A Community approach to staff development in eLearning

A community approach to staff development in eLearning

History

>> UNITEC INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Past

Distance & Flexible Education Capability Assessment


Distance & Flexible Education Capability Assessment


LMS investigations


Leadership commitment


Living Curriculum


• Involve Complex conversations

• Are Curiosity / Inquiry led and stimulating

• Are practice-focussed – educating students 'for work, in work, through work'

• Are socially constructed – self-sufficiency and collaboration are equally valued, and together they help nurture resourcefulness and resilience

• Blend face-to-face and web-based learning

• Are research-informed

• Have a discipline base, and are also interdisciplinary

• Develop literacies for lifelong learning

• Include embedded assessment

• Active and responsive interaction with industry, professional and community groups shapes content, curricula and delivery modes

Communities of Practice


“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 2006

Support

Support

“The CoP model has been a key vehicle for facilitating collaboration within and across departments, as has the funding of specific ‘technology stewards’ (eLCCs) within the departments. These eLCCs are vital shaping voices in helping keep the focus and purpose of eLearning developments on core pedagogic issues.”

Keesing-Styles and Ayres (2011)


Identity


Flickr - gnuckx

Cochrane

Technology


● Passion for domain

● Internal leadership

●Energized core group

● Focus on practice

● Trust

●Community rhythm

● Personal touch

●High value for time

●High expectations

●Engaged sponsorship

●Skilled support

● Lack of time

● Leader neglect

● Focus on events

● Focus on documents

●De-energizing tasks

●Red tape

● Logistics or IT

●Command/control

●Cookie-cutter approach

● Ideology

Wenger & Trayner 2010


Enablers and Threats

Getting everyone on board


eLCC Feedback

“I cannot emphasise enough how important and meaningful this event was for me. Wenger and Trayner provided the eLCC group with an important introduction into community of practice theory and practice, and eLCCs spent the week conversing, bonding and learning. We entered as individuals and exited as a community. As far as I’m concerned, the organisation of that workshop was a stroke of genius.”

(eLCC quoted in Benseman, 2011, p. 8)


eLCC feedback

Dawn of a new era




Global community


Department community

Flickr - simpologist


Feedback – time and workload

Flickr - Cristóbal Cobo Romaní


Feedback – digital literacy

Flickr - David Gallagher


Feedback - resistance

Flickr - blentley


Feedback - support

“My involvement in the Unitec eLearning Community of Practice was hugely beneficial to me, impacting my role both within my own department and across the institution as a whole... Being part of a wider community exposed me to a range of other Unitec staff with an interest in eLearning. I was able to share my ideas with others from different disciplines and to adopt ideas used elsewhere to good effect. I have certainly learned a lot from the experience and continue to benefit from a number of ongoing professional relationships formed through this community.”

eLCC


Reflections on community

Narayan 2010


Reflections on community


Where to from here?

Thank you
