Ways of fostering student engagement with learning Diana Laurillard London Knowledge Lab Institute of Education 08 July 2013

The issues Global demand for HE The aims of HE Strategic aims The roles of TEL Modelling costs and benefits Academics as teaching innovators The Challenges to Higher Education

The global demand for HE The new UNESCO goals for education: Every child completes a full 9 years of free basic education … Post-basic education expanded to meet needs for knowledge and skills … (Draft for UNESCO post 2015 goals) By 2025, the global demand for higher education will double to ~200m per year, mostly from emerging economies (NAFSA 2010)  Implying significant graduate and teacher training growth for this level of schooling and HE 1:25 staff:students??

The aims and purpose of HE UK Commission on the purposes of higher education: To inspire and enable individuals to develop their capabilities to the highest… To increase knowledge and understanding for their own sake… To serve the needs of an adaptable, sustainable knowledge-based economy… To play a major role in shaping a democratic, civilised, inclusive society… How can large-scale HE achieve that nurturing and engagement of the individual, while reducing the current 1:25 staff:student ratio for student support? = ‘personal motivation’ = ‘academic motivation’ = ‘vocational motivation’ = ‘social motivation’

What it takes to learn in HE What does it take to learn: the ways of thinking of very clever people their ways of practising in the context of formal education?

The learner learning LCLC Teachers’ concepts LCLC LPLP LPLP Learner concepts Learner practice Generate Modulate Learning through acquisition, instruction Learning through inquiry Acquiring Inquiring

LCLC Teachers’ concepts Learning environment LCLC LPLP LPLP Learner concepts Learner practice Generate Modulate Learning through practice with meaningful intrinsic feedback Task Actions Generate Modulate Feedback The learner learning

LCLC Teachers’ concepts Peer concepts Peer practice Learning environment LCLC LPLP LPLP Learner concepts Learner practice Generate Modulate Generate Modulate Generate Modulate Actions Ideas, questions Outputs Task/Feedback Acquiring Inquiring Learning through discussion from peers’ ideas, questions Learning through collaborating with peers in their practice The learner learning

LCLC Teachers’ concepts Peer concepts Peer practice Learning environment LCLC LPLP LPLP Teacher communication cycle Peer communication cycle Teacher modelling cycle Peer modelling cycle Learner concepts Learner practice Generate Modulate Generate Inquiring Discussing Acquiring Practising Collaborating Producing Engaging the learner means designing for the active types of learning in this ‘Conversational Framework’ for learning Representing types of learning Modulate

What it takes to teach in HE Engage students in attending to the narrative of the discipline Engage students in active learning through inquiry, discussion, practice, collaboration and production Plan for how students will learn in the mix of the physical, digital and social learning spaces designed for them  So the teaching workload is increasing in terms of preparation of teaching that engages the online learner support that improves on traditional methods providing options and flexibility BUT: Universities and academics do not typically plan for this type of teaching workload in relation to learning benefits…

Adaptive feedback (sim/modelling tools) Expositions (lecture videos) Automated grading (MCQs, quizzes) Readings (pdfs) Collaboration activities (wiki) Peer group discussion (forums) Peer grading against criteria (tests) Tutored discussion (forums) Tutor feedback (e-portfolio) Adaptive feedback (sim/modelling tools) Expositions (lecture videos) Automated grading (MCQs, quizzes) Readings (pdfs) Collaboration activities (wiki) Peer group discussion (forums) Peer grading against criteria (tests) Tutored discussion (forums) Tutor feedback (e-portfolio) Adaptive feedback (sim/modelling tools) Expositions (lecture videos) Automated grading (MCQs, quizzes) Readings (pdfs) Collaboration activities (wiki) Peer group discussion (forums) Peer grading against criteria (tests) Tutored discussion (forums) Tutor feedback (e-portfolio) Understanding high quality T&L MOOC vs standard online coursePreparation time (fixed costs) Support time (variable costs)

The Duke MOOC Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach Taught in class for over 20 years Experimental move to a free and open MOOC 12,000 students enrolled from >100 countries 8 weeks long 97 ~6 min videos 22 GB of data 1052 files 18 graded exercises, including a peer-graded writing assignment and final exam (Duke University 2013)

The Duke MOOC Not for undergraduates Potential undergraduates Enrolled students

The Edinburgh MOOCs Not for undergraduates Enrolled students Potential undergraduates 40% 30% 17% 10% 3% Edinburgh 2013 – Report #1

The Duke MOOC Not for the faint-hearted Comparable with normal online u/g courses Completed = 2% of enrolment, 25% of ‘engaged’

The Edinburgh MOOCs Average student numbers per course Completed = 10% of enrolment, 37% of ‘engaged’

420 hours to develop materials and course design Comparing the learning experience: Basic MOOCs vs the Duke MOOC Videos and pdfs Quizzes Wiki Peer discussions Peer grading Tutored discussions Summative assessment High on prep time Zero contact for 42 hours Low on prep time High contact for 8 hours learning 200 hours to support 8 hours for ~500 students = 1:20 staff student ratio Basic: 8 weeks, providing 50 hours learning time, no support Report at Duke: 8 weeks, providing 50 hours learning time:

Comparing teaching hours: Basic MOOC and the Duke MOOC Support time Duke MOOC 20 hrs200 hrs2000 hrs Basic MOOC 0.00 Teaching support time rises to 2000 hours for 5000 students hours = 1 year of a tutor for a 5 credit course. = 24 FT tutors for 120 credit course. Total teaching time Preparation time = 420 hrs The variable cost of high quality support does not achieve economies of scale Prep time = 420

Modelling the benefits and costs It’s important to understand both the pedagogical benefits and teaching time costs of online HE What are the new digital pedagogies that will address the 1:25 student support conundrum? How do we turn variable-cost pedagogies into fixed-cost?

Large-scale pedagogy (Edinburgh MOOCs) Academic reads posts selectively and summarises each week ✓ Popular with students ✓ Not a variable cost ✗ Students still just reading, not engaging ✓ Popular with students ✓ Not a variable cost ✗ Students still just reading, not engaging Student engagement in discussion is low

Pedagogies for supporting large classes Concealed MCQs The virtual Keller Plan The vicarious master class Pyramid discussion groups Tutorial for 5 representative students Questions and guidance represent all students’ needs Conceal answers to question Ask for user-constructed input Reveal multiple answers Ask user to select nearest fit 240 individual students produce response to open question Pairs compare and produce joint response Groups of 4 compare and produce joint response and post as one of 10 responses... 6 groups of 40 students vote on best response Teacher receives 6 responses to comment on Introduce content Self-paced practice Tutor-marked test Student becomes tutor for credit Until half class is tutoring the rest

Teachers as designers need the tools for innovation Tools for academics as learning designers To find or create new ideas Adopt Adapt Test To collect learning analytics Redesign Analyse Publish Creating knowledge about effective blended and online pedagogies

Tools for academics as learning designers

A library of patterns to inspect Academics sharing their best designs

Colour-coded text identifies content parameters Black text expresses pedagogy design Capturing their mixed mode pedagogies

Assigned metadata on learning type group size duration in minutes teacher contact/not resources attached evidence of learning Defining the metadata of their pedagogies

Export to Moodle for Ed students Interprets metadata to assign activity types in Moodle (or other LMS) Attaches resource links Inserts study guidance Collects data on student performance on TEL-based activities

Reversioned for Med students The cycle of professional collaboration: Search – Find – Adapt – Link resources and tools – Test – Revise – Annotate – Export to VLE – Publish to repository – Search Same pedagogical pattern Same study guidance except for subject content terms Different resources attached Same type of evidence data (?)

Conventional Blended Categorised learning activities Analysis shows more active learning A computational representation can analyse how much of each learning activity has been designed in Modelling the pedagogic benefits

Learner hours Learning activities Group size Per weekPer module Total Tutored discussion Readings Formative practice (tutor) Formative practice (peer)1 0 Formative practice (computer)1 0 Summative assessment (tutor) Building up own notes Exploring resources Application of concepts Personal tuition1 1.5 Self-directed learning8.5 Total learning hours300 Modelling the benefits of blended courses Academics define the mix of physical and digital activities, type of learning experience group size, and distribution of total learning hours

Learner hours Learning activities Group size Per weekPer module Total Tutored discussion Readings Formative practice (tutor) Formative practice (peer)1 0 Formative practice (computer)1 0 Summative assessment (tutor) Building up own notes Exploring resources Application of concepts Personal tuition1 1.5 Self-directed learning8.5 Total learning hours300 Modelling the benefits of blended courses Supports the academic in designing to engage students

Figure 2(b) Teaching time for a course with 40, 80, 160 students, gives profits of -£12000 £13000 £35000 Figure 2(a) Teaching time for a course with 40 students each year, gives profits of -£12000 £5000 £8000 Modelling the costs of online courses Modelling an IOE course over 3 years Prep hrs Support hrs Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Prep hrs Support hrs Yr1 Yr2 Yr3

Modelling the costs for increasing student cohort size Scaling up to large numbers will never improve the per- student support costs… …unless we come up with some clever pedagogical patterns that support at better than the 1:25 ratio The question is – what are they, and how do we develop and share them? What kind of university is going to think this through?

An institutional approach to blended learning Create a ‘T&L’ learning organisation: Changes to T&L are modelled carefully Model the University’s T&L principles Innovation is designed to collect and use evidence Invest in academics as teaching innovators Teaching innovation is rewarded alongside research Reconceptualise teaching as a knowledge building design science Engage students in developing pedagogic knowledge Start from the vision / teaching aim, not the technology The Senior Team must always ask ‘how can technology help?’ Create a ‘T&L’ learning organisation: Changes to T&L are modelled carefully Model the University’s T&L principles – Blended learning spaces Innovation is designed to collect and use evidence – Learning Analytics Invest in academics as teaching innovators – ‘E-Learning Incubator’, LTIs Teaching innovation is rewarded alongside research – Promotion criteria Reconceptualise teaching as a knowledge building design science – CSHE Engage students in developing pedagogic knowledge – Student reps Start from the vision / teaching aim, not the technology – CSHE The Senior Team must always ask ‘how can technology help?’

Teaching as a Design Science: Building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology (Routledge, 2012) tinyurl.com/ppcollector Further details… The ALT MOOC ‘OCTEL’ Open Course in Technology Enhanced Learning at April 2013http://octel.alt.ac.uk/

The global demand for HE requires investment in pedagogic innovation for MOOCs to deliver TEL-based pedagogic innovation must support students at a better than 1:25 staff-student ratio Academics need the tools to design, test, gather the evidence of what works, model benefits and costs Teachers are the engine of innovation – designing, testing, sharing their best pedagogic ideas Teaching as a design science: Tools for academic teaching The global demand for HE requires investment in pedagogic innovation for MOOCs to deliver TEL-based pedagogic innovation must support students at a better than 1:25 staff-student ratio Academics need the tools to design, test, gather the evidence of what works, model benefits and costs Teachers are the engine of innovation – designing, testing, sharing their best pedagogic ideas