Welcome to my Technology-Enhanced Learning Blog!

Welcome to the blog :-) This is the final post going on to the blog before I submit for the PGCert in Technology-Enhanced Learning at Bucks New University. The deadline is tomorrow!

If all goes to plan, then the assessors will have first read the 'Reflective Journal: Supporting Narrative' document accessed via my PGCert Blackboard (Bb) organisation (only available to enrolled users on Bb). I have also made this available to view via issuu.com here. Reading that document will have brought them here if they have chosen to follow the links as intended. :-)

The idea is that this blog forms a central part of the Reflective Journal that constitutes the summative assessment for the PGCert. It is intended to capture, or dare I say, 'reflect', the learning journey over the course of the PGCert running from October 2014 to July 2015. You, of course, will be the judge of how effectively it does that. If you want to get a sense of that journey as it unfolds (if you really haven't something more pressing to do!) then use the Blog Archive to find earlier posts and follow it through. Alternatively, scroll through as you see fit and see where it takes you. As Dave Cormier (the man who I believe coined the term 'MOOC') might say, let the journey be 'rhizomatic'!

As is the case with blogs, there is space to add your own comments below any of the blog posts here and I very much welcome comments, questions, thoughts, and feedback. I have learnt much during the PGCert, a large proportion of which has been over the last few weeks, as I have attempted to bring things together and discovered more about using such varied technologies as Issuu, Periscope, Padlet, and so on.

Anyhow, enough of the small talk. Go and explore :-)

A Virtual Open Evening

We did it! We ran a virtual open evening for the MAPP yesterday and it seemed to go ok...

The session was conducted within Blackboard (Bb) Collaborate and lasted about an hour. We had a total of 9 people take part in the session, of whom only about 3 or 4 were prospective students. However, the session ran smoothly and we now have a recording that can be used for any subsequent enquirers this year if needed. A link to the Bb Collaborate recording is here. [The Bb Collaborate recording should also be available to view within my PGCert Bb organisation.]

The feedback from those taking part was overwhelmingly positive and the prospective students were clearly very grateful that such a session had been provided. One of the prospective students, looking to study the MAPP via distance learning, was logging in from Qatar so this was enough of a validation for me that virtual sessions such as this are needed if we want to truly open up to a global audience and making our learning provision available to those unable to travel to the University campus.

Alongside the more 'official' session on Bb Collaborate, I also broadcast part of the session via Periscope. Until the power on my phone went :-) This had 67 'live' viewers (I was aiming for at least 10 live viewers). Of course, these viewers will not be people who are likely to be interested in the MAPP as they will be Periscope users simply browsing for live broadcasts, of which there are still relatively few as the number of Periscope users builds. Still, it was a useful 'test of concept' and a way of exploring what might be possible using the Periscope app. For example, it does allows quick and easy filming and distributing of material that could be instructional for students or for raising awareness of a course (or both).

Levels of participation in a community of practice

Wenger-Trayner notes [here] how there are different levels of participation within a community of practice. This is visually represented very nicely below:

[Source: http://wenger-trayner.com/project/levels-of-participation/]

This serves to reaffirm my view of 'The Positive Psychology People' (PPP) as the basis for a community of practice, as this reflects the 'structure' (if that is the right word?) of the levels of participation in the PPP, with there being a core team of co-ordinators, a wider group of active 'members' (e.g., developing content for the web resources), and so on.

Using this as a framework, I can see MAPP students becoming initially involved at the 'peripheral' level and, depending on their own interests, becoming occasional or active contributors to discussions and other activities.

Swivl in the sunshine!

A recent coaching workshop at Missenden Abbey allowed for an unplanned, yet very helpful, meeting with a colleague who offered to meet again today (also at Missenden) to go over what I had done so far for the PGCert. It gave me an interim deadline to work to, and I need deadlines!

It also gave me an opportunity to do a little filming with the Swivl. So I popped out into the beautiful grounds at the Abbey, set up the tripod, Swivl and iPad, and recorded a little 'welcome' video for myPGCert Bb organisation. A little gimmicky, perhaps, but it did allow me to have a bit more of a play with it and showed that filming with this can be done anywhere and is simple to do alone. This contrasts with some recent attempts to do filming with a cameraman, etc. to produce video materials for the distance MAPP for 2015-16. So much easier to film and upload, rather than film bits that need a good deal of editing, etc.

A 'mock' virtual open evening

Today we ran a 'mock' session for a virtual open evening ahead of next week's PG Open Evening. We had about seven or eight people log on to a Blackboard (Bb) Collaborate session (including our PG Marketing Manager!) and all seemed to go well! The PGMM was impressed and I think we have turned her around to the idea now :-)

Lots of support from our Open4Learning team, and a commitment from them to support the real session next week. Looking forward to it. I'm wondering if there would be a way of obtaining some feedback from those who take part. I'm sure that should be fairly easy.... for example, in the session I could seek some basic feedback. And then a follow-up email? Or perhaps something on SurveyMonkey?

Alongside the more 'formal' Bb Collaborate session, we even had a play with Periscope, an app from Twitter that allows live 'broadcasting' over the web. As I read a little more about Periscope (e.g., there is an official blog here), I discover how new the app is. It was only launched in March of this year! It was fun to play with, and I think we will try to do something as part of the PG Open Evening. I haven't figured out a way to 'post' recordings from Periscope on here, but if you dowload the app and follow @BucksMAPP you can view live or recorded broadcasts (recordings are only available for a short time after). While you're at it, you can also follow @BucksMAPP on Twitter!

Up Periscope!

I have recently been introduced to Periscope, an app that I think is owned by Twitter, and 'allows you to see the world through another's eyes'. It is effectively a video version of Twitter in that it allows the user to 'broadcast' live to followers over the web. I like it and I'm beginning to have a play with it, wondering how it might be used in a learning context. I have set up a @BucksMAPP account (to represent the MSc Applied Positive Psychology) as well as a personal account (@dr_matthewsmith). Both easy as they are Twitter accounts and you can log on using Twitter.

One of my first thoughts, as we think about running a 'virtual' open evening session, is whether we could be broadcasting via Periscope at the same time? Worth thinking about?

Thinking more long-term, Periscope may be another tool to help build and support community among learners? For example, research has shown that 'social presence' (characterised as 'being together' with learners) can be influenced positively through online communication that is expressive, emotional, immediate and stimulating (Tu & McIsaac, 2002). Real-time informal broadcasts via Periscope, that do allow two-way interaction as viewers can type in comments an questions that appear on the broadcast, could meet such criteria.

Reference
Tu, C., & McIsaac, M. (2002). The relationship of social presence and interaction in online classes. American Journal of Distance Education, 16, 131-150.

What about a 'virtual' open evening?

Having recently been succesful in getting the 'distance' (i.e., FDL) version of the MSc Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) validated, I found myself reflecting on why we didn't offer a 'virtual' open evening for prospective distance learners. The more I reflected on this, the more it seemed a bit of a 'no-brainer'... Of course we should offer something like this!

And so I mentioned this to some key people at the university to see what kind of response I would get if we were to try and run something like this for the MAPP, nothing too big, alongside the PG Open Evening on Wednesday 15th July. The PG Marketing Manager, usually very supportive of any activity that might enhance the marketability of a course, was a little reticent. Perhaps this could be something to think about for the future? The E-Learning Services Manager, however, was happy to support this and we arranged to meet.

What made this even better was that the Digital Media Manager had independently considered that the University should consider 'Virtual Open Days' having come across a case study from the University of Derby who had been running such events, via Blackboard (Bb) Collaborate, for a number of years and suggested these were effective ways of converting potential applicants into students. We met, shared our ideas, and became quite excited by the possibilities! We agreed that I would run a 'mock' session a week before the PG Open Evening to see how it might work. We would invite a group of interested parties (including the PG Marketing Manager) to log on and try it out. We scheduled this for Tuesday 7th July...

We're all YouTubers now!

Reflections on creating video content for teaching...

Over the past few months, I have been reflecting almost continually on the challenges associated with creating video content for teaching. This has emerged out of the wish to create video-based materials as part of the development of course materials for the MAPP 'distance'. It has also emerged out of the use of Swivl for the 'Go Luck Yourself!' (GLY!) project, which allowed me to video-record myself (on an iPad or iPhone) running each session and upload the clips on to YouTube. So I am not so much discussing the use of existing video within a course, but instead the value of creating videos of, say, a tutor talking through some of the course content or an interaction between two or more people discussing the course content.

My reflections here focus on weighing up the different ways of creating this kind of video content. In this way, I am in a way side-stepping the question of the need to creat video content fullstop (I will come back to this). I am assuming that video content is desirable that it enhances course materials and that it helps learners/students (you decide what you want to call them!) to engage with said materials. The two main methods of creating video content I will refer to are either (a) self-created or (b) created with the help of a camerman.

Using Swivl to film oneself (or indeed others) falls into the former category, and some examples of materials created as part of the GLY! project are provided on my PGCert Bb organisation. In terms of the latter category, we recently booked time with a Learning Technology Ambassador (LTA) working within the Open4Learning unit to help with the development of materials for the MAPP 'distance'. The still below shows a break in the filming last Friday as we filmed with Dr Andrew Machon, Visiting Teaching Fellow at the University, and key guest contributor on the MAPP.

A  break in filming

The idea about having some segments 'professionally' filmed and edited is that this will produce much higher quality recordings that will be more engaging for learners and generally 'look better'. However, I am quickly becoming of the view that self-created video content (such as that produced using an iPad and Swivl) produces quality that is 'good enough' and importantly one can do without the need for a cameraman and needs little nor no editing. The value of this is that one doesn't need to book time with a camerman well ahead of when the materials will be needed to allow the time needed for rendering (?), editing, etc. This is of enormous importance when considering the pressures on teaching staff to create (or 'convert') course materials as one is often not in the position to create course content months in advance of the scheduled running of the course (see my experience running the Intro to Positive Psychology distance learning module the first time).

In light of this, I am now wondering whether working towards creating video content with the help of a cameraman is such a good idea. Indeed, as part of the filming last Friday, we shot some more 'conversational' material (i.e., conversational interviews between Piers and Andrew) using two cameras. From a learning perspective I would imagine these elements would be more engaging than the original 'talking heads' we were filming, but I felt that these would work just as well (if not better) as simple audio recordings as the video was not adding much of value. Given the extra difficulty created by trying to film these 'professionally', I was left with the feeling that much simpler audi-recording would be preferable here. This would be something I could do myself and could be created as 'podcasts' to form part of the course materials.

So perhaps video content is not needed here after all?

'Being there' for online learners

A colleague loaned me Lehman and Conceicao's (2010) book, Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching some time back, not long after I started the PGCert in Technology-Enhanced Learning. I have carried it with me for months, and only just now have I stopped to have a good look at this.

Of course, I should have looked at it before now, but this is indicative of the challenge I have had to make time for PGCert studying throughout the year! Anyhow, I am engaged from the opening page, as the first chapter begins with two separate scenarios. Both of which are very appropriate to the context in which I am exploring the benefits and challenges of t-eL (which I guess is why they include such scenarios!)... The first describes Amanda, a mature learner (it seems the word 'learner' is preferred to 'student' when talking about online learning?), in full-time employment with a young child. She is new to online learning and has feelings of anxiety and isolation associated with the thought of being unable to interact with the tutor and her fellow students. I suspect this scenario represents a good description of the students we are likely to get on the MAPP 'distance' (FDL) course next year and is indicative of those who took the Intro to Positive Psychology distance learning module this year.

The second scenario describes Carlos, who is a tutor at a community college who has now been asked to translate his ‘traditional’ (i.e., face-to-face) courses to online courses. He is understandably a little reticent about this as he is concerned that it will be hard to convert his interactive sessions that involve students working in small groups into courses that are effective online. I’m with you Carlos! This describes my situation pretty well. OK, so I don’t feel as though this is something I am being asked to do, more it is something I want to do. But there is still a great deal of trepidation about how one goes about ‘converting’ ones course materials in this way!

Lehman and Conceicao go on to discuss the importance of ‘presence’ in online learning as a way of dealing with these kinds of anxieties and concerns among both learners and teachers working in the online environment. They cite the work of Bioca, Burgoon, Harms, and Stoner (2001), who conceptualise presence in terms of ‘telepresence’ and ‘social presence’. Lehman and Conceicao (2010) conceive of these as ‘being there’ for online learners (telepresence) and ‘being together’ with online learners (social presence). Key characteristics of these are accessibility (and this is bi-directional: tutors and learners are accessible to each other) and the transparency of the technology. There is, perhaps, some overlap here with the early stages (stages 1 and 2) of Salmon's (2000) five stage model, which emphasises the importance of access and motivation on behalf of the online learner (stage 1) and online socialisation (stage 2).

They go on to introduce the 'Being There for the Online Learner' model in which they bring together these aspects of 'presence', how they may be created and experienced, and how they relate to the inner and outer world of the learner.

Suffice to say, I am glad I finally stopped to look in the Lehman and Conceicao book!

References
Bioca, F., Burgoon, J., Harms, C., & Stoner, M. (2001). Criteria for scope and conditions for a theory and measure of social presence. Paper presented at the Presence 2001: Fourth International Workshop. Cited in Lehman, R. M., & Conceicao, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to "be there" for distance learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lehman, R. M., & Conceicao, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to "be there" for distance learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Salmon, G. (2000). E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page. 

Supported Challenge: Some Reflections

'Supported Challenge' was the title of some notes distributed in one of the T-eL sessions this semester (Gledhill, no date). The ideas within the document resonate well with me, as they argue for an approach to learning and teaching in Higher Education that moves away from the approach that has become the norm over the past couple of decades.

Gledhill notes:

In considering student satisfaction, we have concentrated too much on hygiene factors, the improvement in which can never do more than make students marginally less unhappy. Whilst not neglecting these things, we must appreciate that strong student learning will result in their radical transformation, bringing benefits to student lives including enhanced morale, greater motivation, stronger self confidence, a sense of purpose and self esteem.

As I read this paragraph for the first time, I asked the question in the margin... "And does t-eL do this?". In attempting to answer my own question, I suppse one might say, "it can do" or "it has the potential to". These are characteristics of the type of learning we do see on the MAPP, and this is due largely to (a) the nature of the course itself (positive psychology is very much focused around many of these issues, and (b) our person-centred approach to learning and teaching where we aim to support students in their chosen pathways through the assignment work. We are already adopting this 'supported challenge' approach to some degree?

Reference
Gledhill, M. (no date). Supported Challenge: Study, to learn, to change. Unpublished document.

What is meant by 'Flexible and Distributed Learning'?

The term 'Flexible and Distributed Learning' (FDL) is one that has been very much on my mind of late. The context is the development and validation of the MAPP - DL, or rather the MAPP - FDL as we are now referring to it! It seems that we as a University prefer to describe this mode of delivery as 'flexible and distributed learning' as opposed to 'distance learning'. This is in accordance with the terminology used by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) who describe flexible and distributed learning as:

"educational provision... ...through means which generally do not require the student to attend particular classes or events at particular times and particular locations." (QAA, 2010)

 I am quite comfortable with the use of FDL as a description of the mode of delivery for our 'distance' MAPP, as FDL covers distance learning, e-learning, and even blended learning. One issue it does raise for prospective students is that FDL as an abbreviation is probably not something that many are familiar with, and even the full 'Flexible and Distributed Learning' needs a little clarification in terms of what exactly do we mean by this?

In particular, one thing to clarify is how 'flexible' is our provision? We will need to clearly explain to potential students that we are still bound by the University semesters and the academic calendar in that modules will run during these times and a 15 credit module will be a semester-long module. It is not so flexible that a student could begin whenever the wish, and complete within a week if they worked through the course materials in that time. This may be the expectation for some who are looking for 'online' courses. However, the course will be flexible in that students may access materials at times more convenient for them, there is some flexibility to allow students to work through materials at their own pace (within some constraints), and they do not need to attend classes at particular times and at particular locations.

Communities of Practice

As I touched upon in an earlier post, I have been reflecting on the the concept of 'communities of practice' in relation to a newly developed website, www.thepositivepsychologypeople.com (hereon referred to as 'PPP'). In this post, I reflect further on communities of practice and how this concept effectively lies at the heart of what is being developed by PPP.

The concept of 'communities of practice' (CoP) emerged out of Lave and Wenger's (1991) monograph discussing apprenticeship and 'situated learning', in which they argue that learning is essentially a social process. Thus, they explore how practitioners of certain discplines form communities to share knowledge and experience. Individual practitioners can engage in the community in different ways, through what Lave and Wenger (1991) refer to as 'legitimate peripheral participation'. A contemporary definition of CoP is:

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly."
(Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015, p.1)

Unpacking this definition a little further, hree aspects of the CoP are thought to be of central importance: The domain; the community; the practice. Let's look at each of these in turn in relation to PPP as an example of of a CoP...

Domain
The CoP has a shared domain of interest. For PPP this is clear: the shared domain is positive psychology. If one wanted to be a little more specific about this it would be the 'study, application, research, and promotion of positive psychology'.

Community
The notion of community is of course central to the concept of CoP. In this context, a community would be reflected in shared activities, sharing of knowledge and experiences, and an underlying sense of support and help for members of the community. Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015) explcitly note that "a website in itself is not a community of practice" (p.2), and so I should point out that PPP, whilst having a web-based resource at its heart, is setting out to be more than just a website. It seeks to build a community in the way it is defined here.

Practice
A CoP is distinguished from a community of interest (CoI) in that members of a CoP should be 'practitioners'. This where PPP perhaps blurs the boundary of a CoP with a CoI as its members may range from practitioners to researchers to teachers to those with an interest in positive psychology. The latter may include people who are considering undertaking a course of study or looking to learning more about the area. However, there is still a strong desire among the core team to develop a resource, a community, that would provide support for practitioners around the world, especially those emerging from MAPP programmes into the world of the practitioner. As Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015) point out, "this takes time and sustained interaction" (p. 2) and so there is time for this to develop.

The PPP website, the beginnings of a Positive Psychology CoP, was launched in March 2015. Within just two months there are already over 10,000 registered members. These of course will be people who simply have an interest in the topic of positive psychology, and not all will be practitioners. However, in time it is likely that a CoP will emerge among registered members who are also students, researchers, and practitioners.


References
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wenger-Trayner, E., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. [Available here: wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice]

MAPP 'distance' validated!

Today was the validation for the 'distance learning' version of the MAPP... or officially the MAPP-FDL. I am pleased to say it was validated. No conditions, just some recommendations and a commendation. Yippee!

One of the recommendations did relate to the use of the term 'flexible and distributed learning' (FDL) and that we should should clarify what we mean by this term. The documents were modified accordingly, and this also led to us saying a little about what we mean by FDL on the course web pages here.

If you're really interested, the full validation documents are provided in the Bb shell, within the Introduction to Positive Psychology [Distance Learning] folder. Enjoy! ;-)

Padlet, Schmadlet

A childish title for this blog post I know, but there you go. I was inspired to try Padlet after one of my fellow students on the course introduced it to the group during one of the teaching sessions. I had a quick play with it, as I had been looking for something that might help encourage MAPP students to begin jotting down and sharing ideas about dissertation topics for next year. As padlet allows postings as though on a 'wall', I thought this might work as an electronic version of 'post-it' notes, something we had used in previous years. The advantage is the discussion could build and develop over time, students could comment on others' ideas, and so on. So I thought I would give it a shot and set up a page with some brief instructions:

The students needed a bit of coaxing, but eventually they started to add some of their thoughts:

So, so far so good. It does seem a little limited in that the option to print out as a text file doesn't keep comments together (in that a comment relating to an original post is not listed alongside this). Perhaps an online mind-mapping tool is what is needed instead? The live padlet page can be found here.

Using Twitter to support learners

I originally set up a @BucksMAPP Twitter account a couple of years ago (August 2013) aimed at students on the MSc Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) as a way of quickly sharing links and web resources in a way that other methods didn't allow quite so easily.

Email would have been the obvious other choice, but it wasn't so easy to send a link to a group email from my phone with just a couple of taps. Similarly, Blackboard (Bb) didn't allow a quick way to share in this way. Twitter did, so I set up an account for the MAPP (already having one myself), and then embedded the Twitter feed in the Bb module shells for each of the modules on the MAPP. This meant that even students who were not users of Twitter could access the tweets via Bb.

The aim was to encourage sharing between students on the course as part of the emerging MAPP community. Some students occasionally would send an email to the student group, or post a link on one of the Bb discussion boards. The use of Twitter in this way helped to show other ways of sharing resources and gave me a quick way of sharing things that I thought may be of interest to students.

Since then, the number of followers has increased modestly to show that the Twitter feed is of interest to people outside of the course and tweets have acknowledged that through more 'promotional' tweets, such as those promoting the PG Open Evenings. However, the underlying aim is still to support and develop the broader MAPP community.

I am just beginning to explore other ways of using Twitter to support learning, such as those discussed here. Even something as basic as using hashtags! It's a brave new world ;-)

The Positive Psychology People

Today is the UN International Day of Happiness. So be happy... If only it were that simple! We know it's not, and the area of psychology that I am most involved in is 'positive psychology' which is dedicated to the scientific study of topics such as happiness, wellbeing, flourishing, and so on.

The reason I mention this here is today has also seen the launch of a new website, www.thepositivepsychologypeople.com, that aims to promote positive psychology around the world. The website has been developed by a small team, of whom a number are some of our first cohort of MAPP graduates who completed the MAPP in 2014. It is therefore a project that has very much grown out of the MAPP, and something that we are keen to see develop and grow.

As I learn more about the concept of 'communities of practice' (e.g., Wenger, 1998), I am wondering if 'The Positive Psychology People' (also on twitter as @ThePPPeople) is something that might, in time, form the basis of a community of practice for positive psychology in general, and our students and graduates in particular. More on this in later posts.

Reference

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Go Luck Yourself!

One of the projects I was working on over the past year was something I was calling 'Go Luck Yourself!' (GLY!), a research project in which I wanted to explore the impact of certain apsects of positive psychology upon people's experiences of 'luck'. The project built upon previous research I had conducted on the psychology luck that formed my PhD (something I have blogged a little about elsewhere).

The GLY! project involved six fortnightly sessions in which participants were introduced to a set of related ideas based upon psychological theory that might impact their experiences of 'luck' (that is events that happen to us that are seemingly brought about by chance or other factors beyond our control). The reason I mention it here is that the GLY! project involved an online element, so that participants could take part without having to attend sessions at the university and could participate fully online.  Or they might choose to attend some sessions in person and some online. This was made possible by my filming the sessions I was running at lunchtimes on campus (using Swivl and an iPAD or iPhone), and posting these on a specially constructed Blackboard organisation for which I gave participants guest usernames. I have included these materials in my PGCert submission (itself a Bb organisation) to give an idea of how these materials looked and how they were presented to participants. An example of one of the recordings (the first of three parts that comprised session 1) is embedded below:

At the beginning of the project, prior to the first session, participants were asked to complete some online assessments (via PsychData.com, a secure service that allows online surveys and other psychoological assessments) and then complete the same assessments at the end of the project, up to 2 weeks after the final (sixth) session. They were also asked to keep a 'Luck Journal' throughout the 12 weeks of the project to record their experiences of luck (both good and bad!) during this time, along with any other thoughts about the GLY! project and luck in general. They could do this as a hard copy journal (and were provided with a book for this) or they could post their journal directly on Blackboard using the 'journal' facility on there.

A Twitter account for the project was also set up to help promote the project and also to support participants by reminding and encouraging them to view the sessions (if taking part online) and to remember to keep their Luck Journal. I even created a 'tongue-in-cheek' hashtag #DFYLJ (Don't Forget Your Luck Journal!). Those participants who completed the online assessments at the end of the project and submitted their Luck Journal received a certificate of completion.


I presented some initial findings from the project at the Applied Social Sciences Research Group in March 2015 and will also present as part of the Applied Positive Psychology Symposium in May 2015 (slides are in my PGCert submission Bb organisation, and can also be viewed via issuu.com here).

My reflections here focus on the effectiveness of the online element of the project, specifically how engaged online participants might have been. The long and short of it is that they weren't. Of 66 participants who originally signed up to take part (by completing the online assessments at the beginning of the project) only 14 (21%) completed the assessments at the end of the project (despite several follow-up emails to encourage completion). It was also clear that engagement in the project by those viewing the online materials quickly dwindled as the number of views of the video-recorded sessions reduced after the first couple of sessions.

In essence, I think there were two main reasons for this. The first is that I had originally intended to make the sessions far more interactive than they ended up being. They became more 'instructional' and I was aware that people's time was quite limited. The small number of people who attended in person were doing so in their lunch-break and so I was keen not to take up more than around 30 minutes for each session. Similarly, I was sensitive to the fact that those viewing online wrould be more likely to watch clips that weren't overly long (and I was limited to uploading in 15 minute parts due to YouTube's restrictions).

The second main reason is that I would have liked to given more time to building a 'community' for all participants that the online participants would have felt part of and perhaps supported them through the project. I attempted this a little through the use of a specific GLY! twitter account (@go_luckyourself) and by encouraging use of the discussion boards on Blackboard. But, if I am being honest, these were really a half-hearted attempt to create any sense of community.

I am considering running the project again in some way and looking at ways of making the sessions more interactive and introducing additional ways of supporting participants through a communityor example, maybe framing it as the 'Go Luck Yourself! Challenge' and explicitly asking those taking part to use social media to report on how they're getting on? One other simple change may be to make it a 6 week programme with one session (or 'lesson' or 'step') each week, rather than once per fortnight. Something that might help put it into the routine of participants.

Introduction to Positive Psychology (Distance Learning)

As noted in an earlier post, the main context for me undertaking the MSc in T-eL (though I am
increasingly seeing this more as the PGCert in T-eL as I can't see me continuing past the first year of the course as I have found it very difficult to create the time and space for studying!) is the development of distance learning versions of modules that form the MSc Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP). The intention is that we will work towards validation of a 'distance' MAPP this year for this to be available from September/October 2015. The business case for this has already been approved and so we are now preparing validation documents ahead of a validation event towards the end of April, early May, 2015.

Our first step towards this was through the development and delivery of a 'distance learning' version of the Intro to Positive Psychology module that forms the opening module of the MAPP. This ran for the first time in semester 1 of 2014-15 at the same time I was beginning the MSc (or should I say PGCert!) in T-eL. I am therefore using this as a backdrop for the learning on the T-eL course as an opportunity to critically reflect on the process of developing and delivering materials from a T-eL perspective.

The module recruited seven students. Three based in the UK, two based in Denmark, one based in Italy (and New York - she relocated for part of the semester), and one based in Canada (Vancouver). This is a small cohort, but a size I was happy with given that we hadn't actively advertised the course, and a smaller group might be easier to manage for the first time running the module.

The module materials (including module feedback) can be found in my PGCert Bb organisation. The Bb module shell itself can be made available as this also has all announcements, etc. [its module code is PS726]. Overall, the module seemed to run well and was well-recieved. Some key reflections are:

• Being prepared - I was underprepared. The practical running of the module was a challenge to keep up with, partly due to me having taken on some additional teaching as a Visiting Lecturer at another institution over this time. I would have liked to have had much more of the materials prepared ahead of time, but in practice I was creating the 'presentations' as they were needed on a week-by-week basis (sometimes on the day they were due to be uploaded!). These were Adobe Captivate presentations based around Powerpoint presentations with an audio narrative. I am deeply grateful to Dave Bull in the Open4Learning unit as it was he that was taking my Powerpoint and narrative and turning this into the Captivate presentation. It was he that had to cope with me sending him the file on the day it was due and it was he that had to get this converted and uploaded the same day! Thank you Dave. And my apologies. :-)
• Preparing the students - Had I been more prepared, I would have better prepared the students. Both for what was expected in terms of assessment, as well as preparing them for online studying. As I now reflect on the importance of 'access and motivation' (stage 1 of Salmon's (2000) model), I realise that I could (indeed, should) have placed more attention on supporting students in terms of the basics of how the course would work, accessing Bb, how to get IT support if needed, etc. I think I was fortunate that no major issues of this nature arose, though in future I need to ensur students are provided with enough resources and support at this early stage.
• Community - As the course progressed, I became more aware that more could be done to encourage and support greater student-to-student interaction. This is something we see clearly in the 'attendance' version of this module (and the related modules on the MAPP) when students are with each other in person one weekend each month. Online learners did engage with the discussion boards and communicated with each other in that way. We also used the discussion boards to allow discussion of the poster assignments towards the end of the module and this seemed to work well (students commented on each others' posters and asked questions, and a discussion and sharing of experiences emerged quite naturally). One aspect of the 'attendance' version of the module that I didn't incorporate into the 'distance' version was co-coaching, where students coach each other with assignment work. I felt this might be too difficult to do, but I now realise that Skype could allow this easily and it will be especially important to include this element in future versions of this module (and the other 'distance' MAPP modules).

This latter point, regarding 'community', was picked up in some of the informal module feedback from one of the students. She felt the group did not develop a 'cohort identity'. I agree, and more could be done at the early stages to encourage and support this. If one was to relate to Salmon's (2000) model, then it would be to some extent at stage 1, but primarily as stage 2 (online socialisation) of this model where greater emphasis could be placed on supporting students to develop their individual and group online identity. This aspect of community, and cohort identity, becomes an important feature of the MAPP and needs to also be an important feature of the 'distance' MAPP.

UPDATE [12 May 2015]: The MAPP 'distance', or MAPP-FDL, as it became... has now been validated!

Reference
Salmon, G. (2000). E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page.

How do I make time for studying?!

A quick confession [I had orginally written 'A quick rant...' I decided this was more of a confession than a rant]... In an earlier post, I asked 'How will I learn?'. In that, I noted that I would find it difficult to create the time and space to prioritise the work I needed to do for this course. And it has come to pass.

Occasionally I am asked, typically by one of the students on the MAPP, 'how is your course going...?'. I am usually reluctant to answer as I am very much aware that I am doing very little work that is dedicated studying or the course. Yes, I am spending much of my time reflecting on various aspects of t-eL as part of preparing and delivering courses that involve t-eL, and in seeking to validate a fully distance learning MSc course, but this does not include reading and writing that directly forms part of my coursework.

If nothing else, I now have a greater empathy for students on the MAPP, many of whom are in full-time employment, have families, and are studying in their 'spare' time. It is a challenge.

Development: Stage five of the five stage model

This final stage of the model is where learners are more independent in their learning and demonstrate greater critical thinking and self-reflection. Relating this to the distance learning module I have been running that is now reaching its conclusion, while it may be true that some of the students have reached this stage, it is fair to say that this is probably not typical. And I think it is understandable and reasonable to not expect this to be the case. This is a single module over 14 weeks. The module itself, while offered as a stand-alone course, is designed to be a introductory course/module that forms part of a bigger whole.

As and when we have the MAPP-DL running, we might expect students in the second semester modules to be reaching this stage (or reaching it more quickly) as they are already comfortable with the learning technologies, they are continuing to work with a student cohort they have socialised and exchanged with (if appropriately supported) and they are building their knowledge further.

Learning and teaching rhizomatically?

These are notes taken from the BETT show talk - 22 Jan 2015) by Dave Cormier (www.davecormier.com; @davecormier; davcormier@upei.ca; #rhizo15).

This is the guy that coined the term MOOC (?). Discusses 'communities of practice'. 

Learning is like weeds? Weeds follow their own paths. Learning especially in Internet age follows this pattern.

Teaching rhizomatically... Opening the curriculum.  Messy networks. Real networks are messy. They are not tidy.

(Learning on MAPP is like this. Assessment via reflective journals, etc. attempt to assess this type of learning.)

Dave talks about using a Learner Contract. Sounds like he negotiates work with the student

Measuring learning? The fact that you need to do it, doesn't make it possible. Does everything we do need to be measurable? Things that we care about aren't things that we can measure. 

Question by Steve Wheeler, Plymouth Uni. This doesn't suit all learners? Suited to certain types of learning. Very relevant for Masters level learning, and applicable to MAPP.

I put together a short presentation relfecting on my experiences at BETT, and this talk in particular, that can be viewed here.

Knowledge construction : Stage four of the five stage model

At this stage, learners are more confident, more active in their learning and interaction, and require less and less technical support. They are therefore more actively involved in knowledge construction than at earlier stages and may be more involved in creating opportunities to explore and challenge the topics they are encountering on the course.

It seems to me that the boundaries between stage 3 and 4 are quite blurred, and maybe that is intentional and understandale. I suspect the boundaries between all stages are to be somewhat fuzzy.

In terms of the Intro to Positive Psychology distance learning module I have been running, this aspect seems to have developed quite naturally. On reflection, I think my support has paralleled that which the 5 stage model suggests an e-moderator might do at these stages to support learners as they progress. There is more I could have done, such as more active encouragement of co-coaching between students, though I am feeling reassured that my actions seem to have been in line with this model of good practice!