This is a combined reflection from Katie Schultz and Che Katz who worked together on this Project.
Together, we built the online learning environment for a blended format course called International Development: Anthropological Perspectives in Moodle. This course is an elective undergraduate course offered by the School of Anthropology for second or third year students. The online environment was developed on behalf of Dr. Into Goudsmit who is the Instructor and Course Author. The blended course comprises a weekly mix of face-to-face lectures and tutorials, readings, online content, and assignments. We developed the first three weeks of online content for this eleven-week course.
Despite the significant influence anthropologists such as Jean Lave have had in educational discourse with her theory of situated learning and the subsequent impact this has had on approaches to online learning (Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger, n.d.), it is surprising to discover that in the discipline of anthropology itself, the use of technology for 21st Century teaching, as defined by Bates, remains rare (Bates, 2014). The notable exceptions are Visual Anthropology and the emerging field of Digital Anthropology, that both harness technology in more profound ways. The limited literature that does exist, indicates that online learning can deepen anthropological understandings and competencies (Kelly, 2014; Khalikova, 2017). Moreover, the ubiquity of mobile devices in lower and middle-income countries, and the way this is being harnessed for international development (Rees, 2016) made it obvious for us to integrate a digital component into this course.
Although anthropology is a highly conceptual discipline which lends itself more to face-to-face discourse, we do believe we were able to utilise online content in profoundly constructivist ways. We also believe that the course content of weeks 4 to 11 (which we have not yet developed) also lend themselves to online content in new and interesting ways.
When developing this course, foremost in our mind, was to ensure that we did not double the workload for the student by adding too much additional online content. Furthermore, our choices and mix of content was selected to compliment and augment the face-to-face content and to fit the pedagogy. This included consideration of:
Creating a ‘community of learners’ and building on existing knowledge: The online introduction by students in Week 1 compliments the short face-to-face introduction in the tutorial. We believe this helps to strengthen cohesion and engagement in the learning community. Early sharing of student motivations, experiences, expectations and thoughts provides insight to guide the Instructor to tailor course content to individual needs.
Peer-to-peer learning and distributed cognition: In Week 2 the students are required to form online groups for Assignment 1. The online introductions (mentioned above), help to guide synergies for group formation. The group work supports peer-to-peer learning and meaning making.
Multimodal literacies: The inclusion of an online documentary film in Week 3 recognises different learning styles and preferences; and reinforces themes through different modalities of visual, oral, text, and discourse.
Flipped classroom: Content that can be watched online before the class, such as the documentary, allows for better use of face-to-face time for analysis and discussion.
Scaffolding: Integration of various formative assessments (ie: a poll, quiz and assignments) help the Instructor to pitch the face-to-face learning to the student needs and abilities.
Experiential and authentic learning: Two important competencies are developed in the online content in Week 2 and continue in the Assignment 1 group work. Firstly, digital production in the group assignment (Assignment 1) requires the groups to develop a ‘digital artefact’ on a theme of their choice within the scope of the course. Digital production is an increasingly important skill for international development work. The digital story embedded in Week 2, also provides a model/example of the expectations of Assignment 1. Secondly group work, which is also an important competency for international development workers. The online content included in Week 2 (digital story, theoretical model, and a slideshow) engage the students critically with western constructs of group dynamics. The students will continue to reflect on group dynamics in their own group work, through keeping a journal of their Assignment 1 group experiences. The journal also serves to build their anthropological ethnographic skills.
We developed our Digital Story in Powtoon because neither of us had used this platform previously and wanted to familiarize ourselves with it. Initially, we worried that the animated platform of Powtoon would be too childish, but subsequently realized we could use it in more sophisticated ways. We found Powtoon to be intuitive and easy to learn. However, we were disappointed that the full-access free subscription timed out quickly which forced us to re-create the film in a new account. This was necessary so we could record our video with the original characters and animations, which were only available with higher subscription levels.
Given the opportunity to develop the entire course online, we would have liked to connect our learners with a community of practice and global experts. We also would have built-in online forums to encourage students to extend face-to-face discussions beyond that of the tutorials. Games for Change also have potential to provide interesting simulation of developmental challenges (Games for Change, 2018).
Developing a course in the Moodle platform was a new experience for both of us. From a new user’s perspective, it offered a palatable variety of options to customize the course such as user interface themes, built-in course activities, and different ways to present content. However, as our skills developed and our needs evolved we came to find that these options for customization became restrictive. By the end of the assignment, there were certain capabilities that we required of the system that were not built into the rich content editor. This meant that we needed to edit the HTML for some of our pages to make them do what we wanted (ie: embed a slideshow, allow image links to open in a new tab). Luckily, Moodle has a well-developed user guide and an extensive user community that seems to have an answer to any question you have.
Having now experienced a Learning Management System (LMS) from a developmental perspective, the practical applications for Bates’ (2014) SECTIONS model are much clearer. It was a valuable exercise in discovering the capabilities of an LMS, and even more so, the limitations.
References
Bates, T. (2014). In Teaching in the Digital Age. Retrieved from https://www.tonybates.ca/teaching-in-a-digital-age/
California State University. (2014, Dec 4). Anthropologist Honored for Use of Technology in Teaching [web article]. Retrieved from https://www.csustan.edu/article/anthropologist-honored-use-technology-teaching
Games for Change. (2018, Mar 30). Retrieved from http://www.gamesforchange.org/who-we-are/
Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger. (n.d). Retrieved Mar 28, 2018 from Trailblazers of Technology and Education Wiki: https://trailblazersoftecheducation.wikispaces.com/Jean+Lave+%26+Etienne+Wenger
Kelly, A.H. (2014). Anthropology in cyberland: exploring virtual teaching formats. Inspiring Academic Practice 1(2), 1-11. Retrieved from https://education.exeter.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/inspire/article/view/19/14
Khalikova, V.R. (2017, June 2). Teaching with digital technology: In-class applications. Retrieved from https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1129-teaching-with-digital-technology-in-class-applications
Rees, A. (2016, May). Mobile Technology and Sustainable Development. RESET. Retrieved from https://en.reset.org/knowledge/mobile-technology-and-sustainable-development