Dr Simon Paul Atkinson (PFHEA)
Enhancing Institutional Outcomes
The FLANZ webinar ‘Is the Future of Education Inevitably Going to be Digital First?’, held 6th November 2020, was a conversation about how the world of higher education, in particular, has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and whether the future looks different as a result. Duncan O’Hara, FLANZ Vice-President, led contributors, Australian-based Professor Neil Selwyn …
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We need to continue to move away from seeing tertiary education as the imparting knowledge and see it rather as developing the skill of all students to be able to decide which learning pathways best suits their context, prior experience and aspirations. One of the consistent messages I try and instil in others’ practice is …
Continue reading “Designing Pathways: which way to innovation?”
I have been rather busy of late, so this is a rather delayed post from an interview done in June 2020 with SRCE, the Croatian National e-Learning Centre. The Interview appears under the title “Student je središte obrazovnoga procesa”, which translates as ‘The student is at the centre of the educational process’. Below is an …
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This presentation was prepared in the first months of the Covid pandemic to argue that educational designers would be vital for the creation of quality online courseware in institutions where this was not the norm. Please allow time for the audio files to buffer. This may take a minute depending on your connection. Adobe Presenter …
Continue reading “Approaching learning and teaching from different perspectives”
Launch Adobe Presenter. You may need to advance a slide to trigger download. EDEN Webinar April 2020 Adobe Presenter
On April 27th I had the pleasure of sharing a virtual platform with Alan Tait (Open University UK), hosted by Tim Read (UNED, Spain), for a webinar entitled ‘How to Engage and Support Students Online’. This is the EDEN (European Distance Education Network) community’s response to the demands put on staff to teach remotely, many …
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I believe it is important to design learning from the learners perspective. That means learning that is both relevant, meaningful and motivating but also that is realistic and feasible within an agreed timeframe. This is a very brief explanation for those new to designing courses of how to work out “how much is enough?” I …
Continue reading “Working with Notional Study Hours (NSH) or “How much is enough?””
In this short video (5’52”), Simon touches on three basic principles of programming assessments. The first is that it should be programme wide, the second that assessing outcomes not content provides future flexibility, and the third that summative (or credit-bearing) assessments do not have to be final or terminal assessments. Assessment is one of the …
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This short lecture (10’22”) presents the fundamentals of assessment for learning. Often referred to as formative assessment, I prefer to use the terms ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘assessment of learning’ instead of formative and summative. This is because ‘summative assessment’ is so often conflated with the notion of ‘terminal assessment’ that only happens at …
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This short lecture covers the essential details of deep, surface and strategic learning as described by Marton & Säljö. (1976). It invites the watcher to reflect on their own strategies (as a learner) and those of their students. Simon then goes on to suggest five considerations from a course designers perspective. Marton, F., & Säljö, …
Continue reading “Designing Courses: Surface, Deep and Strategic Learning (13’16”)”
This excerpt (8’30”) is from the ‘wrap-up closing keynote delivered by Simon Atkinson at the Estonian e-Universities Conference held in April 2009 in Tartu, Estonia. Simon builds on comments made by conference contributors to reflect on issues such as media environment, cultural priorities, and the breadth of the state curriculum.
In this short lecture (9’38”), Simon outlines the basic structure of sound assessment. Describing reliability, validity, and fairness in assessment and exploring a range of different assessment forms. These range from diagnostic to synoptic (capstone), to formative and summative. Being familiar with some of the language around assessment is important in order to get the …
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Lesson planning is more structured in K-12 and professional contexts than in most higher education institutions. This is disappointing because planning sessions, adjusting to context and level, duration of session, and cohorts, provide the basis for ongoing reflection. This video (9’36”) outline as 5 step lesson planning model. A link is also provided to the …
Continue reading “Teaching Enhancement Toolkit: Simple 5 Step Lesson Plan”
While many of us cringe at the sound of our own voice and hate seeing ourselves on film, witnessing, and reflecting upon, your own teaching performance is invaluable as a teaching enhancement technique. This brief video (1’20”) introduces the concept of video (or audio) recording your own teaching practice as a point of reflection. A …
Continue reading “Teaching Enhancement Toolkit: Micro-Teaching”
One element in any teacher’s enhancement toolkit is the evaluative comments provided to you from your students. Usually, these are captured at the end of a module, far too late to benefit your current students. This short video (2’18”) links to a Word Document that serves as a template to support you in eliciting constructive …
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Course: Designing Effective Intended Learning Outcomes (August 2022) This brief video (2’07”) is a reminder of the structural support that intense learning outcomes provide to the course design process. Having an understanding of the need to align course/module outcomes with programme outcomes, and to differentiate these reassessed outcomes from non-assessed topic/weekly level objectives is important. …
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A brief explanation (2’22”) of the central importance of designing well-structured intended learning outcomes for courses. Five domains of learning, details of which are available here: https://sijen.com/research-interests/taxonomies/ are all important in a balanced course. Structuring outcomes with an active verb, subject and context are also shared. These resources from 2013-2017 are being shared to support …
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Originally Posted to LinkedIn on Thursday 2nd April. Change is often difficult. Actors who were adored as Vaudeville artists, glamorous or heroic, sounded unconsciously like clowns on the radio or looked clumsy and inarticulate on television. Many fell by the wayside, drifting into obscurity. Does the current global shift into supporting learners online mean …
Continue reading “‘Just’ get your courses online…Really?”