Ben R. Atkinson

I found the learning activities for this week and the focus on the CEG pedagogic framework a very useful way in to thinking about the design of online learning environments and in particular, online programmes of study. This last few weeks where we have focused on ‘online learning’ has been particularly interesting for me, as it’s not an area of teaching and learning practice in which I’ve previously had any experience. Therefore, I have learnt a lot about the way that certain online activities should be ‘staged’ to signpost students through the process of learning online. Often this kind of learning happens individually at any hour of the day or night, so it’s important that students are able to navigate through the resources and associated learning tasks in their own time. Moreover, there are particular benefits to colour coding various activities as they align the framework. Although I have to admit, this is not something I had picked up on within this PGCHE course until it was pointed out to me!

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Starting off in Week 8 of this EDU720 module, there was a focus on how our thoughts about designing key considerations related to designing learning environments in HE might differ between the traditional and online. This was a great way to segue into the second half of the module and there were some interesting ideas shared on the forum. For my part, I referred back to what we had studied in earlier weeks and the prior EDU710 module to come up with a list that encapsulated ‘the approach you wish to take’, ‘how you will assess’ and the ‘kind of students’ that are being taught. For this, I took a lot from MacDonald and her advice on blending learning and online tutoring where it is important to ‘understand what it is they [the students] are expected to learn, how they are expected to get there and in what timescale’ (Macdonald, 2006). This point of understanding the students is, I feel, particularly important as it informs all other aspects of curriculum design. I was pleased to get feedback from Federica who agree that ‘it can be quite important, especially with large cohort courses, to really be confident of the full range of ‘learning styles and needs’ that might be spread across the cohort’ (Orandini, 2019). We also agreed on the creative approach of module design which can be one of the most fun aspects of the task.

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This week, as we are getting ready to pilot our flipped classroom activities, we focused on the need to integrate said activities with wider module or programme of study. Reflecting back on the week, I feel it was useful to have some time to focus on how the flipped learning activities will integrate if only to ensure they are not siloed and seen as a ‘gimmicky’ activity by the students not really connected to the rest of the module or the wider learning objectives.

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