centre for learning & teaching enhancing the learning environment to support learner engagement...
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Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Enhancing the Learning Environment to Support Learner Engagement
Dr Darren Comber
Senior Educational Development Adviser
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
• The Centre for Learning & Teaching (CLT): supporting staff and students in the enhancement of learning and teaching
CLT
E-learningStudent LearningService
Educational Development
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
LEARNINGENVIRONMENTS
Staff
StudentsOnline
Physical
CLT contribution to the Curriculum Reform debate
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Structure
The learning “environment”
Examining the learning environment: • online• physical• students• staff
What does the future hold?
Concluding ideas on enhancing the learning environment
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
The learning environment: medium as message
Decoupling the “what” from the “how”?
• Physical?• Online?• Intellectual?• Symbolic?• Changing?• Personal?
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
LEARNINGENVIRONMENTS
Staff
StudentsOnline
Physical
CLT contribution to the Curriculum Reform debate
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: online
Learners and applicants are:• diverse: individuals’ careers and ‘learning’ are
becoming less distinct • autonomous: expect adult, customisable
experience • strategic: seek relevance & authenticity, and a
route to the workplace
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: online
Challenge: developing a personalised, professional and culturally relevant learning environment that can:
• reflect authenticity of workplace environment • bring in the world by design (embedding in wider HE and
professional culture) • support students in a continuum of professional
development • support a progressive immersion in the community of
practice • support student collaborations with other institutions and
industry • facilitate 'virtual placements' • retain the interest of alumni
(Appendix 1: Fisher)
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: online
Tools for supporting e-learning:• Simulations and platforms for problem-based
learning• Tools facilitating communication• Course tools (e.g. WebCT)
Students increasingly adept at choosing where to access information, how to communicate with peers, to which communities they belong
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: online
• Use of e-Portfolios at UoA• Student reflection providing lecturers
with insights into successful and less successful aspects of their curricula
• Public nature of e-portfolio: sharing, peer comment and feedback
• Burgess Report: transcripts
(Appendix 2: Calder)
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
LEARNINGENVIRONMENTS
Staff
StudentsOnline
Physical
CLT contribution to the Curriculum Reform debate
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: physical / online
• Emergent technologies• Ubiquitous computing: personalised,
handheld / smaller devices for communication and data access / capture / always connected
• Convergence of networked & physical worlds• Augmented activities / reality
(Appendix 3: Marston)
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
LEARNINGENVIRONMENTS
Staff
StudentsOnline
Physical
CLT contribution to the Curriculum Reform debate
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: students of the “Net Generation”
Net Generation students (Born post-1982) are:
Digitally literate; Connected; Immediate; Experiential; Social
Net Generation: Myth?
Expectations of technology in H.E? • Online > face-to-face?• Use of technology to enhance learning
by staff?
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: students of the “Net Generation”
Technology: transforming education?• Open Educational Resources movement• Access to remote instrumentation / research and
scholarly portals• Virtual Worlds / Simulations / Web 2.0
Challenges: • Designing engaging physical / online environments • Integrating technology into the curriculum • Empowering / supporting staff in the use of technology
(Appendix 4: Preston)
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: international students
• International students are no longer a small group scattered across Programmes
• Language issues and cultural challenges can no longer be seen as “deficits” requiring “remediation”
• English is an international language of instruction
• A global classroom is an accommodating classroom
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: international students
Collaborative, embedded & contextualised skills strategy:• Grounded in the discipline• Must be explicit & experiential• Involves both staff and students• Two phases:
– Extended, hands-on orientation– Ongoing feedback and targeted support
• Discipline-specific support materials
(Appendix 5: Di Pietro & Bray)
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
LEARNINGENVIRONMENTS
Staff
StudentsOnline
Physical
CLT contribution to the Curriculum Reform debate
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Examining the learning environment: staff
Learning communities (after Tagg, 2003)• Intrinsically rewarding goals• Authentic performance• Feedback: frequent and timely• Long timeline for learning• Communities of practice
(Appendix 6: Comber)
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
The future?
• Balance of career and study• Collaborations increasingly important• Increasingly strategic learners• Global marketplace
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
The future?
What could really make our Aberdeen experience different and better?
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
What are the implications of the ideas presented here?
• Learning environment as community• “Belonging” on entry: levels 1&2• Global engagement• Research-teaching linkages• Alternative models of teaching and assessment• Flexibility and adaptability• Play to strengths of both staff and students
Centre for Learning & Teaching
www.abdn.ac.uk/clt
“…supposing the discipline is modelled not as a citadel of knowledge, guarded by experts, but as a community of practitioners?”
(Parker, 2002: 379)