Transformational Pedagogy in Distance Education Dr. Jodi Rust Pierpont Community & Technical College Director of Programming, CWE

Need for Pedagogical Change

0Mendenhall (2011) suggested that “Most colleges, including online institutions, have yet to find ways to use technology to really transform education.”

Professional Rationale

0Freire (2011) declared instructors kill learning by viewing students as empty vessels.

0Procter (2002) dislikes “shovelware” online.

0Fink (2003) and Wagschal (1998) state teaching content alone isn’t effectively reaching students.

0Bok (2006) encourages instructors to look at HOW they teach NOT WHAT they teach.

Where Does the Struggle Lie?

0Academic Freedom

0 Loath Change

0Current Tenure Qualifications

0 Professors not Trained to Teach

Change Agents

0According to the League of Innovation’s study:

043.5% are full-time faculty

022.5% of the innovations involved course development

058.9% of the innovations were designed to improve student learning

HLC Pathway Project

2 of 5 criterion focus on improving student learning experiences. The Pathway Project is looking for transformational change. The criterion are:

0 Mission 0 Ethical & Responsible Conduct 0 Teaching & Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support 0 Teaching & Learning: Evaluation and Improvement 0 Resources, Planning & Institutional Effectiveness

Transformational Pedagogy

LDL Hybrid Model - Copyright - Rust (2010)

Steps for Implementing

1. List 5 student learning outcomes related to the real world of work/living for your course.

2. Explore pedagogical frameworks that reach those outcomes and put the focus on learner-driven experiences.

3. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy and other reputable pedagogical devises to write higher level objectives to reach course outcomes.

4. Develop stepping stones to support learners in their own learning.

5. Select assessment tools that are NOT test based. Ask yourself: “Does the assessment truly measure the learning objective in real world terms?”

Resources Bailey, C. & Card, K. (2009). Effective pedagocial practices for online teaching: Perception of experienced instructors. Internet and

Higher Education, 12, 152-155. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.08.002.  Bok, D. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.  Fink, L. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco, CA:

John Wiley & Sons.

Freire, P. (2011). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th anniversary edition. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.  Higher Learning Commission. (2011, July 15). Commission releases beta version of criteria revision initiative: Welcomes further

comments. Chicago, IL: Higher Learning Commission.  Karran, T. (2009). Academic freedom: Essential liberty or extravagant luxury? In L. Bell, H. Stevenson, & M. Neary (Eds.), The future

of higher education: Policy, pedagogy and the student experience (pp. 25-29). London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

 Mendenhall, R. (2011, Nov. 6). How technology can improve online learning-and learning in general. The Chronicle of Higher

Education [Online]. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://chronicle.com/article/How-Technology-Can-Improve/129616  O’Banion, T. & Weidner, L. (2010). The nature of innovation in the community college. Phoenix, AZ: League for Innovation in the

Community College.  Procter, C. (2002). Proportion, pedagogy and processes: The three p’s of e-learning. Proceedings of the International Academy for

Information Management (IAIM) Annual Conference: International Conference on Informatics Education Research (ICIER). (17th, Barcelona, Spain, December 13-15, 2002). Retrieved from Information Analysis (pp. 195-200). IR 058 850.

Rust, J. (2010). Working smarter not harder: Using a pedagogical-based model in the rapid development of quality hybrid courses. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest. (UMI No. 3419236).

Wagschal, P. (1998). Distance education comes to the academy: But are we asking the right questions? The Internet and Higher Education, 1(2), 125-130.