Presentations – Page 4 – Digital Learning Dispatches

Digital Learning, Events, Online Learning, Presentations, Visiting Speakers

Teaching Online is Different Seminar

On the 27th of January the #Openteach project team in the NIDL led by Dr Orna Farrell hosted a seminar about teaching online. This seminar was funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Online 1

The aim of the seminar was to explore effective online teaching practice and how to support the professional development of online educators. The seminar featured two very interesting guest speakers: Professor Elena Barbera from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and Dr Helen Coker from Queen Margaret University Edinburgh.

Time in online education

Online 3 Professor Barbera spoke about her research on the role time plays in online education. She outlined her ideas about the online time paradox: that students enrol in online courses because they don’t have enough time to go to a campus based course, but the remaining time that the student has to study is low quality, and they may end of up dropping out due to to the lack of time they had to begin with.

Barbera described how this consideration of time is woven throughout their approach to online education at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Online 4

Being an online lecturer

Online 5 Dr Helen Coker’s talk focused on her journal article “Purpose, Pedagogy and Philosophy: “Being” an Online Lecturer”published in IRRODL. Coker’s study took an ethnographic approach to exploring the lived experiences of online educators. She identified three approaches to online teaching practice: knowledge, affect, and dialogue, as illustrated below.

Online 7

These three approaches were found to be mutually constituting, one could be brought into focus but the rest were still there.

Social presence: Scenario 1 of #Openteach

Online 8 The final part of the workshop was an interactive session on social presence facilitated by the #Openteach project team. The aim of this session was to pilot the first scenario from the #Openteach short online course.

Participants were presented with a scenario related to the topic of social presence in online teaching and worked through a scaffolded activity designed to prompt discussion about approaches to establishing and maintaining presence online.

Join #Openteach

Online 2 If you are interested in taking part in the #Openteach short online course about teaching online which will run from the 23rd of March to the 3rd of April 2019 and will take approximately 10 hours to complete. The course is open to anyone with an interest in online teaching. You can register your interest https://openteach.ie/join-openteach/ or email orna.farrell@dcu.ie for more information.

Final thoughts

Overall the seminar was well received by participants, and was a good opportunity to open up dialogue and discussion about teaching online in Irish higher education. All of the resources from the seminar are available from the #Openteach website:

https://openteach.ie/

Digital Learning, Events, Presentations, Research, Visiting Speakers

Topical Talk: Mapping the Territory of Digital Wellbeing Interventions

On the 15^th April at 2pm in DG10 in Bea Orpen on Dublin City University’s Glasnevin campus, Julie-Ann Sime and Chryssa Themeli from Lancaster University will give a very interesting talk as part of the NIDL’s visiting scholar series. Please do consider coming along as the talk is open to everyone!

Title: Mapping the Territory of Digital Wellbeing Interventions

Outline: We live in a highly digitally connected Europe where people of all ages use the internet to connect, communicate, explore and learn through digital media, however a recent JISC study reported that educators in Higher Education institutions are concerned about the wellbeing of their students in digital settings. In addition, the Opening Up education report shows that 70% educators in the EU understand the importance of digital literacy but only 20-25% students are taught by digitally confident educators. Improving the digital literacy of educators is required particularly in the area of digital wellbeing. Higher Education institutions are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of digital overload on mental health of individual students, the societal impacts on relationships such as cyberbullying, technical issues such as cybersecurity and the addictive design of technology, fake news and the controversies surrounding radicalisation and challenges to democracy. The Digital Wellbeing Educators Project (funded by ERASMUS+ programme of the European Union) aims to increase the capacity of educators in Higher Education institutions to integrate digital education to promote the wellbeing of their students. This presentation aims to raise awareness and map the territory of existing digital wellbeing interventions by showcasing some examples primarily from Europe. The next phase of the project will see the development of an app and teacher’s digital pedagogy toolkit to support educators in developing their own digital competences and making their teaching more digital.

Dr. Julie-Ann Sime, Lancaster University

Julie-Ann is an educational researcher and a pioneer of online distance learning who has been teaching online for 25 years. She researches into the use of new technologies in teaching and learning in professional contexts, including: use of video for reflection, game-based learning and team training of professionals in 3D virtual worlds. She is co-editor of a new book on Networked Learning: Reflections and Challenges (2018).

Dr. Chryssa Themeli, Lancaster University

Chryssa is an educational researcher focusing on research that changes practice and thinking, teaching that transforms people’s lives and engages actively with students, businesses and communities. As research assessor, she evaluates UKERI proposals for the British council and European Union proposals for H2020 FET Innovation Launchpad Calls.