Category: Digital Learning

New to online teaching and learning? A few tips to get started.

I’ve been helping out with FutureLearn’s new MOOC “How to teach online: providing continuity to students” (#FLteachonline) this past week. With over 20,000 learners there’s been a lot of activity and some great discussions. A number of key issues have cropped up repeatedly that I felt would be worth putting into a “top tips” guide for newbies. There’s a rapidly swelling resource base “out there” which can appear quite daunting, so I’ll keep this brief J

Top tips

  1. Keep it simple. Less is more!
  1. It’s about a culture change in education, not technology. Don’t rush for the latest shiny tool (sorry, Teams)
  1. It’s NOT simply putting your lectures online, or setting up a video conference. It’s about re-thinking and re-structuring how and what you teach in the digital environment.
  1. Make sure that you can offer flexibility of participation to your students. Minimise the time you expect them all to be online at the same time (ideally, never). Allow for the fact they may have poor bandwidth or intermittent connectivity – and a whole host of other pressures and distractions right now.
  2. Low tech trumps high tech – asynchronous communication via discussion boards and short pre-recorded video/audio are your friends! If you don’t believe me, read this very clear explanation by Daniel Sandford: “Videoconferencing Alternatives: How low bandwidth teaching will save us all” (with helpful 2 x 2 matrix included)

A whole hour of talking at your students = bad

Structured blog-style explanatory guides to “chunks” of short pre-recorded video and tutor-facilitated discussions = good

6. Don’t forget to design for accessibility and be sure to avoid copyright issues when preparing your materials.

  1. Know your learners! Despite the popularity of the expression, students are NOT “digital natives” (a phrase which should be banned) simply by virtue of being young. There is a whole research literature on the gulf between tech-savvy consumer behaviour (which is common), and the ability to learn effectively online (which is not).
  1. Make sure that you communicate course information and participation expectations very clearly to your students – and be prepared to repeat yourself many, many times…
  1. Student engagement may be difficult to achieve online, but it’s not always easy to achieve offline either! Don’t beat yourself up if a bit of trial and error is required, and don’t forget to Keep. It. Simple. J

Useful “Getting Started” Resources:

More information on the usefulness of discussion forums by Hannah Tyreman.

A series of short, clearly written and informative guides to online learning for beginners by Tony Bates.

This excellent post by Laurie Phipps “Being Human in a Time of Crisis” is a timely reminder that effective online teaching and learning requires culture change rather than shiny new tools.

Digital Learning to the rescue? Yes and no…

There are many benefits to being part of a network of educational innovators who share their experiences freely online, especially at the moment. There is some great advice out there from people who are going the extra mile to help others.

For example, #LTHEchat is a community of educators who “meet” weekly on Twitter to discuss a specific facilitated topic in a fast and furious hour of activity. A comprehensive resource base of all these sessions is curated on Wakelet for future reference. The format has now evolved to provide a whole week of support for educators who are preparing #Covid19 contingency plans. Each day has a timetabled one hour slot for discussion which is then left open for 24 hours to allow further contributions and reflections. The final session, scheduled for 8pm GMT on Wednesday 18th March, will review the whole week to consolidate the learning.

Inevitably, contingency planning for upcoming teaching and assessment commitments is likely to focus on quick wins via specific tools such as Skype, Slack or Zoom, but it is important to remember that the key emphasis should be on the learning, not the technology. This excellent post by Laurie Phipps “Being Human in a Time of Crisis” is a timely reminder that effective online teaching and learning requires culture change rather than shiny new tools. It also contains a number of useful links to further resources, such as Martin Weller’s EdTechie blog – a great source of informed advice.

While there is much we can be doing to support our learners, it is important to be realistic in our expectations of what can be achieved at short notice and within a very uncertain environment:

Institutions that are late adopters of digital learning may now be playing catch up and there should be opportunity (once beyond the current panic) to more fully address issues of equity and inclusion in learning environments that the “traditional” system of teaching and learning is poorly equipped for.

And any sharks out there who are already trying to capitalise financially will have their digital cards firmly marked…and certainly not accepted in my LinkedIn 🙂

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