Flexible Learning in the ISW
by mcalisterj
Welcome! Thank you for taking 20 minutes out of your busy week to complete this lesson on Flexible Learning in the ISW before our Professional Development day on January 13.
Reflect back when you were an ISW participant, you likely arrived at Day 1 with a lesson ready to teach, then spent the first 2-3 hour of Day 1 learning about objectives, active learning, and assessment, and perhaps then wishing you could now redesign your lesson…..
What if participants arrived at Day 1 already having completed lessons about objectives, active learning, and assessment? With Flexible Learning they can! Additionally, incorporating flexible learning into your ISW allows you to model flexible learning as an Instructional Skill.
Objectives:
1. Review an example of Flexible Learning incorporated into the ISW and identify three opportunities provided by incorporating Flexible Learning into your ISW.
2. Share any apprehensions you have with incorporating Flexible Learning into the ISW.
(Estimated time to complete: 20 minutes)
Perhaps you have never heard of Flexible Learning, well you are participating in it now! 🙂 Flexible Learning can mean many things to many different people, you can learn more about Flexible Learning projects around UBC. For our purposes here we are going to consider lessons that your ISW participants can complete outside the face to face portion of the workshop. We can consider additional opportunities on Tuesday January 13 at our Professional Development day.
What can Flexible Learning in the ISW look like? Please take 5-10 minutes and view the lessons developed as part of a recent ISW here at UBC CTLT. Go to ‘Participant Online Activities’ and then click on the arrow next to Day 1. You will see lessons on learning objectives, active learning, and assessments, as well as a place for participants to introduce themselves, and information on planning your first lesson for Day 1. Navigate around the site and find other lessons and resources to explore.
Now, take a moment to reflect:
1) Consider incorporating Flexible Learning into an ISW that you would facilitate. Identify 2 opportunities for facilitators, and 2 benefits for participants, of including Flexible Learning in the ISW.
2) Share any apprehensions you have as a facilitator about incorporating Flexible Learning into an ISW
Please click ‘Comments’ below and type your responses into the comment box, you can choose to remain anonymous have fun choosing a pen name, you could be lavendar cat or blue apple 🙂
Please also reply to at least one other comment made by another participant.
Note there is a captcha that needs to be completed to ensure you are a human 🙂 If you have any difficulties posting, please email jason.mcalister@ubc.ca or lucas.wright@ubc.ca
This lesson is estimated to take 20 minutes to complete. Please complete this lesson by Monday January 12, 5:00pm.
Your responses will help inform our Professional Development day. Thank you!
Two opportunities/benefits that come to mind are:
1. Reflection on a personal significant learning experience with a few guiding questions: What did you learn? Did you set out to learn it or was it accidental? What impact did the learning have on you? Who influenced that learning and how (what did they do?) – Benefit for participants: ease the transition to a learning mindset and draws on empathy for learner – foundational to effective teaching or facilitation.
2. Question focus: Offer a focused theme for developing questions about the pre-reading – for example: learning objectives are for learners. Participants could develop 1 question related to that statement and bring for discussion on day 1. The goal would be to refine questions and prioritize on day 1 and use refined questions as a basis for exploration/reflection throughout and link to closing activity on Day 3. Benefit for participants (or possible benefit) provides a thread or an anchor for exploration during mini lesson development.
I have found participants feel uncomfortable when asked to reflect on information that has just been presented to them. Presenting “thought” questions to reflect on before the f2f sessions allows them to relax and respond more deeply and, as you point out, allows them to put their “learner” hats on.
I’m curious what your discomfort around incorporating flex learning in ISW might be? if any?
1) Identify 2 opportunities for facilitators:
a) knowing what particular challenges or issues participants want to have focus on
b) having sufficient background information so that everyone is ‘on the same page’ and setting the tone of the workshop
2 benefits for participants, of including Flexible Learning in the ISW”
a) having an idea what is on the agenda and how the day would be structured/organized
b) time-efficiency/energy level: since the ISW workshops are intense and focused, having flexible learning enhances quality face-to-face time
2) Share any apprehensions you have as a facilitator about incorporating Flexible Learning into an ISW:
My main concern would be on trouble-shooting or any technical difficulties that may arise. How to streamline the look/style of what appears on the website
Two opportunities for facilitators:
1) Accommodate a diverse facilitation styles. Those who prefer to lead face-to-face workshop, and those who are comfortable behind the screen may complement each other and provide a diverse experience to the participants.
2) Facilitators no long need to be ‘time monster’ in the ISW; facilitators may have time to engage in some of the conversation since face-to-face time has been freed up due to extra workload at night.
Benefits for participants:
1) Opportunities to go deeper or stay on the surface. Since participants may view content in advance, if they found the topic inspiring, they may explore further before coming to the workshop. If they don’t find the topic interesting, they may have the opportunity to hear opinion from fellow participants during the face-to-face session.
2) They can experience how students experience it.
Apprehension: I still don’t exactly know how to set up the Flex space. My co-facilitator (Lucas) did everything technology-related for me. I have no confidence in doing this myself.
Not knowing how to set up the Flex space is also one of my main apprehensions about incorporating flex learning into an ISW!
I’d like to echo that this would be very useful to learn!
Interesting point about the opportunities flexible learning can create for embracing (and modelling) different facilitation styles, diversity, and complementarity. Definitely something I’ll want to do more thinking about!
Opportunities for facilitators:
1) Flexible ISW provides a venue for the facilitators to practice communicating high expectations of their participants using thoughtful language and clear instructions.
2) Response from the participants allows the facilitators to design tailored lesson plans for face-to-face session to enhance/maximize utility of workshop.
Benefits for participants:
1) Time flexibility to accommodate busy schedules.
2) Time necessary to digest new materials and to reflect on their own learning before being asked to integrate and demonstrate learning.
Apprehensions:
Participants not committing their full attention to complete the task at hand, thus interfering with adequate retention of materials before the face-to-face session to deepen learning.
I agree, the opportunity for the facilitator to design ‘tailored’ lesson plans is key since it helps in managing expectations and knowing what participants want to see covered/not.
Also, time flexibility is important as everyone lives such hectic lives saving ’20 minutes’ here and there is appreciated.
2 opportunities for facilitators:
– able to spend more time on participatory learning and assessment components of face to face large group theme sessions, building on the online homework
– using diverse media in the online module (e.g., videos prepared by education experts, such as the video on Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Day 1 online module on LOs)
2 benefits for participants
– arriving to the ISW with a basic understanding of, f. ex., LOs, active learning and assessment, and having the benefit of this knowledge in preparing first mini-lesson
– possibly ending the ISW day earlier!
Apprehension re incorporating Flexible Learning into an ISW
– very little knowledge on how to do this (successfully or at all)
I like the opportunity to integrate different media too, but I don’t know much about the “how” either. Ideally, I’d like to do things like the use of videos you cited, but also some different forms of interactivity. For example, I’d been thinking about a short ‘Intro to the ISW’ module using an interactive presentation for a Two-Truths-and-a-Lie type of activity. I could probably create it as an OfficeMix, but I wouldn’t be confident that that would be the best tool, or that it would play nicely with the other tech.
I agree about the resources, though I think it is also a helpful reminder that we need to, in some sense verify the videos we use as a source the way we would if referring to a paper or book from the literature (is it reliable, using reliable info, etc?) This is a challenge for videos from youtube, etc, where the reference trail is harder to follow. The safest way is to use videos that only contain info we already “know” from reliable sources, but that also closes off a lot of opportunity for finding new things.
2 opportunities – Facilitators
– can save time on Day 1 as participants arrive knowing what is expected – allows me to focus on remaining questions, assisting with 1st session
– makes active learning on Day 1 more likely as they come with thoughts, questions, ideas around process & new learning – more depth, also more focused learning
2 benefits – Participants
– knowing what to expect can help with stressful development of mini-sessions
– can identify personal learning needs and contextual learning needs to facilitators
– allows them to work at times that are best in their busy lives
Concerns about incorporating
– overwhelming participants before they are convinced about the value of ISW – may lose them before they start
– time management – offloading some of the basic knowledge acquisition to participant may mean that I develop active learning activities that take too much time – how do I practice with learners to ensure I don’t overdo my participatory activities?
– ensuring that the technology is clear, seamless, available on mobile or desktop, how to provide troubleshooting support after hours when most of offline work will be completed
– how to keep everyone “on the same page” – what are effective strategies to use if only a couple of participants do the pre-work? Hold them up while the rest are brought up to speed? Also, different misconceptions have to be identified before I turn them loose on the active learning segments.
Argh! Posted, but forgot the Captcha (even though I read the warning!)
My points were, for the first, that the opportunity is having time between the online session and the face to face session for participants to reflect and incorporate learning. If the online component asks them to notice something in their lives (eg. How often do you encounter active learning in the next 4 days… in the classroom? outside the classroom? online?) That provides opportunity for integration.
There is also in opportunity, if the online component involves a pre-test – to ensure that learners are all on the same page when they come in to a face to face lesson (eg. “you aren’t done with the online session until you can pick which of these is a well-formed L.O.”). This means we can spend time going deeper, and not leaving people behind, or else focusing on them at the expense of people who already understand the point.
My apprehensions are mostly around technology, particularly the speed at which it becomes obsolete, which suggests that we may be on a constant learning curve to stay up to date on tech.
Similarly, there are other glitches (like my captcha problem just now) that can take away from the experience and cause learners to give up.
Agree on all counts about the technology. In my own experience of trying out the flexible ISW, I feel I only got through it (the flexible part) thanks to the amazing support from Lucas and Jason. And, thanks OF COURSE, to the fabulous co-facilitator (Ozlem) who was so positive about trying this out!
The technical aspect is my major apprehension and concern as well. I remember making suggestions as to how the site can be better but actually ‘doing’ that is lost to me.
Opportunities for Facilitators:
A lot of what others have identified resonates with me too (e.g. Deb’s point about facilitating the communication of expectations with “thoughtful language and clear instructions”). To add a couple, I think:
-Video elements like Deb’s in the lesson planning intro and Rowshan’s introducing the lesson cycle could help participants develop a connection with the facilitators before the workshop begins, building on what we establish through email and phone contact.
-I also see opportunities for increased collaboration among facilitators across workshops. We have a debrief system, and people do submit lesson plans and other resources, but I could see online modules being particularly conductive to sharing and conversations. Like this one 🙂
Opportunities for Participants:
-Perhaps the biggest opportunity that I see is the increased flexibility and reduced F2F time requirement making ISW participation possible for people who are unable to commit the three days for a traditional ISW.
-Ability to prepare Day 1 lesson with a clearer sense of expectations (as others have noted, e.g. Sylvia and Magda)
-I also think that the exposure to blended learning and modelling successful integration of online and F2F activities for learning would be a valuable learning opportunity for participants.
Apprehensions:
-As others (e.g. Mabel, Judy, Magda) have also expressed, I have a lot to learn (and practice) on the tech side in order to be able to author modules, troubleshoot for participants, etc.
-Effective blending: I’ll need to learn more about how to design and use F2F activities as effectively as possible to complement/benefit from the online elements. (E.g. the F2F time management piece Sylvia raised)
-What Sylvia expressed about “how to keep everyone ‘on the same page'”. I wondered what facilitators’ experience has been so far with respect to uneven preparation across participants. Among other things, I’d be concerned about the impact on the group dynamic (and individuals’ feelings/approach toward the ISW) if uneven preparation creates a need for holding things up or extensive review and more-prepared participants feel that their time (online or F2F) is being wasted.
Some random thoughts before starting:
– I still find the name “Flexible Learning” a bit ambiguous, and maybe that’s because I’m still not crystal clear on exactly what Flex Learning is. I understand it as online content to be done between lessons. In which case calling it something like “Complementary Online Content” would have a bit more direction imo.
– Are there distinct Flex learning pages for each ISW session that only the participants can access?
Benefits:
– One that stands out to me is the idea of priming the learners. Concepts are always easier to learn the 2nd time the learner sees them. So even just briefly skimming through the content online, which some participants may do, would be very beneficial the following day.
I agree, Priming is a really huge benefit, and I think that’s magnified if the blended component involves accomplishing a learning objective, as well as exposure to ideas through reading.
We offer the course completely online so not really applicable for our case re: blended unless we reverse and incorporate some f2f to our online!
For flexible learnng model –
Opportunities for Facilitators 1.Start the process of setting the scene and building the learning community before meeting f2f 2. Cover some prep info prior to the workshop and establish a good baseline so everyone is starting more or less from the same place (background, tech experience etc.)
Benefits for Participants 1. Convenience of being able to time-shift/place-shift (not have to travel to a place to attend a thing) their learning 2. Some of the materials provided asynchronously can help prep students so that f2f time can be better utilized for interaction and also provide opportunities for individual enrichment that is guided but doesn’t take time during class
No apprehensions on trying flexible models except that instructions need to be really clear, step by step and technology support if that is required needs to be available. No assumptions made on the prerequisite knowledge of participants re: technical know-how.
Hi Leva,
I really like the community building piece you’ve highlighted as a benefit.
The materials look interesting and are no doubt well suited to the uses that UBC has made of them. I look forward to hearing the narratives from these experiences.
I am not prepared to plan on how I would do this until I learn more about what has been done up to this point.
I have no apprehensions about this as I currently have no preconceptions.
I will attend this session with an open and curious mind.
As stated by SylviaR, January 11, 2015 at 8:16 pm
“I have found participants feel uncomfortable when asked to reflect on information that has just been presented to them.”
I feel this way about the online materials as well 🙂
Opportunities for facilitators provided by incorporating flexible learning into the ISW:
– Can have more control over time by blending or flipping some of the lessons. This can leave extra time for other things, or can allow for longer breaks to keep participants refreshed (i.e.: shifting distribution of workload)
– Facilitators can build their lessons from the online component, so they have a sense of what the learners already bring with them, and they can refer to the online content for maximum engagement.
Benefits for participants:
– Participants might feel more confident attending a workshop where they already have a sense of some of the key ideas and have had a chance to let these ideas resonate.
– The online modules generally let participants participate based on their own schedule and at their own pace within the deadlines
Apprehensions as a facilitator:
– that it will take time to help learners understand what flexible learning is and what their role is in this approach to learning
– that participants will not respond to the online component
– that there will be technological challenges that I and/or participants will face
It is almost 5pm so a very quick one: online component provides pre- and post- workshop collaboration and enhance f2f collaboration, learning, interaction, etc.
Concerns:
– technical issues (how to survive without disturbing Lucas that much)
-crafting and presenting the content
dentify 2 opportunities for facilitators:
a) If facilitators have required some work to be done and posted ahead of the F2F, it allows us to see if there are any “gaps” in the participants’ learning.
b) F2F session shorter, less tiring
2 benefits for participants:
a) some learners appreciate the time to learn and process on their own time, in their own space. An online component can provide this for such a student.
b) allows students to “jump in” deeper (?) as they have encountered the material before, had had a chance to advance their learning prior to coming to the group F2F session
Concerns:
I don’t have an in-depth technological know-how and therefore feel incapacitated
How to know if students have participated (when you haven’t assigned something)