Evidence:
The design of the course is fundamentally predicated on principles of learning through Student Engagement and Community Building. Peer support and interaction, across the module cohort and in pairs, is promoted throughout, combining tutor-student and student-student interaction.
Students come from all over the world and never meet face-to-face. Community building is vital to the level of engagement in peer interaction required throughout the module and starts from Day 1 when students send introductory forum messages exchanging photos and work context / family information. They share initial ideas for their eTP with both the tutor and online peers. This provides the tutor with an opportunity to discuss their ideas and queries and forms the basis for organising pairs to support each other in planning and implementing their eTP. Through the forum all can see what each other are planning for their eTP, consider similarities and differences in approach and content, and offer each other ideas and suggestions. An important aspect is to raise initial concerns or worries about the eTP and indicate the skills they hope to gain. Experience shows this is important; individuals often imagine themselves to be alone in lacking online teaching experience or facing particular challenges within their eTP. From the start they gain awareness that others are in similar situations and that even those with experience have concerns and skills to develop. This lays the foundation for an increasing relationship of trust and social rapport which builds through the course activities.
Group discussion in the Workshop 1 forum is tutor-led and tutor-facilitated. Students engage in critical consideration of the theory and principles of elearning course design, exploring their personal perspectives on teaching and the implications for working with students online. Workshop 3 ‘Hot Seat’ discussions are student-designed, student-led and student-facilitated. The interaction is typically lively, informed and enthused by the experience of direct application of theory to their own professional working context and eTP. Despite the impending assessment, participants are mutually supportive of each other’s ‘Hot Seats’. They enthusiastically exchange experiences and reflect critically in the light of their reading. Whilst I maintain an overview of the student-led ‘Hot Seat’ forums, I see students consolidating facilitation skills developed as etutors, and both assisting each other and learning from each other’s contributions as discussion members. The interaction in pairs, working together to support each other in planning and implementing their eTP is core to the module. The ground rules for this, and in particular for the mutual Online Peer Observation are negotiated on a community basis through the forum, exploring practices they identify as key to establish mutual trust and an atmosphere conducive to peer learning, the exploration of issues within eTP and the development of etutoring skills. Examples include confidentiality, adopting an observee-led observation agenda, and taking a mutual, peer-based learning approach to support evolving etutoring skills and understanding rather than making evaluative judgements.
In some instances student eTP is based around existing course provision, often initiating a move to to online or blended learning provision. In others a course is set up especially for eTP, bringing people beyond the course itself together as students of the course participants into online communities. These eTP communities often represent a first experience of the internet beyond its role as an information source. One recent eTP course, taught from the USA, brought participants in a range of developing countries together into a fledgling online community amongst individuals with no previous experience of international discussion online and piloting community-based approaches to elearning within a humanitarian organisation.
Describe Your Innovation:
The module design is innovative in combining depth and breadth of contextualised learning to build understanding of principles and theories underpinning teaching within online and blended learning and the development of eTutoring skills. The community and collaboration aspects of the learning and teaching process are critical to both. Whilst responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating their own eTP is unquestionably an individual responsibility and personal endeavour, it is the interaction with the Peer Supporter and the wider course community which fosters the critical engagement that nurtures the depth of learning and development experienced on the course and breadth of insight into different online teaching contexts. As shown there is a sense in which the course also promotes opportunities for Student Engagement and Community Building beyond the course itself introducing participants’ students to the possibilities of educational online communities.
The particular implementation of Online Peer Observation on the module, taking the peer review model of peer observation familiar within contemporary UK HE practice into the online context, represents another key innovative aspect of Student Engagement and Community Building on the module and has proved to be one of the most-valued aspects of the experiential learning provided.
Many course participants have only previously encountered models of peer observation where a line manager uses classroom observation to make judgements on teaching performance and often recall experiences which were less than helpful and, at worst, threatening and demoralising. In contrast qualitative research exploring their response to Online Peer Observation of eTP showed that the peer support was valued as a nurturing experience. In particular the peer review model (Gosling 2002; McMahon et al 2007) adopted on the course whereby participants had the opportunity to experience mutually agreed reciprocal Online Peer Observation of their eTutoring skills was experienced as supportive and encouraged mutual commitment between peer reviewers:
C: “Initially I was really nervous about it, then it became a real nurturing experience and I felt very much relieved that the comments made by my peer reviewer were positive and took on board what my peer reviewer said. The positive bit was where two or more people within eTP had committed time specifically to review their peer’s teaching practice, which sort of abstracts the teaching from the content and formalises it to make it happen.”
They valued gaining feedback on their online practice from a teacher’s perspective rather than that of a student, and the fact that peer support throughout eTP promoted intellectual understanding of online tutoring through discussion and analysis of eTP planning and observed practice:
F: ”I think that a real value of eTP is the opportunity for me as a teacher to get feedback from another student on the eTP module rather than from the students I am teaching.’
D: ‘Because the observation followed the peer review model it allowed for analysis and discussion in a non-judgemental and constructive atmosphere of mutual reflection.”
Evidence:
Central to the learning on the module is a combination of both individual and collaborative work. The course is part-time, and most students are adults, engaged in full-time work, with professional and family responsibilities, and typically based in a range of countries and timezones. The recent cohort was especially disparate and included students participating from Bahrain, Dubai, Greece, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, USA, in addition to students from the UK. Given the nature of the student group, most of the collaboration involves sharing and responding material through the Wiki and Blogger tools or through asynchronous discussion, all within the module site. Students also ‘meet’ synchronously for one-to-one discussion, typically through a VOIP technology such as Skype, for example in planning their Online Peer Observation and/or to explore the learning gained through the observation which has taken place; specific encouragement is given to meet online for such discussion in addition to sharing written feedback. In one instance observer and observee ‘met’ as avatars in Second Life after Online Peer Observation of a course based in that virtual world environment.
My own Skype ID is given out in the module handbook, along with my email address, and students know these are channels of communication alongside the Messages tool and forums within the VLE. Individuals frequently take the chance for an immediate response to a question when they see me online in Skype, and although I check the forums twice a week, as indicated in the course handbook, the collaborative nature of this tool, and the spirit of mutual support developed on the course, means that questions within the ‘Course queries’ forum are often addressed by peers, needing only confirmation from me as tutor.
Experience has shown the importance of clear scheduling to assist the part-time online learners, juggling study alongside work and family responsibilities. Deadlines for contribution to forums are provided through the pathway and an overall course schedule, and reminders sent via weekly ‘announcements’. Participants commented on the value of this simple measure and adopted it within their own eTP practice. Two-week slots for ‘Hot Seats’ were set up as ‘Topics’ within the Workshop 3 forum, allowing individuals to choose the timing of their own ‘Hot Seat’ and indicating to all the timeframe for discussion of the topics introduced by peers.
A wiki linked to the course home page is used to enable participants to let others know the start and end dates of their eTP, facilitating timetabling of Online Peer Observation and one-to-one arrangements for pre- and post- observation discussions. Although one student had taken a break from study by that point, none of the remaining students required an extension, showing that they had been enabled to plan the timing of their work effectively.
The deadline selected for completion of the eTP Portfolio and Critical Commentary, which formed the first assignment, enabled speedy turnaround of feedback on assessed work, and first-marking feedback was provided within two days.
Evidence:
Students are sent copies of the course handbook ahead of the start of the module; this is, in particular, to flag up the eTP requirements, explain how the eTP is reflected in module learning outcomes and interrelated with assessment, and enable them to give consideration to a possible context for their eTP and to initiate practical arrangements locally within their own context. One section of the pathway is designated as Module Introduction; time is allocated at the start of the course to enable students to read about the organisation of the course and access full information concerning each of the two module assignments. A separate downloadable course ‘timetable’, indicating how course activities are spread across the 20 weeks, is provided and each workshop starts with and overview of workshop aims and activities. A ‘Course Queries’ forum is available and monitored from Day One and the wiki and blog, which are central to individual and collaborative reflection throughout the course, are initiated within the first course activity.
The pathway clearly shows the three workshops, indicating start / end dates. Active learning strategies are fundamental to the teaching and learning approach, comprising activities related to the planning, implementation, observation and evaluation of the eTP at the core of the module. Instructions for course activities include links to reading material, outline questions for reflection, and show how and where this should feed into discussion, blogging and/or wiki activity, and give the dates providing a framework for student work.
The affordances of tools available through the Sakai VLE greatly enhanced the experience the course could offer. Particular gains included the use of the wiki tool and blog. The wiki was used for the development of a personal ‘eTP Portfolio’ which comprised a Critical Commentary and related supporting documentation from the eTP development and delivery process. The blog fostered individual reflection on both theory and critical incidents from eTP implementation. Both provided associated opportunities for peer support as students used the ‘comments’ feature to provide peer review of their partner’s evolving wiki-based portfolio, and to respond to the reflections within each other’s blog.
Working at postgraduate level, it is appropriate that students be expected to move beyond initial links to reading and coursebooks, searching databases of electronic journals and other internet resources. Additionally, students made use of an online ‘Teaching Perspectives Inventory’ survey tool (Pratt and Collins, 2001) which provides a graphical image of their underpinning perspectives, and an interpretation of implications for teaching. As these were typically reflective of classroom teaching, the results provided a useful basis for consideration of the adaptation of personal teaching and/or interaction style to the online context within a variety of sectors and discipline areas. Students often shared their personal analysis via their eTP Portfolio in the wiki. The wiki enabled students to see their peers’ wiki page and Critical Commentary evolve. The ‘comments’ feature was used to ask questions, make constructive suggestions for enhancement, and share strategies from their own experience.
Describe Your Innovation:
The other modules within the MEd eLearning programme provide participants with experience as online learners. A distinctive feature of the eTutoring and eLearning Course Design module is that it offers prospective eTutors the chance to build on this experience and not only to explore models of eLearning course design and/or experience them as learners, but to actively apply and adapt such models to their own context and teaching style. It also gives them the opportunity to practice skills of teaching online, engaging in online experiential learning in the role of an eTutor. In the words of one participant:
F: “I think what’s valuable for me is the kind of intrinsic value of having the responsibility because when you’re a student, you aren’t responsible for whether the thing flies or not!”
In other words, the innovative learning and teaching approach adopted on the course means that students are not just receivers of a pre-packed learning experience, but rather are active participants in delivering the learning strategy itself. The eTP courses they design, develop and deliver act as a key source of learning, not only for the individuals in their role as etutor, but also for the peer observers who access that eTP directly, and, because this experiential and observational learning feeds into discussion forums and shared wiki pages, with the wider module group. The discussion forums, blogs, assignments and student-student course evaluation during the dissertation research all show clear evidence of the value students gained from their own eTP and direct access to the online and teaching process developed by their peers. So too the individual wiki pages and student ‘Hot Seats’ are a form of student generated content, produced by students and developed iteratively through the collaborative process of peer review, peer and tutor comment, and wider course cohort discussion.Student evaluation of the value of the engaging and challenging approach on the module points to a resulting deeper level of understanding and fundamental change in perception of the pedagogy of online learning and teaching:
D: I actually found that learning in an experiential way for the module was far more challenging to me than the physical textbook … it makes you look at pedagogy in a different way because you’re applying it in a different way.”
Evidence:
Details of the course objectives and outcomes are clearly defined and provided via both the course handbook and online within the module site pathway. There are two elements of assessment and the alignment of each with the particular outcomes to be assessed is indicated clearly, and reflected in assignment-specific marking and feedback sheets; students are directed to download these from the pathway from the start of the course to ensure clear understanding of the basis of assessment and the award of marks.
The first of these assessments, an eTP Portfolio + Critical Commentary, is developed within the wiki through the course of the reflections, activities and interactions within workshops 1 and 2 of the module, and through the eTP planning and implementation and engagement in Online Peer Observation. This assessment task is closely aligned to both learning activities and module learning outcomes; if students complete all the activities as outlined in the pathway, then they will have all the records to be included in the eTP portfolio, and will find that the bulk of the Critical Commentary relating theory to practice will have been developed through the various drafts of their personal ‘eTP Teaching Philosophy’.
The second assignment is also closely aligned and takes the form of an essay exploring one issue of individual student choice, arising from the eTeaching Practice and/or Online Peer Observation and drawing on the Hot Seat discussion with peers. The alignment of both assignments with the module learning outcomes, the direct relationship with course content and learning activities, the integration with the interaction and communication with fellow students, especially peer supporters, and with module tutors, and the role of the assessment in fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills are all reflected in the following excerpt from the instructions for this essay assignment:
During Workshop 3 you will select one topic or focus of interest to yourself, arising from your reading, planning and implementing your own eTP, from the participation in Peer Observation and Support or from your reflection on this range of experiences. This may be an issue, question, challenge or downright problem floating around in your head that has implications for your ongoing development as an etutor and in designing and teaching elearning courses.
You will highlight this topic or issue in a "Hot Seat" or "Hosted Discussion" which will be open to all of the people taking this module. This, and the topics raised by other people will offer you the opportunity to explore, discuss, and read widely to consolidate and extend the learning and experience gained on the module.
For your assignment you should write an essay on your chosen topic, drawing on your learning and reflection during the module and on the discussion with your peers as part of the Hot Seat" or "Hosted Discussion".
The ‘Hot Seats’ provide a way in which individuals explore the issue of personal interest which forms the basis for their essay. It thereby acts as a vehicle for formative feedback on their ideas from peers and from the module tutor, both directly in their response to the aspects raised, and by providing a means for them to compare their experience with those of others. Similarly, the ‘comments’ feature with the wiki was used for tutor and peer formative feedback on the eTP Portfolios + Critical Commentaries as they evolved through the course of the module and there were clear examples of individuals acting on the feedback and suggestions offered.
Describe Your Innovation:
Students have a degree of self-direction in what they do for these assessment tasks. Not only can they select a topic or issue of personal interest for their essay task, but they also have the freedom to develop their eTP Portfolio + Critical Commentary in different ways, so as to reflect their personal experience and learning style. The emphasis placed on, for example, individual reflection, on being observed or observing the practice of others, or on the dialogic interaction and reflection associated with that process of peer support and peer review, will vary from student to student, as will the links they drawing between their overall Critical Commentary and other documents such as completed peer observation forms used on the course. The key element is that they should ensure that they draw links between theoretical aspects of course content and practical, real-life, application and experiences within their eTP. The eTP Portfolio and Critical Commentary task is assessed directly online; first and second markers, and the programme External Examiner, access the work within the wiki itself.
Evidence:
A range of additional ‘Help’ resources are built into the current framework of our Sakai VLE, eBridge; this is supplemented by direct email access to technical, library and study advice online support. As mentioned above, students can contact me as module tutor on a daily basis through Skype; they can see when I am online and available to answer queries. Additionally, copious information about course structure, schedules and assessment is provided via the handbook and the course VLE site and all course activities are clearly indicated in the pathway. Further channels of support from myself as tutor include a Queries Forum, weekly ‘announcements’ and clear indication of contact information and times when I will access the site.
However, I make no apology for the fact that in practice it is the peer support which represents the strongest element of student support on the course. Social rapport, mutual trust and a strong sense of community are deliberately developed and fostered throughout the module as they are essential for the effectiveness of the course learning and teaching activities and approach. The eTutoring and eLearning Course Design module often represents individuals’ first experience in the role of an etutor, and the practice of Online Peer Observation is so new that it is universally a ‘first’ for participants. The literature shows that even in a classroom context an element of vulnerability is inevitable within any process of peer observation, despite all processes adopted to ensure a developmental peer review model and a non-threatening experience (McMahon et al, 2008). I could cite the volume and quality of the messages in the forums, the wiki and the blogs as evidence of the environment of trust and peer support achieved on the course, but it is perhaps best illustrated by one student’s evaluation of the value represented by the learning experience on the module:
F: “You can’t learn to fly a plane without flying a plane, do you know what I mean? You’ve got to have a go at it. The theory is great and the models are great but you need to do it at some point and you want to do it in a safe environment. If you’re going to learn to fly a plane you don’t want to do it in an actual plane, you’d have a go in a simulator first, where it doesn’t matter if you get it wrong, then have a go in a plane. I know I’m labouring the analogy, but really I think that what is important is people feel safe to experiment in a … it’s not entirely a consequence-free environment but largely is, and they’re not left on their own. The danger is if you don’t do it in a supportive environment like this, people go away, they’re given a model, they’re given some tool to create the content with and they are left to their own devices and I think that is likely to give people a poor experience of eLearning and likely to put them off using it and put organisations off using it as well.”
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