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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
