Musing on simultaneous remote presence for T-Lab

We (OK, I) made a bold (OK, foolish) assertion that T-Lab meetings would be live broadcast for those who wanted to participate remotely. This could be achieved with various solutions: a Wimba Classroom in a Moodle site as long as the kit in Boardroom 1 can handle it. AND as long as people could get … Continue reading Musing on simultaneous remote presence for T-Lab

New Lecturers 2013-14 Introduction Day

Fifty or sixty people attended the introduction to the New Lecturers Programme today. Biggest intake in my experience. There was a good buzz throughout the day. This year we quite significantly revised the way the session is run. Less talk from us. More activity for the participants. And a shorter day, as well. Scanning the … Continue reading New Lecturers 2013-14 Introduction Day

A note on content, courses/curricula, and credentials

This note recounts a potted recent history of developments to do with online content and courses and speculates about the future of credentials in respect of the purpose of a university. When learning management systems (LMS) or virtual learning environments (VLEs) were in their infancy around the turn of the century, faculty opposition to their … Continue reading A note on content, courses/curricula, and credentials

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!