The concepts of practice and competence - post 2

Second paper for activity 6.1...

"Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report" Peter Goodyear et al.


This paper presents the outcomes of a workshop on competences for online teaching, held in the UK in 2000.

The begins by noting that while there is much hype around the growth in the market for online learning, the research evidence for this rate of growth is lacking. However, despite the hyperbole, it acknowledges that online learning is growing, and that part of this growth will be due to the reduction in expensive human resources. It notes (as you'd expect teacher/trainer/lecturer authors) that "more agile companies are realizing ... that a judicious mix of technology and teachers... can help achieve greater learning effectiveness".

The workshop reported on was tasked with sketching out the roles and competences associated with online teaching, and also to give a critique of the competency-based approach to understanding teaching. The authors also note the alternatives of humanistic or cognitivist perspectives, and state that while they are not explored in the paper, they should not be overlooked.

In considering the terminology used, the paper considers that major corporations and virtual universities seek to operate in a global context, and so consequently, definitions of the competences of effective online teaching should be expressed in a way which minimizes problems of interpretation across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. For me, this suggested that there was as assumption that the competences would be the same across cultures, but this seems to run counter to Hillier's point that students and staff (even within the same culture) can have different views on competence/excellence, and with the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)'s view that "values and codes of practice differ from institution to institution, discipline to discipline, role to role" (and presumably therefore also between cultures).

A major outcome of the workshop was the identification and description of the main roles of an online teacher. The authors note that while all the roles are unlikely to be of equal importance in any one specific instance of online teaching, they should all be understood. The roles identified were:

• Content facilitator
• Technologist
• Designer
• Manager/administrator
• Process facilitator
• Adviser/counsellor
• Assessor
• Researcher.

The workshop also identified candidate competences associated with each of the above roles (except adviser), see original paper, p.71. The authors made the interesting observation that a "number of statements are colored by an educational philosophy, which is not necessarily associated with online teaching and learning". This may reflect the attitudes and backgrounds of the workshop attendees (who are not identified, but which was sponsored by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction, the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology, and the Joint Information Systems Committee of the UK universities funding councils). It is possible that many of the attendees will have had a background in non-online teaching and learning, and access to online learning products, tools and research was far less when this paper was written nearly 10 years ago. These conditions would make it unsurprising that more general education philosophies are widely reflected in the competences identified. However, this observation may also relate to the underlying fact that online education is still education, however it is delivered. Conceptions of good practice in education have evolved over time, and online provision is a very new facet (in historical terms). This also reflects the ALT view that e-learning will become an embedded normal part of most learners' experience, and that therefore the term 'e-learning' will fall into disuse. They suggest using the term 'learning technology', reflecting the fact that technologies are used to support learning, teaching, and assessment.

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Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, J.M., Steeples, C. & Tickner, S. (2001) 'Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report' Educational Technology Research and Development, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 65-72

The concepts of practice and competence - post 1

Two papers to read for activity 6.1, on the subject of good practive and competence. There were no specific guidelines for the activity, so these are a few notes on the papers. First up:

"The question for competence, good practice and excellence" Yvonne Hillier.

This article is situated in the government-sponsored discourse around the development of professional bodies for higher education (HE), and hence has a focus on policy and on HE in particular. The paper identifies challenges in defining and assessing competence, good practice and excellence in teaching and learning.

HE is the subject of various initiative to increase participation. It is also subject to various bodies' assessments of the quality of provision. "There is an increasing recognition that good practice in teaching and learning plays an essential part of achieving government targets" (p.1). However, teaching is a social practice, reliant on an interchange between tutor and learner, and between learners themselves. Achieving excellence requires an understanding of what constitutes excellence in teaching and learning, but learners differ in their definition of excellence. Indeed, the conceptions of excellence expressed by learners are not matched by those of the QAA or ILT.

[This raises the question of what might constitute excellence in a course delivered online and with minimal tutor/learner exchange. Presumably there is a requirement for a high standard of materials, but a course which offered only excellent materials would be unlikely to be viewed as excellent - so what more is needed? Presumably the learning opportunities, activities and support must also be of a high standard... Unfortunately that is where this musing must end for now, as an exploration of what excellence means in an online course requires a lot more research than I can manage alongside this course!]

Back to Hillier... the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) evaluates applicants on four criteria:

• the ability to influence students positively, to inspire students, and to enable them to achieve specific learning outcomes
• the ability to influence and inspire colleagues in their teaching, learning and assessment practice
• the ability to influence the wider national community of learners and (HE) teachers in relation to teaching, learning and assessment
• the ability to demonstrate a reflective approach to teaching/supporting learning.

Hillier notes that the characteristics of excellence identified in policy models of teaching relate to:

• planning
• resources
• explicit statements of outcomes.

These differ from staff and student definitions of excellence which include;

• enthusiasm
• creativity
• interpersonal skills.

"Excellence is not something that is a defined outcome, but is part of a process where competence is the starting point for the pursuit of excellence."

Given the difficulties in defining excellence, the conflicting views as to what it means, and the consequential problems in measuring excellence, it is not surprising that Hillier concludes by noting that excellence is becoming less central to the research agenda, possibly for the pragmatic reason that it is so hard to quantify.

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Hillier, Y. (2002) ‘The quest for competence, good practice and excellence’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from:http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/resource_database/id494_quest_for_competence (accessed 22 November 2009).

Case study: Documenting student learning in outcomes-based education

Core activity 6.2 requires us to browse through some of the case studies from the Carnegie Foundation's Gallery of Teaching and Learning uses of the KEEP Toolkit. We need to find one or two examples where the claims made for benefits to learning are particularly convincing (or otherwise), prepare a brief comment on these cases and post to our group.

Case study: Documenting student learning in outcomes-based education 
The School of Information Technology and Communications Design, CSU Monterey Bay uses a series of Major Learning Outcomes (MLOs) as core requirements for graduation. MLOs are physical proof and example of knowledge gained on a course, and starting in Spring 2004, students used the KEEP Toolkit to produce an eportfolio page demonstrating the MLO evidence.

Goals:

• To encourage students to document and reflect upon their learning experience
• To make this knowledge explicit to themselves, their instructors, their family, and their prospective employers.
  

Key principles of practice:

• Promoting reflection on learning
• Allowed tutors to provide prompt feedback and guidance to deeper student reflection
• Developing a record of ones learning experience
• MLOs clearly communicate expectations and outcomes 
• Acknowledges the value of collaborative learning and sharing information freely
• Encourages students to demonstrate developing competencies over a period of time, allowing students to map progress
  

Would you recommend this case study for the presentation?
Includes links to 3 excellent eportfolios, and covers a range of practices, so I would recommend this one for the presentation.