CHALLENGE 2 - the bases of this challenge is to add the Assessor into the story.
Another member of the
team:
Assessor: Aleeda
is an Education Developer. Well versed in the pedagogy of various faculties in
the University. There is a form that Alison currently uses to analyse online
units, however this is only used in an ad-hoc manner and more for audit
purposes. Aleeda is part of a team that conducts f2f inductions into the Learning Management
System. After this interview she has some idea of the staff competency in using
and working in the online environment. However this is not documented or
matched to any standards and the only outcome of this induction is a further
recommendations for the staff member on PD in this area. There is a process for
Aleeda to tell Wally and his team that the staff member can now have access to
teaching units but this information sometimes does not get through. This would
be an excellent forum to conduct an assessment of the competency of the
incoming staff to the Uni, assign gap training if required and allocate the
first Badge for Online Training which could then be referenced by other teams
in the Uni.
Ted’s Badge story developing: When Ted started teaching at the Uni he was required to facilitate an
online lecture in the first week. The process to get access to the teaching
unit was quite involved and he only had access 2 hours before his first lecture.
He could have f2f meeting, get assessed against competencies, get badges
against his name in the LMS, this is then flagged to Wally’s team that then
allows them to register him in the Intro units, create a practise unit and
allocate the required teaching units. Notification of the badges could also be
sent to the HoS as record of the new teacher starting to train online. The
future competencies are shown to Ted and the relevant badges are outlined in
the process of further PD and improvement of his online teaching skills. Once
the badges are in his Mozilla backpack...he can share this online (LinkedIn)
which will easily match up with future contracts in this area.
The Story of
Competencies (or lack thereof):
Competencies defined. The competencies that are currently
defined in the Uni are related to the an identified six key Principles of
Online Learning. (refer: http://www.cdu.edu.au/olt/principles.html)
Unable to find any competencies for the lecturer or trainer in the area of
online learning. The units themselves are evaluated against principles of
teaching but this does not measure the competencies of the lecturer. Each unit
is also checked against a technology list of areas which are then mapped back
to 4 areas discussed in the document above.
The existing
learning frameworks that exist in the Uni are in a number of formats. There are
professional development, self-paced online units in a number of areas. PD
sessions are regularly held in some Faculties that have a focus on teaching in
the online environment. There are weekly open lab sessions for staff that wish
to attend. There is also a peer learning network setup on one campus to
encourage learning across the faculties.
Learners complete an online unit to show competence at the
basic level. In theory this is supposed to be completed by all new staff before
gaining access to teaching units, even for casual marking staff. However in
reality Wally’s team does not actually know when staff complete this so they
see an enrolment as sufficient evidence.
Learners competence are only recorded by their enrolment
into online units and teaching units. Their ‘success’ may be recognised by a
Certificate of Completion. Head of School’s or Theme Leaders would look at
competence records in this area.
Shortcomings in
this ecosystem: there is no competencies defined that directly relate to Staff
teaching online. There is a lot of assumptions about the ability of staff to
teach both in the classroom and online. There is no defined learning path for
staff that might be required to develop units compared to casual
marking/tutoring staff. There is little currency placed on PD to lead to better
skills in this area and staff feel it is a bonus rather than a necessity to
turn up to focused PD sessions in this area.
Strengths: this system
would suit a badge system that could compliment the current system and also
have open benefits to the staff during their career in this Uni and further
down the track.
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