1. KAJO – Flexible Blended Learning in Science of Education E-xcellence seminar, Oulu 19.5.2009 Eetu Pikkarainen

2. Background General decline of student amounts in educational open university studies in Finland

3. Development requirements Old model is of good quality but expensive, inflexible and heavy: Maintaining and bettering of quality level Increase of flexibility Decrease of spending of resources

4. An Old Aim ”To search and invent such a procedure that the work of student would minimise, but students should still learn more… (Comenius)”

5. Development goals Develop a total model for teaching and studies in province – and utilise it then in other teaching and studies Clarify the role of the collaborating provincial educational institutes (learning centres). Maintain the correspondence of content and demand level of studies in relation to degree programmes.

6. The nature of development Tradition respecting, pragmatic, short steps project. The whole area of action: administration, collaboration, marketing, etc. Learning and teaching in the focus.

7. Operations model of the project Open university is buying the teaching and its development from the department. Phased 3 year project: 1.general studies programme (25 ects) 2.subject studies programme (35 ects) Project group: teachers developing their courses (part time), team work, stake holders

8. Pedagogical base Theoretical clarity and scope as starting points Theory of pedagogical action (Benner, Kivelä, Siljander) Pedagogical paradox: not teacher centred nor student centred model

9. Pedagogical relationship and didactical triangle 1) contents 2) teaching 3) studying

10. Learning methods Contents -> Teaching -> Studying -> Learning Learning requires student’s action, theoretical work: study: interrogation (inquiry) Teaching promotes and directs this action towards the contents

11. ”Building blocks” Curriculum –Materials Teacher –Responsibility –Material –Lectures –Leaning tasks –Assessment Tutor –Leaning tasks –Discussions Student –Tasks, Discussion, –Feedback VLE –Tasks, discussions, links, archive,

12. Contents Courses  Programmes  Science of education  Pedagogical thinking  Education  Culture

13. Curriculum Starting from wholes (programmes) – content centred Especially the general studies are the general knowledge basis in all our degree programs of education Core content analyses

14. Programme model 3. Applying phase2. Content phase1. Orienting phase Introductory course (s) Subject area courses Small research thesis seminars

15. Teacher Teacher (researcher) is responsible of the whole course, the special learning material and assessment of students learning. Lecture as a traditional core of course. –Partly face to face, partly via ACP (good experiences!) –Partly to material

16. Tutor Students often have no experience in university studies. Aim: –Local process / group tutors in the institutes –Course-specific content tutors (Important!) Near collaboration with teachers Active interaction with students Mediating between students and teachers Tutor training

17. Learning material Teachers write material around their lecture notes. Recorded lecture snippets linked to material. http://apumatti.oulu.fi/apumatti/lcms.php?am=353-353-1 Course book: part of university studies.

18. Learning tasks Aim is to shorten the pedagogical cycle Essays and exams Mid exams Revision tests Peer referencing of essays / theses. Forced attending to discussions. Polls Questions

19. VLE (Virtual learning environment) 1: Channel of interaction 2: Platform of tasks Discussion and information archive Hopes: integration to email, assessment of all kind of tasks, collecting assessments, peer referee functions, etc.

20. Course structure example Orientation and tuning task (VLE) Learning material Lecture (f2f) Questions from students to teacher (VLE) Lecture (ACP) Mid tasks, discussions Revision task Essay / exam Feedback

21. QA and feedback system Feedback as general education goal: –Beginning, mid and end questionnaires (webropol) –Course-specific feedback boxes (VLE) –Tutor feedback –Teacher feedback –Collected reports yearly -> planning Quality assessment by E-xcellence tools Process modelling Connection to University QA

22. Applying Utilising in campus and degree programme. Bigger groups Common material. Similar tasks. Part of lectures to tutoring / discussion Tutoring practice in degree programmes. Unifying of QA and development.

23. Problems Technological-administrational restrictions (VLE) Student groups (Group support, Social media) Research should be made

24. Thank you! Comments and questions!? eetu.pikkarainen@oulu.fi