The Flexible Learning Institute aims to inspire best practice in blended and flexible learning (BFL) at Charles Sturt University, Australia. This blog is a place where we can explore issues in BFL as they relate to our university community.
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 asimulation 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.
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. >
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 thiscase
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.
We were offering three, but somehow we ended up with, wait for it, nineblended 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. :)
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.
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.
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!
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/
