DISTANCE LEARNING ARCHITECTURE

Professor Mike KeppellDirector, The Flexible Learning Institute &

Professor of Higher EducationCharles Sturt University

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MULTI-CAMPUSES

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QUESTIONS

How many work at a distance education university?

How many have studied a subject or degree via distance?

How many have undertaken continuing education courses at a distance?

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What When

Why Where

How

Distance Learning

Architecture

Who

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CHALLENGES

Distance education landscape

Learning and teaching

Learning spaces

Assessment

Transformation

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WHAT IS DISTANCE EDUCATION?

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WHAT IS DISTANCE LEARNING?

WHAT IS A DISTANCE LEARNER?

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WHAT IS DISTANCE EDUCATION AND LEARNING?

System of education in which the majority of learning takes place with the learner and the teacher separated by space and/or time, the gap between the two being bridged by technology (DEHub).

Distance learning can cater for a wide variety of diverse needs for both on-campus and distance learners and is usually characterised by greater flexibility for the learner, convenience of time and place for learning and the ability to work at one’s own pace (DEHub).

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DISTANCE LEARNER

A distance learner is one who experiences the majority (80+%) of their learning off-campus at a distance from the teacher and consequently has limited face-to-face interaction with their teachers and peers (DEHub).

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LEARNING & TEACHING10

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Print Online

Blended Face-to-Face

DVD

When should print/DVD/online/F2F/blended be used?

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DESIGN FOR DISTANCE LEARNING

Distance education requires a redesign of degree/course/subject/activity structure.

Access and equity issues

Degree experience versus subject experience

Learning for now and learning for the future

Graduate attributes

Capstone 12

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TEACHER-STUDENT DYNAMIC

Distance education requires distinctive learning and teaching strategies.

Mix of independent learning and peer learning

Mix of synchronous and asynchronous interactions

Importance of feedback

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INTERACTIONS

Information access

Interactive learning

Networked learning

Student-generated content

(Herrington & Oliver 2001).

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COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Distance education requires different methods of communication using electronic technologies.

Synchronous & asynchronous

Written, voice, video

e.g. podcasts

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CHALLENGES

Design of degrees, subjects, activities, assessment

Proportion of synchronous and asynchronous interactions.

Synchronous and asynchronous communication

Proportion of independent and peer learning

How do you teach when you can’t see facial expressions?

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WHAT TOOLS ASSIST DISTANCE LEARNING?

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Tools Affordance

Learning Management Systems (Moodle, Sakai, Blackboard)

information access, interactive learning, networked learning, student-

generated content

Teleconferences, videoconferences, Skype synchronous

Podcasts, vodcasts asynchronous

Web-conferencing tools (e.g. elluminate, wimba) participation

web 2.0 tools (YouTube, Facebook, blogs, wikis, Twitter, Flickr, etc

social networking, student-generated content

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WHAT SPACES ARE USED FOR DISTANCE LEARNING?

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DIVERSITY OF LEARNING SPACES

Physical Virtual

Formal Informal InformalFormal

Blended

Mobile Personal

Outdoor Professional Practice

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FORMAL & INFORMAL SPACES

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VIRTUAL LEARNING SPACES

Formal virtual learning spacesInformal virtual learning spacesIndependent learning Peer learning

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FacebookFlickr

YouTubeTwitter

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FormalFormal

Informal

Informal Virtual Learning Spaces

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Formal Virtual Learning Spaces

Informal

Moodle Sakai

Blackboard

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FLEXIBILITY OF LEARNING SPACES

Flexible learning and teaching spaces allow adaptability over time for different uses. Spaces need to be used for students who are both physically present and students who never visit the campus. In addition homes, cars, buses, hotels, cafes become mobile spaces where the student undertakes learning. Studying subject materials while travelling to work via train or bus may represent the learning space for some students

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ASSESSMENT

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WHAT IS ASSESSMENT?

Formative and Summative

Assessment OF Learning

Assessment FOR Learning

Assessment AS Learning

Learning-Oriented Assessment

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FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Formative Assessment Summative Assessment

Assessment FOR learning Assessment OF learning

Generally carried out during a course or project.

Generally carried out at the end of a course or project.

Typically used to provide students with feedback to aid learning.

Typically used to assign students a grade or mark.

Common forms: self-assessment, peer-assessment

Common forms: examination, written final assignment

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ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Predominant form of assessmentUsually summativeCertifies student learningUsed to report about progressUsually consists of tests or examsRepresented by marks or letter gradesFeedback is usually in the form of marks or gradesOften used for a comparison between students (Earl, 2003).

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Shifts emphasis from summative to formativeShifts emphasis from making judgements to descriptions which are useful for the next stage of learningFocuses on feedback to enhance individual students learningStill focused on the teacher’s role in the assessment process (Earl, 2003).

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ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING

Emphasises the student’s role in the assessment processStudents are regarded as active, engaged and critical assessorsStudents monitor what they are learning - make adjustments, adaptations and major adjustments to their own learningSelf assessment is the heart of the matter (Earl, 2003).

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LEARNING-ORIENTED ASSESSMENT

Assessment tasks AS learning tasksStudents as self-evaluatorsFeedback as feedforward

(Carless, Joughin, Liu, 2006; Keppell & Carless, 2006)

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ONE OF THE GREATEST CHALLENGES IN HIGHER

EDUCATION IS TO DESIGN SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

THAT PERFORMS A FORMATIVE FUNCTION

(CARLESS, JOUGHIN, LIU, 2006, P.8)

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ASSESSMENT TASKS AS LEARNING TASKS

Assessment tasks need to promote desired learning outcomes and dispositionsConstructive alignment of objectives, content and assessment (Biggs, 1999)Tasks should require distribution of student time and effort throughout, not just short bursts of energy towards the end (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)A relationship between assessment tasks and real-world tasks, cooperative rather than competitive tasksSome degree of student choice in assessment tasks.

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Learning-oriented assessment

Assessment tasks as learning tasks

Student involvement in

assessment processes

Forward-looking feedback

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FORWARD-LOOKING FEEDBACK

Students need to receive appropriate feedback which they can use to ‘feed forward’ into future work.

Feedback should be less final and judgemental (Boud, 1995)

Feedback should be more interactive and forward-looking (Carless, 2002)

Feedback should be timely and with a potential to be acted upon (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)

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TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS38

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SUPPORT & STRATEGIC CHANGE OF LEARNING & TEACHING

Division of Learning and

Teaching Services

The Flexible Learning Institute

The Education for Practice

Institute

• Sakai• Professional

Development• Educational

Designers

• Teaching Fellowships

• Standards• Learning

Spaces• Policy

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FLEXIBLE LEARNING

“Flexible learning” provides opportunities to improve the student learning experience through flexibility in time, pace, place (physical, virtual, on-campus, off-campus), mode of study (print-based, face-to-face, blended, online), teaching approach (collaborative, independent), forms of assessment and staffing. It may utilise a wide range of media, environments, learning spaces and technologies for learning and teaching.

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BLENDED & FLEXIBLE LEARNING

“Blended and flexible learning” is a design approach that examines the relationships between flexible learning opportunities, in order to optimise student engagement and equivalence in learning outcomes regardless of mode of study (Keppell, 2010, p. 3).

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REDESIGN OF COURSES & SUBJECTS THROUGH

BLENDED AND FLEXIBLE LEARNING

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TEACHING FELLOWSHIP SCHEME

Funded by DVC (Academic)

Development of potential leaders through Distributive leadership

Facilitate collaborative professional relationships

Proactively redesign courses and subjects

Promote and facilitate CSU Interact as a pivotal teaching and learning hub.

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TEACHING FELLOWSHIP SCHEME

Participation of all twenty-four schools at the university

2008 - 6 fellows; 2009 - 5 fellows; 2010 - 5 fellows; 2011 - 6 fellows

The Fellowship scheme provides a .5 release from regular teaching duties over a 12 month period.

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CHALLENGES

Distance education landscape

Learning and teaching

Learning spaces

Assessment

Transformation

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http://www.csu.edu.au/division/landt/flexible-learning/

http://www.ascilite.org.au/

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