Activity 7 – OER
The term Open Education had been a bit vague for me in the
past, but with further reading into this I discovered that I have been working
with this concept.
How OER is being used in the Certificate in Human Services:
· As we are now in our second year of integrating
the Certificate in Human Services with the Mental Health Certificate, our focus
this year was to ensure that all of our teaching modules were transferred over
to Moodle Books.The aim of this was
that we were considering taking on distance students to help us expand our
programme.
·
Coincidentally we ended up having 4 distance
students who moved away due to personal circumstances and we have found this
challenging.
·
We needed to come up with strategies fast to
ensure they received support (pastoral and educational) to achieve with course.
·
Our plan involved weekly phone calls to answer questions
around course material/assessments, this is also done by having the student
logged into Moodle at the same time (and the Lecturer or Teaching Assistant) so
that we can direct students to specific areas.
·
As we now have distance students we will be
including Adobe Connect as a resource so we can communicate/support/teach these
students more effectively as well as more efficiently.
·
OER is still in its infancy on the Certificate
programme, but it is a concept that we welcome.
·
I am keen to learn further about OER and
especially with technological advances and I will book in for training with EDC
around anything that will enhance my skills and capabilities in this area.
Lisa this issue with teaching and supporting distance students that you mention would be good to explore in your plan since your team seems to have a real need to find solutions.
ReplyDeleteThat way your plan could include some strategies situated within the five dimensions of Casey & Wilson's model of flexible learning. You started to mention in a previous blog post the fit of your course in the five dimensions but did not complete this.
You mention strategies such as adobe connect, Moodle books, the telephone, and open resources. Why are these types of strategies going to enhance the learning experience for these distance students? You need to describe the reasons in terms of access & equity, and inclusive teaching and learning and link it back to the diversity of the student group that you mentioned previously.
You also need to explain how the strategies address the concepts of sustainability (workloads for students and teachers, self-care, ethical practices, environmental footprints etc), why you have chosen these particular technologies, and the cultural considerations.
Also, it would be good to see some discussion around the reasons OER might be a better solution than Moodle books for providing resources to students, particularly those studying at a distance.