Course Team Approaches To Task Design: Adam Unwin
- 1. Course team approaches to task design This project investigates the design of online tasks, where tasks are what learners are required to do in online environments. It uses students and staff experiences to try to: understand the pedagogic rationale• of staff behind the design of tasks. find out what aspects of design• participants felt work well, or not and why. identify enablers and barriers to• design within course teams. 2 Factors influencing design capability of course teams Team includes ICT ‘enthusiasts’ Multi-faceted team (academic, technical, admin, student) working collaboratively Utilisation of student voice Course evaluations and course centred research activity Existing course specific modules/ exemplars available A sense of shared pedagogic values and course ownership Good communications, regular meetings Team/course development opportunities Staff time crucial. Lack of time is the biggest feature hindering team approaches to course development What helps course teams with design? Method The research methods included: semi-structured interviews and the use of a qualitative commentary tool with staff, a focus group, qualitative questionnaires and a meta-learning evaluation activity with students. Results The two diagrams illustrate the main findings of the project. Discussion The research involved different courses from three Universities where online components were central to the courses. What is clear from the work is that the student’s own professional educational context needs to be central to the design of tasks. These contexts can be shared by participants to encourage interaction and collaboration. This combination allows benefits of both situated and socially constructed learning (see Box 1). Course team’s experiences of designing online components were clearly influenced very strongly by time as a resource. Successful teamwork requires collaboration; meaningful collaboration of all stakeholders requires time. Design was more successful where existing models of tasks were available, where there was a shared course ethos and there was active course centred research within the team (see Box 2). Teaching and Research Awards 2008 University of London Centre for Distance Education www.cde.london.ac.uk and cde@london.ac.uk Course team design rationale The online components aim to provide/encourage/achieve: Student views They value design which facilitates: Student reflection and criticality Socially constructed professional/ academic knowledge Student interaction Student collaboration Clear structures, timelines but flexibility A sense of belonging and participation Relevance within student’s professional practice Theory-practice connections 1 What course teams aim for and what students value Researcher Adam Unwin Institute of Education a.unwin@ioe.ac.uk