CPD Activity 3 - Unit leading
Last year the centre for workforce innovation at HSU created
the PGCert in Health Sciences in Education for both HSU academic staff and NHS practitioners.
The course is designed to improve the knowledge and skills for those involved
in health sciences education. The course covers a range of medical and educational
pathways underpinned with theoretical frameworks and evidence-based practice. I
was approached by the head of teaching and learning to undertake the unit lead responsibilities
of the Technology and Digitally Enhanced Learning unit. Having a keen interest
in educational technologies, over 10 years’ experience in the field, I leapt at
the opportunity to unit lead. This section will discuss parts of the journey as
well as some of the theories and technologies that are investigated throughout
the unit.
Creating a unit – the curriculum build
The timescales were exceptionally tight from being approached
to delivering my first lecture with only 8 weeks lead in time, I had to build
the curriculum, create the teaching materials and prepare the unit in Moodle. This
was a huge undertaking at a time when I was still orienting myself into HSU
as well as carrying out my full-time duties as a learning technologist, many evenings
and weekends were consumed. I was initially supported by the teaching team and
my line manager (head of teaching and learning) but ultimately it was my
curriculum to build. There was already a pre-agreed unit specification and
assessment structure in place, so I needed to build something that aligned with
the intended learning outcomes (ILO’s) for the unit. (see below)
Essentially the course is designed for students to implement
a TEL intervention into their existing teaching practice, students are assessed
on a written project proposal and subsequently a video presentation to demonstrate
their implementation journey framed around the unit topics.
I started out the planning by using an ABC Learning Design template
(photo below) which helped to visually map out each seminar and the associated
learning activities. This really helped as a live document throughout the unit,
as it allowed for continual monitoring and could be easily modified. Once I had
mapped out the unit, I then created a duplicate digital version which could be
shared with other members of the programme team.
The unit runs for 6 weeks of teaching and is structured as
follows:
Week 1 – What is TEL?
- Introduction
to TEL in Education
- Definition
and scope of TEL
- Importance
and use of TEL in education
- Technology
enhanced learning definitions and terminologies
- Advantages
and challenges of integrating technology into teaching and learning
- Benefits
of using TEL solutions
- What
are some of the barriers?
- Application of TEL in Health Education and NHS in practice
Week 2 – Theories and models to underpin TEL
interventions
- Designing
for technology enhanced learning (TEL models, principles and approaches)
- Learning
Design framework - ABC Learning Design recap
- SAMR
- RAT
- TPAK
- Exploring
pedagogical approaches to TEL
- Blending
TEL with traditional teaching methods
- Flipping
the classroom
- Best Practices in evidence-based TEL Integration
Week 3 – Practical week
- Dorset Innovation Hub introduction
to frameworks (guest speakers)
- ADDIE
- Understand
the implementation journey E2E
- Stakeholder
relationships (stakeholder mapping exercise)
- Technical
specifications/considerations
- Critically
assessing technology requirements, user acceptance & functionality
testing
Week 4 – measuring impact
- Investigate
the principles of measuring TEL
- Models
for reflection
- Measuring
impact
- Quantitative
Metrics
- Qualitative
Metrics
- Next
Steps
Week 5 – Disrupting the norm
- Emerging technologies – disrupting the norm
- Developments in AI in education
- Investigate how AI is influencing educational practices
- AI debate afternoon
Week 6 – reviewing your understanding of TEL/Assessment preparation
- Recap
session on previous weeks - opportunity to ask any questions around the
taught disciplines in relation to Technology Enhanced Learning
- Preparing
for your assessment
- Providing
study support/1-2-1 support for your assessment - opportunities to meet
with the Learning Technologist for direct assessment tutorage
The next steps were to start creating the teaching
materials, this is quite an intensive process to ensure the content is suitable
for L7 andragogic learners Knowles, M. S. (1950) I also had to ensure the course was relevant
to my student cohort combining of academic and NHS professionals. I factored in
time each week for a writing retreat so that the students could start to piece
together their written text in preparation for their assessments. I also tried
to create a balance between didactic teaching Cabero-Almenara, J. Et Al (2019) and activity-based learning,
this helped to enhance student engagement and created a discursive flow throughout
the seminars. Next was a period of
intensive research around pedagogical approaches and frameworks for TEL, ensuring
that I was not duplicating theories already covered on other units on the course.
I found this one of the most challenging aspects of preparing the unit as there
are a large plethora of theories and framework that relate to TEL, I used ChatGPT
to home in my research and consolidate the theories and frameworks relevant to the
unit. I tried to use a different technology in the lectures each week which
helped to keep the students engaged and used them as a discussion tool, e.g.
using Padlet with the ‘I can’t draw’ feature was a great ice breaker in week 1 where
the students used a simple tool to generate an AI image. Students would use the
technology as instructed and then we would discuss how they could apply the technology
to their own disciplines. I also formed a standard structure on how the materials
were presented each week in the VLE as follows:
- Introduction to the week with a brief description of what will be covered
- Pre-reading and pre-sessional materials (videos, podcasts)
- Lecture slides with notes
- Supporting resources
- Post session links, resources and reading
A notable part of the teaching delivery was the inclusion of
an academic debate on the use of AI in education. I wanted to ensure AI concepts
formed a significant part of the disrupting the norm week as it is an integral
part of TEL and will help better prepare students when engaging with AI tools
in the workplace. To ensure the students were fully prepared for the debate, I
started to introduce it to them from week one of the unit delivery and split
the cohort into two teams (for and against). I set out the debate topics and
the students decided between themselves how they would disseminate the workload.
- Topics to research:
• AI
– how is it used in education to enhance practices and outcomes, should it be a
recommended TEL tool?
• AI
– A tool for content/curriculum creation
• AI
– Used as a study aid for students
• AI
usage in academic writing/assessment
• AI
Academic misconduct
The debate was also layered with a SWOT analysis to help the
students structure their own debate preparation. Each week throughout the unit
delivery I scaffolded the debate task by adding a slide to each seminar with a more
detailed and refined information, this helped the students feel prepared and
ready to debate.
Understanding that the students had put a lot of effort into
preparing for the debate, I wanted to ensure they were given an opportunity to
present their ideas to a wider audience, so I enlisted the support of the institutions
research manager, professor of research and PGCert framework lead. Together
with myself we took the role of panel members and me as the debate chair. The debate
itself flowed well, and it ended up being a very discursive activity. The students
created presentation slides as prompts for their arguments, and topics were
debated in a professional and robust manner. When facilitating the debate in future
I would make some changes to the amounts of topics and the format. I found less
is more, and it is better to have more time to debate fewer topics, I also need
to build in contingency for changes on the day as two of the students were unable
to stay for the full duration of the debate. Overall, I was really proud of my students
for the efforts they had put into the debate and how they conducted themselves
on the day. The outcome of the debate was that AI is being adopted into various
educations formats and we should all embrace the use of AI, with understandings
around how it can be misused as a tool for academic misconduct but also as a mechanism
to enhance teaching and learning.
Reflections
Having the opportunity to unit lead has been significant milestone in my career, I have found the process both stressful and rewarding and have been able to identify areas for personal and professional development. I found running the unit a second time was much easier as I had a base to work form and could refine the materials, rather than building them from scratch. Feedback from students and peers has been to slim down and refine some of the areas of the unit, I have attached some of the student feedback. This was especially notable in the theoretical side of the unit where I not only had too many different theories and frameworks to demonstrate, but I also found I had run short of time, when delivering this to students. Before the next round of teaching, I will look to remove some of the materials from the presentations and will focus on ensuring the content is relevant to both NHS and HSU staff.
Evidence
PGCert Week 2 Theories and Frameworks for TEL
Presentation to the education committee on academic debate and AI
References
- Knowles, M. S. (1950) Informal Adult Education, New York: Association Press. Guide for educators based on the writer’s experience as a programme organizer in the YMCA.
- Cabero-Almenara, J., Arancibia, M.L. & Del Prete, A. Technical and Didactic Knowledge of the Moodle LMS in Higher Education. Beyond Functional Use. J. New Approaches Educ. Res. 8, 25–33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.7821/naer.2019.1.327
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