Category: PCTHE

Learning design for open online courses – part 1

Further to my previous post, Learning design principles: educational pragmatists, which was an abstraction of our beliefs about teaching, this post is an attempt to set out some practical implications for designing open online courses, following from our key assertion: Change is brought about through critical, experiential, social learning activity in connected communities where people … Continue reading Learning design for open online courses – part 1

Learning design principles: educational pragmatists

I am trying to write a proper academic paper about the principles we used when developing FSLT12&13. But, as I do I find myself getting bogged down. So in the spirit of Digital scholarship (Weller 2011) I am going to exercise some of the ideas here. We are educational pragmatists. Change is brought about through … Continue reading Learning design principles: educational pragmatists

Many worlds of teaching in higher education

The intro week of #fslt13 has zipped past and things got off to a good start. Will the substance of the course hold up as well as the intro to the process? There is still a lot to do over the next five weeks but it is much better than starting with a raft of … Continue reading Many worlds of teaching in higher education

Activity and interaction in #fslt13 open online course

The #fslt team sat down today and thrashed out the mid-level detail of how the four activities that are at the heart of this course will work this time and how badges will be awarded for completion of activities. We had some principles to work with. Learning is dialogic. Everyone has the opportunity for peer … Continue reading Activity and interaction in #fslt13 open online course

MOOCs and teaching: a reply to Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes is unfairly hard on teachers and teaching in this post (The Great Rebranding), or may have fallen into a (rare) category error. Yes, given the way the world is organised the 25:1 or 50:1 ratio of students to teachers can be seen as a luxury that few can afford. Downes says, "Having one … Continue reading MOOCs and teaching: a reply to Stephen Downes

Teaching into the third space

I had a penny-dropped moment observing a series of tutorials in Oxford Brookes University's Interior Architecture group. The language being used by the tutors echoed, for me, the language of activity theory, actor network theory and - most importantly - third space theory. I am probably over-interpreting but until this moment I hadn't realised quite … Continue reading Teaching into the third space

FSLT Open Online Course Accredited!

In a very positive move, Oxford Brookes University has accredited two open online courses to our Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE). The two courses are: First steps into learning and teaching in higher education (FSLT) Teaching Online (TO) Both courses are offered as open online courses and the accreditation commences in semester … Continue reading FSLT Open Online Course Accredited!

Drop ins: MOOCs and the price of learning

As an undergraduate in the US in the early 1970s, it was not uncommon for there to be people in our classes "auditing" the course. (Auditing in the sense, "listening", i.e. attending but not enrolled.) While auditing was supposed to be governed by regulations there were a range of practices from entirely informal dropping in, … Continue reading Drop ins: MOOCs and the price of learning

MOOCs Stadium Rock or folk clubs

Choose your metaphor. The discourse around MOOCs is congealing around a set of qualities. Bigger better; inherited authority; transmitted knowledge; cognitivist construction; solitary interaction with content. To some extent it is a matter of taste. Or learning preference. Or community. I saw the Police play Twickenham once. It was OK. Entertaining. But nothing was challenged. … Continue reading MOOCs Stadium Rock or folk clubs