Reshaping large-class teaching: Enactive coherence and

enquiry-based blended learning

HERDSA 2010 conference

Stanley Frielick Deborah Allen Jane Morgan

Charles MpofuRoss Milne

AUT University, NZ

• Papers ‘owned’ by schools• Health students take all ‘core’ papers• Sport students take one core paper• Large classes 750 – 1,000 students• Generates $ x million for each School / contribution to Faculty bottom-line• ‘common’ = fragmented, under-resourced• Incoherent – different pedagogy, assessment, learning design, little interaction between

teaching staff• Traditional ‘lecture + tut’ model• Student perceptions – not relevant to programme, ‘just get through it’, surface

approaches

Common semester curriculum development project (2007 - 2010)Aims:•Address and resolve issues of coherence, consistency, resourcing, structure, and relationship of papers to disciplines •Develop appropriate knowledge base and skill set for interprofessional learning •Develop key skills and competencies as outlined in theme 1 of the AUT strategic plan and draft Faculty plan•Enhance the quality of student learning outcomes in the core papers•Achieve a more integrated and ‘common’ semester in the Faculty, and provide a more interactive and engaging learning experience for novice undergraduate students.• address the educational and economic issues raised by the obsolescence of the transmission model of teaching,• explore the affordances of new technologies to support a dialogical mode of learning • confront the challenges of enhancing student engagement in a time of declining funding for higher education

Curriculum development process• Extracted papers from Schools (do not underestimate the political challenges ! –

painful and prolonged process)• Deleted 6 papers• Designed 2 new papers (Health & Environment / Knowledge, Enquiry &

Communication )• All students take at least 2 core papers• Papers ‘owned’ by new Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies

Learning design principles for new papers and interdisciplinary structure

• Enactive coherence – beyond constructive alignment • Enquiry-based blended learning (EBBL)• Lecture 2.0 - http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Lecture_2.0 • AUTonline (Bb) – audio & slides from all lectures recorded, blogs and wikis• Create a small group / personalised learning experience within a large class • Inverted ‘T’ model – drawing on aspects of Melbourne model (Davies & Devlin 2007)• Alignment with AUT strategic plan and graduate attributes• Relationship of common papers to discipline pathways• Maintain and enhance quality while reducing costs

Enactive coherence is informed by ecological understandings of mind and the emerging sciences of complexity, where approaches to learning are emergent properties of a system of information pathways that shares many characteristics with biological systems. It is related to Biggs’ concept of ‘constructive alignment’ but goes beyond this approach in that coherence is more than linear alignment between learning outcomes, assessment, and content. It is a non-linear kind of alignment that is manifest when a group of people or team function as a whole, or when a lecturer or department develops an ecological understanding of the whole set of relationships that constitute the teaching/learning environment. (http://www.enactivist.net )

The term ‘blended learning’ is ill-defined and inconsistently used……Rebuilding the concept of blended learning from a grounding in learning theory highlights the potential of designing around varied experiences that may lead to learning. This subversive (but logical) reinterpretation shifts the emphasis dramatically, from teacher to learner, from content to experience and from naively conceptualised technologies to pedagogy…. (Oliver & Trigwell 2005 p24)

In her analysis of internet culture and identity Turkle (1995) shows how the earlier theories of Jacques Lacan were given concrete and immediate form in the worlds of online multiplayer chat games, where users adopted different identities in the medium of onscreen text. The internet made Lacanian theory visible in a compelling and unexpected way. In the same sense one can argue that the understandings of student learning emerging in the 70s / 80s from phenomenography, the relational perspective, and the systems view of constructive alignment are forerunners of a new understanding of learning – now manifesting via the internet in the increasingly networked world of a university that is rapidly changing in response to new technologies, global issues, and increasing demands for relevance and innovation in the curriculum. Enactive coherence thus includes the new affordances of technology for enhancing student learning.

555101 Psychology and Lifespan Development (Charles Mpofu)•Tutorials replaced by online discussion forums – facilitated by postgraduate student learning assistants•MCQ tests and exam replaced by Individual Development Narrative (IDN)•Linked to key communication skills for health professionals – students do verbal presentations•Logistics – 800+ students – presentations recorded on video, submitted to YouTube, and embedded in student blog•American textbook replaced by Pearson custom text with selected chapters relevant to Aotearoa NZ context•4.5 FTE staff (3 academic + 12 PG students) – cost-effective

555301 Knowledge, Enquiry and Communication (Jane Morgan)•Core academic literacy paper•Enquiry portfolio – ongoing development and reflection on key question for enquiry – individual blog•Taken by all students in Faculty – interdisciplinary – what is knowledge / how is it created – process of enquiry•Communication – written and verbal •Academic integrity•No exam - reduce emphasis on ‘essay’ and foreground dialogical enquiry mediated by technology•EBL – enquiry-based learning•1,200 students / approx. 5 FTE (3.5 academic + 20 SLAs)

555401 Health and Environment (Deborah Allen)•Shared learning teams – PBL / EBL using wikis•800+ students in ± 135 teams – facilitated by SLAs•Future scenario exercise•Inclusion of Applied Science students•New edition of textbook updated for paper mostly written by AUT researchers•Weekly online quiz related to lecture•850 students – approx. 4 FTE

555101 555301 555401

•Improve organisation of paper and quality of individual feedback•Training and development for SLAs•Integration of interpersonal skills for health professionals – clinical communication across the lifespan•Enhanced alignment with other core papers•A good result for first iteration in integrated Centre

•Compromise solution in semester 1 with 3 ‘streams’ was unworkable and unacceptable from a quality perspective•Clinical communication transferred to 555101•Development in semester 2 has integrated aspects of Professional Practice and strengthened focus on academic literacy skills•Continue to develop EBL framework that is relevant to all disciplines

•Shared learning teams in semester 1 were not as effective in previous semesters due to lack of face-to-face meetings to support EBL in the wikis – this issue was addressed in semester 2•Ongoing improvements to paper structure and cohesion – alignment of assessments across papers•A good result for first iteration of new paper – excellent collaboration between Health and Science

SUMMARY (2009)

To survive as a means of consumption, the university must learn from the highly successful cathedrals of consumption and find ways of becoming more spectacular. However, while the cathedrals of consumption focus on grand, colossal and superficial spectacles, the university cannot take this direction. It must instead focus on making more spectacular the quotidian activities that go to the heart of its educational functioning … by deMcdonaldizing its quotidian activities. Inefficient, unpredictable, incalculable education employing human technologies will seem quite spectacular to students, especially in contrast to the numbing Mcdonaldization that is increasingly found almost everywhere else. (Ritzer, G. 2002. ‘Enchanting McUniversity: towards a spectacularly irrational university quotidian.’ p.31 )

I loved the fact that Nicky, Deborah as well as Sue shown great interest in teaching and guiding us along the way!! The discussion board are great and their immediate reply is appreciated!! Also loved the fact that you got to meet all the writters of the textbook!

The overall connection between health and our environment! At the begining of semester I was wondering what this paper had to do with Nursing, now its clear and really relevant.

The lectures where really good and the topics interesting. I like best in this paper is the wiki group, we have the most model group in our team as far as i know because we were all working together we have a rapport and most of all we understand the importance of this project. it was an interesting paper The wiki group and the general knowledge. Especially when you can't choose the people you work with in the real world! It made me consider the environment more as having a direct effect on health. I really enjoyed the group work.

Learning new information regarding health and environment. Being able to work with others so that we learn great communication skills and ways to respect other peoples thoughts and opinions

I immigrated to New Zealand in 2005 and worked as a health professional for 4 years in a District Health Board before attending this course. I really, REALLY wish I had been able to take this course before that experience because it clarified many confusing issues for me. It also helps me gain perspective so that I might be a better citizen in this country from now on. On the other hand, if I had come before, I wouldn't have appreciated the importance of the issues you are addressing. I personally thought it was an interesting, thought-provoking, challenging paper.

I feel that the wiki project has been of very little value. It has created a lot of stress with the absence of 4 group members pulling out - very unfair. This is worth a lot of marks for our overall grade. It needs to be looked at and altered. It is very hard to watch a lecture on a webcam as I feel we miss out on questions and the general interaction bewteen the lecture. Would be better to have smaller classes with a lecturer physically in front of us. The tests questions after each lecture need to be editored. They are not written to an academic level and often do not make sense, creating confusion.

Perhaps some lecturers were too monotonous, which made the lecture a bit boring and thus the content learned decreased. But overall it was a very satisfying learning process.

i found the lectures dragged on a lot. the information was needed however it was often given in a slow way and i often found myself switching off and getting distracted. i think this is because a lot of the content is not assessed apart from online tests...

The lectures were too long and not really interesting. I would have preferred, due to my own self motivation, to have less marks riding on the efforts (or otherwise) of others, but I guess this depends on the people you end up working with! I do however, understand the concept of the group work for future benefit. I would have preferred more individual work, however the content of the paper was extremely interesting and beneficial. Some of the lectures seemed to take a lot of time to get through topics that I thought could have been covered in less time.

LESS SICKNESS BENEFICIARIES DUE TO

CURE OF DISEASE LEADS TO INCREASED GOVT REVENUE

AND HIGHER PERSONAL INCOME

FETAL ABNORMALITIES ARE REPAIRED IN THE WOMB RESULTING IN LESS BIRTH DEFECTS

ALL CELL RELATED DISEASES CAN BE CURED LEADING

TO HIGHER QUALITY OF LIFE

FOR GENERAL POPULATION

MAORI KAUMATUA AND PACIFIC MINISTERS

ENCOURAGE PATICIPATION

AT MARAE AND CHURCH

GATHERINGS

POPULATION INCREASE PUTS

STRAIN ON NATURAL

RESOURCES

DUE TO CURE BEING READILY

ACCESSIBLE LESS RESPONSIBILTY

TAKEN BY INDIVIDUALS

OBESITY

INCREASED TOBACCO

CONSUMPTIONINCREASED ALCOHOL

CONSUMPTION AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

LOSS OF CULTURAL HEALING

PRACTICES

0INCREASE POLLUTION FROM MANUFACTURING

PROCESSTOTAL GOVT

HEALTH EXPENDITURE

DECREASES

ENQUIRY-BASED BLENDED LEARNING (EBBL) IN LARGE CLASSES:DISTRIBUTED SYNCHRONOUS MODE

"[the lecture] needs to be managed better to be successful. No student who has access to the internet - which they all do - and who is increasingly using all sorts of e-learning tools is going to turn up to a huge lecture theatre to listen to somebody present a paper they could have read online. So obviously what the big lecture needs to do is to add more value to the content … (Perkins 2009)

‘De-McDonaldized scenario’

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