Depending on where you work you might use the title Learning Technologist, Education Technologist, Instructional Designer, or something else, but essentially these roles are the same.

• See the ‘related posts’ section below for links to the previous 4 posts in this series.

Here are a few excerpts from job descriptions for these roles that I found with a quick Google search, see for yourself:

• “Provides pedagogic advice, guidance, encouragement and support on the use of technology to staff involved in teaching. Such processes involves mutual learning, and frequently contrast with the clear division of labour that characterises Instructional Design.”
  Source: JISC – Recommendations for an accreditation scheme for learning technologists v. 4.6 (Consultation document 19/03/04)
• “Promoting and the appropriate pedagogical use of e-learning through resources,
  communication and assessment tools.”
  Source: Bournemouth University – Job Description & Person Specification (PDF 55.70kb)
• “Develop and institute logistical, instructional, and pedagogical policies for the creation and delivery of online courses.”
  Source: UTD – Job Description

While reading this post last night - Learning Technology Trends To Watch In 2012 – I found the section on “Expanded Instructional Designer’s Role” quite interesting, not least as the expanded role sounded an awful lot like the work I am already engaged in?

“Captured in Clive Shepherd’s book, The New Learning Architect, the idea that an instructional designer has one only one function – course creation – seems outdated. Although many will continue to develop courses, instructional designers will need to think in broad terms about how to close learning gaps. This means understanding the strategies that underlie diverse possibilities for learning, both formal and informal, traditional and nontraditional, online and print and face-to-face and virtual.”

Many of the people I converse with on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, at work, at conferences, etc, are also of this opinion: that it is more than just the final result that the LT (Learning Technologist) is interested in, that the LT can be a vital part of the whole process in getting the learning materials researched, set up, assessed, etc. Convincing others of this is not always easy.

“For example, instructional designers are managing communities of practice, curating content, facilitating online discussion groups, organizing events and supporting of social media for learning. Instructional designers are often the proponents of innovation and the persuaders who convince upper management that interaction and collaboration will make for a smarter organization. As more instructional designers and educators see themselves as learning architects, the world will become a smarter place.”

Wow, this is me, am I now a Learning Architect?

Do you have a view or comment on this, or any other aspect of the role or industry you work in? If so then please leave a comment and open the discussion.

Related posts:

1. What is a Learning Technologist (part 2)?
2. What is a Learning Technologist? (part 3)
3. Learning Tools: what do you use?

Induction week, for campus-based students is all about getting to know each other, getting to know the programme team, and socialising. This is also true for online students, although it is not always easy to forge the same kind of understanding, relationships and outcome; but it’s not impossible.

Working online is not often a natural feeling for students, whatever their age. To this end we, the facilitators, need to carefully design the Induction programme and activities to make the students feel at home, comfortable in the online environment, and able to comment in a risk- and blame-free environment.

This makes it all the more important to carefully design and implement the introduction, the learning environment, and the online activities you expect them to participate in. Last year I wrote about five such activities in my post Online Induction: Icebreaker Activities.

Here is another one, modified from  Ryan Watkins’ book “75 eLearning Activities – making online learning interactive” (Amazon link);

Objective: This gives the students the opportunity to share their thoughts on a  topic (decided by the activity moderator) in the VLE to encourage a reflective process about themselves and their colleagues.

Delivery: This can be used with either a Discussion Board or a Blog, depending on the preference and confidence of the moderator and expected technical competencies of the student cohort.

Process: The moderator provides the topic, usually something topical to current news, the programme content or learning style (eLearning), and encourages the students to initially post their responses (100 words or less). Once all students have responded the moderator encourages further posts replying to at least 3 entries made by their colleagues, also in 100 words or less.

Additional Information: If students are new to the technology (blog, discussion board) then appropriate training material is needed.

Ideally the kind of Induction Activity you use ought to be a mixture of reflective and collaborative styles in order to get the students engaged and comfortable with each other, with you (the moderator), and in working online in what many may find a new and alien environment.

What kind of activity do you use, is it specifically designed for online students or one that can be used for campus-based as well as online students?

No related posts.

I wrote the post “Online Induction: What can possibly go wrong?” as I was getting myself and the materials ready for a week of induction activities for new students to the online degree programme at Bournemouth University.

This, in itself, was a follow up to the “Online Induction: Icebreaker Activities“, where I was working through some ideas on what I would deploy for the students.

So, with a week to recover, reflect, and collect the stragglers, how did it go?

With one week set aside for their Online Induction, the students were asked to do the following (this was based on instructions given in a letter and a supporting website, with an introduction to the VLE / Blackboard):

NB: these are mature students, often in full-time employment, and with family and social commitments.

1. Introduce Yourself: Using a wiki, the students created a page and placed a bi0 (about 200 words) about themselves and why they have just started an under-graduate degree in International Business & Management. They then linked this page to the wiki home page, so other students could find and leave a comment on it.
   [Wiki support video]
2. Send an email: In order that we can confirm the students have successfully accessed the University webmail system and their account, they send me an email. This also means we will stop using their private email; we cannot manage mail lists of some uni, some private emails; they must all use their uni email address and account for communication.
3. Point of Contact: Online test (Blackboard) with about 6-8 questions where we outline a typical question – the answer being “who do you go to in the following situation?”. This introduces them to the team and the type of problem each of us can help with (mitigating circumstances, technical, library, etc).
   [Test/MCQ support video]
4. Spending Spree: What would you spend $50,000 on, guilt free? Enter response in a blog, and comments on another students idea.
   [Blog support video]
5. Lonely Hearts column: Some fictitious lonely hearts adverts are discussed in a discussion board. Which one (3 male, 3 female) would make you find out more, and which one makes you crawl?
   [Discussion Forum support video]

What else did we do during the Induction week, beside guide/follow them through the activities:

• Announcements: important announcements about their studies, the programme, the Library, the University, the first Unit of study, Technical support, etc.
• Introductions: emails from the programme and administrative team (as well as participating in the first activity).
• Support Website: In case they were unable to access the VLE, we had a set of flat HTML files that replicated the instructions for the activities, but not the activities themselves. This is really just so they have something to read until we can sort their access issues!

So, these were the activities. How did they do? Well, firstly, what was the engagement like?

• One or two students did everything on the first day, never to be seen or heard of again.
• One or two students appeared on day 7, right at the last possible moment and did the absolute minimum.
• The majority of students dipped in and out during the week, completing the first 2 or 3 activities, but not the last one.
• A few questions about how they would complete the wiki / blog activities. The students were directed to the already advertised support videos for each tool, where the tool was demonstrated in a real-world example.
• Those that were active at the beginning of the week missed out on the ‘community feel’ at the end of the week.
• Those who were active at the end of the week were more likely to just read what other students said than to enter in to the activity.
• Activity from students who logged on a few times during the week was better; they made more comments and generally acted like they were in 2-way community instead of just ‘publishing’ to the community.

So, the activities:

1. Introduce Yourself: 80% of the students completed this; the other 20% did not do this, but they also didn’t do any of the other activities either! One the whole they all were able to create the page and enter their details (some with pictures and links), but not all were able (or remembered) to create the link off the home page.
2. Email: All but one student could access their email account, and that one student was easily sorted (password typo?).
3. Point of Contact: A simple multiple-choice test (MCQ), most student completed it. What we now need to do is go back and report on the results.
4. Spending Spree: All those who have completed other activities completed this too. The results are more indicative of the times we live in; most would spend some or all on the mortgage, holiday, or car (in that order).
5. Lonely Hearts: As the last activity, this was predictably the one with the least number of students active, whether it was the subject matter, the tool (DF), or just they felt they’d already done enough.

How do you measure the success? I prefer looking at the number of students (or lack of) who had issues and needed to contact me (as the Learning Technologist) to find solutions rather than measure the success by the activities completed. This year was good; few students having more than the basic “forgotten password” issues, and only one with broadband/connection problems (out of my control).

I’m already planning next year, so between now and then I’ll be hunting around for some new and exciting ways to get them working together online. Any suggestions welcome, please let me know by commenting below …

No related posts.

Well, it’s that time of year again and we’re are well into the week lomg Induction and Induction Activities. While we can be as clear as possible with instructions, sign-posts to the materials, and access, it is a sure bet that one or more student will have trouble of some sort.

What can possibly go wrong? I had to ask didn’t I … so here is a break-down of what we all know happens, but hope and pray it doesn’t;

1. Registration – Something completely out of our control for the most part, once the student enters the abyss that is online registration we can only hope they appear on the other side unscathed and alive!
2. Logging in – If registration worked, then logging in should work too. Here is usually the first gap in the student mentality … “I’ve forgotten my user name / password (delete as appropriate)!”. This is bizarre as they’ve just assigned (or been assigned) these in the registration process, and probably have them written down or at least an email confirming them?
3. Accessing the VLE – Bizarrely this often crops up. All communication we have points them in the direction which links and huge buttons … how can you not spot those?
4. Accessing the VLE, but then getting lost – Yes, it happens. It is another example of not reading or following the instructions.
5. Instructions .. what instructions – Yes, it happens every year, and the answer is still the same .. RTFM!
6. Instructions … really? You know they’ve read the instructions, you know the instructions are fool proof, yet still the phone calls and emails come in as they cant find what is in front of them.
7. Partially complete – When the first activity is completed, and then the student stops. When we say “please complete all 5 activities”, we mean it!
8. Complete, but wrong – The activity is complete, then you realise that someone has done the wrong activity in the wrong place. Even worse, they’ve put their own biography in the wiki but replaced the home page instead of creating their own page. Yes, you can revert back to the previous version, but it’s been like it for days … which explains the emails and phone calls from other students not understanding what they’re supposed to do.

So, what can we do? Well, we’ve revisited and reworded nearly everything, several times, in an effort to help the students and prevent them getting lost, but does there come a point when we have to put our hands up and say “everything is available and signposted, what more can we do”?

I don’t like doing this, as it affects the student experience, but what else can we do?

If you’ve something to add to the above, based on your own experiences (past and present) please leave a message after the beeb … ‘beep’.

No related posts.

One aspect of learning online is that the students will feel distant and isolated from not only you (the Institution and staff facilitator) but also from each other.

So, what can you do to make them feel included and valued? Firstly, use the induction period to get them used to not only working and talking in the online environment, but also engaging online (collaboration, tests, discussions, etc).

My personal favourite is to get the students doing something that uses a piece of technology they’re not familiar with, but in a way that they don’t realise their using or doing something new. A properly organised activity should get the students thinking about the task, not the tool!

So, Induction & Icebreaker activities. What can you do (and they aren’t limited to using in Induction; they can be used at any time)?

1) Picture Perfect

Objective: Create a visual connection with fellow students, and also to practice skills in graphic communication.

Delivery: Blog (best), Wiki, or Discussion Board.

Process: Locate a favourite photograph and post to the delivery method.  If the photo is not yet in digital format, arrange to have it scanned and made available in JPG file format. In the post, student ought to say a little about the photo and why it is their favourite.  Then go and view the photos and messages of their colleagues.

Additional Information: This does not have to be a photo of family, but of a subject that has meaning to them (pet, car, city, landscape, friends, etc).

2) Lonely Hearts

Objective: The objective of this exercise is to analyse how we perceive people from the information they offer online, using ‘lonely hearts’ adverts.

Delivery: Wiki, Blog, or Discussion Board (best).

Process: Read the pre-prepared lonely heart adverts and make comments on the individual behind each advert in the Discussion Board. Engage fellow students in conversation based on their entries and comments.

3) Shopping Trip

Objective: To encourage the students to get to know who they are studying with. What is their colleagues ‘priority’ when it comes to spending £50,000 on anything they want, guilt free.

Delivery: Blog or Discussion Board.

Process: The students will post information about what they will spend their £50,000 on. Depending on the age and background of the students as to whether you get a lot of property/mortgage replies or cars and holidays. If applicable, ask for links and photos of examples to demonstrate what they are looking to ‘buy’.

4) Truth

Objective: Students learn, often by trial and error and much laughter, two interesting facts about a colleague, and one untruth.

Delivery: Discussion Board.

Process: Student list three ‘interesting’ things about themselves. Two must be lies and one must be true. Other students must vote to determine which is a lie.

5) Memory Lane

Objective: Since online students are diverse in age as well as background and location, it is good to close any generation gap that might exist and otherwise be a disadvantage when working together online.

Delivery: Blog (best) or Discussion Board.

Process: Ask the students to list three major world events that happened the year in which they were born, then have the other members guess the year and post a short response on whether they remembered the events or had never heard of them.

Of course this is by no means an exhaustive list, and I’m happy to hear your activities, so please post below.

Try to keep all your activities using tools already available to the students in the VLE or PLN you use, don’t ask them to go off and register for something new; they may be scared enough already using the VLE that is new to them, anything else may be one step too far!

Ideally the kind of Induction Activities you use should be a mixture of reflective and collaborative styles in order to get the students comfortable with each other, you (the facilitator) and in working online in what many will find a new and difficult environment.

No related posts.