#octel MOOC
Introduction & My “Big question”
I’ve enrolled in ALT MOOC with the first challenge being the management of the onslaught of mails, posts and tweets from my enthusiastic classmates. Literally over the last few days 100’s of my virtual classmates have addressed the first activity in the course by introducing themselves and posting their “big question” relative to the course. So heres my contribution to the deluge of information:
Introduction
Keeping my introduction brief. I work for Dublin City University, where I head up the Learning Innovation Unit (LIU). I would imagine so many people on this course are in a similar position to myself, loads to do and not enough time to do it in. The role of the LIU is to support learning innovation throughout the university so as you can expect we get calls from every corner of the college. It is great role and I’m very fortunate to have a great team, albeit far too small team. We are constantly looking for opportunities to establish collaboration with other third level institutions and as such this is a personal goal that I have for this course. Two technologies that we are interested in collaborative projects would be the use of Moodle in HE and the use of Google sites and Blogger for e-portfolios. . My Twitter id is @glynnmark and for more of a personal background please feel free to visit my linkedin profile – http://ie.linkedin.com/in/enhancingteaching
My big question is very simple how do I engage staff in the use of technology to enhance learning? I have staff with a wide range of abilities and interests when it comes to technology – how do cater for such a diverse audience, how do I measure the success of my team and our work programme. I’m very open to hearing the experiences of others with this and would welcome advice from all corners
Posted on April 9, 2013, in Uncategorized and tagged #OCTEL, alt, Dublin City University, e-learning, Massive open online course, mooc, Moodle, TEL. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
Technology Enhanced Learning 
Dear Mark, two very good questions I will comment on. The big question on how to engage academic staff in the use of technology to enhance learning is difficult to answer without dissecting it further. Knowing the culture and constraints associated with resources (technicial and personnel) in eLearning Centres in Ireland, institutions are somewhat reliant on the VLE to promote TEL. I do not consider this a ‘bad’ thing. Having a well planned strategy for the implementation of the VLE ensures there are expectations from all stakeholders. Policy makers and management promote their institution as being a modern university with online access to modules to support lectures, students have expectations regarding online content, and faculty are expected to use the VLE. I realise this does not guarantee quality or even engagement but it’s a starting point. All modules should have a presence online with students and lecturers enrolled. and VLE training should be targeted at individual lecturers and Schools, at variant levels of expertise, novice to advanced.
The next step is ensuing strategy to promote ‘modules’ to a quality standard. Pitch training for lectures to achieve this standard, including developing quality content, using Web 2.0 for such pedagogical strategies as reflection, peer review, group work, etc., and eassessment.
Introducing and mentoring lecturers in TEL can often ignite a ‘burning’ fire in some lecturers, with a small number become real champions.
I think the first and second question are interconnected. Have targets and goals for targeting Schools, training lecturers, developing modules, and providing support helps to measure achievements.