Centre for Learning & Teaching Enhancing the Learning Environment to Support Learner Engagement Dr...

Centre for Learning & Teaching

www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Enhancing the Learning Environment to Support Learner Engagement

Dr Darren Comber

Senior Educational Development Adviser


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

• The Centre for Learning & Teaching (CLT): supporting staff and students in the enhancement of learning and teaching

CLT

E-learningStudent LearningService

Educational Development


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

LEARNINGENVIRONMENTS

Staff

StudentsOnline

Physical

CLT contribution to the Curriculum Reform debate


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Structure

The learning “environment”

Examining the learning environment: • online• physical• students• staff

What does the future hold?

Concluding ideas on enhancing the learning environment


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

The learning environment: medium as message

Decoupling the “what” from the “how”?

• Physical?• Online?• Intellectual?• Symbolic?• Changing?• Personal?


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


Staff

StudentsOnline

Physical



www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: online

Learners and applicants are:• diverse: individuals’ careers and ‘learning’ are

becoming less distinct • autonomous: expect adult, customisable

experience • strategic: seek relevance & authenticity, and a

route to the workplace


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


Challenge: developing a personalised, professional and culturally relevant learning environment that can:

• reflect authenticity of workplace environment • bring in the world by design (embedding in wider HE and

professional culture) • support students in a continuum of professional

development • support a progressive immersion in the community of

practice • support student collaborations with other institutions and

industry • facilitate 'virtual placements' • retain the interest of alumni

(Appendix 1: Fisher)


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


Tools for supporting e-learning:• Simulations and platforms for problem-based

learning• Tools facilitating communication• Course tools (e.g. WebCT)

Students increasingly adept at choosing where to access information, how to communicate with peers, to which communities they belong


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


• Use of e-Portfolios at UoA• Student reflection providing lecturers

with insights into successful and less successful aspects of their curricula

• Public nature of e-portfolio: sharing, peer comment and feedback

• Burgess Report: transcripts

(Appendix 2: Calder)


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


Staff

StudentsOnline

Physical



www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: physical / online

• Emergent technologies• Ubiquitous computing: personalised,

handheld / smaller devices for communication and data access / capture / always connected

• Convergence of networked & physical worlds• Augmented activities / reality

(Appendix 3: Marston)


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


Staff

StudentsOnline

Physical



www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: students of the “Net Generation”

Net Generation students (Born post-1982) are:

Digitally literate; Connected; Immediate; Experiential; Social

Net Generation: Myth?

Expectations of technology in H.E? • Online > face-to-face?• Use of technology to enhance learning

by staff?


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: students of the “Net Generation”

Technology: transforming education?• Open Educational Resources movement• Access to remote instrumentation / research and

scholarly portals• Virtual Worlds / Simulations / Web 2.0

Challenges: • Designing engaging physical / online environments • Integrating technology into the curriculum • Empowering / supporting staff in the use of technology

(Appendix 4: Preston)


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: international students

• International students are no longer a small group scattered across Programmes

• Language issues and cultural challenges can no longer be seen as “deficits” requiring “remediation”

• English is an international language of instruction

• A global classroom is an accommodating classroom


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: international students

Collaborative, embedded & contextualised skills strategy:• Grounded in the discipline• Must be explicit & experiential• Involves both staff and students• Two phases:

– Extended, hands-on orientation– Ongoing feedback and targeted support

• Discipline-specific support materials

(Appendix 5: Di Pietro & Bray)


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


Staff

StudentsOnline

Physical



www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

Examining the learning environment: staff

Learning communities (after Tagg, 2003)• Intrinsically rewarding goals• Authentic performance• Feedback: frequent and timely• Long timeline for learning• Communities of practice

(Appendix 6: Comber)


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

The future?

• Balance of career and study• Collaborations increasingly important• Increasingly strategic learners• Global marketplace


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

The future?

What could really make our Aberdeen experience different and better?


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

What are the implications of the ideas presented here?

• Learning environment as community• “Belonging” on entry: levels 1&2• Global engagement• Research-teaching linkages• Alternative models of teaching and assessment• Flexibility and adaptability• Play to strengths of both staff and students


www.abdn.ac.uk/clt

“…supposing the discipline is modelled not as a citadel of knowledge, guarded by experts, but as a community of practitioners?”

(Parker, 2002: 379)

Centre for Learning & Teaching Enhancing the Learning Environment to Support Learner Engagement Dr...

Documents

Transcript of Centre for Learning & Teaching Enhancing the Learning Environment to Support Learner Engagement Dr...