eLearning is more popular today than ever before. In fact, it's been estimated that around half of all college courses will include eLearning by 2019. In addition 41.7% of global Fortune 500 companies now use some form of learning technology to instruct employees during formal earning hours. As such, it's important to have a firm grasp on basics of instructional design, so that you are able to create eLearning courses that provide the best possible educational experience for the learner. Here are the top 10 tips for creating awesome eLearning courses that are effective, engaging, and immersive.
Have a Clearly Defined eLearning Course Structure
Before you even begin the actual eLearning designing process, you'll want to have a clear idea of how you’d go about converting your face-to-face course to an eLearning format. You need to identify the eLearning course format, the Instructional Design Model that you are going to use, the type(s) of eLearning interaction(s), and last, you have to choose the right learning technology. I highly encourage you read the following article that talks about the TOP 5 tips to convert your traditional course into an eLearning format. In addition to the above, are you planning on delivering the information in a linear format, wherein the learner will receive the data in a particular sequence? Or are you going to give the learner the ability to pick and choose their lesson module during each session? You may find valuable The Concept of Individualized Learning Plans in eLearning article.
Create High Quality, Relevant, Effective, and Measurable eLearning Course Content
Make no mistake about it, content is king when it comes to creating a great eLearning experience for your learners. All of the content that you include in should add to the value of your eLearning course. It must also be clear, concise, and written in a way that engages the learner. If your dealing with a topic that may not seem all that interesting, find a way to draw in the learner by humanizing the content. For example, if your eLearning course concerns the basics of biology, create content that helps the learner relate to the topics included. Give them real world examples that illustrate human biology, and let them know how the subject ties into their everyday lives. See what guidelines your eLearning content must follow to resonate more with your learners. Create eLearning Content Your Employees Care About. Do not forget that you need to measure the effectiveness of your eLearning content. To do show, I highly encourage you to read the 5 Tips To Measure eLearning Content Effectiveness.
Visual Design and Easy Navigation are Essential
Your eLearning course should include a variety of visual design elements that attract the learner and keep them aesthetically engaged. Include a variety of different multimedia tools, such as pictures and videos, and focus on the overall design of your eLearning course. (To learn about videos in eLearning you may want to read The top 10 tips to effectively using video in your eLearning course). With that being said, an eye-catching design should not come at the price of poor navigation. In essence, your eLearning course shouldn't contain so many graphics and images that it prevents the learner from easily navigating to subsequent eLearning modules. Last but not least, for some reason when I am talking about visual design my audiences' minds goes to learning styles. Be careful when you are talking about learning styles. Check The Myth of Learning Styles and you will find out why.
Always include reminders of what value the eLearning course offers the learner
Throughout the entirety of your eLearning course, you'll always want to provide the learner with reminders of what they are going to learn and/or how that information is going to be of benefit to them. Without this, they will not be motivated to continue on with the course; given that there is not a goal that they are able to work toward. This is why I highly encourage you to use aims and objectives at your eLearning course. Aims and objectives can sometimes be incredibly confusing but every eLearning course needs to have them. How To Write Aims and Objectives for eLearning Courses
Allow the learner to apply their newly acquired skills or information
Include models, lessons, or exercises that allow the learner to put their newfound knowledge or skill sets to good use. Integrate activities into the eLearning course that enable the learner to try out the information you've provided, so that they can more effectively retain what they have just acquired.
Design eLearning modules that make the information easily digestible for the learner
Break your course up into “bite size” modules that allow the learner to gather small bits of information at once. This can reduce content overload, and give the student the ability to actually absorb the lesson. Check out the 5 Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in eLearning
article to find out how eLearning helps to increase retention rates by reducing cognitive overload. Also, one of the main concepts that leads to successful e-Learning course design is Information Chunking. But what is chunking? And what kind of chunking strategies can an instructional designer use to enhance learning? 3 Chunking Strategies That Every Instructional Designer Should Know
Create an eLearning course that can be easily maintained
Keep maintenance in mind when designing your eLearning course. Chances are, you're going to revise your eLearning course based on your learners’ constructive feedback, and add new eLearning modules or lessons to the eLearning course in upcoming months and years. As a result, you'll want to create eLearning templates that you can use over and over. That way, you can revise, edit, and add to the eLearning modules, without having to restructure the entire course.
Make your interface cohesive and consistent
Your course should look and feel cohesive all throughout. It should stick to the same graphic design, and feature the same tone and high quality content in each and every eLearning module. You don't want your eLearning course to feel disjointed. Instead, you want to aim on an eLearning course that is in-line with your branding.
Avoid cluttered eLearning course design
Sure, you want to include plenty of invaluable information within your eLearning course. However, you never want it to feel cluttered or chaotic. Only include information and graphic elements that are relevant and necessary, as this will help the learner to stay focus on the task at hand (instead of becoming distracted by all of the virtual clutter). Read the How to Engage Your Learners Without Annoying Them article to find out more about the top 5 ways to engage the learner without annoying them (distracting design elements is just one of the many tips featured on the list).
Offer some form of learner support
You should ALWAYS have some kind of support system in place built into the eLearning course, wherein the learner can receive help if they need it along the way. Live chat, email, and phone are all great support services that you can offer. Even an FAQ can help the learner to feel as though there is a support system in place, which can lead to a more effective learning experience.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Getting to There From Here in The Education Revolution
So I like to write a lot about where all of these big ideas in education are heading and what learning might look like in the future. Often I skip ahead by a good bit and seem to leave out several important steps. But that does not mean that I don’t think about these steps that we as a field need to take to get to this glorious revolutionary future. In reality, I think these steps are more fascinating. But I tend to focus on some of these steps in my work and studies so much that they rarely make it onto this blog. So, here it is – the steps I think we need to take (in broad strokes) to get from where we are now to this awesome future of educational bliss.
Assuming, of course, that Universities don’t die before all of this happens.
Expand Student Community Options. If we want a student-centered educational future, then we need to build in support systems for students. Especially as education becomes more distance-oriented. We used to rely on dorms rooms and libraries and social events to allow students the opportunity to form support and mentor-ship relationships. With those physical spaces being non-existent for online students and irrelevant for non-traditional students, we need to build more opportunities for informal interaction using social media, online tools, and even formal course structures that push students to build portfolios and online presences more than just grades. This is something that I have started working on in a small-scale form with a peer mentor-ship program for a doctoral program (and there are many others out there). But I think we still need to see a greater movement around this idea, more on the level of MOOC-hype than “oh, yeah, I think I know some people that are working on this” kind of reaction.
Give Students Control Over their Online Identity. One barrier to student community is the disconnected nature of social media due to the existence of so many options. Why create a portfolio when you have Facebook and LinkedIn, right? But owning your identity online protects learners in many ways, not the least of which is the ability to take your identity with you rather than start over with every new social service that forms. Jim Groom covers a lot of the reasons why this step is important in this blog post. I’m glad there is major work happening on this front at the University of Mary Washington. Just wish more of the world was paying attention.
Incorporate Informal Learning. Personal Learning Networks and Lifelong learning are not new ideas, so this is an area that we already see growing at many universities. But at some point it has to go beyond a “cool idea” with some loose administrative support to an actual, integral part of the learning experience. Sounds kind of weird to make informal learning a part of the formal learning process, so I’m not really thinking of that as much as finding ways to acknowledge the informal sphere and utilize it in the formal sphere. As students gain more control over their online identity, this will become more feasible and practical.
Build a Course Taxonomy System. Ever noticed that most course descriptions and even syllabuses don’t really tell you much about how a course really ends up working out? Wish you could easily know how student-centered (or not) a course is rather than paper due dates? Ever want to know what percentage of time will be spent on group assignments across all of the courses you take so that you won’t get burdened down carrying dead weight in too many classes? With course types diversifying and changing more and more rapidly, we are in more need than ever of a way to classify courses according to what students will really, actually get when they take the course. This would tie into the development and evaluation of courses in order to ensure accuracy. This is another area that I have started work on, and hope to have some more concrete answers and ideas over the next couple of years.
Deconstructing Courses. This is already happening with what is sometimes referred to as cMOOCs – open courses that rely on connectivism and open learning. “Open” has basically devolved into another word for “free” in many circles, so I tend to refer to true”open” courses as ones that have deconstructed the learning experience into something beyond the typical “sit and soak” learning method. Yes, you do see that still prevalent in many xMOOCs. What I would like to see as a further evolution of open courses are courses that allow for multiple entry points through out the semester, or even courses that allow students to skip past what they already know. Different entities have experimented with this through the years, but for the most part they seem to still focus on the course level (aka, you can test out of a whole course rather than part of it). At some point I think this will have to go more mainstream to allow for true educational revolution.
Re-focus Big Data. Love or hate it, Big Data is here to stay. I’m always a fan of more knowledge, and Big Data does give us more knowledge. If schools want to use it to take a big picture look at statistics, that is great. If programs want to use it to identify student problems, great. But I am more interested in the projects that help students learn more about themselves beyond “hey, I’m about to start failing this course.” I briefly spoke to Dr. Kinshuk at CELDA a few weeks ago about a dynamic profile system they are developing for helping student determine their learning preferences. This is important because if students fill out their own questionnaire for learning preferences, they will skew the data to what they think looks good. But what if we could just gather data from their every day school work to determine that? Or to determine what course types they prefer (connecting back to taxonomies above)? If our schools become more student-centered, then why not give students the data to understand who they are?
Deconstructing Degree Plans. Once we have all of these other ways to deconstruct learning and use data and websites to support student learning, the next thing we can do is go big and really mess with things. If we have deconstructed courses to the point that they allow for students to take what they need as well as mix and match course components, why not take that idea to the degree level? This is not a new idea, but for the most part custom degree plans are given an anonymous sounding name like “University Scholar” and then are basically still a succession of courses that have to be taken as courses – even if students know some of the material already. What if we allow students to create self-selected paths through through the material for specific degrees? What if a chemistry major could put together a truly customized degree that allows them to skip what they got in high school and dig into advanced topics and research? What if the student was creating stream of study through basic topics, with new topics/courses starting and stopping based on what the student’s data tells them about their learning needs?
Return to Deconstructing Courses More. I think once you deconstruct the degree plan, you can then return to deconstruct courses even more. In fact, it could be that the two would go in cycles – deconstruct the course some, then deconstruct the degree plans around them, then repeat. Eventually you would want to see cyclical course paths that allows students to circle back to concepts they didn’t get, or maybe even back to stuff they were really interested in in order to dig in deeper. On top of that, you could to see students of different levels in “courses” at the same time, so that students that have been taking a “course” for a few weeks could mentor those that just entered. I use the term “course” loosely now because, well, we would need a word for whatever this is… but it would not really resemble a “course” as much as a learning community or personal learning network.
Open Up Research and Practicum/Internship Opportunities. Seems like this goes back to what we are doing today with learning, but often it seems like there is still a distinction between “academic” courses and “practicum” courses. For students that are more interested in a topic, there should be natural extensions into the world beyond the Ivory Tower – through participating in research projects with professors to working with professionals in the field. Or, for the non-traditional learner that is working and studying, why does the time spent on the clock at a job have to be separate from when they are “learning” in a classroom? Why not find ways to connect the two? Well, we don’t do that great of a job with it now because all of the previous steps have not fully come to fruition. But we still see places like Antioch College that are doing interesting things in this area, so I think that eventually we will see that happening more often.
I know that I had 11-12 steps in my mind when I first thought of this idea late last night.. so I apologize if I have left anything important out. I know there is nothing in here about certain technologies like gaming, mobile devices, and 3-D printers. All of those are important, of course, but they are still tools that support the larger view of education and this post is meant to try and start to put some structure around this emerging idea of the “future of education” in my head.
So what we have is a student-centered, open, deconstructed, unschooled, cyclical, connectivist, sociocultural customized learning structure for students to work with peer mentors, faculty, more knowledgeable others, other students, and industry experts to learn in ways that utilize informal learning, life experience, contextual learning, personal analytics, and personal learning networks. Man… how many buzzwords can I cram into one sentence?
So Why Do So Many Learners Drop Out of Open Courses?
One of the big questions surrounding open learning (or more specifically, the massive popular version of open learning) is “why do so many people drop out?” In a lot of ways, I’m not sure we need to find the answer to that question. If admin types at the University level find a formula for keeping students in massive open courses, they will pretty much have the perfect excuse for getting rid of a huge chunk of those pesky overpaid teacher types (sarcasm fully intended on that pesky overpaid part).
But at the same time – you have to wonder… if students can look at an entire course (since it is open) and see what they are getting into from the beginning – why are so many dropping out?
Well, to be honest we all know they probably aren’t looking at the whole class. They are reading the Syllabus or About sections, which is probably about the same as all syllabuses have been for centuries. You get an abstract of the content along with a summary of expectations for assignments and a few campus policies.
How many times have you read through a list of assignments and still get in the class and find yourself surprised at what you actually end up doing? For example, you read what assignments were going to be group-based, but you still get a little behind when it turns out that those group assignments take up 50% of your work?
Most course designers don’t do a really good job of rating overall work load for courses. How much of the course is passive? How much is active? How much is discussion? What percentage is individual? What about group work? I think academia is in dire need of a better system to communicate to students exactly what they are getting into with any course so that students can predict workload before signing up. Of course, students won’t be able to avoid things they don’t like (such as group work), but they might be able to balance classes so they don’t end up with, say, too much group work across all of their courses combined. This is a system I am currently working on and hope to have a good idea of a model for it in the next few years.
To me, this rating system is a factor of openness that is often missing in open learning. Additionally, a true system of classifying courses would in some way collect feedback to ensure accuracy of the system. Current course feedback surveys are usually administered by people that are interested in numbers, grades, and data. But we all know that most students fill them out based on personal feelings of who the “coolest” or “easiest” profs are. So there is probably a huge disconnect between what most schools want from feedback surveys and what they are actually getting. What if we could actually collect data that helps improve the course description? Maybe we could by default increase all of the statistical numbers once students have a more accurate picture of what they are getting into before they register?
So, the basic idea would be to get students to rate how accurate the course classification is. Was the amount of group work described in the syllabus accurate? Did the course description accurately reflect what was actually taught? Did the instructor accomplish what they promised? Ultimately, ratings like this could be used to give instructors solid feedback and vision for future course improvements. For example, if you thought your course was mostly based on active learning but the students told you there actually wasn’t much of it – maybe you could do some major re-design.
How this looks exactly is hard to say, but I will be making this idea a major focus of my grad work since my faculty adviser thought it all a great idea. We’ll see where this ends up going.
Assuming, of course, that Universities don’t die before all of this happens.
Expand Student Community Options. If we want a student-centered educational future, then we need to build in support systems for students. Especially as education becomes more distance-oriented. We used to rely on dorms rooms and libraries and social events to allow students the opportunity to form support and mentor-ship relationships. With those physical spaces being non-existent for online students and irrelevant for non-traditional students, we need to build more opportunities for informal interaction using social media, online tools, and even formal course structures that push students to build portfolios and online presences more than just grades. This is something that I have started working on in a small-scale form with a peer mentor-ship program for a doctoral program (and there are many others out there). But I think we still need to see a greater movement around this idea, more on the level of MOOC-hype than “oh, yeah, I think I know some people that are working on this” kind of reaction.
Give Students Control Over their Online Identity. One barrier to student community is the disconnected nature of social media due to the existence of so many options. Why create a portfolio when you have Facebook and LinkedIn, right? But owning your identity online protects learners in many ways, not the least of which is the ability to take your identity with you rather than start over with every new social service that forms. Jim Groom covers a lot of the reasons why this step is important in this blog post. I’m glad there is major work happening on this front at the University of Mary Washington. Just wish more of the world was paying attention.
Incorporate Informal Learning. Personal Learning Networks and Lifelong learning are not new ideas, so this is an area that we already see growing at many universities. But at some point it has to go beyond a “cool idea” with some loose administrative support to an actual, integral part of the learning experience. Sounds kind of weird to make informal learning a part of the formal learning process, so I’m not really thinking of that as much as finding ways to acknowledge the informal sphere and utilize it in the formal sphere. As students gain more control over their online identity, this will become more feasible and practical.
Build a Course Taxonomy System. Ever noticed that most course descriptions and even syllabuses don’t really tell you much about how a course really ends up working out? Wish you could easily know how student-centered (or not) a course is rather than paper due dates? Ever want to know what percentage of time will be spent on group assignments across all of the courses you take so that you won’t get burdened down carrying dead weight in too many classes? With course types diversifying and changing more and more rapidly, we are in more need than ever of a way to classify courses according to what students will really, actually get when they take the course. This would tie into the development and evaluation of courses in order to ensure accuracy. This is another area that I have started work on, and hope to have some more concrete answers and ideas over the next couple of years.
Deconstructing Courses. This is already happening with what is sometimes referred to as cMOOCs – open courses that rely on connectivism and open learning. “Open” has basically devolved into another word for “free” in many circles, so I tend to refer to true”open” courses as ones that have deconstructed the learning experience into something beyond the typical “sit and soak” learning method. Yes, you do see that still prevalent in many xMOOCs. What I would like to see as a further evolution of open courses are courses that allow for multiple entry points through out the semester, or even courses that allow students to skip past what they already know. Different entities have experimented with this through the years, but for the most part they seem to still focus on the course level (aka, you can test out of a whole course rather than part of it). At some point I think this will have to go more mainstream to allow for true educational revolution.
Re-focus Big Data. Love or hate it, Big Data is here to stay. I’m always a fan of more knowledge, and Big Data does give us more knowledge. If schools want to use it to take a big picture look at statistics, that is great. If programs want to use it to identify student problems, great. But I am more interested in the projects that help students learn more about themselves beyond “hey, I’m about to start failing this course.” I briefly spoke to Dr. Kinshuk at CELDA a few weeks ago about a dynamic profile system they are developing for helping student determine their learning preferences. This is important because if students fill out their own questionnaire for learning preferences, they will skew the data to what they think looks good. But what if we could just gather data from their every day school work to determine that? Or to determine what course types they prefer (connecting back to taxonomies above)? If our schools become more student-centered, then why not give students the data to understand who they are?
Deconstructing Degree Plans. Once we have all of these other ways to deconstruct learning and use data and websites to support student learning, the next thing we can do is go big and really mess with things. If we have deconstructed courses to the point that they allow for students to take what they need as well as mix and match course components, why not take that idea to the degree level? This is not a new idea, but for the most part custom degree plans are given an anonymous sounding name like “University Scholar” and then are basically still a succession of courses that have to be taken as courses – even if students know some of the material already. What if we allow students to create self-selected paths through through the material for specific degrees? What if a chemistry major could put together a truly customized degree that allows them to skip what they got in high school and dig into advanced topics and research? What if the student was creating stream of study through basic topics, with new topics/courses starting and stopping based on what the student’s data tells them about their learning needs?
Return to Deconstructing Courses More. I think once you deconstruct the degree plan, you can then return to deconstruct courses even more. In fact, it could be that the two would go in cycles – deconstruct the course some, then deconstruct the degree plans around them, then repeat. Eventually you would want to see cyclical course paths that allows students to circle back to concepts they didn’t get, or maybe even back to stuff they were really interested in in order to dig in deeper. On top of that, you could to see students of different levels in “courses” at the same time, so that students that have been taking a “course” for a few weeks could mentor those that just entered. I use the term “course” loosely now because, well, we would need a word for whatever this is… but it would not really resemble a “course” as much as a learning community or personal learning network.
Open Up Research and Practicum/Internship Opportunities. Seems like this goes back to what we are doing today with learning, but often it seems like there is still a distinction between “academic” courses and “practicum” courses. For students that are more interested in a topic, there should be natural extensions into the world beyond the Ivory Tower – through participating in research projects with professors to working with professionals in the field. Or, for the non-traditional learner that is working and studying, why does the time spent on the clock at a job have to be separate from when they are “learning” in a classroom? Why not find ways to connect the two? Well, we don’t do that great of a job with it now because all of the previous steps have not fully come to fruition. But we still see places like Antioch College that are doing interesting things in this area, so I think that eventually we will see that happening more often.
I know that I had 11-12 steps in my mind when I first thought of this idea late last night.. so I apologize if I have left anything important out. I know there is nothing in here about certain technologies like gaming, mobile devices, and 3-D printers. All of those are important, of course, but they are still tools that support the larger view of education and this post is meant to try and start to put some structure around this emerging idea of the “future of education” in my head.
So what we have is a student-centered, open, deconstructed, unschooled, cyclical, connectivist, sociocultural customized learning structure for students to work with peer mentors, faculty, more knowledgeable others, other students, and industry experts to learn in ways that utilize informal learning, life experience, contextual learning, personal analytics, and personal learning networks. Man… how many buzzwords can I cram into one sentence?
So Why Do So Many Learners Drop Out of Open Courses?
One of the big questions surrounding open learning (or more specifically, the massive popular version of open learning) is “why do so many people drop out?” In a lot of ways, I’m not sure we need to find the answer to that question. If admin types at the University level find a formula for keeping students in massive open courses, they will pretty much have the perfect excuse for getting rid of a huge chunk of those pesky overpaid teacher types (sarcasm fully intended on that pesky overpaid part).
But at the same time – you have to wonder… if students can look at an entire course (since it is open) and see what they are getting into from the beginning – why are so many dropping out?
Well, to be honest we all know they probably aren’t looking at the whole class. They are reading the Syllabus or About sections, which is probably about the same as all syllabuses have been for centuries. You get an abstract of the content along with a summary of expectations for assignments and a few campus policies.
How many times have you read through a list of assignments and still get in the class and find yourself surprised at what you actually end up doing? For example, you read what assignments were going to be group-based, but you still get a little behind when it turns out that those group assignments take up 50% of your work?
Most course designers don’t do a really good job of rating overall work load for courses. How much of the course is passive? How much is active? How much is discussion? What percentage is individual? What about group work? I think academia is in dire need of a better system to communicate to students exactly what they are getting into with any course so that students can predict workload before signing up. Of course, students won’t be able to avoid things they don’t like (such as group work), but they might be able to balance classes so they don’t end up with, say, too much group work across all of their courses combined. This is a system I am currently working on and hope to have a good idea of a model for it in the next few years.
To me, this rating system is a factor of openness that is often missing in open learning. Additionally, a true system of classifying courses would in some way collect feedback to ensure accuracy of the system. Current course feedback surveys are usually administered by people that are interested in numbers, grades, and data. But we all know that most students fill them out based on personal feelings of who the “coolest” or “easiest” profs are. So there is probably a huge disconnect between what most schools want from feedback surveys and what they are actually getting. What if we could actually collect data that helps improve the course description? Maybe we could by default increase all of the statistical numbers once students have a more accurate picture of what they are getting into before they register?
So, the basic idea would be to get students to rate how accurate the course classification is. Was the amount of group work described in the syllabus accurate? Did the course description accurately reflect what was actually taught? Did the instructor accomplish what they promised? Ultimately, ratings like this could be used to give instructors solid feedback and vision for future course improvements. For example, if you thought your course was mostly based on active learning but the students told you there actually wasn’t much of it – maybe you could do some major re-design.
How this looks exactly is hard to say, but I will be making this idea a major focus of my grad work since my faculty adviser thought it all a great idea. We’ll see where this ends up going.
5 Journalism Techniques To Borrow For eLearning
In some ways, the goals of learning architects aren’t that different from those of journalists. When it comes to writing a news or magazine story, the journalist’s goal is to inform, educate and entertain. This isn’t a big leap from what instructional designers and developers are trying to achieve.
In journalism, most articles use a conventional structure intended to make an article compelling while still being informative. Why not borrow these same techniques in our work, to motivate and perhaps entertain learners? Here are some ideas that you can borrow from journalism to boost the quality of your eLearning.
1. Use catchy headlines instead of course titles
Catchy headlines are compelling because they communicate a benefit to the audience. They pique the reader’s curiosity, often making a promise of what the reader will be able to achieve. Effective headlines are often very specific. They may give the reader the amount of time it will take, the number of tips they will get, or the number of goals they will reach.
On the other hand, typical eLearning course titles are about as exciting as a big yawn. Learners get drowsy when they see titles like this: How to Manage Projects. By borrowing ideas from magazine covers, you can make titles exciting. See below for some alternatives to: How to Manage Projects.
Behind the Scenes of Awesome Projects
PM Success in 15 Minutes a Day!
Delivering Incredible Projects On Time
10 Secrets from Project Management Gurus
How to Manage Less with Better Results
Of course, using titles like these means your creative treatment throughout a course may need to change. This could be a positive development.
2. Create teasers on menus and title screens
Teasers are short bits of promotional text intended to attract a potential audience member to read a story. Teasers leave out the important details so readers want to find out more. In online learning, we can use teasers in menus and on title screens. Here are some teasers pulled from current magazines:
Newsweek teaser for an article titled, The Least Likely Spy: “How did an amateur pilot turned artsy bookstore owner end up at the pinnacle of the CIA?“
TIME Magazine teaser for an article titled, Big Data Meet Big Brother: “If computers can now predict our behavior, should governments watch our every move?”
Real Simple magazine teaser for an article titled, When to Get Cell Phones for Your Kids: “Consider these criteria before shelling out for a fancy smartphone for your child.”
To write intriguing teasers, journalists recommend:
Hint at what’s inside, but don’t reveal it
Think of a teaser as an advertisement
Learn how the tabloids do it, then tone it down
Let your teasers attract attention
Here is how I used teasers in a recent course developed for medical providers.
3. Write a compelling lead
Journalists are taught to open with an effective lead at the start of the article. In these first few sentences, they write an enticing hook or they capture the essence of the subject. See these example leads below.
Washington Post for an article about hunger in America: “It was the first day of summer in a place where summers had become hazardous to a child’s health, so the school bus rolled out of the parking lot on its newest emergency route.”
Wired magazine for an article covering how Vine climbed to the top of the social media ladder: “In April, when bombs ripped through the finish line of the Boston Marathon, there was a defining visual of the explosion that went viral online. It wasn’t a photograph, though, or a YouTube video; instead, it was a short, looping video called a Vine.”
NY Times for an article about green transportation in Europe: “Vienna is employing some old-fashioned technology to run shiny new electric buses wending their way through the narrow inner-city streets.”
Learning architects can borrow this device to hook learners at the start of a learning experience. You may draw from journalistic techniques as well as from adult learning principles. However you start, avoid a dry list of learning objectives. Some approaches for hooking the learner are:
Feature a relevant but personal story
Start with a game or challenge
Use a novel creative treatment
Create a meaningful metaphor
Present an intriguing scenario that accurately reflects workplace issues
Let learners know in words they would use, why the course will be valuable to them
Everyone agrees that writing a compelling lead is hard work, so don’t be discouraged if this doesn’t come easily.
4. Quote from engaging sources
How often do your courses use quotes or short interviews that are relevant to the course topic? Journalists often pepper articles with quotes that provide insight, opinion or interest. Quotes are so commonly used in journalism, it’s difficult to find articles without them. A quote brings validation and authenticity to writing. It’s also an effective way to get your point understood.
For example, National Geographic Magazine had an article about women in science. The article carried this quote:
“There is no question about it that there is still a gender bias with compensation for equal performance, for selection to be in charge of various projects—it’s just a part of our culture,” Earle said.
Although many quotes are from experts, this isn’t a requirement. Often a quote from the intended reader or a subject of the article adds greater value. In Wired magazine’s article about giving iPads to child patients prior to surgery, the author quotes a 10-year old:
“It was fun to use it,” he remembers. “It makes you focus on the iPad, and it takes your mind off the surgery.”
Because this journalistic technique is underused in eLearning, meaningful quotes have great potential for bringing a topic to life. They provide real-world examples and bring color to the content. Making points through quotes can also add credibility to a viewpoint when persuasion is a goal. Some ways to consider using quotes are:
Conduct short interviews and pick the quotes that will enhance learning and interest
Use a question and answer technique to convey content
Use attention-grabbing pull quotes in your visual design
Present relevant quotes by audience members and peers
5. Close with a kicker
The kicker, which provides a little kick or surprise, is a journalistic tactic for making a strong closing or start. In the book, Introduction to Journalism, the author explains the kicker as a “closing quote or fact which takes the story a little further by providing shock, irony, humor or simply food for thought.” It might be a high-impact sentence, a moving quote or a connection to a key point at the start of the article. The kicker is often emotionally satisfying and is in tune with the entire story.
How can we learn to write great kickers? Journalism teachers recommend that students study the closing paragraphs and final sentences of varied articles. Copy what is effective and avoid what is stale and mediocre. Consider how typical eLearning courses end with a review and then a quiz. Wouldn’t a “kicker” be a welcome way to close? Some journalistic techniques you can use for kicker closings include:
Memorable quote
Restating the theme or main point
Evoking an emotion
A thoughtful question
An anecdote that wraps up the essence of the course
I hope I’ve convinced you that journalism has wonderful approaches to writing that we can borrow to enhance learning experiences. A little more thinking and writing like a reporter could bring much needed excitement to our industry.
In journalism, most articles use a conventional structure intended to make an article compelling while still being informative. Why not borrow these same techniques in our work, to motivate and perhaps entertain learners? Here are some ideas that you can borrow from journalism to boost the quality of your eLearning.
1. Use catchy headlines instead of course titles
Catchy headlines are compelling because they communicate a benefit to the audience. They pique the reader’s curiosity, often making a promise of what the reader will be able to achieve. Effective headlines are often very specific. They may give the reader the amount of time it will take, the number of tips they will get, or the number of goals they will reach.
On the other hand, typical eLearning course titles are about as exciting as a big yawn. Learners get drowsy when they see titles like this: How to Manage Projects. By borrowing ideas from magazine covers, you can make titles exciting. See below for some alternatives to: How to Manage Projects.
Behind the Scenes of Awesome Projects
PM Success in 15 Minutes a Day!
Delivering Incredible Projects On Time
10 Secrets from Project Management Gurus
How to Manage Less with Better Results
Of course, using titles like these means your creative treatment throughout a course may need to change. This could be a positive development.
2. Create teasers on menus and title screens
Teasers are short bits of promotional text intended to attract a potential audience member to read a story. Teasers leave out the important details so readers want to find out more. In online learning, we can use teasers in menus and on title screens. Here are some teasers pulled from current magazines:
Newsweek teaser for an article titled, The Least Likely Spy: “How did an amateur pilot turned artsy bookstore owner end up at the pinnacle of the CIA?“
TIME Magazine teaser for an article titled, Big Data Meet Big Brother: “If computers can now predict our behavior, should governments watch our every move?”
Real Simple magazine teaser for an article titled, When to Get Cell Phones for Your Kids: “Consider these criteria before shelling out for a fancy smartphone for your child.”
To write intriguing teasers, journalists recommend:
Hint at what’s inside, but don’t reveal it
Think of a teaser as an advertisement
Learn how the tabloids do it, then tone it down
Let your teasers attract attention
Here is how I used teasers in a recent course developed for medical providers.
3. Write a compelling lead
Journalists are taught to open with an effective lead at the start of the article. In these first few sentences, they write an enticing hook or they capture the essence of the subject. See these example leads below.
Washington Post for an article about hunger in America: “It was the first day of summer in a place where summers had become hazardous to a child’s health, so the school bus rolled out of the parking lot on its newest emergency route.”
Wired magazine for an article covering how Vine climbed to the top of the social media ladder: “In April, when bombs ripped through the finish line of the Boston Marathon, there was a defining visual of the explosion that went viral online. It wasn’t a photograph, though, or a YouTube video; instead, it was a short, looping video called a Vine.”
NY Times for an article about green transportation in Europe: “Vienna is employing some old-fashioned technology to run shiny new electric buses wending their way through the narrow inner-city streets.”
Learning architects can borrow this device to hook learners at the start of a learning experience. You may draw from journalistic techniques as well as from adult learning principles. However you start, avoid a dry list of learning objectives. Some approaches for hooking the learner are:
Feature a relevant but personal story
Start with a game or challenge
Use a novel creative treatment
Create a meaningful metaphor
Present an intriguing scenario that accurately reflects workplace issues
Let learners know in words they would use, why the course will be valuable to them
Everyone agrees that writing a compelling lead is hard work, so don’t be discouraged if this doesn’t come easily.
4. Quote from engaging sources
How often do your courses use quotes or short interviews that are relevant to the course topic? Journalists often pepper articles with quotes that provide insight, opinion or interest. Quotes are so commonly used in journalism, it’s difficult to find articles without them. A quote brings validation and authenticity to writing. It’s also an effective way to get your point understood.
For example, National Geographic Magazine had an article about women in science. The article carried this quote:
“There is no question about it that there is still a gender bias with compensation for equal performance, for selection to be in charge of various projects—it’s just a part of our culture,” Earle said.
Although many quotes are from experts, this isn’t a requirement. Often a quote from the intended reader or a subject of the article adds greater value. In Wired magazine’s article about giving iPads to child patients prior to surgery, the author quotes a 10-year old:
“It was fun to use it,” he remembers. “It makes you focus on the iPad, and it takes your mind off the surgery.”
Because this journalistic technique is underused in eLearning, meaningful quotes have great potential for bringing a topic to life. They provide real-world examples and bring color to the content. Making points through quotes can also add credibility to a viewpoint when persuasion is a goal. Some ways to consider using quotes are:
Conduct short interviews and pick the quotes that will enhance learning and interest
Use a question and answer technique to convey content
Use attention-grabbing pull quotes in your visual design
Present relevant quotes by audience members and peers
5. Close with a kicker
The kicker, which provides a little kick or surprise, is a journalistic tactic for making a strong closing or start. In the book, Introduction to Journalism, the author explains the kicker as a “closing quote or fact which takes the story a little further by providing shock, irony, humor or simply food for thought.” It might be a high-impact sentence, a moving quote or a connection to a key point at the start of the article. The kicker is often emotionally satisfying and is in tune with the entire story.
How can we learn to write great kickers? Journalism teachers recommend that students study the closing paragraphs and final sentences of varied articles. Copy what is effective and avoid what is stale and mediocre. Consider how typical eLearning courses end with a review and then a quiz. Wouldn’t a “kicker” be a welcome way to close? Some journalistic techniques you can use for kicker closings include:
Memorable quote
Restating the theme or main point
Evoking an emotion
A thoughtful question
An anecdote that wraps up the essence of the course
I hope I’ve convinced you that journalism has wonderful approaches to writing that we can borrow to enhance learning experiences. A little more thinking and writing like a reporter could bring much needed excitement to our industry.
Learning Technologist collaboration research project - LTFE LTHE
Project outline
According to the Association of Learning Technology the definition of Learning Technology is defined as this; “Learning technology is the broad range of communication, information and related technologies that can be used to support learning, teaching, and assessment.” Learning Technologists are then “the people who are actively involved in managing, researching, supporting or enabling learning with the use of learning technology.”(ALT 2010)
However, to those working in eLearning, on a daily or ad hoc basis, the explanation doesn’t seem to be as clear cut and there has to be a continual explanation of the job role and the skills, experience and knowledge the role of a Learning Technologist demands. The reality of the day to day routine of a Learning Technologist can be dictated by the strengths of the person in the role, or even where the role physically fits into the institutional structure. According to David Hopkins this question of what is a Learning Technologist “can be answered differently based on who you ask, where they work, and what day of the week it is.” (Hopkins, 2009)
The naming of a Learning Technologist can take many forms: Academic developer, blended learning advisor, technology enhanced learning advisor to name a few. This has a real impact on individual and team identity, purpose and success. Without clear definition, the crossover between technology and pedagogy can cause friction and conflict between departments.
Project Methodology
The outcomes of this project will be built upon qualitative data that will be collected through the capture and archiving of Twitter posts from October 2013-Dec 2013 using a tagging system on Google docs. The data will be gathered by performing automatic hourly searches of all Tweets using the hash tags #LTFE and #LTHE (non-case sensitive tweets will also be included). The principles of discourse analysis will be applied to the data to extrapolate the themes, trends and attitudes towards Learning Technologist which will be discussed to begin to build a clearer picture of the position of Learning Technologists in the context of FE and HE. The first stage will concentrate on FE and the second stage on HE.
Timescale:
Data will be collected between October – December 2013.
Data analysis will be continual throughout the project- using a small cluster of discourse analysis techniques. The project write-up will be completed by Christmas and will be disseminated across the FE and HE learning community. This dissemination will be informally through twitter and formally as a research case study. Potential journals to submit case study to are: ALT-J,MERJ, JHFE and Rapal.
This project will be carried out by Rachel Challen Head of eLearning and Geraldine Murphy a Learning Technologist at Loughborough College and David Hopkins, Learning Technologist at the University of Leicester.
Amazon MatchBook: Paper and Kindle editions on their way
If, like me, you like to watch your films or listen to music on more than one device (in more than one location) then you’ll have had to copy/digitise/rip it, which is not always legal.
But it can be done. For your CDs you need to just put them in your computer and iTunes or other music library software will offer to rip it for you. Connect your digital audio device and copy the file across and you can listen to your CD in the car, gym, bus, or at work or walking the dog. It’s slightly more difficult for your DVDs but there is software that can rip it into an MP4/M4V or MOV or WMV file which will play on your laptop, tablet, etc. and you can watch on the train, bus, plane, or in the shed or bath (wherever you want).
But what about your extensive library of books you’ve been collecting. If, like me, you also want to be able to read these electronically then it’s a lot tougher to digitise. So why can’t you get the electronic copy at the same time as the physical one? You can do this with your DVDs and with some CDs now (some DVDs come with the Ultraviolet digital copy), so why not books?
Where selected, and this is the crunch, you can get the Kindle edition for a vastly reduced price (or free), but this is determined by the author or publisher. It seems the requirement is that the Kindle edition associated to the physical paper, when you buy them both, must be $2.99 or less (or even free).
As you may know I’ve produced two eBooks – “QR Codes in Education” and “What is a Learning Technologist?“. The cost to me to write, develop, produce, and provide for purchase has been minimal (not including time and effort), which is one of the advantages and positives about self-publishing. I have now investigated and started to look to produce both of these titles for print, using CreateSpace services (another Amazon company). You can be sure I will investigate Kindle MatchBook and whether it’s available for my titles, and I will look to offer the Kindle edition at a vastly reduced cost (maybe even free) for anyone buying the paper copy.
According to the Association of Learning Technology the definition of Learning Technology is defined as this; “Learning technology is the broad range of communication, information and related technologies that can be used to support learning, teaching, and assessment.” Learning Technologists are then “the people who are actively involved in managing, researching, supporting or enabling learning with the use of learning technology.”(ALT 2010)
However, to those working in eLearning, on a daily or ad hoc basis, the explanation doesn’t seem to be as clear cut and there has to be a continual explanation of the job role and the skills, experience and knowledge the role of a Learning Technologist demands. The reality of the day to day routine of a Learning Technologist can be dictated by the strengths of the person in the role, or even where the role physically fits into the institutional structure. According to David Hopkins this question of what is a Learning Technologist “can be answered differently based on who you ask, where they work, and what day of the week it is.” (Hopkins, 2009)
The naming of a Learning Technologist can take many forms: Academic developer, blended learning advisor, technology enhanced learning advisor to name a few. This has a real impact on individual and team identity, purpose and success. Without clear definition, the crossover between technology and pedagogy can cause friction and conflict between departments.
Project Methodology
The outcomes of this project will be built upon qualitative data that will be collected through the capture and archiving of Twitter posts from October 2013-Dec 2013 using a tagging system on Google docs. The data will be gathered by performing automatic hourly searches of all Tweets using the hash tags #LTFE and #LTHE (non-case sensitive tweets will also be included). The principles of discourse analysis will be applied to the data to extrapolate the themes, trends and attitudes towards Learning Technologist which will be discussed to begin to build a clearer picture of the position of Learning Technologists in the context of FE and HE. The first stage will concentrate on FE and the second stage on HE.
Timescale:
Data will be collected between October – December 2013.
Data analysis will be continual throughout the project- using a small cluster of discourse analysis techniques. The project write-up will be completed by Christmas and will be disseminated across the FE and HE learning community. This dissemination will be informally through twitter and formally as a research case study. Potential journals to submit case study to are: ALT-J,MERJ, JHFE and Rapal.
This project will be carried out by Rachel Challen Head of eLearning and Geraldine Murphy a Learning Technologist at Loughborough College and David Hopkins, Learning Technologist at the University of Leicester.
Amazon MatchBook: Paper and Kindle editions on their way
If, like me, you like to watch your films or listen to music on more than one device (in more than one location) then you’ll have had to copy/digitise/rip it, which is not always legal.
But it can be done. For your CDs you need to just put them in your computer and iTunes or other music library software will offer to rip it for you. Connect your digital audio device and copy the file across and you can listen to your CD in the car, gym, bus, or at work or walking the dog. It’s slightly more difficult for your DVDs but there is software that can rip it into an MP4/M4V or MOV or WMV file which will play on your laptop, tablet, etc. and you can watch on the train, bus, plane, or in the shed or bath (wherever you want).
But what about your extensive library of books you’ve been collecting. If, like me, you also want to be able to read these electronically then it’s a lot tougher to digitise. So why can’t you get the electronic copy at the same time as the physical one? You can do this with your DVDs and with some CDs now (some DVDs come with the Ultraviolet digital copy), so why not books?
Where selected, and this is the crunch, you can get the Kindle edition for a vastly reduced price (or free), but this is determined by the author or publisher. It seems the requirement is that the Kindle edition associated to the physical paper, when you buy them both, must be $2.99 or less (or even free).
As you may know I’ve produced two eBooks – “QR Codes in Education” and “What is a Learning Technologist?“. The cost to me to write, develop, produce, and provide for purchase has been minimal (not including time and effort), which is one of the advantages and positives about self-publishing. I have now investigated and started to look to produce both of these titles for print, using CreateSpace services (another Amazon company). You can be sure I will investigate Kindle MatchBook and whether it’s available for my titles, and I will look to offer the Kindle edition at a vastly reduced cost (maybe even free) for anyone buying the paper copy.
Reading: Identified vs Anonymous Participation in Student Discussion Boards
Online discussion boards, and associated activities that use them, can get a bit of a bad name sometimes either through inacitivty or lack of quality posts to abusive or bullying. I admit these are extremes of activity, but none the less still valid concerns for academics who want to try something new or different.
I’ve always tried to advocate the approach of ‘design an activity and then see which tools fits’ rather than ‘an activity written around a discussion board’. The latter implies it’s the tool driving the activity, the former implies the activity or learning outcome is matched to the most appropriate tool.
When setting discussion boards up I’ve always favoured posts being attributed to and identifiable to the person posting it – this helps to build personal relationships based on content and opinions, it also helps to encourage ownership and a responsible online etiquette (netiquette). But what about the option of allowing posts to be anonymous? Does this stop the discussion taking shape or progressing?
The paper, by Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai (2013) looks at the anonymity of posts and the ‘comfort’ of students to participate in anonymous discussions over those where they are identified.
“Educators can consider enabling anonymous postings and providing training to increase student self-efficacy as ways of increasing student engagement through decreasing concerns about self-presentation online.” (Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai, 2013)
Is the increase in the number of students posting to the discussion board sufficient reason to remove the accountability, ownership, and relationship of the posts author? As highlighted by Freeman and Bamford( 2004, pp. 45-53) even using settings that allowed anonymous posting they found that “50% of posts were provided by 1% of the student body and 90% never posted anonymously.”Their study also found that “undesirable behaviour” was observed where students would post “as others’ identities to harm or denigrate another student’s opinion.”
The question is again about whether the increase in individual posts and/or students participating goes any where near alleviating the drop in quality posts?
“Any change to allow anonymous postings needs to be done with care, given reports of previous instances of negative behaviours in anonymous student discussion boards.” (Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai, 2013)
This is indeed true but, as the article continues to say that the original “sender can be easily traced by the unit coordinator where ground rules for acceptable use are
breached.” Really, can you do this in Blackboard or Moodle or other VLEs?
What this article does not cover, indeed it is not looking to cover, is what anonymous posts do to impact the quality of discussion? Can quality engagement still happen when you can’t identify the author(s)? Can a ‘discussion’ actually occur in an anonymous discussion board where you don’t know whose posting: if you think of a discussion thread with 12 posts and 5 unique authors .. who said what? Could it be that only 2 authors made valuable contributions to the thread whilst the other 3 did not?
“Students are more likely to respond t messages when they know the author, think the posting is interesting, or disagree with a posting. Active discussion boards with high levels of student interaction can result in increased sense of community and student satisfaction.” (Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai, 2013)
So, instead of allowing anonymous posts why not introduce an appropriate activity to introduce the activity and technology, get the students trying this out in a safe and secure environment (on an unmarked query or scenario or induction activity you want them to consider) and encourage good-practice and appropraite ‘netiquette’?
“Student engagement may be increased through providing training in discussion board use to improve student self-efficacy.” (Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai, 2013)
Innovating Pedagogy
Tagged as a report “exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers” the Innovating Pedagogy 2013 from the Open University is intended for teachers, policy makers, academics and anyone interested in how education may change over the next ten years.
The 2013 report highlights, for the coming 10 years according to timescale and impact:
Impact: High
MOOCs
badge
crowd learning
gamification
Impact: Medium/High
analytics
‘seamless’ learning
digital scholarship
Impact: Medium
geo-learning
social learning
citizen inquiry
Each of these have different time to impact from immediate to 2-5 years or longer, but the impact to education and learning is probably more important: as we know, the timescale to adoption is also dependent on how we investigate and adopt the technology and the pedagogic application.
certified! CMALT
CMALT – The beginning
I joined Bournemouth University (BU) in 2007, fresh into the role of a Learning Technologist (LT) from 10 years as a commercial web designer. In all honesty I didn’t really know much of what I’d be expected to do but I knew my experience with online communities and techniques in developing and fostering them was key to my appointment. It just goes to show the faith and vision my interviewers had to see me for my potential and offer me the job! I joined ALT shortly after starting, which is where I first heard about CMALT.
In 2008 a visit was organised with ALT to BU to explain the CMALT scheme and sign some of us up. I don’t think anyone signed up there and then, but the seeds were sown for me and I can say that this was one of the deciding factors in me starting to think more in depth and more strategically about the role, my vision of the role of an LT, and the role LTs it plays in the wider School, Faculty, and Institutional environment. In 2009 I wrote my first ‘What is a learning technologist?’ post.
Despite thinking and planning my CMALT portfolio it wasn’t until July 2011 that I actually filled the form, paid my fees, and starting developing my portfolio, collating the evidence, and filled in the application form. At this point I was already carefully considering my future at BU and whether I could continue to grow as a Learning Technologist there or I needed to look elsewhere for new challenges.
CMALT – The process
I attended many of the online CMALT webinars and found them incredibly valuable in focusing my mind on what was needed, and how I was to do it. What was even more important, however, was talking with my network on LinkedIn or Twitter or Google+ and finding out from their first-hand experience on the process and, more importantly, the ‘portfolio’. From these discussions I realised I didn’t have to submit a ‘plain’ paper formatted portfolio, so I took ideas from my network of successful CMALT holders and created a Google site.
Tip 1: If you decide to select an assessor of your own then choose him/her wisely. It is not enough to choose them for their knowledge of you and your work (in fact the guidelines state this person should not be “directly responsible for your work or who has worked with you in the production of any of the evidence included in your portfolio.”). It is essential they have the capability to act in your best interest, and this may mean being hard on your submission. You both need a strong working/personal relationship where honest comments on your work can be given and viewed constructively. I would like to thank Dr Milena Bobeva for her frank and honest comments on my portfolio, from which I was motivated to rewrite sections and to work harder to present my work in a clearer and more relevant way, therefore making me both a better LT and a more deserving CMALT holder.
Tip 2: Don’t do it alone. If you can get a colleague or friend to support you, help encourage you, and keep you to your deadlines (self-imposed) then you’ll be better for it. I was lucky enough to have some great support from friends on Twitter, so a big ‘thank you’ to them (you know who you are!).
CMALT – The Portfolio
Before doing anything else read the guidelines and associated files provided by ALT on the CMALT website, especially the Guidelines for CMALT candidates and assessors as this will be your go-to resource during the process. Now read it again. Everything you need is in there and each time you read it you’ll think of your work and evidence you can incorporate into your portfolio.
Next I would recommend reading a few of the publicly available CMALT portfolios to see what other people have written and what kind of evidence they used, and how. Of course you’ll remember that each of us has a very different role and environment we work in, so each portfolio is going to be very individual and personal. I have listed a few of these on my CMALT page.
I started constructing my Google site to match the criteria set out for the portfolio document, and by using the heading and the introductory text from the CMALT guideline file. This, again, was the easy bit … now I had to collect and collate the evidence, write the contextual statements, reflect, and present all this in a meaningful and coherent way. Even now that makes it sound easier than I found it.
Tip 3: I would strongly recommend not changing jobs in the middle of this process. I had planned to get the portfolio completed and submitted before leaving BU in May 2012 but, alas, that wasn’t to be. This made it very hard because I knew I had work I could use as evidence but no longer had access to the files or emails I needed.
Part off the process is getting the result/feedback of your portfolio. My portfolio initially came back with comments and suggestions about how I could take different sections and make them better, to include different/better examples and reflection that would indicate and highlight skills, knowledge, practices, etc. in a clearer way.
Tip 4: If your portfolio is referred and requires attention before you are awarded CMALT make careful note of the comments given and do your best to address them: not only will your portfolio be better for it, but you as a Learning Technologist too.
I have also decided to make my portfolio public in the hope that anyone else looking to gain CMALT accreditation can make use of it. You can view my CMALT portfolio Google site here: https://sites.google.com/site/hopkinsdavidcmalt/
I joined Bournemouth University (BU) in 2007, fresh into the role of a Learning Technologist (LT) from 10 years as a commercial web designer. In all honesty I didn’t really know much of what I’d be expected to do but I knew my experience with online communities and techniques in developing and fostering them was key to my appointment. It just goes to show the faith and vision my interviewers had to see me for my potential and offer me the job! I joined ALT shortly after starting, which is where I first heard about CMALT.
In 2008 a visit was organised with ALT to BU to explain the CMALT scheme and sign some of us up. I don’t think anyone signed up there and then, but the seeds were sown for me and I can say that this was one of the deciding factors in me starting to think more in depth and more strategically about the role, my vision of the role of an LT, and the role LTs it plays in the wider School, Faculty, and Institutional environment. In 2009 I wrote my first ‘What is a learning technologist?’ post.
Despite thinking and planning my CMALT portfolio it wasn’t until July 2011 that I actually filled the form, paid my fees, and starting developing my portfolio, collating the evidence, and filled in the application form. At this point I was already carefully considering my future at BU and whether I could continue to grow as a Learning Technologist there or I needed to look elsewhere for new challenges.
CMALT – The process
I attended many of the online CMALT webinars and found them incredibly valuable in focusing my mind on what was needed, and how I was to do it. What was even more important, however, was talking with my network on LinkedIn or Twitter or Google+ and finding out from their first-hand experience on the process and, more importantly, the ‘portfolio’. From these discussions I realised I didn’t have to submit a ‘plain’ paper formatted portfolio, so I took ideas from my network of successful CMALT holders and created a Google site.
Tip 1: If you decide to select an assessor of your own then choose him/her wisely. It is not enough to choose them for their knowledge of you and your work (in fact the guidelines state this person should not be “directly responsible for your work or who has worked with you in the production of any of the evidence included in your portfolio.”). It is essential they have the capability to act in your best interest, and this may mean being hard on your submission. You both need a strong working/personal relationship where honest comments on your work can be given and viewed constructively. I would like to thank Dr Milena Bobeva for her frank and honest comments on my portfolio, from which I was motivated to rewrite sections and to work harder to present my work in a clearer and more relevant way, therefore making me both a better LT and a more deserving CMALT holder.
Tip 2: Don’t do it alone. If you can get a colleague or friend to support you, help encourage you, and keep you to your deadlines (self-imposed) then you’ll be better for it. I was lucky enough to have some great support from friends on Twitter, so a big ‘thank you’ to them (you know who you are!).
CMALT – The Portfolio
Before doing anything else read the guidelines and associated files provided by ALT on the CMALT website, especially the Guidelines for CMALT candidates and assessors as this will be your go-to resource during the process. Now read it again. Everything you need is in there and each time you read it you’ll think of your work and evidence you can incorporate into your portfolio.
Next I would recommend reading a few of the publicly available CMALT portfolios to see what other people have written and what kind of evidence they used, and how. Of course you’ll remember that each of us has a very different role and environment we work in, so each portfolio is going to be very individual and personal. I have listed a few of these on my CMALT page.
I started constructing my Google site to match the criteria set out for the portfolio document, and by using the heading and the introductory text from the CMALT guideline file. This, again, was the easy bit … now I had to collect and collate the evidence, write the contextual statements, reflect, and present all this in a meaningful and coherent way. Even now that makes it sound easier than I found it.
Tip 3: I would strongly recommend not changing jobs in the middle of this process. I had planned to get the portfolio completed and submitted before leaving BU in May 2012 but, alas, that wasn’t to be. This made it very hard because I knew I had work I could use as evidence but no longer had access to the files or emails I needed.
Part off the process is getting the result/feedback of your portfolio. My portfolio initially came back with comments and suggestions about how I could take different sections and make them better, to include different/better examples and reflection that would indicate and highlight skills, knowledge, practices, etc. in a clearer way.
Tip 4: If your portfolio is referred and requires attention before you are awarded CMALT make careful note of the comments given and do your best to address them: not only will your portfolio be better for it, but you as a Learning Technologist too.
I have also decided to make my portfolio public in the hope that anyone else looking to gain CMALT accreditation can make use of it. You can view my CMALT portfolio Google site here: https://sites.google.com/site/hopkinsdavidcmalt/
Educational Technology #LTHE
As I research around my role I often find some great resources, and sometimes some are pointed out to me. Thank you to Flea Palmer (@fleapalmer) for this Educause article: “Educational Technology: The Hype, the Reality, the Promise” (Shwiff & Larkin 2013)
This is also very topical as part of my ‘what is a Learning Technologist’ series of blog posts, and as a resource for the collaborative research with Rachel Cullen and Geraldine Murphy from Loughborough College.
The article comes with quick reference ‘take-away’ notes to make it easy for most of us to not read the full article, but I urge you to read it, it is full of good information and research.
These three take-away notes of interest are:
Within universities, there’s a growing tension between faculty, who typically focus on what is taught, and educationalists and technologists, who focus on how things are taught.
To realize the opportunities that technology offers, we must first re-imagine higher education’s long-standing learning model and ensure that all stakeholders make educational quality and critical thinking a priority.
Educational entrepreneurship can offer a way forward by offering incentives for educationalists, technologists, and faculty members to collaborate, experiment, and innovate.
“We should never confuse education with training or the “tools” that educators use.”
Yes, technology can enhance the learning experience, it can enhance the engagement and interactions available to student and staff alike. It can also alienate and discourage engagement or interaction, depending not only on the individuals and their comfort, but also by it’s inappropriate use or implementation. I do not want to see blogs or wikis used everywhere in all courses, there are simply times when it is not appropriate to either the learning, the students, or the activity. Similarly there are times when reflection is to be encouraged as part of the learning, and a private blog or journal could be a good way to facilitate this. Again though, the technology needs to support the learning, not the other way round.
“What we need for learning to occur are well-prepared and motivated teachers, students who are willing and able to learn, and a social system that values educational attainment.”
This would be good, but I think this is slightly out of our control … but there are so many of us who wish it wasn’t. Despite our best efforts this simple idea and approach is diluted or ignored by infrastructure, politics, management, and a whole assortment of institutional systems and policies.
“There is simply no substitute for the role of a well-prepared and motivated teaching professional.”
The teachers must also have the support of their employer, in terms of time, finance, and management, as well as support when they want to try something new or different, support when it goes wrong or complaints are made against them, support in attaining merit or awards, support in just knowing that there is someone who will jump up and defend them when it gets a bit hairy or difficult, and support in the form of a ‘well done’ comment from someone who has the position to encourage them when they need it.
“We must incentivize educationalists, technologists, and classroom teachers/professors to experiment and innovate”
No! I would counter this by saying it’s not about giving incentive to those who need it, it’s about not stifling the passion and incentive in those who already have it. The problem isn’t teachers who don’t care, the problem is the teachers who do care, and care a lot, not having the support, confidence and encouragement from the ‘establishment’ to keep going in the knowledge that their hard work and passion will rewarded or accepted. We need teachers to feel safe in their role and employment, to have the confidence to try something, maybe even fail, and to know that they will not be criticised by either manager or parent for trying to use a new tool or technique to get children interested or as passionate about the subject as they are.
My wife is a teacher. She has taught in Key Stage One (UK 4-7 year olds) for 14 years, straight from University. She had wanted to be a teacher from a very early age. She has passion for her work, and loves the children, even the difficult ones, and people she works with. She does not teach for the money or the paperwork or meetings or governance or job. She teaches because she can, because she’s good at it, and because she knows she is giving a young child the best start in their schooling life she can. She is good at what she does. She has taken a few years out from work to bring up our two young boys, in the plan/hope she’ll go back to teaching when they’re at school age. Now our eldest is at school, in reception (and loving it!) she is looking to the future and going back to teach. Or rather ‘was’. With changes and continual interference from School, county/district, management, and politicians, the role of teacher is no longer respected as it once was. Teachers are no longer allowed to use their experience from many years in the classroom. Teachers no longer have the confidence that their superiors have their best interests at heart. Teachers are now in a position where their hands are tied to what they can or can’t do … and the children know it, and play up to it.
We are losing experienced teachers (Boffey, 2012) at an alarming rate, so how is this gap going to be filled? Newly qualified teachers may have the skills with technology to fill the gap, but this experience as a teacher is gone: the experience of how to handle unruly and naughty children, the experience of how to enthuse children and entice them to try new things in new subjects in new ways? These experienced teachers have been available in the past to mentor and pass on their many years of teaching to new teachers, but that is not going to happen with teachers leaving their chosen vocation (it is not a job to many of them) early. All the time children are still passing through schools, some having great experiences and learning lots, others not. If a child ‘fails’ at school we find lots of excuses in their background, aptitude, intelligence, attendance, etc. but what about the ‘system’? Is that ever held accountable in the same way a teacher or child is? If the ‘system’ fails it won’t fail one or two children, it’ll fail a whole generation. And that’s just too depressing to think about.
I realise I went off the original topic here, and ended this post on a real downer .. this was not my intention. I love my work. I love the achievements I make on a daily basis, big or small. I love being able to give someone a new skill or new tool to try something they hadn’t thought of before, to achieve something they thought was unacheivable, to think differently, or to just have the confidence in themselves to do what they wanted in the first place. This is what the role of a Learning Technologist is, to me, at it’s core. Everything else is just a bonus!
From one of my all-time favourite songs … “Teacher, teacher won’t you open your eyes, teach me something that I need to know.”
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