Transitions into blended learning

Josephine Adekola, Vicki Dale & Kerr Gardiner

M25LTG, 11 November 2015

• QAA-funded Quality Enhancement project, 2014-2017

• Student, staff & institutional perspectives on transitions to blended learning

• 5 aspects:• Motivations• Benefits• Challenges• Barriers• Support

Overview

MethodsLiterature review into blended learning & change management

Semi-structured interviews with 20 staff (learning technologists, teachers, management)

Thematic analysis (Löfgren 2013 based on Alan Bryman’s (2008) approach)• Reading & annotating transcripts• Generating individual codes• Codes grouped into categories/themes

Half of interviews coded by a second researcher

Sector-wide• Open education movement• Changing digital landscape• Employability agenda• Internationalisation

Institution• High costs of face-to-face delivery• Reusable nature of online learning

(value for money)Teachers

• Opportunity to learn about online learning

Students• More flexible learning experience• Pedagogically more effective learning

Motivations

Changing digital landscape“Technology in general is embedded into our lives, and therefore it’s now become part of the way that we learn, as well.” (Management)

Innovating pedagogy“… changing the pedagogy, encouraging teaching staff to think about different ways of delivering learning that’s going to match their student needs.” (Management)

Internationalisation“We will have the opportunity in the future to look at connecting cohorts of students who are studying for the same degrees but in different parts of the world … we can have that cultural engagement in that learning space” (Senior management)

Institution• Saving on physical learning spaces

Teachers• Enhanced teaching experience• Saves teaching time in long run• Can reuse materials• Developed new skills for future teaching

Students• More self-directed learners• Development of information literacies• Collaborative learning opportunities• Better prepared students (e.g. with

flipped classroom)

Benefits (‘Dreams’)

Image by normanack, CC BY 2.0https://www.flickr.com/photos/29278394

Students’ lifelong learning literacies“It’s a set of skills we’re giving [the students] that allows them to become a professional learner.”(University teacher)

New teaching skills“I feel I have a skill that I didn’t before , which may allow me to do other interesting things in the future.” (Lecturer)

Efficiencies / enhanced student experience“There are scopes for efficiencies but that’s a very dangerous thing, because the move from an analogue to a more digital delivery … is a change process and you need additional resources to enable that … But I think what it’ll do is it’ll improve the student experience.” (Management)

Institution• Research-teaching tension• Inadequate IT infrastructure• Risk-averse culture

Teachers• Time-consuming to develop• Copyright• Western pedagogies & international

learner mismatch• Anxiety about new technologies

Students• Variable digital literacy levels, can’t

translate into learning literacies• Still equate F2F with value for money

Challenges & barriers (‘Nightmares’)

Image by Cathy Cole, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0https://www.flickr.com/photos/mmewuji/2804301013

Research-teaching conflict“The university does have other priorities, and the other research priorities are very research-oriented and there’s always going to be a tension between encouraging people to devote more time to develop their learning and teaching and being more innovative in those ways and devoting more time to research.” (Senior management)

Workload model“Our workload … allows for about 30, 35 hours to develop an online course. I know from experience it takes me at least double that. So that’s 30 odd hours that haven’t been recognised on my workload.”(University teacher)

Technical infrastructure“Staff want to use the technologies, and whilst things are getting better … they’ve not necessarily been reliable, or been available when they’ve needed them.”(Management)

Institution• Integration of TEL into L&T strategy• Stakeholders represented on committees• Helpful learning technology support• Learning from other institutions• Support from senior management

Teachers• Academic colleagues who see benefits

of BL and are committed to L&T

• ‘Friendly colleagues you can trust’

• Having locally available kit• Early adopters

Students• All have mobile devices

Enablers

Support from senior management“Senior management has been encouraging it and if they want this kind of thing to happen, they need to keep encouraging it.”(Lecturer)“We have a key responsibility around making sure that all staff at the university are properly supported.” (Senior management)

Support from colleagues“We’re lucky because we have a good colleague community in [our school] and we talk nicely to each other and support each other.”(Lecturer)

Early adopters / showcasing good practice“I produce a TEL newsletter for the college and it’s all about showcasing good work that people are doing. Even if it’s small they’re changing something.”(Learning technologist)

Institution• Review staff workload & promotion

criteria• Recognised appointments in digital

learning• Employ more instructional designers/

learning technologists across the colleges

• A Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning

Teachers• Multiple methods of sharing good

practice• Peer-mentoring• Local academic champions• More signposting to available help

Support required

Recognised appointments / local champions“We need to have local champions that are recognised by senior management. So perhaps … a chair in digital learning or … emerging technologies.” (University teacher)

More learning technologists across the disciplines“[Colleges] where they have the learning technologist they tend to do more online learning … the colleges … need to buy into this idea that it’s a specialist job, and they should be paying for somebody to do it.” (Learning technologist)

Review promotion/reward criteria“What we need to do as an institution is create the enabling framework … it’s putting in the correct supporting frameworks, the correct incentive systems to make it all happen.”(Senior management)

Work has resulted in an integrated, holistic framework of key considerations, derived from literature & research:

• Key external drivers• Six reinterpreted

domains of Khan’s (2005) framework

• Elements of Chern’s (1976) organisational preparedness framework

• Core stakeholders

Holistic, integrated framework to be shared with staff in context of e-learning strategy implementation activities

Identify & implement ‘anchor points’ to ensure institution does not regress

This year’s research: focusing on blended learner experiences

Next steps…

QAA Scotland for project funding

All interview participants from the University of Glasgow

Acknowledgements