cplim 2016 (bl asia)

Taking a Holistic Approach towards Blended Learning in Higher Education Institutions

LIM Cher Ping

Professor of Curriculum & Innovations

The Education University of Hong Kong ranked 2nd in Asia and 12th in the world in Education (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016)

This presentation is based on a two-year UNESCO-commissioned project (started in July 2015) that aims to develop and disseminate a toolkit for building the capacity of higher education institutions in Asia-Pacific to sustain and scale up innovative blended learning practices in the HEI. The toolkit will support the leaders of HEIs in Asia-Pacific to revisit and refine their strategic planning processes and plans for blended learning.

UNESCO-Comissioned Project on Blended Learning

• Coordinators: UNESCO and the Faculty of Education & Human Development, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

• Key Partners:‒ Chiang Mai University‒ East China Normal University‒ University of Western Australia‒ Seoul National University ‒ Taylor’s Education Group‒ Tsinghua University‒ Universitas Negeri Jakarta‒ Universiti Sains Malaysia‒ Curtin University of Technology


• Develop a framework for building the capacity of HEIs for blended learning by a team of blended learning experts and leaders from selected HEIs in Asia-Pacific.

• Incorporate case studies from the selected HEIs to demonstrate how the framework and its dimensions are operationalised.

• Construct a set of rubrics for HEI leaders to self-assess, reflect and plan for blended learning in their own institutions.

• Disseminate the toolkit to HEIs and policymakers in the Asia-Pacific, and build their capacity of using it.


• Blended Learning – What, Why and How?

• Institutional Issues & Challenges

• Holistic Approach Towards Blended Learning in Higher Education Institutions:– Vision and Underlying Philosophy;– Curriculum and Assessment;– Professional Development of Leaders & Teachers;– Learning Support;– Infrastructure, Hardware and Resources;– Policy and Institutional Structure;– Internal and External Partnerships; and– Research and Evaluation.

Blended Learning: A Holistic Approach

Blended Learning Asia 2016 – 15 June 2016 (Singapore)

Blended Learning –

What, Why and How?

Blended Learning is the deliberate fusion of online (asynchronous or/and synchronous) and face-to-face contact time between teaching staff and students, and/or among students in a course.

Blended Learning: What?


• Actively engages students and enhances learning outside the traditional physical, temporal and interactive limits associated with formal face-to-face learning;

• Provides opportunities for teachers to implement student-centred and active learning that promote student learning of important 21st Century skills;

• Develops learning communities that work together to build knowledge through processes such as inquiry, reflection and discourse

Blended Learning: Why?


• Blended Learning is about rethinking and redesigning the teaching and learning relationship;

• Powerful blended learning may necessitate fundamental change in pedagogy and relationships between students and teachers;

• There are low impact, medium impact, and high impact blends:– Low impact blends involve “adding extra activities to an

existing course”;

– medium impact blends involve “replacing activities in an existing course”; and

– high impact blends involve “building the blended course from scratch.”

Blended Learning: How?


Institutional Issues & Challenges

• Lack of scale: Isolated promising practices

• Lack of access for teachers and students to Internet connection, hardware and resources

• Lack of motivation and capacity of teachers to engage in blended learning

• Lack of capacity of students to learn online

• Lack of institutional understanding and support

Issues and Challenges


• Introducing an innovation such as ICT requires simultaneous innovations in pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and institutional organization.

• The changes caused by the interactions between ICT and the institution system not only determine how ICT are adopted, but also affect the operation of the institutional system.

• Therefore, the dynamic co-adaptation and co-evolution of students, teachers, institutional leaders, and other stakeholders with ICT and the system determines whether the opportunities of ICT for engaging students can be realized in higher education institutions.

Issues and Challenges


Making Sense of an Inter-Connected World: Engaging Students

ICT Tools(WinEcon)

Students

Non-ICTTools

Teacher

InstitutionSystem & Society

Teaching & Learning Environments

A Holistic Approach Towards Blended Learning in Higher Education Institutions

A Holistic Approach Towards Blended Learning

Vision and Philosophy

Curriculum

Professional Development

Partner-ship

Policy and Institutional

Structure

Infrastructure, Facilities,

Resources, and Support

Learning Support

Research and

Evaluation


Vision and Philosophy

The successful implementation of blended learning in HEIs requires a vision coherent with its underlying philosophies for learning and teaching in blended learning environments. Only when university teachers come to understand the possibilities of organically blending face-to-face and online learning, it is then students are presented with more engaging and meaningful learning experiences. The focal points are:•Institutional vision for adopting blended learning in higher education;•Underlying philosophy for learning and teaching in blended learning environments; and •Reconsidering the role of blended learning in HEIs.


Vision and Philosophy: Examples

• Seoul National University: SNU’s vision is to foster creative global leaders, and blended learning at SNU aims to strengthen learning competency and build creative and critical thinking skills.

• Hong Kong Institute of Education: HKIEd teaching and learning vision - Enhance student-focused learning through the promotion of innovative curriculum design, the application of ICT, new pedagogies and assessment that facilitates learning.

• East China Normal University: ECNU’s vision and mission statements related to blended learning include promoting and encouraging a variety of learning solutions enabled by e-learning technologies to support students and their development.


Vision and Philosophy: Examples

University of Western Australia: Vision Statements of Education Futures •Transformative teaching: Teaching practices at UWA are designed to engage, challenge and transform student learning throughout their courses.•Evidence-based teaching: UWA provides evidence-based, quality teaching practices.•Experiential learning: UWA provides students with a rich variety of learning experiences, including service learning, that connect them to the University, professional, local and global communities.•Integrated research experiences: Learning and teaching experiences at UWA are integrated with, and informed by, research.•Optimised resources: UWA teaching and learning activities are supported with an extended range of quality resources, facilities and technologies.•Vibrant campus environment: UWA values and provides a vibrant, collaborative learning environment within its attractive campus.•Global citizenship and leadership: UWA prepares its students to be contributing members and leaders of local, national and global communities.


http://uwa.edu.au/

Curriculum and Assessment

• Students must develop 21st Century Competencies as their universal toolkit to process, analyse and create their knowledge to cope with the socio-economic development in the Knowledge Era (Levy & Murnane, 2005). And hence, the review and transformation of curricular outcomes and curriculum structure to take up the affordances of ICT.

• Formative assessment supports students to overcome many inhibiting situations of learning, including correcting misconceptions with constructive feedbacks and opportunities to act upon the feedback, throughout the whole learning process (Shute, 2007). It also provides valuable information for teachers to revise and refine their instructions (Yorke, 2003). Blended learning provides new opportunities for formative assessment because it caters for instant and individualised responses from teachers and peers (Gikandi, Morrow & Davis, 2011).


Curriculum and Assessment: Example

Education University of Hong Kong: •At EDUHK, the curriculum reform includes aligning all programmes and courses to the Generic Intended Learning Outcomes (GILOs) that include Problem Solving Skills, Critical Thinking Skills, and Communication Skills. •In terms of blended learning, EDUHK nurture engaged and reflective learners via e-Portfolio. It not only offers students a platform to manage, monitor and reflect upon their own learning during their study at EDUHK, but also serves as an approach of assessment.


Curriculum and Assessment: Example

Professional Development

The role of the university teacher is crucial for the successful implementation of blended learning practices (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). While university teachers are experts in their respective fields, they may not have enough expertise and experience to plan for and implement blended learning in their courses. The introduction of blended learning challenges teachers to revisit their roles in technology-enhanced learning environments. HEIs should then provide continuing professional development (PD) on blended learning. Two focal points in this dimension:•Professional development conditions and measures; and •Professional development culture.


Professional Development: Examples

Nanyang Technological University (Singapore): To ensure corresponding teaching staff capability and competencies to perform in this evolving teaching and learning context, the Centre for Educational Development established the edUtorium teaching staff development initiative in 2002. It provides a series of regular continuing education short courses and workshops. For example, “Foundations of University Learning and Teaching” conducts twice annually, designed for new teaching staff with little or no teaching experience. 4 types of seminar for teaching staff are also held annually: •“from good to Great” Staff Seminar •24 x 7 Anytime Anywhere Learning•“Innovations in Teaching” •Fostering Academic Integrity and Responsibility (FAIR)



University of Western Australia: •The Carpe Diem process aims to assist academics to redesign their units in ways that suit the particular learning objectives of the unit, student characteristics, specific resources and learning spaces available, and the abilities and preferences of staff. •Carpe Diem workshops were instigated as a major element in the implementation of the Education Futures strategy. The Carpe Diem process is described by Salmon and Wright (2014, p. 54) as a “collaborative team based online learning design process.” •At UWA, Carpe Diem is a two day process whereby a unit coordinator and other another at least one and usually two or three academics of a unit work in a pod or team that also includes a librarian and a learning technologist, under the supervision of a facilitator who has knowledge of pedagogy. •Together, pod members redesign a unit to maximise its potential to support student learning and enhance student experience.



The Education University of Hong Kong


Universiti Sains Malaysia:


Learning Support

• Students need technical help and guidance in using technological tools for their learning. Students also need to be guided to learn independently and at their own pace especially within the online learning environment. Therefore, just-in-time and on-going student support should be readily available in HEIs to guide and scaffold students to learn in a blended learning environment.

• Dedicated advisory centres where students go for help and get advice and training should be in place at HEIs. This may involve helping students to become active, independent and self-regulated learners through sharing sessions and and one-to-one coaching with professionally qualified counsellors.


Learning Support: Examples

University of Western Australia: •At UWA, a new type of student orientation was piloted at the beginning of 2015, in which new students were encouraged to think about different modes of teaching and learning, about themselves as learners (learning preferences), and about a range of new ICT that are used in teaching and learning at UWA. •The orientation, called Prospect, did not involve students passively sitting and listening to presentations but required them to interact with staff and peers in a variety of activities. •The duration of the orientation was two days. This model is to be scaled up for 2016 and improved in light of student and staff participants.


Learning Support: Examples

The Education University of Hong Kong: EDUHK provides services to help students to improve their knowledge of what can be used in the blended learning environment and the fluency with which they use the tools to complete specific learning tasks. These support services include:

– Help-desk services offered by the Office of the Chief Information Officer

– Walk-in Consultancy by the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology and the Library

– Training workshops about using the LMS and e-Portfolio– Online support via SIS and hotline enquiry– One-to-One tutorial


Infrastructure, Resources and Support

The integration of blended learning into existing teaching and learning practices in higher education requires establishing an appropriate plan for the technological infrastructure, architecture and ongoing operations. Strategic focal points within this dimension are:•Infrastructure, facilities and resources; and•Technical and service support.


Infrastructure, Resources and Support: Examples

Chiang Mai University:•In terms of ICT infrastructure, the Information Technology Service Centre or ITSC, CMU-- the university’s unit which is responsible for all the ICT-related services -- provides students and teaching staff with the network and information technology infrastructure that supports blended learning practices effectively. These services include CMU network systems (both wired and wireless network system) together with data centres and servers.•CMU Online provides powerful tools, including course management tools, web content development, evaluation tools, and communication tools. Teachers can use CMU Online for creating e-Learning materials, managing online instruction and evaluating learner performance.



Chiang Mai University (Thailand):



Chiang Mai University:



Nanyang Technological University (Singapore):


Policies and Institutional Structure

• HEIs have to formulate the blended learning master plan and its corresponding policies, specific guidelines and mechanisms to encourage teachers to engage in blended learning as an enhancement of learning and teaching.

• New hierarchical institutional structure could be established to lead and support blended learning in HEIs. For example, a Blended Learning Steering Committee, reporting to the Provost/Vice-President, has strategic leadership responsibility that provides oversight for the blended learning initiative in the HEIs. A Coordinating Council, reporting to the Steering Committee, facilitates collaboration and develops common standards to guide work across administrative and academic units. Individual blended learning advocates or instructional designers may be situated in each faculty to address executive practices and operational issues.


Policies and Institutional Structure (Examples)

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Information Communication Board (USM)

Content Development Committee

eLearning School Rep Committee

Technical Committee

Training Committee

Dep Vice Chancelor (Academic Affairs)

Elearning Committee USM


Policies and Institutional Structure (Examples)

• Nanyang Technological University (Singapore): Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching


Partnerships (Internal and External)

• Internal partnerships involve the faculties working together with the technology support unit and the teaching and learning support unit to promote and engage in blended learning practices. The inter-faculty collaboration such as sharing resources and best practices across disciplines may also be involved. A Coordinating Council would play a vital role to enable such form of partnership.

• Besides inter-institutional sharing of blended learning practices, external partnerships also include those with private organisations such as Apple, Microsoft, Blackboard, or open-source communities such as Moodle. Such partnerships may allow HEIs to enjoy the latest learning technologies and help shape the direction where HEI R&D and strategies for future blended learning practices. On the other hand, these organisations benefit from the research findings from the partner HEIs.


• Seoul National University (SNU): A noteworthy strategy for effective BL at SNU is the securement of

systematic and organic partnerships with internal and external institutions. One of such partnerships was formed with the SNU alumni association for the effective implementation of BL. The alumni association has provided ongoing financial support for education and research in SNU in various forms. One of the initiatives was to develop and provide open (free) online courses for the general public as well as resident students.

Another partnership is with Samsung Electronics to promote educational research and the development of smart education or mobile learning in university environments in general, as well as in the SNU context. The partnership with Samsung Electronics began in 2013 and took two years to prepare. In 2015, the partnership officially launched and it focuses on the research and development of smart education in a university setting.

Partnerships (Internal and External) - Examples


• Seoul National University (SNU):

Partnerships (Internal and External) - Examples


Research and Evaluation

• There is always a need for revision and refinement for quality enhancement of learning and teaching in HEIs. Research and evaluation may take the perspectives of learning analytics to provide evidences about engagement and outcomes, and hence, provide teachers and HEI leaders with the information to make decisions about blended learning practices, policies and support.

• Case studies may be conducted by research groups at the institutional level to understand best practices of pioneering teachers in order to inform other teachers who are exploring the use of blended learning in their own courses. Teachers who are motivated in blended learning may engage in action research to gauge their own initiative for change.


Research and Evaluation - Example

Hong Kong Institute of Education:•Research & Evaluation is not only considered as a necessary component of blended learning initiatives at HKIEd because of quality assurance and enhancement but also to strengthen the research-practice nexus/scholarship of teaching. This is a good way to promote evidence-based practitioner research and disseminate good practices for blended learning.

•The Teaching Development Grants (TDG) at HKIEd, is a scheme open to all full-time teaching staff to encourage quality enhancement through the support of innovative and effective approaches to student learning. As one of the areas of focus, TDG encourage teaching staff to conduct action research or empirical case studies on the adoption of blended learning. In 2013-2014 at the FEHD, TDG funded a total of 13 projects concerning blended learning.


Conclusion

Conclusion

• Adopting blended learning in higher education to enhance learning and teaching goes far beyond the introduction of technology innovations. Rather, sustainable blended learning practices in HEIs must begin with institutional leaders and higher education policy-makers.

• This presentation has proposed a holistic approach for HEIs to enhance, sustain, and scale up blended learning practices within their institutions.


Lim Cher PingProfessor of Curriculum & InnovationsThe Education University of Hong Kong

[email protected]

http://ied.academia.edu/CherPingLim

THANK YOU!!!


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cplim 2016 (bl asia)

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