Using Elluminate ® to develop Open University Associate Lecturers at a distance (the OU in the North West) Annie Eardley, Elke St John

Content of session Background information Our project Benefits of delivering training online & traps to avoid How to devise an effective session

Aims of Session Understand the benefits & traps of online training Identify pedagogical and technical aspects of online training Recognise key aspects of successful online training

Staff Development for Associate Lecturers at the Open University Induction Central briefings Regional events (generic and faculty-based) Online material

The OU in the North West 1000 Associate Lecturers students

Media of delivery Face-to-face Elluminate Combined face-to-face & Elluminate

example

Previous events Training on and about Elluminate  Familiarisation  Improver  Role of teacher  Learning Styles  Teaching activities Generic training  Exploring TutorHome  Move to Outlook  ALs as role models for reflective practice (dual mode)

Planned events for Title of event Venue How to apply for a jobf2f & Elluminate Library trainingElluminate TutorHome workshopElluminate Handling expectations & conflictsF2f & Elluminate Students with mental health issuesElluminate Elluminate training Familiarisation with Elluminate Improver: Learning more tools in Elluminate Teaching ideas with Elluminate Elluminate Ethics on social networkingF2f & Elluminate Challenges and opportunities of tutoring offender learnersElluminate How to quickly adapt OU Open Learning resources for your students. F2f & Elluminate

Planned events for Languages ALs workshop title Meet the HoD 'Projet Aquitaine: the OU's involvement in an international distance language learning project' Teaching cultural competence in language learning Supporting Language students within the Autism spectrum Blended teaching and the changing role of the language tutor Establishing and maintaining a relationship with your students VLE 2.0 – what is in it for the language tutors? Teaching through assessment Giving audio-visual feedback to your students with Jing Differentiation project Teaching Pronunciation Mobile Learning Project Using assignment feedback to good effect “ Where did I save that file? – organising your electronic documents and resources”.

Benefits of online SD events Improve performance of tutors when teaching on Elluminate Reach a bigger cohort of ALs Make ALs more confident with technology Can be run simultaneously with a face-to-face session

Traps to avoid before session Send out pre-training information, e.g. podcasts Top tips ; Audio set-up ; Accessing room Top tipsAudio set-upAccessing room Set-up forum for questions R08-TRAININGR08-TRAINING Stress that it is online training Emphasise that headset is necessary

How to devise an effective session Pedagogical Issues 1.adapting the f2f teaching skills 2.non-verbal communication 3.raising hands 4.time issue 5.silence (especially with smaller groups) 6.class room management 7.follow-up with forum discussion 8.participant workspace necessary

How to devise an effective session Technical Issues 1.multitasking technical aspects necessary 2.text chat 3.keep training simple 4.create a safe learning environment

Reflection on our experience Laughter in sessions/humour Not making assumptions Recording of training  do we need an Elluminetiquette?  certain classroom ethics can be developed

Our experience within existing research Situated learning (e.g. Lave et al.) : i.e. training is not useful if not carried out on Elluminate Learning by doing (e.g. Brown et al.) Participatory approach (e.g. C McLoughlin builds confidence)

Conclusion: lessons learnt Initial reluctance needs to be overcome therefore: extended programme ALs have to move through Training not useful as a one-off, Als need workspace to follow up

Sessions very structured and clearly run. There were some issues on 15/4 with losing sound; one attendee in particular was affected which did slow session down. Learning in itself to see how Elke dealt with this.