Human Resources ‘Blue skies’ storyboards Greg Benfield Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development

Iterative design process Blue skies design at Programme level Re-design at Programme level Risk assessment Design at Activity level Re-design at Programme level Critical friends Refinement of activity design Specific activity design (alpha) Implement & review

Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Blue skies storyboard Represent diagrammatically how you want your online course to be (best of possible real worlds) Why? To articulate the design objectives at the highest level … …so that decisions at finer grained levels are easier to evaluate … and see Sharpe, Benfield et al (2006)see Sharpe, Benfield et al (2006) Who for? Yourselves in the first instance … … and for your critical friends here today … students, validation panels, colleagues, etc

Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development What should go on it? The Blues skies planning checklist (handout) is a tool to help you identify important elements. It is not meant to be prescriptive – use as much or as little as you feel is relevant The next slides show some examples of what others did …

Human Resources

Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development

Institutional rationales… are highly contextualised and institutionally specific Flexibility of provision E.g. student recruitment and retention, opening facilities for longer hours, etc Supporting diversity E.g. online support services Enhancing the campus experience E.g. supporting geographically dispersed students, e-portfolios to support field work, technology rich classrooms that support interaction in large cohorts Operating in a global context E.g. marketing courses globally, competitive advantage, developing global citizens with e-literacy skills Efficiency E.g. free up staff time, or at least make working locations and hours more flexible, make more effective use of contact time with students

Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Local/course level rationales Maintaining course quality in response to increasing cohort sizes E.g. learning objects for working through difficult topics extension activities for subsets of students additional opportunities for feedback preparing students for practical work creating opportunities for dialogue in small groups promoting interactivity in class Engaging students out of class, E.g discussions which structure and pace study between face to face sessions discussion boards for sharing critical incident analyses during placements interactive tasks for students to use outside of class time multiple choice questions to help students judge their progress prior to examinations

Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Local/course level rationales 2 Developing professional skills online collaborative work as a key skill for modern business practice using spreadsheet tasks to develop computer literacy in accountancy promoting interprofessional learning in nursing Educational rationales enhancing associative, constructivist or situative learning

Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Recommendations be clear about the reasons for the blend be consistent and transparent in communicating rationales and expectations to students transformative practices were frequently underpinned by radical course redesigns: “We recommend engaging staff in multi-professional, team-based course redesign projects.” successful courses had undertaken several iterations of course developments, taking into account student feedback: “There is a need to undertake evaluations of e-learning developments and to co-ordinate, promote and disseminate their results” Sharpe, R, Benfield, G, Roberts, G and Francis, R (2006). "The undergraduate experience of blended e-learning: a review of UK literature and practice undertaken for the Higher Education Academy." Retrieved 3 October, 2006, from