Flexible learning

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

Flexible Learning
Getting started with Flexible Learning and Blackboard

Before you begin

For many units the
planning process should
include consideration
for the various contexts
of delivery.

Design and develop the
unit once – make minor
tweaks to adjust.

Before you begin

After the
Comprehensive Course
Review process all new
units should reflect the
requirements of C2010.

Full details at

http://c2010.curtin.edu.au/

Before you begin

FLEXIBLE LEARNING POLICY SUMMARY All units must also meet
minimum requirements
 All units expected to have at least the
minimum required online presence. of the Flexible Learning
Policy
 Learning experiences should be
comparable to face-to-face.
Full details at
 Should incorporate universal design.

 Should involve collaboration and http://policies.curtin.edu.au/policies/
enriched learning experiences. viewpolicy.cfm?id=9730a43c-0b66-
11dd-8e22-b34a37284ebf
 Should provide access to administrative
and academic learning support systems

Before you begin

Blackboard is not the enemy –
nor is it the total solution.

Blackboard is perhaps best
seen as the portal to learning
experiences.

Lots of help at

http://flc.curtin.edu.au/blackboard/

www.flickr.com/photos/31497348@N05/351095170
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Before you begin

Lots of help at http://flc.curtin.edu.au

Before you begin

Lots of help at http://otl.curtin.edu.au

Planning your unit

 Build upon the foundations:
Remember that most students will
have completed the common
foundation unit “Engaging in the
Humanities” and will be primed for
socially engaged, collaborative,
student-centred learning with
expectations for online engagement
(especially if they are fully external,
OUA or remote/regional).


Planning your unit

You:
your own resilience;
capacity for learning;
ease with technology;
subject knowledge;
teaching approaches.

Collegial support:
learning communities;
shared concern;
collaborative problem-solving.

Department/School/Faculty support:
meeting time;
resource access;
school/faculty based web architects;
training and professional development; www.flickr.com/photos/79102167@N00/1268746
HITS Help Desk 1

University-wide support:
Office of Teaching and Learning site;
Flexible Learning Community site;
Key resources

Planning your unit

 Plan for reuse. Technology allows us to
create resources that can be used over time
and across contexts. Plan your teaching and
learning resources to leverage your time and
efficiency. Key concepts, seminal works, and
common support materials – are all good
starting points for reusable resources.

 Plan for learning engagement over content
delivery. The emphasis should be on
teaching and learning through collaborative
and social engagement not guiding the
individual through an online textbook. Let
good pedagogy drive the student experience.
3

Planning your unit

 Plan and schedule for resource creation.
There are many systems in the university
to assist you create resources (see the
Teaching and Learning Handbook).
Priority is given to higher order, reusable
resources rather than one-off instances of
presentation and information delivery

 Factor in your own learning.
Professional development, training
workshops, personal technology skills and
proficiencies all take time and need to be
considered when you start developing a
unit for online study.

Planning your unit

 Overestimate the time required
when you first attempt to do
this. When you start developing
units for online or blended
contexts you will find that you
need to reconsider some of your
approaches. Appropriate tool
selection, identifying new
resources, coming to terms with
your own knowledge and skill all
require a bit more time. As your
proficiency and experience grows
the time required is far less than
you need now. www.flickr.com/photos/28548387@N00/55665662
1

Planning your unit

 Know your deadlines. Teaching periods are
relatively immutable – first day of class is like
opening night on Broadway – the show must
go on. Use planning and management tools to
ensure that you aren’t caught out.
 Be upfront about difficulties and obstacles.
We all find that at some point in our working
lives we face what seem to be insurmountable
difficulties. When working with technology we
need to assume that there will always be the
potential for things to break. When you begin
to struggle, or see a difficulty on the horizon,
deal with it early and openly. Ensure the
university is working to assist you with doing
your job.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59692521@N00/214427544
6

Pedagogy >>Andragogy >> Heutagogy

Pedagogy >> Andragogy >> Heutagogy

 Plan to shift from pedagogy
to andragogy to heutagogy.
Student needs shift from
early engagement where
pedagogy (teacher direction)
is the norm, to andragogy
where the role of the teacher
shifts to facilitating student
engagement in the processes
of learning, to heutagogy
where students define and
organise their own learning
requirements.


 Work in a social context (Connectivism).
Many studies show that online learning is
most effective when conducted in a social
context. As the teacher its as much your
responsibility to build community as it is to
lecture and mark exams.

 Constructivist approaches engage the
group and focus on creation. Working
within a constructivist paradigm you will
be asking students to work at the highest
levels of scholarship. In order to create
they will need to find, to analyse and to
synthesise.


 Learner-centredness is
about addressing the needs
of students. All learners have
individual needs and
strategies for learning. A key
aspect of online learning is
ensuring flexibility to
accommodate student needs.
Student-centred learning also
acknowledges the
responsibilities of students to http://www.flickr.com/photos/catspyjamasnz/3118564555/

ensure they are learning.


 Peer support and mentoring
should be encouraged. In
keeping with student-centred and
social constructivism, students
should be encouraged to support
and mentor each other. Learning
is deeper when you are required to
teach others.
 Employ effective collaborative
strategies. Think about how to
structure learning activities that www.flickr.com/photos/8107002@N03/2805002585

are based in collaborative and
cooperative action. The ability to
work with groups and function
effectively in groups addresses
some Graduate Attributes.

Developing your resources

 Limit creation of text based and purely
presentational items. Think about ways to
create materials that drive high order
engagement. Presentation and text have a place
and where possible these should be created once
and redeployed as required.

 Use iLecture when you can. iLecture is a multi-
purpose system. You can record face-to-face
lectures, you can record desktop captures, you
can create podcasts, narrated slideshows and
vodcasts to be delivered via the iLecture
infrastructure. Howard Rheingold says “Lectures
are about explaining concepts that are so poorly
written about they need to be explained.” Short,
sharp and engaging are the key to creating
multimedia resources.
http://ilectures.curtin.edu.au/information/examples.cfm


ECHO 360

This little tool allows any staff
member to create quick video
content – including desktop
capture.

Great for clarifying a point,
introducing a difficult concept,
adding to your staff profile in Bb,
etc

Available free to all staff from:
http://ilectures.curtin.edu.au/booking/DesktopCapture.cfm


 Know the best tool for the job. Discussion
boards and forums are the public sphere of the
internet – everyone gets to voice their opinion.
Blogs are generally a single viewpoint with the
opportunity to respond, and wikis are sites for
collaborative construction. Other tools include
Voicethread, Twitter, real-time www.flickr.com/photos/52264959@N00/1351577811

conference/chat. Also know what software and
hardware is available to you via the university.
 Get to know what tools are being used
around the world and how they are being
implemented. The range of web based
technologies changes on a daily basis; knowing
what’s on the horizon and how to leverage
these shifts to engage learners is to be
encouraged. www.flickr.com/photos/90011821@N00/566243279


 Use / reuse existing resources. Find ways to
implement the use of existing resources, both
those created by you and those from third
parties. Sites like YouTube, Slideshare, Blip.tv,
and others can be used to great effect.
 Remember that weblinks, online journals,
libraries and other sources are all part of your
toolkit. Encourage students to learn to use
these to develop their own learning. Teach
scholarship as much as content.

 eBooks. Electronic texts are available in many
subject areas and can often cut through issues
of access, especially when students are in
remote locations or overseas. www.flickr.com/photos/36813960@N00/2073940586


 Know the people and departments who
can support you. The Teaching and
Learning Handbook lists many services to
support teaching and learning.

 Know what’s possible under Creative
Commons, copyright and IP regulations.
Know how you can legally use existing
works, images, video and text.

http://www.creativecommons.org

Look and feel of your unit

 Navigation and location. One of the chief
concerns of planning an online space is the
ability to work out where you are, where
you’ve been and where you’re going. Plan to
include these elements in your site design.
Banners, menus, maps and inventories
accompanied by clear directions and
instructions all assist students (and staff)
finding their way around the unit.

 Instructions and guides should be clearly
evident. Just as road signs around the world
have some standard conventions, you can
ensure that your design choices make
instructions and guides very visible.


 Audio-visual enhancements can make
your unit a pleasant and engaging space.
Images and sounds can be used to deliver
information, provide context, to add
atmosphere and to reflect an aesthetic.
Their metaphorical potential can aid with
higher order processing of ideas. http://www.flickr.com/photos/54154809@N00/428386965

 Provide overviews of structure and
content. When you create materials
ensure you think about summaries and
overviews, these can serve as advance
organisers and double as review materials. www.flickr.com/photos/26325011@N00/352439602


 The look and feel of a site can be part of
the learning experience. It is perfectly
reasonable to layer meaning into the look
and feel of your unit.

 The tone you adopt will influence
student engagement. Writing for an www.flickr.com/photos/11568293@N00/244384064

online community is different to other
forms of writing. Where appropriate keep
the tone personal, conversational, social
and engaging. Ask more than you tell.
Read for understanding not just for
assessing and evaluating. www.flickr.com/photos/23634892@N07/3029246583

Coordinating your unit

 Get to know the software you intend to use
and will be asking staff and students to use.
Know where to source the applications, where
to find help and what support is available.
Know some alternatives and keep abreast of
developments and new releases. www.flickr.com/photos/42173959@N00/9418153
2

 Online Support Materials. Many resources to
assist staff and students can be common
across departments/schools/faculties – where
possible draw on existing packages and
resources. If you create something great add it
to the pool so others can benefit.


 Know about your hardware, and the
hardware you have access to. It helps you to
know what physical technologies are available
for you to use. This can include scanners,
cameras, recording devices, and anything else
you might need. Insist on your
dept/school/faculty being able to provide
timely and reliable information in this respect. www.flickr.com/photos/42173959@N00/9418153
2

 Web 2.0 isn’t the enemy. The ubiquity of
many Web 2.0 resources means they can
become readily available extensions and fall
backs to other technologies. The networking
affordances alone can be leveraged to help
foster student and professional networks that
can extend beyond FLECS-Bb, beyond campus
and beyond graduation. http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/1659321885/in/set-72157605210232207/


 Images and graphics. Know where you can
have graphics and images made for you, learn
how to make your own and learn where to
source ready made images and photographs.
http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net
 Video production facilities are available.
There is a range of video production facilities
available to you. The higher the production
value you want the greater the expectation of
the university that the product will be
operating beyond mere presentation and
information delivery. iLecture 360 Desktop
Capture tool is freely available to all staff.


 Staff development is part of the
responsibility. Its worth
remembering that as your staff get
better at working effectively and
efficiently in online contexts you will
benefit.

 eVALUate. You should see increased
satisfaction being reported though
these reports and that should be
incentive to keep getting better at
the whole game.


 Look at your unit through students’
eyes. Before you release your unit to
students ensure you go through it in
student perspective. Make certain that
all the requisite clarity and guidance will
be obvious to students, look for things
that don’t make sense, or are
unnecessarily complicated.

 Factor in user experience testing.
Ensure you have strategies in place for
testing the operation of your unit. Does
it work on all browsers and all platforms?
Will you need to stipulate
technology/software required? Does
everything work the way you intended?


 Self-evaluate the unit. Use established
rubrics and evaluation criteria to
determine the quality and efficacy of
your unit. Notice the strengths in your
work and identify areas for
improvement.

 Administrative workflows. Be clear
about what work is required and who will
complete it. Where necessary create
clearly articulated workflows to guide
staff (and students) through required
tasks. Ensure you have the necessary
administrative support form your
department/school/faculty. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24836433@N00/5921913


 Remember the university has the ability to
provide support through a range of Offices
and Units. Staff should make sure they are
aware of the support opportunities:

 Office of Research and Development
 Organisational Development Unit
 UniEnglish
 Central AV Support
 Office of Teaching and Learning
 Library
 CITS
 Curtin University Bookshop
 START (Student Transition and Retention
Team)

Learning and assessment activities


 Be realistic about the time required.
Students are expected to invest up to 10
hours per week to complete a unit of
study – that gives you about 100-120
hours of time over a study period. Be
realistic about what can be achieved in
that time frame and plan activities that
allow students to best utilise their time.

 Scaffold learning activities. Ensure that
students are given appropriate support
and guidance as required; and as much as
possible try to link student participation
to assessment. Creative assessment tasks
will ensure participation is required
without resorting to directly grading
attendance. www.flickr.com/photos/67499195@N00/2376198831


 Provide opportunities for students to
practice and rehearse the sorts of
activities they’ll be assessed on. The
online context is a great place to
provide examples of practice and
opportunities for rehearsal – virtuality
may serve this in some practical areas.
 Provide opportunities for students to
engage in interdisciplinary and cross-
disciplinary activities. Students benefit
from a rich contextualisation of the
fields of knowledge and practice they
are entering into – a single focus
vocational perspective limits capacity
for growth.


 Use methods that are appropriate to
the context. Students should be
encouraged to participate in
meaningful ways and not in arbitrary or
contrived ways. Your flexibility,
creativity and familiarity with the
context can ensure that the student’s www.flickr.com/photos/7496431@N05/2601423003

experience is optimised.

 Incorporate skills development, how-
to-learn strategies and graduate
attributes in active engagement with
core content. Integrate the full
spectrum of learning in the activities
you ask students to undertake.


 Learn how to weave together the social,
academic, professional and personal
components of online engagement.
You’ll discover that many students have a
diverse range of skills and knowledge
about the technologies they use; your
learning activities can help them map and
repurpose skills into new contexts.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45269026@N00/671281689

 Incorporate opportunities for peer
teaching, peer assessment and self-
assessment. Concentrate on addressing
interest, relevance, currency,
engagement, chunking up, chunking
down, social engagement and active
participation as you connect students
with each other, current practice and
practitioners.

Communicating and engaging

 Make yourself known in the teaching
space. The teacher is the most
recognisable person in most
classrooms. In the online context you
need to develop a pervasive online
presence. Photos, video, messages,
and information – they all paint a
picture of you as the teacher. Use the
available tools to ensure students feel
they have a connection with you.
 Ensure all instructions are clear and
reiterated. Redundancy can be a good
thing in certain aspects of teaching
online. Students should be able to
clearly identify and interpret
instructions.


 Provide checklists for students – have
they completed all required activities
for the week? Simple methods of
ensuring students are all aware of
what’s required.
1

 Navigation guides, site maps and
inventories assist teachers and
learners alike. Site organisation is an
important component in helping
everyone find what they’re supposed to
find. Site maps (textual or graphical)
can assist and minimise the need for
students to bother you with emails
about navigation.


 The type of question you ask will
influence the student experience.
Asking effective questions in discussion
boards will ensure that students engage
the way you intended. Questions are
also an effective way of guiding
students to engage with subject matter. www.flickr.com/photos/51664705@N00/15472267

 Respond to general themes first. In
discussion forums you run the risk of
addressing the same concerns over and
over again. Better to assess the main
concerns of students and deal with
them in a well-considered post that
everyone can read. Encourage peer
guidance before engaging in individual
responses.


 Encourage peer-to-peer interaction.
Use groups and peer engagement
strategically and pedagogically. This
will improve your time management in
the long run. Assume the hive will be
proactive in sharing insights.
 Use simple compulsory activities that
scaffold learning the interface and
practices required for successful
online learning – fun, game-like,
pseudo-competitive, collaborative.
This establishes a tone for the class,
fosters effective participation and
guides students through the skills and
practices required for successful
participation.


 Understand the technologies and
best applications – blogs,
discussion boards, wiki, email,
announcement, messages, real
time chat, voice chat,
conferencing, etc. Each
technology has its strengths – use
them to support your teaching.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/472432010/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thenextweb/3346248321/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/oceanflynn/315385916/

Managing your time

 Lock out time on your calendar to
work on unit development. Ensure
you realistically assign time to
complete the tasks required to
develop your unit. www.flickr.com/photos/85515841@N00/698594611

 Lock out time on your calendar to
engage online. When you are
teaching your unit fully online you’ll
need 30-45 minutes per day. Make
this known widely inside your unit
and across your department.

Managing your time

 Use group responses over individual
responses where appropriate. There
are few situations where students will
need to contact you individually – most
of the time you will be better served by
addressing the collective. Specific
personal issues and interactions www.flickr.com/photos/24017046@N05/2415674993
relating to individual achievement may
require individual attention.
 Take time for collegial discussion.
Create a staff group within your unit for
asynchronous discussion. Also ensure
you have adequate opportunity to meet
face-to-face for support and
administration.

Managing your time

 Develop proficiency with a range
of technology tools.Your
knowledge, skill and understanding
of a wide range of technologies will
ensure you become more efficient
and effective in the online context.
New technologies are released daily
and will be continually added to
teaching and learning repertoire.
Assume constant change is normal
and learn to be comfortable with
adapting your practices to new www.flickr.com/photos/13066221@N03/2591674271

forms and structures.

Managing your time

 Recognise where time invested now will

reward you with free time later.
Conscious incompetence becomes
conscious competence becomes
unconscious competence. Speed and
efficiency are the pay off for all learning.
Be realistic about this – you will get better
at it and it will become easier and quicker.
You’ll also be better able to articulate your
technology needs.

 Calendars can be used as part of the
teaching and learning environment –
clear and timely communication will
ensure your time isn’t spent reiterating
what’s been said ten times before. The
technology can be set to release materials
when you are absent.

Electronic marking

 Online marking can be a far more
efficient process than making hard
copy materials, but it does mean
being organised. Know how to
organise folders, filter emails, and
navigate through Bb grading
resources. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8592579@N08/2703752397

 Know the affordances of FLECS-
Bb. Learn to use quizzes and tests,
surveys, automated marking, the
Grade Centre, Assignment and Drop
Box to ensure your time is
preserved.

Electronic marking
 Know where to turn for guidance. The
university provides many avenues for support
and you should be familiar with these
resources
 Online Skills Training pages on the OTL site
http://otl.curtin.edu.au
 FLC website resources http://flc.curtin.edu.au

 Develop proficiency with the software you
have at your disposal. Know what you can do
with Word, Adobe Acrobat Professional, Excel,
etc. For example:
 Use Track Changes in Word
 Templates for grading rubrics
 Use annotations in PDF documents
 Formulas in Excel spreadsheets
 FLECS-Bb grade centre

Electronic marking

 Adopt effective screen strategies. Use
two monitors if available, arrange
windows to optimise onscreen actions,
use rubric documents (automated or
templates). Change resolution if www.flickr.com/photos/30787616@N00/244001775
necessary to generate greater screen 1

real estate.

 File management. Effective file
management can help make the
process more organised and time
efficient. Learn to use filters, tags and
other tools to ease your workload.
Automate where possible.

Electronic marking

 Encourage students to use
Turnitin. Turnitin can help students
better understand their obligations
when it comes to Academic
Integrity. By taking responsibility
for assessing their own work they
develop a better appreciation of
how original work can be
represented and how identifying
sources of influence can be
important.

Common pitfalls

Plan without considering the online
limitations and affordances. It is in
your interests and the interests of your
students to ensure that you consider
your best options when teaching online.
Select activities and technologies that
work well within the context of the unit,
eg.
 its appropriate in a unit for preservice
teachers to incorporate technologies
that might be used in K -12 teaching
contexts;
 it’s appropriate to use collaborative
documents for group work;
 its appropriate to use online animation
software in a media unit.


Common pitfalls

“Shovel ware” – generating great
volumes of text based content and
trying to squeeze it into a
Learning Management System.
The preferred approach is to
generate engaging reusable
materials that focus on teaching www.flickr.com/photos/48889111471@N01/7206800

and learning rather than dumping
tonnes of content. Information is
everywhere – learning to find,
encounter, analyse and critique
information is a better goal.

Common pitfalls

✗ Try to individually attend to every
student question and enquiry.
Approach discussion boards as public
space – make public responses where
appropriate. Survey the forums and
determine key elements to be
addressed and address it once.
Discourage general email usage. www.flickr.com/photos/75062596@N00/152443312

✗ Forget to allow the learning
community to be self-sustaining.
Classes do need facilitation - mainly
with the intent of creating a learning
community that operates more and
more through social engagement.

Common pitfalls

Omit early activities that teach online
skills and practices while engaging and
developing community cohesion.
Classes need some scaffolding at various
stages. Remember your responsibility as
an educator to provide scaffolded
opportunities for students to learn a
range of effective strategies for working www.flickr.com/photos/91312924@N00/2942564830
online.

Try to do it without adding your own
learning into the equation. At every
stage of teaching online, especially in the
very beginning, you will find that you
need to learn new skills, new beliefs, new
ways of working, and that takes time even
when embedded in practice.

Common pitfalls

Believe that technology will do it
all for you. Quite simply the www.flickr.com/photos/70874608@N00/2584636703

technology will do none of the
teaching and learning but it can help
you make your teaching more
appropriate to the 21st century.


1

Flexible learning

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