OCW Consortium and Optimum Learning
51
OCWC and optimum learning: Guidelines on Learning that Inform Teaching Emeritus Professor Adrian Lee Formerly Pro Vice Chancellor (Education) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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Adrian Lee
Transcript of OCW Consortium and Optimum Learning
OCWC and optimum learning: Guidelines on Learning that
Inform Teaching
Emeritus Professor Adrian Lee
Formerly Pro Vice Chancellor (Education) at the University of New
South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Goal as PVC at UNSW:
To improve teaching
Was convinced that a successful research university could also be a successful teaching university
From the beginning my decision was to
focus on the student learning
experience
Hence:
“The Guidelines on Learning”
The basic premise 1: As academics, our task is to help students Learn.
The basic premise 2: There is a significant research literature on how students learn and accepted good practice in University teaching.
The basic premise 3:As we claim to be research intensive institutions should not our teaching be based on this research?
Created a distillation of that literature as “Guidelines on
Learning that inform Teaching at UNSW”.
My retirement project
http://www.retirevic.com.au/
To work with others to get the Guidelines project to work as originally intended to encourage reflection on our teaching and increase our focus on student learning
1. Effective learning is supported when students are actively engaged in the learning process at every stage.
"Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves." Chickering, A. & Gamson, Z. 1987, "Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education", AAHE Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 7, Link
Having to describe an example in our teaching where the Guideline is being taken into account is very active and very powerful.
If we can’t find an example of application of the Guideline, then reflection on “Why not?” and “Would it be useful?” becomes a catalyst for improvement”
So what has this to do with OCWC??
The MIT OCW mantra of Unlocking Knowledge and Empowering Minds via this device is a remarkably generous contribution to the world.
The decision of MIT to make virtually all course material freely available as OpenCourseWare (OCW) on the web was brilliant.
Equally exciting is the decision of many other universities to join the Open Courseware movement via OCWC.
OCW has the potential to transform global education.
But!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/education/31iht-riedopen.html?ref=technologys
Having the up-to-date, state of the art, information
provided by OCW is important but what really counts is how this content is used. Asking students to read some OCW material and then to reproduce the material in an examination is not a great advance.
Having the up-to-date, state of the art, information
provided by OCW is important but what really counts is how this content is used. Asking students to read some OCW material and then to reproduce the material in an examination is not a great advance.
What is needed is to have strategies likely to improve student learning using OCW content.
Senior government officers willing to support the use of OCW in their country need to reflect on the pedagogy.
Senior government officers willing to support the use of OCW in their country need to reflect on the pedagogy.
How can one move away from didactic teaching using OCW? This is the challenge.
Senior government officers willing to support the use of OCW in their country need to reflect on the pedagogy.
How can one move away from didactic teaching using OCW? This is the challenge.
How best can OCW material be used to enhance the student learning experience?
My thesis:
that the Guidelines on Learning website or a similar resource developed within the institution or university system, is one way to encourage lecturers using OCW to move their focus from teaching to learning.
Your turn!You have been given the Toolkit page for one guideline
With your partner on either side, discuss examples of activities you have seen used with OCW material that illustrate a Guideline in action. Be prepared to share one example with the group.
Lets hear some examples!
MIT Examples of Putting Learning Guidelines into Practice
TEAL (Technology-Enabled Active Learning)
TEAL classes are taught in a highly collaborative, hands-on environment, with extensive use of networked laptops and desktop experiments. Lectures, recitations, and laboratories are merged as students work together in teams of three.
http://web.mit.edu/8.02t/www/802TEAL3D/teal_tour.htm Dori & Belcher THE JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES, 14(2), 243–279
Lets hear some examples!
MIT Examples of Putting Learning Guidelines into Practice
Sample projects:
Surveying a lake for millfoil from a remote controlled aircraft, then sending out robotic harvesters to clear the invasive growth
Exploration to search for the evidence of life on a moon of Jupiter, with scientists participating through teleoperation and supervisory control of robots.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mechanical-Engineering/2-00AJSpring-2009/CourseHome/
Lets hear some examples!
MIT Examples of Putting Learning Guidelines into Practice
Students from many backgrounds
A living laboratory for observing, talking about, and practicing communication differences.
Assignments ask students to reflect on how their ethnic roots have influenced their worldviews, and thus, their communication styles.
Students are assigned to diverse teams to work on a report and presentation throughout the semester http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Languages-and-Literatures/21F-019Spring-2005/CourseHome/index.htm
MIT OCW see the potential of Guidelines
Link to http://www.guidelinesonlearning.com/
What about OCWC?
We are currently working on expanding our How To information to create resourceful "toolkits" to assist members in their OCW projects. You can visit our Toolkit page here and you are welcome to collaborate in its development.
Here is the opportunity
This is the place to extend the Guidelines
concept
Anyone interested in working on this with me
please email [email protected]
If you have any to contribute in your discipline please send them to me as a url link or as an attached MsWord file to [email protected].
Exemplars needed particularly from an OCWC course
OCW can make a major contribution to world learning and improving the student experience
in universities around the world
But only if more effort is put into strategies of how best to use OCW content to help
students learn best
