FLANZ (Flexible Learning Association NZ) - Conference - Day 1 morning

 At the FLANZ conference in Dunedin today and part of tomorrow.

The day begins with opening, greetings and housekeeping From Ralph Springett who is the present president of FLANZ. Set the scene, with FLANZ members being the advance guard and change agents as both society and education works through rapid change. Sharing practice and research supports the journey of practitioners, helping ground their efforts and endeavours.

Andrew McSweeney, Otago Polytechnic' new CEO extended a welcome to all. Supported the conference theme of 'He Tangata' (the people) as a foundation for teaching and learning. Stressed the importance in humans on education especially in the absence of a clear direction or policy nationally. 

The first keynote is with Dr. Adrian Woodhouse (Otago Polytechnic) with 'When education demands a trade-off". Flexible learning becoming more common across many educational sectors. Yet, flexible learning itself is difficult to pin down. Is it just timetabling?? Flexible learning is not only about when but where. Flexible learning can occur in workplaces, communities and in learners' lives. It is already there for many. Ordinary people already do extraordinary but the assumption that learning only occurs in formalised education. 

Used his ontology to explain how his concepts of flexible learning are informed. Challenged at 19 whilst doing his final year at polytech which he had end to take up a sous chef position. The programme prepared for the opportunity but did not allow for another way to complete. The workplace became his classroom, workmates his teachers, an education that contributed to the making of a chef. As a 'dropout' be gained many opportunities and five years of master classes.

Offered opportunity to complete his qualification but found it did not fit, as his capabilities, did not match what the 'competencies' required! Therefore, where does learning reside, is it mobile? Entered education as a chef tutor. 2007 and 2008 started to experiment with ipods to provide mobile resources. A start at providing flexible learning for their learners, who were often also working part-time (some full-time!). Therefore, could the curriculum move closer to learners context.

Project-based learning adopted to provide better relevance so that learners could apply knowledge to their own contexts. Presented the evolution of the Bachelor of Culinary Arts  (BCA) - a design-thinking culinary degree. The first students, came through assessment of prior learning, challenging the curriculum. Usually the student comes to learn something they do not know, however, BCA students often came with many experiences. Sometimes the institution cannot see what the learner comes. Knowledge that is visible often becomes invisible when it enters an institution. Why is knowledge developed beyond the institution become so difficult to recognise once it enters the institution. 

The BCA helped experienced practitioners person to unpack their knowledge, which has become tacit and implicit. However, learners still had to come to a campus. However, Covid caused a shift online and the experience was still the same. Educators needed to go to the learner, not the learner to Otago :) 

Work-integrated learning came about when a BCA second year student went into entrepreneurial mode. This helped students complete, through the work he is undertaking. Need to align what the student was doing, and the requirements for the programme. This was then formalised in 2022 with BCA also availed through work-integrated learning. Challenges abound, but first student graduated last year. 

Encouraged the conference participants to ask 'what becomes possible when education stops defining the boundaries of learning and begins listening for where learning takes place?

After morning tea, three streams of sessions begin.

First up, Simon Atkinson on 'operationalising multi-domain taxonomies for course design and teaching practice'. . Began with providing a context for the workshop. Explore 5 taxonomies to inform course design. Examples provided as a model of how to apply the taxonomy but participants encouraged to bring one from their own context. Overall objective, to see how learning outcomes can move beyond the 'measurable'. Argued the need to move from Bloom's taxonomy towards one which balance cognitive (conceptual analysis), affective (values), psychomotor (applied motor competencies), interpersonal (collaborative), and metacognitive (self-regulation, reflective practice). Sector and qualifications requirements constrain the domains. Vocational tend to have cognitive, psychomotor, interpersonal but limited metacognitive and often no affective domains. Currently, the 3-element learning outcome formula as active verb + subject + context = well-formed learning outcome favoured. Standardised workflow for outcome redesign. Encouraged to move from assessed intended learning outcomes to non-assessed objectives. 

FLANZ webinar - How does a course template change teachers' teaching perspective?

 Webinar faciliated by FLANZ.

Yong Liu from Manukau Institute of Technology presents on 'How does a course template change teachers' perspective?'

Kristina Hoeppner facilitated the webinar and began with karakia.

Notes taken below:

Summarised the challenge of teachers shifting from f2f to online teaching. Always challenging but proposed the use of templates as a way forward.

After introduction, presented learning theories , then shared the course template, a teaching perspectives inventory (TPI) and a case study.

Rationalised the project as there is a trend to shift to more online learning. Teachers' challenges included technology integration, teachers' academic development (need training but time poor). An online course template provided to help ease the process.

Course template needs to include guidance and examples to provide better steer. 

Draws on constructivism (students learn by exploration and interaction); Cognitive constructivism (connecting new knowledge to existing knowledge); social constructivism (communication and collaboration - teaching and group work - involves learners); connectivism (technology integrated social constructivism). Introduced Canvas as the LMS with tools to engage learners - discussion collaboration etc.

Course template has course home page with course information (plus in-text guidance through hovering on call button). Went through the contents in each section, Information in the call buttons provide steps and required content in each section).

TPI (Pratt and Collins) is an online questionnaire to determine teachers' orientation. The teaching perspectives include: transmission; apprenticeship; developmental; nurturing; and social reform. 3 aspects in each orientation - teaching belief, teaching intention, and teaching action. 

Case study conducted with 17 participants - survey before and after using template, and along with semi-structure interviews. Firstly, established teacher beliefs, intentions and actions and repeated after template used. 

Findings shared. In general, apprenticeship, development and nurturing perspectives increased. Beliefs tended to trend towards constructivist and connectivist teaching strategies. 

Q & A followed. 

FLANZ presentation on impact of AI on online, flexible and distance learning

Notes from today's   'AI is here to stay: Its impact on online, flexible, and distance learning', offered by FLANZ (Flexible Learning Association NZ) in partnership with EdTech NZ and as part of TechWeek here in Aotearoa.

Panellist include  Dr. Rebecca Marrone, Dr. Mark McConnell, Shanon O' Connor and Dr. Truman Pham with facilitation from Bettina Schwenger. 

Shanon O'Connor from Tōnui Collab starts things off. Shared experiences as to how to provide equitable access to Māori, especially with those who live in rural/isolated areas and those currently affected due to damage to infrastructure from the Cyclone. AI could be useful in providing personalised learning. At the school level, some are finding AI challenging. However, digital inequity is also an important first step as without hardware, capability/ adequate digital literacies, AI tools are not accessible. Cautioned on the use of AI which, due to its underlying epismological sources, can be biased for non-mainstream cultures. Māori digital sovereignty is an important aspect to keep in mind (see work of Dr. Kariatiana Tainui). 

Dr. Mark McConnell shared reflections from a 'front-line' university teacher. Background with all all University of Auckland exams are now online, with most being open book and submitted online. The immediate challenge is how to work through students using AI and how to find out if students actually has the knowledge and skills to complete the assessment. Found that Chat GPT scored well on first year assessment questions (multiple choice and short answer for legal questions). Borderline for year 2 questions but failed with complex legal issues and concepts. Case studies, legislations etc etc often made up by ChatGPT!! but seems to have improved over time. Responded by putting all questions into ChatGPT, and reworking questions where required. Discussed the challenges with large numbers of students, to detect AI content and how Ai tools do not always provide opportunities for students to learn essential thinking skills. Shared guidelines (as decision made not to ban Chat GPT): use at your own risk, need to verify accuracy of answers, academic integrity and no expectation to use it. Strategies to use to: include using images, integrate ChatGPT into the question to evaluate what has been produced for authenticity, validity etc. 

Dr. Truman Phan from AcademyEX next with discussion on the approach taken with students, to ensure they are attain all aspects of digital, including AI literacies. AI needs to be used with responsibility but also ensure inclusive and equitable for all. Digital divide is very real. As with Shanon's presentation, first steps to ensure digital equity needs to be attained before engagement with AI is possible. 

A recording from Dr. Rebecca Marrone from the University of South Australia followed. Provided an example of an adaptive learning platform, which is also mediated with AI. Learning is personalised or differentiated as they move through the platform. Discussed ethical considerations with regards to learning analytics. Presented on opportunities for both learners and lecturers/teachers. 

Q & A followed. 

Notes taken at FLANZ (Flexible Learning Association NZ) - innovating pedagogy - presentation

 A presentation by Dr. Simon Atkinson on future opportunities for flexible learning. Based on a recent Open University Innovation Report #10.

Summary of the report found here. 

Presentation discussed the report on innovating pedagogy with the assumption that participants have read the report before attending.

Overview provided – quite conservative actually!

Proposes a range of approaches – hybrid models, dual-learning scenarios (connecting classroom and work), pedagogies of micro-credentials, pedagogy of autonomy, watch parties (watch videos together), influencer-led education, pedagogies of the home, pedagogy of discomfort (emotions as powerful tools of learning), well-being education and walk-and-talk (combining movement and conversation).

Categorised these into ‘context-aware curriculum design’; skills-orientated curriculum design’ leveraging non-formal and informal learning and human centred learning design.

Discussion revolved around how some of the approaches are defined and categorised. Menti.com used to collate feedback and understanding from the participants. The voting tried to establish how impactful each approach could be and how much effort is required to put the approach in place.

FLANZ - DAY 2 afternoon

 

After lunch, I present ‘a model for supporting flexible practice-based learning'. Basically a summary of the concepts and discussions for the forthcoming book ‘digitally-enabling ‘learning by doing’ for vocational education’. Practice-based learning can be difficult to deliver fully online. However, by focusing on the main purposes of practice-based learning and ensuring these were supported is recommended. Important to support access to ‘rich’ pedagogical experiences/authentic learning using a range of strategies (not all digital); modelling of practice; helping to make ‘thinking visible’; and guiding learning. A framework – the push-connect the learning-pull approach may be useful to help decide on what to provide to learners (push); how to bring participation from learners (pull); and the importance of learning sessions to consolidate learning (connect the learning).

Following is M. Armstrong Wilcocks presenting on ”flexible learning for gifted learners: gifted online”. Summarised the needs of gifted learners (6 – 13 years old). NZ Centre for gifted education is a not for profit who empower extraordinary minds. There are systems support but not only school support is required by outside of school as well. Gifted online is used to provide flexible learning – with gifted lens. In general, provides resources for specialist curriculum, specialist pedagogy advise to allow for personalisation of learning and to help them develop autonomy and self-direction. Shared the specialist curriculum which consist of content strands (conceptual, talent and personal development) and process strands (research, communication and complex thinking). Summarised various programmes available to support students. 

The last session is ‘the great debate’ around the theme ‘learners do not achieve their full potential under flexible learning conditions’. Each debater had 3 minutes to make their point with a one minute wrap up from each team. Good points from each side :) 

Overall, an interesting range of presentations and conversations across the two days. The opportunity to network with a small group of kindred spirits much appreciated. There were a few small technical glitches as the conference used zoom rather than a dedicated conference platform. However, these disruptions were minimal and did not detract from the presentations. My thanks to the tech team and colleagues at the University of Canterbury (UC) satellite for their support and collegiality. 

 

FLANZ - day 2 morning

 

Begins with the keynote with Professor Gilly Salmon.

She presents on ‘Four new innovative futures for learning’. We may not be able to predict the future, but disruptions (as per Covid) have allowed for introspection and to think deeper on what flexible pathways may be.

In the UK, after a year of the pandemic, people have started to focus on the important things. Post covid have reinforced the things that ‘work’. Blended learning that embraces the best of both – allows for greater diversity, inclusion, community building, flexibility, widening access – push mundane elements to digital and blended for interaction which is responsive to learners’ beeds.

Modernising pedagogy by having fewer lectures, small groups, authentic / ditch exams, more rounded and effective online  etc.

Where may flexible education will go next – revert, adapt, evolve, transform. The conference mainly chose ‘evolve’. Proceeded to discuss the landscape of ODFL – Current/contemporary approaches  to innovative and new possibilities. Present – well established preferred pedagogies and technologies and responding o challenges and possibilities TO harnessing new technological opportunities for learning and future proofing by investing in innovation.

Evolution requires shifting towards leveraging off affordances from current and new digital technologies. This shift requires clear look at the pedagogy and how this may become different to prepare learners for the future.

Identification of the ‘drivers’ is important, to ensure that these align with what can be. Pick one thing to do to help ‘drive’ towards that future.

Encouraged mobile learning due to large reach of mobile devices. INTENTIONAL mobile pedagogy suggested. Provided details on a study on how health placement logjam through e-placements was enacted. Key was equivalency and if designed well, outcomes were actually better. Disciplines included occupational therapy, dietetics, diagnostic radiography, chiropractic and physiotheraphy.

Outreach – before pandemic, over ½ of UK teachers/support staff who did not think digitally supported learning was well-developed. During the pandemic, the main call for support (70%) was to help build a sense of community in the digital learning environment! For students, HE learning was much changed in the physical environment but the digital environment was seen to be effective.

Immersive learning (second life etc.) has improved in their usability. Useful for learning skills, complexities, responding to emergencies, focus on specific learning. VR, virtual field trips/tours.Humanoid robots helpful for teaching fundamental principles of programming. Engagement is high due to interactivity. All contribute to authentic learning.

Potentialities of AI – check Clark, D. (2020). AI forlearning. Kogan Page. Long way to go but used now for ‘agile responses, accessibility, student friendly admin, smart materials, smart tutoring. Also future for wearables providing  biometrics, smart textiles in  healthcare, smart textiles, fitness trackers etc.

Proposed ‘education 4.0’ – check Salmon (2019) ‘May thefourth be with you’ – an article discussing potentialities to meet the challenges for Industry 4.0 and the future of work.

After morning tea there are 3 presentations:

D. Himasha. P. S. Gunasekaral working with Professor Cheryl Brown and Dr. Stuart Wise on ‘creativity in practice – Instagram as a divergent thinking tool in creative education. Began with a short video showcasing a portfolio collated to show the development of a range of fashion items, some from ideation and sketching to concept transfer. Social networks have increased, especially amongst youth in developing countries. How can this be leveraged for learning. Introduced Instagram launched in 2010 allowing for visual/textual practices to be shared; has hashtag usages; posting, friending, geotagging and liking; along with associated Instagram for learning. ‘learning by doing’ is a concept in design education. However, creative education where influenced by culture and social contexts becomes divergent. Used digital ethnography to study how Instagram can be used to support learning. Although only 14 participants (5 students, 2 teachers and 7 designers), there were 700 posts. Themes related to divergent thinking were extracted. These themes include self-revealing/inner feeling; peer evaluation; critism and collaboration. Found teaching helped with creative divergent thinking. Summarised some limitations and references.

Supporting Natalia Kurikova from the ‘Digital Learning Environment’ section at Ara Institute of Canterbury Ltd. with her presentation ‘when teaching online is not an emergency – strategies of private language tutors. Began with background on how she came to online teaching and learning. Also covered the context of private language instruction and how many did not have the capabilities to provide online tuition. Learners often choose online due to its flexibility. Study sought to find out how educators transition to online learning; how online tutors navigate the complexities; and data from actual online classrooms is scarce. Focused on opening and closing of online sessions. Relooked at data post-pandemic to see how this coloured data analysis. Used lesson recordings and in-depth semi structured interviews.

Summarised finding and re-couched as strategies to make the most of synchronous sessions. There were: avoid over-reliance on webcam video; utilise it to establish rapport and when activity requires it; reduce fatigue and cognitive load, turn off when not needed. Use classroom time strategically – many used ‘flipped’ processes although did not name it; highlight perceived usefulness and value’ promote reflection, self -assessment, evaluation of goals and progress.  A range of resources (not all digital) used and these have to be accounted for when thinking about ‘distance’. Establishing a shared learning space is important. Use positive ‘learning activities’ to bring about engagement and this leads to co-creation of learning outcomes and how this could be achieved.

Larian Nkomo and Ben Daniel from the University of Otago with ‘lecture recordings offer students flexible and adaptive learning opportunities’. Lecture recordings now common in HE. This study investigates student perspectives on how they use lecture recordings and how they value the learning from these. On top would be flexibility for students, especially for part-time students. Collected data was quantitatively (descriptive statistics) and qualitatively (thematic and sentiment analysis - use of natural language processing (NLP) to analyse text and automate extraction or classification of sentiment). Provided summary of findings. Students felt recordings were useful especially as supplements to review material and to have another run at taking notes from the recording, missed during the lecture itself.

FLANZ - Day 1 afternoon

 

After lunch, the FLANZ awards are announced.

The second keynote is with Derek Wenmoth who presents on the topic ‘future focused flexible education’.

Started with a review of how flexible learning has evolved. To begin, f2f and correspondence education were quite separate. However, equity requires a sharp relook to allow for access to all. Teaching and instruction for both f2f and correspondence delivery based on teaching and delivery. Disruptions began occurring in the 1990s as the www emerged. LMS started to be developed. Online and elearning began in the mid-90s. Told the story of how, in the mid-90s, country secondary schools could network to offer shared teaching for subjects with small number of students. This reversed students going to boarding school and the effects on the town which was able to retain its secondary school. The next disruption was the increase in ownership of mobile devices. Mlearning allowed for home/school/www to merge and the increase of blended learning through flipped classroom and virtual online schools. What then happens now? There is shift of the ownership of learner – eventuating in personalised/adaptive learning which is about knowledge building communities and boundary-less organisations – allowing networked/connected learning. Proposed ubiquity, connectedness and agency as the main themes. Ubiquity relates to anytime, anyplace, anywhere with the shift to cloud access through wifi and on mobile devices. There is now a merging between the formal/informal and the physical/virtual. Connectedness refers to having a sense of being a part of something that is bigger than ones self; the capacity to benefit from connectivity for personal, social, work etc. the importance of social networks, learning how to communicate across many medii, connectivisism etc. Agency is having choices and the ability to act; informed enabled empowered learners; and shifting ownership of learning. See Washor, E;, & Mosakowski, C. (2013).

Check Hanna (2002) – evolution of programme design – product orientation and standardisation to customisation and student need orientation.

Challenged the audience to see beyond the future developments (AI, chat bots, neural transfers, adaptive learning, mobile learning, AR/VR, ) and to see how these must be deployed to try to meet the real challenges of the future (over population, food/water supply, global emissions, climate change, religious intolerance, cultural assimilation, unemployment, nano-technology etc.)

Then a series of presentations.

Firstly, Dr. Gloria Gomez with ‘OB3 media-rich documents with embedded discussions: lifting learning performance and engagement through interactive design.’ Ara has several programmes using OB3 and has found it especially appropriate for co- and social-constructivist pedagogy. Shared a study using interaction design study to gain entry into the study of novel educational practice. Summarised the 6 principles of the bridging design prototype approach and the concepts used in understanding the data gathered. Rationalised the need for OB3. Then provided an overview of how OB3 works. OB3 interface allows for - no need for technologist in preparation of OB docx, students engage in synchronise discussions with teacher within the document and students engage in authoring curriculum.  User interface is familiar with cut/paste and drag/drop. Discussions can inserted anywhere into the document in the form of text, images, videos, audio recordings. Used case study from 10 years of use by Otago/Sydney Master of Ophthalmic basic science course. Video of how OB3 works provided background. When compared to Creative Classroom Framework (CCR) and the NMC Horizon report – OB3 helps students move towards become co-constructers of learning and leads to deeper learning and critical reflection.

Then Andi Sudjana Putra and Alan Soong from National University of Singapore with ‘operationalising an online ‘design your own module’ using the community of inquiry framework. Introduced the programme Design your own module (DYOM) with students as partners (SaP) and Community of Inquiry (COI). DYOM allows student to explore learning beyond their own discipline, using self-directed approaches through MOOCs or to engage with NUS teachers/admin staff or industry leaders. Objects of DYOM to provide flexibility in planning their studies without disrupting their normal structured disciplinary studies. Also to encourage students to broaden their knowledge and encourage lifelong learning. Provided examples of a wide range of topics. Summarised the study on better understanding and evaluation of DYOM. SaP framework includes aspects of co-learning, co-design and co-developing anchored by 5 principles – foster inclusive partnership, nurture power-sharing, accept partnership as a process of uncertain outcomes, engage in ethical partnerships and cooperation. CoI includes social, cognitive and teaching presence but also by supporting discourse, setting climate and supporting collaboration. Provided details of the context of the DYOM. Use https://padlet.com/andisputra/3a659ijac65xsytr to see example.

Alan shared the findings from students survey post-DYOM. There was increased student engagement and motivation; increased understanding of the experiences of others; and enhanced student-student partnership. Students attain ownership of their learning.

After afternoon tea I attend sessions by Professor Cheryl Brown from University of Canterbury on ’Open textbooks: What’s stopping us and why we need them’ with work by Zhanni Luo and Maansa Bajaj Prakash. Defined text books as a manual of instruction in any science or branch of study. OER covers any type of educational material. Open textbooks can therefore be defined more widely. Cost of text books have increased and students are likely to seek alternative resources to access textbooks when cost is a factor. Adapted a survey used at Otago University – Stein, S., Hart, S., et al (2017). Student views on the cost of textbooks. Used a snowball crowdsourcing approach and gathered over a 1000 participants. Over 80% were required to purchase a physical textbook, with 18% required digital materials. More costs for science and engineering students. The majority did not buy the textbooks! So what are they using? 56% did not use textbooks and relied on resources provided by lecturers. Very few actually used filesharing, borrowed from friends etc. Many did not use the library either!! Reasons were inconvenient time, inability to highlight/annotate, limited loan time, unawareness of library services and unavailability due to limited number of copies. 70% did not know about OER. Without textbooks, students were worried they may be missing out and some had to make substantial sacrifices to be able to purchase. Those with textbooks were frustrated when the textbook as not used or were not relevant. Some solutions – cut cost by using OER and not prescribing, capture alternative sources, clearly communicate what content is relevant in textbook, reflect on why, share resources in class, use OTs and adapt for context, don’t directly link textbook to assessments, get students to generate quiz Q & As. Recommend range of textbooks, peer rate resources, and start small to build content, collaborate with colleagues and invite students to contribute.

And Dr. Lynnette. Brice from the Open Polytechnic with ‘closing the distance with an open smile’. – the impact of emotion in ODFL experience. ODFL is largely mediated through technology but emotion is a human response. Defined ODFL in the context of emotional associations. Therefore, open and flexible = remove barriers but distance = the opposite. Shares case studies from ODFL learners and how their emotional state/s affect their learning. Summarised some understandings of the power of emotions in learning. Then summarised Maori knowledge of emotions in an educational setting – summarised as he kare a roto – the ripples within. Emphasised the need for the ‘smile’ in all of the strategies and processes the institution, support and teachers project to learners.