instructor lens on opening access via multi-access learning

Online/Open Access

• For an extended discussion post-session, visit the video room link that will be shared and tweeted out at the end of this session

• Please use both #oer15 and #oer755 for

connecting online

Consider Our Upcoming Sessions

• Open Education in the 1990s: Revisiting the History of the Open Education Movement– Wednesday, April 15, 12:00-12:30 (11:30-1:00 slot)

– Seligman Studio, First Floor Main Building

• The Role of Multi-Access Learning in Mainstreaming Open Education– Wednesday, April 15, 2:00-2:30

– Rowe Beddoe Studio, Second Floor Main Building

Multi-Access: A Brief Overview

Impact of Modality on Open

• Face-to-Face courses still may have little online presence, in part because they may not be using online modalities all or in part

• Online courses have greater potential to embrace open access due to online modality

• But how many brick-and-mortar campus courses are online?

The Study

Interviews with 7 multi-access instructors

• 3 tenured professors who taught grad classes

– Prof 1, 2, 3

• 4 sessional instructors (retired school principals) who taught a required undergrad Education course

– Sessional 1, 2, 3, 4

The Study

• Ethics approval was received

• Opening access questions were part of a larger interview on experiences teaching multi-access

• Question:

– Would you be open to having non-registered open online students audit a multi-access course with or without additional instructor marking?

The Perspectives on Open

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Yes No Depends

Professor

Sessional

Topics Mentioned

• Respect

• Workload

• Student Engagement

• Quality of Learning

• Technology & User Interface Limits

• Privacy

• Culture of Openness

Workload

Oh, I would have to think about [how difficult it would be to move to open] for sure, because all of our questions are directed to these students who are going … out on their practicum – and these people would NOT be people going out on practicum, so we would open our questions up a little bit more and we would have to find ways of consulting with them as resources, but I think it would be great.

– Sessional 3

Workload

It wouldn’t be difficult at all if we had the physical structures to allow it. The physical and the technological structures to allow it.

– Sessional 4

Student Engagement

It’s coming back to respect, I mean if you’re going to be monitoring it and you want to be apart of the conversation then do that and if you don’t then don’t. If you want to lurk or eavesdrop I don’t think that’s really learning, you have to be apart of the conversation so to be part of the conversation, to enrich understanding then you’re engaging with the materials and you have a pretty consistent sense of how people are developing as thinker and doers in the class as opposed to just dropping in or, “I have to take my kid to the dentist,” or, “can’t make it that day.” Well fine but don’t expect me or anybody else to have the responsibility to catching you up but in terms of dipping in and out

– Professor 1

Student Engagement

For me teaching’s relational and I try to build a relationship with every student that’s in the class and if I’ve got 15-25 that are registered and paying for it and the other 5-10 are kind of dipping in or out or whatever, I don’t know.

–Professor 1

Student Engagement

I want to say no, and that’s because the way I teach these classes are very much project-intensive, but [if open learners] still want to do all the work, and, if so, I don’t have a problem with that, but if they just want to audit and sit in and don’t do the work – no – because going to the project work is essential to the learning outcomes that I am delivering, right? And I think it’s specific to the nature of the courses that I teach.

– Professor 3

Student Engagement

No…. No… I can tell you exactly why. Because the way I teach is about the engagement and I typically am teaching trying to engage students in a process that is effortful and that would run away from if I didn’t have ways to… so, I am making my classes sound horrible. I don’t think they are horrible experiences, but I think for every single person in my classes there is a point where it feels hard and they would love to run and.. you know… I have done sitting in courses and when it gets hard and you have multiple time pressures, you just disengage and you just don’t … it’s a façade to say that they learn in my class. You can’t learn in my class just by listening and reading. You have to be engaging and I don’t think… I would love it if people did that kind of engagement without reason or perks, but I think it doesn’t happen as much as the MOOC world might like to think. I think there are many more comings and goings… - Professor 2

Student Engagement

• Well, so what happens if you run into potentially some protocol problems. Are we allowing them to participate? If so, how much? If we allow them to participate, how much? Right? These are the questions I would ask. Some people are so keen, they want to talk. Thank you, but really you’re not my focus. Everybody else here is, right that - would have to work on that. I guess I can always mute them out, but I guess that kind of defeats the purpose.

• That means philosophically I don’t have a problem with it, given some of the protocol to make sure it works and privacy issues are addressed and they can’t overtake my class.

– Sessional Instructor 2

Quality of Learning

If [a student is] dipping in and out then I’m really not interested as a learner and if I’m offering the course to 19 students and 25 are wanting to have access to it, I also haven’t reconciled for myself how acceptable that is to those who are literally paying for the experience which is something that many people default to, “Well, I’m paying for this so...”

– Professor 1

Quality of Learning

I would love to see data that is not just completion, but also the learning outcomes for people who have – you know – what is it they have taken away, because sometimes, especially if you are learning a process, you can take away completely the wrong information, if you stop the process at the wrong place, and I think that’s hazardous.

–Professor 2

Quality of Learning• Oh, I think [open learners] add a completely different

perspective and that’s always good for people going out into the teaching profession, because everybody out there is different. Every student out there is different. It’s not something we do very well. Just looking at the research on creativity with my last class, and you know – I cannot remember his name – but research says that teachers don’t like creative students because they have their own ideas, they get off on a tangent, they dwell on things or they take giant leaps. It would be lovely to have people from different backgrounds who ask good questions that we have think about. I think that would be great preparation for our students and I would be very open to that.– Sessional Instructor 3

Quality of Learning

Because the more perspectives we have in a learning situation, I think the richer the learning environment becomes, so I think having people who aren’t necessarily 5th year education students adds to the quality of the discussion of the topic, of the learning environment, in my opinion.


Tech & User Interface Limits

I think you would want to make sure that it isn’t taxing the limits of the system, whether it’s the screen presence. I think that right now is something that limits the access already, so having someone else come on online, whether that is going to interfere with things or not.


Tech & User Interface Limits

With the remote side, we have 9 or 10 remote students and you want a couple of people auditing or popping in, it might mean that my own students are now off the screen.


Privacy Policy

I don’t have any problem with people watching what we’re doing. Now, do we have to worry at all about privacy issues with this? Worry about showing people’s faces?


Openness

I am pretty open about what I do. I don’t feel any need to protect what I’m doing. I don’t feel any need to be proprietary about what I am doing. Teaching is a game where you want to share and if helps share, I’m comfortable with that. I don’t have a problem with it given those protocols that we have to worry about.


Topics Mentioned

• Workload

• Student Engagement

• Quality of Learning

• Technology & User Interface Limits

• Privacy

• Culture of Openness

Online/Open Access

• For an extended discussion post-session, visit the video room link (also tweeted out)http://bluejeans.com/842591822

• Please use both #oer15 and #oer755 for any online sharing about this session

• Slides at http://slideshare.net/virvine

• Follow us at @_valeriei @TanyaL77 @mpaskevi @richmccue

• Email: [email protected]

http://bluejeans.com/842591822

http://slideshare.net/virvine

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