John Hannon

Incommensurate practices : sociomaterial entanglements of learning technology implementation.

The framing of ‘implementation’ of learning technologies in universities can have profound effects on approaches to teaching and learning that may be insufficiently acknowledged by practitioners. This paper investigates a case that demonstrated the formation of strong connections between technology and pedagogy, in which a learning content management system called for a series of accommodations between technology work and academic work. The site for this study was the meso-level in the university: those practitioners working in-between academics and institutional learning technologies, and draws on the accounts of practice by learning technologists during this implementation. The discussion of practice that emerges from these accounts draws on sociomaterial perspectives to draw attention to the contingencies of particular connections during the implementation process. This study does not assume that the work of implementation follows naturally from plans and intentions of human actors, rather it investigates actual arrangements and the entangled practices that bring significant unintended consequences. The findings suggest the need to attend to the potential for conflicting practices when system technologies become a key component of e-learning, and I argue for implementation to be scoped early to encompass pedagogical goals, and for interventions by learning technologists and teaching academics over all the social, material, and discursive factors that are critical to e-learning practice.

Curriculum learning designs: Teaching health assessment skills for advanced nursing practitioners through sustainable flexible learning

BACKGROUND Innovative curriculum designs are vital for effective learning in contemporary nursing education where traditional modes of delivery are not adequate to meet the learning needs of postgraduate students. This instance of postgraduate teaching in a distributed learning environment offered the opportunity to design a flexible learning model for teaching advanced clinical skills. AIM To present a sustainable model for flexible learning that enables specialist nurses to gain postgraduate qualifications without on-campus class attendance by teaching and assessing clinical health care skills in an authentic workplace setting. METHODS An action research methodology was used to gather evidence and report on the process of curriculum development of a core unit, Comprehensive Health Assessment (CHA), within 13 different postgraduate speciality courses. Qualitative data was collected from 27 teaching academics, 21 clinical specialist staff, and 7 hospital managers via interviews, focus groups and journal reflections. Evaluations from the initial iteration of CHA from 36 students were obtained. Data was analyzed to develop and evaluate the curriculum design of CHA. RESULTS The key factors indicated by participants in the curriculum design process were coordination and structuring of teaching and assessment; integration of content development; working with technologies, balancing specialities and core knowledge; and managing induction and expectations. CONCLUSIONS A set of recommendations emerged as a result of the action research process. These included: a constructive alignment approach to curriculum design; the production of a facilitators guide that specifies expectations and unit information for academic and clinical education staff; an agreed template for content authors; and the inclusion of synchronous communication for real-time online tutoring. The highlight of the project was that it built curriculum design capabilities of clinicians and students which can sustain this alternative model of online learning.

Making the Right Connections: Implementing the Objects of Practice into a Network for Learning

This chapter asks questions about how learning environments are assembled and what kind of networked learning is composed and enabled in the process of implementing institutional learning technologies. Arrangements for learning are a central concern of universities, but what is less clear is how these are put in place, that is, how disparate institutional actors and structures are accommodated and reconciled. This study focusses on the networked learning that is produced through these arrangements: how a learning environment is assembled in particular ways, and how practices associated with pedagogies and technologies are enacted and negotiated when different parts of the organisation intersect. In this study, I draw on a sociomaterial approach to investigate the nonhuman participants of a learning technology implementation, in particular the “objects” that tend to be overlooked in studies of teaching and learning practice. I argue that understanding networked learning means reappraising the objects that merit such resources and attention during implementation and that their role in the assembly of learning environments is critical to the resulting pedagogical practices.

Sustainable Practice in Embedding Learning Technologies: Curriculum Renewal Through Course Design Intensives

Application of learning technologies within the curricula often takes place at the point at which activities for teaching and learning are considered and generally occurs after a systematic process of curriculum renewal of courses (programmes) in higher education such as constructive alignment. Considering learning technology at this activity phase of curriculum design tends to focus on technologies as the delivery mechanisms of the instruction through the selection of corporate/institutional supported technologies. The risk with this approach is that technology guides the design of learning rather than technology being guided by pedagogical principles to facilitate learning. A “bolt-on” approach to learning technologies is adopted at the expense of the “built-in” design of learning activities that is informed by educational theories. This chapter presents an adaptive model that embeds learning technologies into pedagogical design at an early phase of curriculum renewal and development. The course design intensive (CDI) model demonstrates the processes and resources needed for a learning design approach that integrates technologies into curricula for sustainable practices. Factors that are critical to the success of CDI model are presented: the collaborative decision-making process, ownership of the design by faculty academics and peer review by cross-disciplinary “critical friends”. Examples are presented of the CDI models that illustrate the design intensive process of developing learning activities with appropriate media to facilitate student learning outcomes and experiences. These processes embed theoretical perspectives and address challenges that academics face in achieving goals of design and development of technology-rich curricula that develop graduate capabilities.

Sustaining interdisciplinary education: developing boundary crossing governance

ABSTRACT Interdisciplinarity has become part of contemporary university discourses on knowledge in both research and curriculum. The move to break down traditional disciplinary boundaries reflects emerging forms of enquiry into knowledge that are less hegemonic and more distributed, and more tuned to its production, practices and the needs of its practitioners. A focus on complex problems that draws on multiple knowledge domains and an emphasis on professional knowledge have engendered a loosening of discipline boundaries in the development of curriculum and degree programmes. In this case study, we investigated teaching practices across discipline boundaries: how interdisciplinary curriculum and teaching are understood, practiced and supported within an Australian university that typifies a discipline-based organisational structure. Through interviews with relevant academics, managers and professionals, we explored the challenges and strategies in sustaining interdisciplinary curricula that were managed between several disciplinary Schools. Our findings were two-fold: engagement with interdisciplinary knowledge had profound effects on academic culture and identities among participating students and teaching staff; and significant challenges arose in the coordination and administration of interdisciplinary education, with institutional structures highlighted as a contributing factor. While the literature on interdisciplinary education emphasises academic collaborations and leadership, there has been less attention to the role of institutional processes – mediated by procedures, artefacts and routines – in supporting and sustaining interdisciplinary education. Aspects of the case study are used to analyse the conflicting practices arising with interdisciplinary education, and to develop the potential for boundary crossing modes of interdisciplinary governance to counter the legacy of discipline-based structures.

OER in practice: Organisational change by bootstrapping

In this paper, we investigate an approach to institutional change that aims to establish open educational practices (OEP) in a university and inculcate the use of open education resources (OER) as part of its curriculum work and teaching practice. Traditional practices that involve delivering knowledge resources for individualised learning within semester-length units of study are becoming increasingly ill-adapted to the demands of a dynamic and global educational landscape. OER offers a sustainable and equitable alternative to such closed arrangements, with the potential to meet the emerging demands of distributed learning settings. Nevertheless, changing educational practice remains a formidable challenge, and adopting OER is a radical break from legacy institutional practices. Our focus in this paper is on the starting point for embedding OER in curriculum work and teaching practice. We investigate change through emergent initiatives rather than a top-down program at La Trobe University in Australia: we ask what connections are necessary to establish open practices in a university. We trace three instances of OEP in one university that together build capacity in OER. We draw on Bardini’s strategy of bootstrapping, as an iterative and co-adaptive learning process that connects good practices in situ with institutional structures in order to build the groundwork for emergent change. These cases demonstrate how disparate innovations can be connected and re-purposed to establish a network of nascent OEP.ResumenEn este trabajo investigamos un planteamiento de cambio institucional encaminado a establecer prácticas educativas abiertas (PEA) en una universidad e inculcar el uso de recursos educativos abiertos (REA) como parte de su trabajo curricular y su práctica educativa. Las prácticas tradicionales, consistentes en proporcionar recursos de aprendizaje para una enseñanza individualizada en módulos académicos semestrales, se adaptan cada vez peor a los requisitos de un panorama educativo dinámico y global. Los REA ofrecen una alternativa sostenible y equitativa a estas prácticas cerradas, y tienen la capacidad de satisfacer la demanda emergente en entornos de aprendizaje distribuido. No obstante, cambiar las prácticas educativas sigue siendo un reto formidable, y la adopción de los REA supone una ruptura radical con respecto a las prácticas institucionales heredadas. En el presente trabajo nos centramos en el punto de partida para integrar los REA en el trabajo curricular y las prácticas educativas. En la Universidad La Trobe (Australia) investigamos este cambio más a través de iniciativas emergentes que de un programa diseñado jerárquicamente desde arriba: nos planteamos cuáles son las conexiones necesarias para implantar prácticas abiertas en una universidad. Describimos tres casos de PEA que, juntos, generan capacidades de REA en una universidad. Aprovechamos la estrategia de bootstrapping planteada por Bardini como proceso de aprendizaje iterativo y coadaptativo que conecta las buenas prácticas in situ con las estructuras institucionales a fin de sentar las bases de trabajo para el cambio emergente. Estos casos demuestran cómo unos procesos innovadores tan dispares se pueden conectar y modificar para crear una red de PEA incipiente.