Staff skills for elearning

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Staff skills for e-learning

• Helen Beetham
• Institute for Learning and Research Technology,
  University of Bristol

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Quick definition

• learning with the assistance of interactive,
  electronic technology, whether offline or online
• Typical scenario
• Asynchronous text-based conferencing with
  access to web-based materials.

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Outcomes for this workshop

• To have decided what it means (to you) for
  learners to be empowered by e-learning
• To be able to describe a range of learning skills
  for the new learning paradigm
• To have (at least one) model of the e-learning
  process
• To have developed a list of skills needed to
  support students effectively
• To have considered issues in effective support of
  staff (if we have time)

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Issues for this workshop

• e- for empowered learners?
• e-learning skills
• e-learning processes
• supporting students
• supporting staff

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A new learning paradigm

• Distributed resources
• New media
• New modes of knowledge
• Blurring of educational boundaries
• between sectors, disciplines, roles
• Continuous and discontinuous change
• Lifelong learning and CPD (self-management, FOFO)
• New forms of participation

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empowered learners?

• The proliferation of transactive learning spaces
  in the age of computer-mediated education
  signifies that control of the content of
  curriculum must give place to an explosion of
  self-crafted, ad hoc, and customized learning
  modules, where the great historical divide
  between instructor and student can be found in a
  state of meltdown...
• Carl Raschke (1999) Beyond Education The Age
  of Transaction and the Scene of Digital
  Learning, Syllabus, Nov-Dec

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empowered learners?

• With e-learning environments there will be no
  need for teachers as they are today...instead the
  focus will be on the employment of the best
  teachers to assist in the development of
  computer-based learning using the best curriculum
  and instructional strategies.
• Contributor to IFETS discussion list, July 1999

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empowered learners?

• the internet offers a medium which has no
  centre podium and offers no privileged position
  for any messages... a medium which allows teacher
  and learner to share a common space in which
  there is no established authority but uses widely
  distributed knowledge resources to forge new
  levels of consciousness.
• Martin Ryder (1998), The world wide web and the
  dialectics of consciousness

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empowered learners?

• Sometimes I cant really find the things that I
  want because... its all words so I have to
  click, click, click and its so... frustrating
  sometimes. I cant find the right one.
• Student R, March 2000

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empowered learners?

• I reckon itll be direct one day. Mind to mind.
  There wont be any technology then. Well,
  therell just be that one, the mental one.
• Student S, March 2000

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empowered learners?

• Its just mad now! Its changing all the time.
  But it can only go so far, cant it?
• What will stop it going any further?
• People, I guess. But... for every one like me
  theres one like him! Student S
• Student A, July 2000

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empowered learners?

• I havent got round to writing a personal web
  page yet, but Ive got lots of ideas for how to
  do it. The biggest problem is I keep thinking
  well what can I put on it that might interest
  other people?... I could probably present it
  well but what do I put on it? You know. Its got
  to interest somebody.
• Student T, March 2000

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Key question

• What would it mean to you for your students to be
  empowered e-learners?
• (i.e. what would they be able to do, or do
  better/differently, as a result of learning
  online?)

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New learning issues

• Access and inclusion
• Information literacy
• Motivation and participation
• Flexibility and self-managed learning versus
• Collaborative and group learning
• Learner differences

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Key question

• In any e-learning provision, how are these issues
  addressed?

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New learning skills

• Information seeking, analysis and management
• Expressing ideas in different media
• Communicating in different media
• Participating in different learning groups and
  settings
• Applying knowledge to real-world tasks
• Self-direction, self-awareness, goal setting,
  time management
• Valuing and evaluating different perspectives
• Juggling roles and identities

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Key question

• In any e-learning scenario, where and how are
  these skills
• Acquired?
• Practiced?
• Supported?
• Assessed?

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Learning processes
acquiring skills
new practices(ways of deploying knowledge and
skills in specific social contexts)
constructing knowledge and understanding
developing values
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E-Learning processes
using digital tools
shared knowledge- or skills-based activities in
online communities of practice
participating in online communities
accessing digital resources
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Key question

• How can staff support learners through these
  different processes?

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E-tutoring roles
promoting skills
designing and supporting activities
facilitating participation
scaffolding knowledge
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Group activity

• Four groups of 4-6 people
• Consider one of the four e-tutoring roles
• What skills are needed to carry out this role
  (i.e. staff need to be able to)?
• Refer to earlier exercise, hand-outs if necessary
• Be prepared to feedback

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Supporting staff

• New roles and professional identities
• New skills, knowledges and values

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Implementation and support roles
ICT training staff
Learning and Teaching Staff(planning,
delivering, facilitating, assessing)
Librarians/ resource managers
Learning skills staff
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Development roles
Technical and systems developers
Institutional and strategic developers
Educational developers
Materials developers
Change agents
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Management roles
CS/ICT/MIS management
Learning facilities management
strategic e-learning management
LT management
Library/resource/ content management
HR management
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Key skills for staff

• pedagogic skills (learning and teaching)
• development skills (self and others)
• information and communication skills
• project and person management skills
• technical skills

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Key issues in supporting staff

• How to promote peer-supported experimentation
  and critical reflection
• How to develop collaborative learning within and
  across institutions
• How to develop skills in authentic professional
  contexts
• Short shelf-life of technology-related skills
  (continuous revolution lifelong learning)
• Accrediting and acknowledging expertise

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Change of role

• Ive become increasingly involved with
  colleagues regarding the development of online
  materials
• Ive became a member of university PCLI steering
  group, have now been able to raise funding for a
  new project
• Im now considered the dept expert in LT

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Transforming practice

• Sometimes it requires confidence and support to
  change practice in the face of existing cultures
  including the expectations of students
• Student You mean the lecture is cancelled next
  week?
• Lecturer No, it isnt cancelled. I never
  planned to have one

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Professional development

• LT process rather than technical skills
• acknowledging experience and values
• collaborative development teams
• reflective practice
• disciplinary culture
• action learning

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Action learning

• a continuous process of learning and reflection,
  supported by colleagues, with an intention of
  getting things done. Through action learning
  individuals learn with and from each other by
  working on real problems and reflecting on their
  experiences. Beaty McGill (1995)

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Activity needs analysis

• See hand-outs on carrying out a needs analysis
  for staff skills