth discussion (something that's not possible, of course, with a yes/no response). In essence, this is using it to engage students and prime them for further conversation. He offers a good example, which you'll see when you read his post.

I'd like to suggest another use for this tool though. When designing to assist students in transitioning into the university environment, it's important to consider the development of community, and the sense of belonging that comes from knowing what the cohort that one is studying with is all about. With our distance students, this has traditionally been much harder, though new technologies such as our ePortfolio system and online meeting tools, supplementing the discussion forums, have added to that greatly. I'd really like to see, though, how a tool like this might work at the start of first semester. What kinds of questions do students want to know about each other? How can it be used, in conjunction with forums and orientation camps etc, to help students gain a stronger sense of who they are as a group?

I also imagine using this as a tool during work placements, asking some of those controversial questions that they will undoubtedly be drawing opinions on as they see how their profession works in the real world, looking at the kinds of questions they are posing themselves, and using these as prompts for follow-up discussions.

Lots of food for thought. If anyone tries it out with their classes, I'd love to hear how it went! Here's a link to Tom's quick overview tour. 

Photo: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by [F]oxymoron: http://flickr.com/photos/f-oxymoron/5005146417/

BFL initiatives launched in Bathurst

Director of the FLI, Professor Mike Keppell and Deputy Director, A/Prof Merilyn Childs, at the launch of the "Practitioner's Voice" DVD

Last Wednesday, FLI launched a range of initiatives to support course teams in developing a course-based BFL strategy. We've since announced most of those initiatives independently here on this blog: the BFL wiki, course team symposiums, the 'Exploring Good Practice' DVD, our Delicious bookmarking site and of course, this blog itself.

It was great to see so many people at the launch - Prof Ross Chambers, our DVC, and A/Prof Ken Dillon, our new Dean of Studies were there, along with Katherine Klapdor, Director of Educational Design and Media, former and current teaching fellows, and a range of staff from across the university, particularly Learning and Teaching Services.

We have recorded the launch, and hope to have this available soon to those who were unable to make it. If you're interested in viewing a trailer of the DVD, check it out here:



Otherwise, please contact FLI for your copy.

So where to now?

Well, there's quite a bit happening over the next few months:

• On August 18, we'll be facilitating a CSUDegree bookclub event around BFL - for more information, check What's New. 
• Following on from the bookclub, we'll be holding a series of special 59mins@FLI online meetings around each of the 5 perspective areas. 
• Three more symposiums are being offered - deadline 31 August, 2011.
• We'll be distributing the Good Practice DVD more widely, especially to L&T committees. If you'd like to get in early, contact fli@csu.edu.au
• We'll be holding two workshops and some presentations at CSUEd in November - one on developing your own DIY course symposium, and another on the aspirational framework. 
• We'll be building on the material already included in the BFL wiki, including more case studies.

Thanks to the many people who made the DVD happen: of course, to James Childs-Maidement, our fantastic Media Officer who did all the filming and editing; to Amy Felke for her assistance in locating CSU images; to the LTS production staff, especially Ian Lloyd, Ian Hamilton and Tony O'Neill; to LTS' educational design team for ongoing feedback; and especially to our FLI Teaching Fellows - Yann Guisard, Jenny Sappey, Chris Bushell, Brad Edlington, Lyn Hay, Jacquie Tinkler, Lucy Webster, John Rafferty, Richard Taffe - for so graciously sharing their insights and experiences in relation to blended and flexible learning.

Let the mad rumpus begin!

New course team symposium grants available

The Blended and Flexible Learning Course Symposiums are designed to support course teams in thinking about how they are currently using blended and flexible learning strategies in their course, and how these might be enhanced, to optimise the learning and teaching experience.

Peter Mills gets busy in the Bachelor of
Agricultural Business Management
course symposium on Friday.

Grant recipients are awarded $2000 per course to develop a BFL course strategy which indicates how blended and flexible learning will be embedded into the student experience across the course. This strategy can be used by the team in its Course Review as per the CSU Degree Initiative (blended and flexible learning), and should be developed in consideration of the principles and perspectives approach to good practice in BFL, outlined in the BFL wiki. The course team will also identify examples of BFL strategies developed during and following the symposium for sharing with the CSU community.

To apply, check out our Course Team Symposium webfolio, where you'll find details of current symposiums, as well as how to apply in 2011. Applications close on August 31, 2011.

New DVD available to support course teams in exploring BFL

Also on the agenda for tomorrow is the release of a new DVD which is designed as an introduction for course teams starting to develop their course BFL strategy. It looks at BFL from the perspectives of FLI staff and Teaching Fellows, and introduces teams to the proposed principles for good practice in BFL and the perspectives approach being suggested by FLI.

So far, the DVD has had excellent feedback from our course symposium recipients in Ontario and Orange, as indicated in this comment from Zeffie Nicholas, Ontario:

'We viewed and used the video prepared by FLI for use by Course and School teams yesterday. Sensational. It was extremely useful in providing background, contextualising our work and setting the scene for us preparing a School plan re BFL.'

Huge thanks go out to the nine inspiring FLI Teaching Fellows who were interviewed for the DVD: Yann Guisard, Jenny Sappey, Chris Bushell, Brad Edlington, Lyn Hay, Jacquie Tinkler, Lucy Webster, John Rafferty and Richard Taffe. Quite honestly, it was a pure pleasure to listen to your experiences and wisdom as we went on our 'road trip' in April. And to think that we have more FLI Fellows with just as much wisdom and experience to share to interview later this year!

A few other acknowledgments can't be missed - James Childs-Maidment did a brilliant job with filming and editing, Amy Felke was great in helping with CSU images, and the staff of LTS's media services, in particular Ian Lloyd, Ian Hamilton and Tony O'Neill blew us away with their responsiveness and professionalism in taking the master to final production.

Here's a sneak preview of the trailer:



If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the full DVD, please contact FLI. When you receive it, you'll notice a black and white image on the back of the case. If you haven't seen these before, it's a QR code, and it lets you access this blog from your mobile just by pointing it at the image. More aout QR codes and how they can be used in education next week.

Happy viewing!

A wiki to build what we know about BFL together

Tomorrow we're announcing a new wiki site - Designing for blended and flexible learning - which is designed to CSU support course teams in their investigations of BFL and how they might achieve the right 'blend' of learning opportunities within their own courses. This is a sneak preview!

The site isn't about providing step by step instructions about what you tools you should use, what spaces you should set up and so on. Instead, it provides a set of underlying principles that your course might aspire to, and asks you to integrate those which resonate with your team into any current set of principles or model that you are working from. Then, as a way towards operationalising these principles, it suggests you consider your course from 5 different perspectives - pedagogy, interactions, learning spaces, ICTs and multi-literacies - as a way of reducing the complexity of course redesign as you work towards a cohesive strategy for enhancing BFL within your course.

The development of the site is strongly influenced by the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) on situated learning, as well as that of Jane Hart, Jay Cross, Harold Jarche and Clark Quinn on informal learning in the workplace. We wanted to create a resource that people could use and interact with in their own space and time, when they needed it - a support for their own formal and informal learning. We wanted something that was dynamic, sustainable in that it is easy to maintain to keep pace with new developments and resources, and able to easily incorporate contributions from others in the CSU community. We wanted something that people could 'dip into' depending on their interests, contexts, experience and needs, not something that had to be worked through in a linear fashion from woe to go. In short, we were looking for an efficient, effective path that made it easy for people to get what they need when they need it. We hope we've gone some way towards achieving that, but time will tell. :)

You can read more about the site, and how it's been set up, in the overview. Some typical questions are also answered in our FAQs. We'd love to hear your feedback on the site: please leave a comment here or email fli@csu.edu.au directly!

News from EduLearn2011 - Professor Mike Keppell

EduLearn2001 was in Barcelona and brought together a great crowd and intersting papers. I had four favourites:

Martin Weller spoke about digital scholarship – his blog is worth the read.  He examined the nature of open publication at Ed-Media. Peter Shea examined an extension of the Community of Inquiry model. He elaborates the model. His presentation was excellent! Joe Luca has developed an elaborate online supervisor compliance training for academics. Although I'm not thrilled by the compliance term it is a good framework.  

Sugata Mitra gave an inspirational keynote at EDULEARN11. He is the person who developed the 'Hole-in-the-Wall'. See  particularly the interviews.

There were representatives from 70 different countries at EDULEARN11 in Barcelona which was interesting in itself in terms of the cultural exchange of ideas. Other good stuff: https://scoop.it// and http://paper.li/

News from EduLearn11 (Professor Mike Keppell)

Hi folks,
I've just been at the EduLearn2011 Conference in Barcelano. I usually look for only three new ideas at any conference, so here they are my favourites:

Martin Weller spoke about digital scholarship – it's worth visiting his blog! He examined the nature of open publication at Ed-Media. Peter Shea examined an extension of the Community of Inquiry model, which he elaborated - excellent presentation. Joe Luca has developed an elaborate online supervisor compliance training for academics. Although I'm not thrilled by the compliance term it is a good framework.  

OK, I'm going to make that four favourites!

Sugata Mitra gave an inspirational keynote at EDULEARN11. He is the person who developed the 'Hole-in-the-Wall' He is the person who developed the 'Hole-in-the-Wall' See https://weboutlook.csu.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=db299a536ff34e97a2a24791293706c1&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hole-in-the-wall.com%2findex.html particularly the interviews.

There were representatives from 70 different countries at EDULEARN11 in Barcelona which was interesting in itself in terms of the cultural exchange of ideas. For other good stuff:

Other stuff: https://weboutlook.csu.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=db299a536ff34e97a2a24791293706c1&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.scoop.it/ and https://weboutlook.csu.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=db299a536ff34e97a2a24791293706c1&URL=http%3a%2f%2fpaper.li/

Some foundation principles - what do you think?

Now what have we missed?

The problem with principles is that you can never get them right. What might be principles for good practice in one context may not lead to good practice in another. In fact, you can bet that they won't. And when it comes to blended and flexible learning (BFL), which is characterised by an almost infinite array of possibilities and choices for designers and teachers, the complexities are compounded. Which brings us to the question, 'What can we offer CSU course teams, as a set of foundational principles, to guide their course redesign in terms of BFL?'

Like most things complex and worthy of considerable thought, what we have offer has gone through a number of iterations. We started by talking to people - academics, teaching fellows, educational designers, managers - about what good practice in blended and flexible learning might look like. We had lively discussions about what might and might not be included, and ended up with a list of 14 design principles. So far so good...

Then along I came, and started looking at these principles from a designer perspective, as someone who would have to implement these with course teams. And I struggled. I needed to make sense of these for myself - to see where and how they related to other areas of the CSUDegree, the aspirational framework that FLI had developed, and what I already knew about blended and flexible learning from the literature and my own experiences.

And so I moulded and reworked them, while still trying to be true to the ideas of the original reference group. What we have now is a set of 10 principles, which still aren't 'right', but which we're satisfied with for now. And I think that's OK because of the way we are offering them. Firstly, they aren't offered as a 'prescription' or recipe that CSU course teams have to follow. We're offering them as a starting point, from which each course team might think about why they are moving more towards BFL, what foundational principles might inform that move, and how these relate to any other set of course principles they may have. In that way, we're hoping you will mould them to suit your context, just as I did. 

Secondly, we aren't offering them as a definitive list. We'd like you to comment (on this post) on the usefulness of these principles for your BFL design, and how we might continue to redefine what good practice in blended and flexible learning means at CSU.

So here they are...

Let's start with two vital principles, which form part of the BFL Standards ratified by Academic Senate: that good practice in blended and flexible learning is student-centred and equivalent between cohorts. These principles also reflect CSU's core values.

Student centred - Effective BFL design provides engaging, motivating and intellectually stimulating learning experiences focussed on the individual and social needs of the learners, rather than those of teachers or administrators. Active participation in learning activities should be fostered through emphasising the interactive and social dimensions of learning both in physical and virtual environments. Students also need opportunities to become independent learners and to take responsibility for their own learning.

Equivalent - Effective BFL design encompasses the ethical obligation to support, respect and provide equitable learning and assessment experiences for all of our diverse range of students. Equivalence should exist between and across different cohorts, ensuring that resources and facilitation processes normally only provided to one cohort are available to all, and that there are equivalent support mechanisms to cater for accessibilty and convenience.

In addition to these core principles, CSU has identified 8 other supporting principles which are important to ensuring consistently high quality learning experiences and outcomes for all CSU undergraduates, and in enabling academic staff to achieve this goal.

Effective practice - Irrespective of the technology used, effective BFL design should be based on good curriculum design informed by core principles of learning, in particular alignment between course and subject aims, activities and assessments. These principles need to be thoughtfully applied, using ICTs where appropriate to enhance specific aspects of the learning process.  

Authentic - Effective BFL design maximises the synergies between theory, professional practice and community activities, and engages students in developing solutions to real world problems and issues. It recognises, values and harnesses learning that takes place both within and outside of formal learning activities.

Collaborative - Effective BFL design enhances opportunities for learners to work together cooperatively to achieve learning outcomes. This may involve both face-to-face and online opportunities, and may bring together on-campus and off-campus students where possible and appropriate.

Lifelong - Effective BFL design enhances learners' ability to continue their learning independently after graduation. This may involve building a personal learning network and developing their skills in a range of literacies.

Appropriate - Effective BFL design is based on thoughtful choices in pedagogies, learning spaces, interactions, ICTs and literacies according to their affordances, blending them in a way that is contextually appropriate to meet the required learning outcomes.

Innovative - Effective BFL design fosters transformative change and innovative and creative approaches to student learning which are informed by current research.

Sustainable - Effective BFL design requires an approach that can be maintained over time and which accommodates the nuanced shifts fundamental to rapid technological change. Ideally, learning designs and objects should be reusable - used again by others in similar contexts with slight modifications.

Continuous improvement - Effective BFL design fosters a dynamic environment of continous improvement, simultaneously leading and responding to developments in university teaching and learning at all levels. Ongoing renewal is important to BFL to ensure that courses, subjects, activities and assessments remain future orientated. For CSU teaching staff, continuous improvement also involves regularly enhancing teaching practice through professional development and reflection. 

So, do these work for your course team? How would you change them?  

Posted by Carole

Scholarship of BFL - methodological issues

Mobiles for Education for Development

Calls for proposals -session presentation at the inaugural Mobiles for Education for Development Symposium to be held August 18-19, 2011 at the Hilton Embassy Row in Washington, DC.Mobiles for Education for Development (m4Ed4Dev) is an international collaborative effort between bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, foundations, private sector partners, academic researchers, and implementing organizations that is working to explore cutting edge intersections between mobiles, education and development and to promote collective knowledge sharing.

Teaching Fellows and blended and flexible learning design

Brilliant learning design & opportunities - outside the institution

One of the challeges we face in HE today is that the competition out there is sometimes brilliant! There are some fabulous learning opportunities offered often for free, by others passionate about providing learning opportunities every bit as engaged, research based, critical and leading edge as what we do, inside the university. We can no longer consider ourselves as having a monopoly - and we can learn from these external events as one way of understanding how good we need to be.

Here is a great example - the TEDxSydney 2010 event. Great speakers, and the option to join the forum in person, through YouTube, through radio, and also through satellite events. For example in my own local area there is a satellite event at a local neighbourhood centre. So I could combine virtual participation with local community participation. Brilliant stuff!