Digital Literacy Roundtable Event at the School of Art, Otago Polytechnic

Original post by Rachel Gillies

Hot on the back of a new course featured here on wikieducator; (Digital Literacy taught to all year one and two BFA students), Prof. Leoni Schmidt has organised a Digital Literacy Roundtable at the School of Art for this coming Thursday. This is great news, and something that I think many people at Otago Polytechnic have been thinking and wanting to do for a while, but we’re all so busy getting our projects of the ground, teaching, (and often fighting with the technology?) that it all seems a bit impossible to sit in the same room and chat… Well hopefully that will change this Thursday and we get an opportunity to develop some good habits around our teaching and learning, together at OP.

Info about the session below:

There will be a Digital Literacy Roundtable this coming Thursday (10th April) at 3pm, hosted by the School of Art. I will be facilitating the discussion but would very much appreciate input from anyone interested, with an aim to addressing polytech-wide issues, focusing on ‘Digital Literacy’. We hope to allow and enable discussion around the following points:

- success stories! What are you involved with that’s going particularly well? Or what have you seen around you that’s going well? e.g. Phil Kerr’s blog?
- technologies What software/hardware are you working with and how is it going? Are there commonalities? (e.g. wikieducator) Can we/should we build on this?
- challenges… Are there obstacles in your way that are stopping your digital literacy projects, learning and teaching? How can we start to address these?
- projects? Do you have a project you would like to share, promote, get feedback on? e.g. Scope: Flexible Learning
- collaboration I think collaboration can be discussed across most points in this agenda, but let’s think specifically about what collaboration we can facilitate and where there are real needs to do so. Should we be looking for industry partners? Other institutions? Are we doing this already?
- moving forward Are there practical next steps that we can take to help each other’s projects, and enable more digital literacy at OP?

I’m really looking forward to this Thursday’s session, and I hope that by getting lots of us in the same room at the same time, we can develop our projects, learning and teaching in this area.
Please note that we hope to run from 3pm to 5pm, and will be in room P201, Leith Block, School of Art.

See you on Thursday! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me before then if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

Warm Regards, Rachel

Otago’s Anatomy and Physiology of Animals textbook is featured!

Original post on Learn Online

Otago Polytechnic lecturer Ruth Lawson recently published her Anatomy and Physiology of Animals text to Wikibooks, with worksheets on Wikieducator.

The work has been listed by wikibooks as meeting the Good Books Criteria and has been included as a Featured Book!

Visual design and layout was by Sunshine Connelly - who sourced theme images from the Flickr Creative Commons.

Bronwyn Hegarty offered advice, support and project management for the effort.

The project was funded by Otago Polytechnic.

I wonder if New Zealand’s Performance Based Research Fund will ever come around to recognising the criteria met, exposure and acclaim?

A printed and bound version is available through LuLu.com, and the Commonwealth of Learning is considering further work on the text to take it to a more global education readership.

Well done Ruth, Sunshine and Bronwyn!

Otago’s Travel and Tourism course on Wikieducator, and presented at PCF5

Original post on Learn Online

Hillary Jenkins, programme manager for the Diploma in Applied Travel and Tourism has been accepted to present a talk and panel discussion in London this July, as part of the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning.

Hillary has been working hard over the past 6-12 months, developing open access course information and resources on Wikieducator, with course blogs to interface with the online resources.

At the moment the course runs mainly with face to face participants, but is gradually building the capacity to support distance learners, and flexible learning opportunities.

The wiki course is as always a work in progress, and Hillary’s team are doing a good job at keeping 2 steps ahead of their students (its a precarious life teaching!), but her paper is available here, where you can get a quick overview of the background, progress, issues and concerns.

Well done Hillary, and the Travel and Tourism team.. good luck in London.

27 March 2008

Staff Forum
The next staff forum will be held in G106 12 - 1pm this Friday 28 March. This forum will take another look at the Refocus on Teaching and Learning Strategy.

Enhancing Teaching and Learning at OP
We have opened a new blog under the banner "Enhancing Teaching and Learning at Otago Polytechnic". The link to this blog is http://enhancingteachingandlearning.blogspot.com/. I would like to encourage you all to sign up and to at least keep an eye on the resources posted and discussion that takes place. Better still - participate in the discussion, or post your own examples of good practice.

I am hopeful that this blog will be an important medium by which we can share the many examples of good practice happening at the Polytechnic.

Leadership Team
Participation in Trial of NZQA's new Quality Assurance System
Otago Polytechnic is one of four ITPs participating in the trial of the new evaluative quality assurance system in 2008. Mike Collins, Alistair Regan and Sue Thompson attended a training workshop in Wellington last week. Martin Grinsted, a lead auditor for ITP Quality, has been appointed to work with us as our evaluative coach as we prepare for self assessment of some aspects of our evaluative processes by July 2008.

The self assessment will be focussing on our existing evaluative tools such as Annual Programme Evaluation Review, Course Evaluations, First Impressions Survey and Programme Satisfaction Survey. We will also be doing an in depth review of the results and graduation process. The self assessment is followed by an external review plus an external evaluation of the trial. Participation in the trial provides Otago Polytechnic with the opportunity to help shape the new quality assurance system.

Information on the tertiary reforms and the trial can be found on the following websites:

TEC:
http://www.tec.govt.nz
NZQA
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/for-providers/tertiary/index.html

More detailed information will be available after Easter.

Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund
Please note that in light of the Easter break, we have extended the date for applications for this fund the first round of to 31 March. Talk to Terry Marler if you have an idea you would like to pursue.

Sustainable Futures Breakfast
Thanks to those who attended the breakfast recently with Dr Morgan Williams - the first in a series of visitors to assist in building the capacity of the institution to delivery education for sustainability.

The Polytechnic signed an MoU with the Swedish based organisation The Natural Step. Dr Williams is the NZ Chairman. The MoU is attached and can be seen on Polybase.

Dr Williams also delivered a workshop in the city which 10 staff attended. His presentation notes can be seen on the Sustainable Futures page on the Polytechnic's website.

Good News
A contract has been signed to deliver Creative studies classes at the Prison for Corrections. This will start the prisoners down a qualification pathway. Congratulations to Jane Venis and her team for their flexible approach to this project.

Working Bee
A reminder re the Leadership Team Working Bee which was rescheduled for Saturday 29 March. If you are able to help (for part or all of the day) and have not already put your name down, please let Simon Noble know asap.

Congratulations
To Bernie Thijssen, Maree Steel, and Roger Southby, who have been promoted to Senior Lecturers.

Fun Committee
A correction to the Xmas party date - this should have read Friday 28 November.

Cheers
Phil

Wikis as courses

Copied from original post on Learn Online.

Dave Bremer, a colleague at Otago Polytechnic criticises my interest in using MediaWikis for online learning.

My problem with this is that Wiki’s are just textbooks…

It is true that in the past, and the vast majority of wikis today are primarily reference materials or text books. But over the past 2 years, a few individuals and institutions have been exploring the use of wikis to develop and manage courses, hoping to leverage the benefits of collaborative editing and open access.

Some examples:

Harvard, US: Law and the Court of Public Opinion. An early example of an open access course that uses a course blog, email forum, Second Life meeting spaces, and a course wiki.

Utah State, US: Introduction to Open Education. Inspirational in its simplicity, and a proven success through its primary use of a wiki that blogging students use as a course schedule.

Media Lab, Finland: Composing Open Educational Resources. Inspired by Intro to Open Ed, this course has been developed on the Wikiversity platform that follows the same simple course schedule format for blogging students to follow. Note the numbers of people in the edit history and discussion page, demonstrating the benefits of collaborative course development.

Otago Polytechnic, NZ: Designing for Flexible Learning Practice. Also following the simple schedule format for blogging students to follow, but on the Wikieducator platform. This course uses a course blog for announcements and weekly summaries, and will be using web conferencing for lectures. Note the use of the Wikieducator Liquid Threads (a threaded discussion feature on the discussion page for the course). Also note the Print to PDF feature which came in very handy on the course orientation day.

Otago Polytechnic: Horticulture. This project mainly uses the wiki as a storing house for lesson plans and activity sheets for use in class or by distant learners. It follows Otago’s development structure based around competency units with a library of resources page and activity sheets set as sub pages to each unit.

Otago Polytechnic: Travel and Tourism. This project also follows the Otago development structure of unit pages with library and activity subpages. The teachers in the course are using course blogs for each of the subject areas and simply point to activity sheets on the wiki depending on the needs of the classes.

Otago Polytechnic: Massage Therapy (link to Programme Manager’s blog post update). Uses the wiki as a storage bay for resources and activity sheets with course blogs announcing new things to the students. Has an interesting use of RSS to a start page to bring together all the different courses to create a course hub.

Otago Polytechnic: Anatomy and Physiology of Animals. A text book developed in Wikibooks, with lesson plans and activities developed in Wikieducator for use in different contexts including face to face classes, or courses within the learning management system. The text book has been picked up by eLearning designers in Vancouver and will be developed further on the open licenses, integrating the activity sheets as well.

In all these examples, I think it would be a stretch to call them simply text books (apart from Anatomy of Animals which is quite deliberately a text with activity sheets to support it). It is difficult to avoid creating texts while creating courses however - as evidenced in just about any LMS course development. This is why some of the wiki courses listed here are using the Otago development structure. The structure encourages the separation of information and other reference materials from lesson plans and activity sheets firstly to maximise re-usability, and secondly to assist teachers who are developing there courses on the wikis to think more deliberately about what it is they want their students to be doing, and to create a variety of different activities around a single learning objective for use in different contexts.

More info about Otago’s exploration of wikis for developing and managing courses on Wikieducator.

Refocusing on Teaching and Learning - synopsis

REFOCUSING ON TEACHING AND LEARNING


Lifting Our Game

Why a refocus?

• A necessary step if we are to be the top performing ITP in terms of educational quality, one of our strategic objectives
• To prepare ourselves for the new quality regime, currently under development by TEC
• Because our student success indicators are below our targets, and have slipped again this year

What does refocus mean?

• Putting teaching and learning first
• Applying consistently our current policies and initiatives for quality teaching and learning
• Reprioritising resources, including the roles of some staff
• Ensuring good practices in some Schools becomes good practice in all Schools
• Building a stronger culture in support of quality teaching and learning
• Augmenting our support for teaching and learning

It does NOT mean:

• Big change
• Changing our systems
• Cutting across existing good practice where that is occurring

What does the strategy involve?

Four elements:
1. Enhance leadership of teaching and learning
2. Improve the measurement of our academic performance and act promptly and decisively on the evidence before us
3. Further lift the capability of teachers
4. Require higher levels of accountability

Enhance Leadership of Teaching and Learning

• A Leadership Member with a specific responsibility to champion best practice in teaching and learning
• A new quality improvement team – the ‘eyes and ears’ of best practice within the Polytechnic, and externally

Enhance Leadership of Teaching and Learning

• A team of Principal Lecturers or other top teachers, with time release, to augment EDC to support the development of teaching and learning practice
• A clear responsibility for HOS/HOPs, and Programme Managers to lead improvements in teaching and learning
  • actively lead curriculum improvement
  • observe staff teach

Improve the measurement of our academic performance, and act promptly and decisively on the evidence before us.

• Regular measurement and reporting of key indicators for quality:
  • student withdrawal, retention, completion, success and satisfaction rates
  • student progress towards success
  • staff participation in staff development on teaching and learning
  • staff teaching qualifications
  • uptake of feedback processes

Improve the measurement of our academic performance, and act decisively on the evidence before us

• Listen to students more frequently – focus groups
• I.e. acting on the evidence

Further lift the capability of teachers

• Dedicated staff development days, with an emphasis on teaching and learning- 4 days per year, compulsory participation
• Ensure compliance by teachers with our requirements for student and peer feedback
• Mandate managers to initiate feedback processes where teachers fail to do so, or to demonstrate they have acted on this feedback

Require higher levels of accountability

• Insist on compliance, monitor progress, ensure consequences for non-compliance
• In-depth discussions on the performance of each and every programme
  • i.e. Leadership Team meeting with HOS/HOPs, Programme Managers and staff to review success and quality indicators
  
  
  
  
  
  

Response from Phil Ker to Linda Robertson

>>> Phil Ker 13/03/2008 10:46 a.m. >>>
Hi Linda,

Thank you very much for this thoughtful feedback - very much appreciated. As is my practice, I would like to take the time to respond to some of your points, and to your recommendations.

First up, I am a little mystified by your interpretation that the strategy is based on an assumption of inadequate teaching. Nowhere is that mentioned, and indeed, if there are some basic assumptions they are twofold: our leadership of teaching and learning (including my own) has not been as focused as it could have been, and we have not been consistent in our application of strategies which are known to impact positively on teaching and learning, and ultimately student success. Also, the specific point is made that the strategy is not about focusing on the weaker programmes - it is about lifting our game generally, and doing what we do well more widely and more consistently. Thus, the strategy is consciously about targeting the whole Polytechnic.

Further, the recent changes we have made - and there are many - have not failed. Rather, they have not been applied consistently. There is no intention to make further changes, and certainly not to abandon what we have put in place. Rather, to be resolute about following through on what we have put in place already. This is a matter of leadership - at all levels.

You challenge the issue of having HoDs entirely involved in teaching practices. I must disagree with you here. The literature is persuasive that this is a key factor in improving the quality of teaching and learning. That is not to deny the leadership that must also come from our best teaching practitioners - and that is also explicitly recognised in the strategy. I agree with you wholeheartedly in your comments about the role of professional development, and the desirability of improvements in teaching originating from the individual teacher. This is very much encouraged in how we now operate. But the truth is, we have significant areas of the Polytechnic where our teachers need to lift their game, and have not responded to our current ground up approach. So - it is intentional that the strategy will call some people to account, and in that senses is prescriptive. No apologies for that at all. But please put this in perspective. The strategy is also affirming of the many, many areas of good practice, and seeks to identify and promulgate that good practice. The strategy does not intend to alienate good staff, and having reread the strategy many times I think that good staff would have to choose to be alienated. That would be a pity because we have done so much to affirm and celebrate good teaching, and we need the grass roots leadership of all of our many good teachers. But let's not be blinded to the fact that some of staff do let us down!

Turning now to your proposals:
1. It is intended that current structures are used. This strategy does not require any changes in programmes or by individual teachers where good practice is the current norm.

2. I absolutely agree that more attention must be paid to new lecturers. Heather Day is already working on changes, but there is much more that we can do - and will do.

3. I fully support action research approaches to improving teaching practice. The new "Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund" explicitly encourages this. I hope to see staff like yourself submitting proposals to access this fund.

4. I fully endorse that HoS/HoPs need to ensure that staff have goals relating to teaching practice in their IDPs.