The open academic: what does open practice mean for the practitioner?

Gráinne Conole, Bath Spa UniversityShaping the future of food safety together conference

Milan, Italy, 15th October 2015

National Teaching

Fellow 2012 Ascilite fellow 2012EDEN fellow 2013

Outline

• Career history• Turning points and

reflections• Research interests– The Internet and open

practices– Learning Design – Social media

Early years…

• Born in Cork, Ireland• Moved to London when

five years old • One sister, Moya• Dog named James Joyce!• Schools

– Holy Mary, Kingston– St Philomenas, Carshalton

Academic performance

• Secondary School 74-82– A late developer!– 10 O’ levels– 4 A levels

• Chem, Biol, Maths, Art

• University 82-85– Chemistry, 2.1– Sheffield University

The Thatcher influence…

• …..or life in the ‘real’ world• 85-86– Graduate training programme– Allied bakeries– Area retail manager– 150 staff in 10 outfits across

London!

Life as a Chemist• 86-90

– PhD X-Ray Crystallography

– P/T demonstrating and lecturing

• 90-91– Lecturer on newly

established Foundation Science course – HITECC

• 91-96– Lecturer (Inorganic

Chemistry)

Changing roles

• UNL June 96 - Sept 99– Project Director Learning

and Teaching Innovation– Director of Teaching and

Learning Technology Centre– Head of Technology-based

Learning• Bristol Sept 99 –April 02

– Director of Institute for Learning and Research Technology

Changing roles….

• Southampton 2002 – 2006– Chair in educational innovation

in post-compulsory education• OU 2006 - 2011

– Professor of e-learning• Leicester 2011 - 2014

– Professor of Learning Innovation

• Bath Spa University Feb 2015– Chair in Education– Cross institutional e-learning

remit

Early turning points

• Moving to England– Identity crisis – Irish or English?

Integrating into a new society• O’ and A’ level choices– Switch from Sociology to

Chemistry O’ level– Switch from Geography to Maths

A’ level– Lack of career advice or choice of

university

Turning points• Retail manager! and switch to PhD

(phew)• Securing lectureship• Promotion to Principle Lecturer (96)• Birth of Eleanor (94) & Tabby (98)• Taking the Bristol post, Tabby 6 months• Nannies and au pairs!• Chair at Southampton, then OU & now

Leicester• JISC & EU funded projects• Increasing involvement in national and

international activities

Focus of research

• Enhancing the learner experience

• Effective & innovative use of technologies

• New approaches to design• Open practices in

learning, teaching and research

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Barriers to adoption

• Lack of digital literacy skills• No reward for teaching• Competition from other

providers• Scaling innovation• Democratisation

The importance of e-learning• For learning

– Potential to support interaction, communication and collaboration

– Developing digital literacy skills– Promoting different pedagogical approaches– Fostering creativity and innovation– Connecting students beyond the formal course

• For life– Preparing students for an uncertain future– Improving employability opportunities– Increased importance of technology in society

http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf

Innovating pedagogy

• Massive open social learning

• Learning design informed by analytics

• Flipped classroom• Bring your own

devices• Learning to learn

Innovating pedagogy

• Dynamic assessment• Event-based learning• Learning through

storytelling• Threshold concepts• Bricolage

Mobile

Across devices

Dynamic

Personalised

Connected

Free

Interactive

Intuitive

Global

Open

RobustUbiquitous

Unreliable

Battery life

Cost

Training

Time consuming

Privacy

Quantity

Accessibility

Quality

Insecure

IntrusiveTrivialConnectivity

Transitory

Three phases

• The Internet and open practices• Learning Design• Social and Participatory Media

Openness

• Digital technologies enable more open practices

• Emergence of OER and MOOCs

• Increase of free resource and expertise, via Webinars, blogs, open repositories and journals, social media

The good and the bad…

• Transparency• Greater reach• Equity and social

inclusion• Challenging existing

business models• Disaggregation of

education

• “Laying yourself bare”• Surveillance• Misuse of data• Misinterpretation • Issues re quality and

accreditation • Ownership

My network

Blogs• Of the moment

reflections• Digital archive• The power of peer review• Record of events, reviews

and resources• Wider audience reach

and hence profile• Link into facebook and

Twitter• Complements traditional

publication routes

e4innovation.com

gconole.wordpress,com

Using facebook

Ideas for harnessing Web 2.0?

Twitter

Twitter and facebook #fb

Conferences• Purpose: presentation & feedback• Network, network, network!• Potential collaborators & bid partners• Put in a symposium of experts• Expert validation workshops• Put papers/presentations online• Follow up contacts afterwards: email,

fb, Twitter, blogs, etc.• Work up into a research paper• Work the hashtag• Live blog or follow conference-related

blogs

A personal example

Publishing•Write books and chapters•Become an editor of a special issue of a journal•Keep publication list up to date in your research

repository•Set up a writing group or workshop (real/virtual)•Co-write with lots of different people•Disseminate publications via Tweet, fb etc. •Set up a blog and read other blogs•See Twitter, blogs, journals, books as

complementary

GO OPEN!!!!

Networking

• Build international links

• Join professional bodies

• Become a reviewer• Do a special issue• Sit on committees• Do a study visit

The promise and the realityNew forms of interaction, communication and collaboration. Lots of free resources

Not fully exploitedBad pedagogiesTeachers don’t have the time or the skills

https://www.alt.ac.uk/sites/alt.ac.uk/files/public/ALTsurvey%20for%20ETAG%202014.pdf

What is learning design? (1)

Guidance

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymouscollective/1899303123

What is learning design? (2)

Visualisation

https://www.flickr.com/photos/frawemedia/5187769740

What is learning design? (3)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10075621@N06/3810402230

Sharing

Learning Design

Shift from belief-based, implicit approaches to design-

based, explicit approaches

Encourages reflective, scholarly practices

Promotes sharing and discussion

Learning DesignA design-based approach to creation and support of

courses

http://olds.ac.uk

The 7Cs of Learning DesignConceptualise

Vision

CommunicateCreate ConsiderCollaborate

Activities

Combine

Synthesis

Consolidate

Implementation

http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/oer/oers/beyond-distance-research-alliance/7Cs-toolkit

Course features• Pedagogical approaches• Principles• Guidance and support• Content and activities• Reflection and demonstration• Communication and collaboration

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5950

http://www.larnacadeclaration.org/

• What is Learning Design?• Teachers need help with making effective design

decisions that are pedagogically based and make appropriate use of digital technologoies

Many learners wish to have formal transferable recognition of their knowledge & skillsChallenges:

Open learning recognition is a recent topic, lack of guidelines for interested actorsAssessment and recongition might become a businees model for OER and MOOCs

Accreditation of non-formal learning

Information from OER provider (HEI) Information from

learnerInformation from

assessing/certifying institution

Learning Passport for accreditation

MOOCs

• MOOCs are challenging formal education• New business models emerging• Ways to accredit informal and non-formal

learning• EFQUEL MOOC blogs– http://mooc.efquel.org/

Beyond cMOOCs or xMOOCs

cMOOCs• Weekly centred• Participant reflective spaces• Social and networked

participation• Hashtag: #etmooc• Use of a range of social

media

xMOOCs• Linear learning pathway• Mainly text and video• Formative feedback through

MCQs• Individually focused

Dimension Characteristics

ContextOpen Degree to which the MOOC is open

Massive How large the MOOC is

Diversity The diversity of the learners

Learning

Use of multimedia Extent of use of rich multimedia

Degree of communication Amount of communication incorporated

Degree of collaboration Amount of collaboration incorporated

Amount of reflection Ways in which reflection is encouraged

Learning pathway Degree to which the learning pathway is supported

Quality assurance Degree of quality assurance

Certification Mechanisms for accreditation

Formal learning Feed into formal learning offerings

Autonomy Degree of learner autonomy

A taxonomy of MOOCs

http://e4innovation.com/?p=727

Social media• Shift from a passive web to a

participatory, interactive and social web– Distributed, networked,

dynamic, participatory, complex, open

• Range of tools to communicate and collaborate

• Being part of a global community of peers

The good and the bad…

• Rich ways to communicate and collaborate

• Part of a global community of peers

• Access to vast amount of information

• Rapid dissemination of information

• Crowd sourcing

• Lack of privacy• Negative digital traces• Misuse of data• Cyberbulling and trolling• Privacy and security • Corporate control• Time consuming• Addictive

Reflections

• Difficulty of balancing home and work

• Significance of turning points• Importance of support –

partners, friends and childcare support

• Clash of having children and career breaks

• Politics!

Importance of relaxation!

Porthcurno, Cornwall

Seascamp

http://www.slideshare.net/GrainneConoleg.conole@bathspa.ac.ukhttp://e4innovation.com

@gconole