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)