If you build courses for a living, you should be taking courses for it too

I believe anyone working in online learning should be a serial student of online courses to master their craft. Obsessively taking classes gives a learning designer two powers; the first it allows them to understand how excellent and poor courses are put together, the second is they get empathy for the students that will take the courses they build.

Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.
Bruce Lee

Knowing the learning theory, research, and technology is essential. Applying design principles will maximise the return of these three skillsets. Still, nothing will give you the sensitivity like being an online student.

There are lots of great online courses that you can find for free that are doing some exciting things such as KhanAcademy.org, Brililiant.org, the Youtube creators academy, and the free sample modules of Quantic.edu. Udemy has some great courses that can be reasonably cheap if you catch them in the sale, and the Interaction design foundation courses are essentials for any aspiring learning designer.

Nothing is quite like a cohort-based course though, so budget to do at least one per year or get your work to pay for it. Learning in a cohort can be much more attractive as an experience than self-paced courses and more rewarding, and building an online community is an art form that takes time to learn. An MIT course on the Get Smarter platform was the last one I took. The short course can be bundled together with other MIT online courses to get a Postgraduate certificate from the world-class University.

Get in touch on Twitter to let me know any good courses you have taken and what they have taught you about learning design.

Hypocrisy and Integrity

According to the Oxford languages site (the one Google search uses for definitions), hypocrisy comes from the greek hupokrinesthai meaning to play a part or pretend. It is defined as ‘the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.’

Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behaviour or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behaviour does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the failure to follow one’s own expressed moral rules and principles.
Wikipedia

Oxford languages define integrity as ‘the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.’ It comes from the Latin integer meaning ‘intact’.

Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one’s actions.
Wikipedia

In a world full of hypocrites, be a person of integrity.

What is the skills gap?

The skills gap refers to the gap between the skills employers need and the skills individuals have. This gap is growing due to the increasing amount of technology used in the workplace requiring new skills that employees need to learn. The gap is growing as employees, both future and present, are either not learning the skills quickly enough or are learning the wrong skills altogether.

There are four main stakeholders, the businesses that employ people, individuals in or entering the workforce, education providers that prepare people for the work, and governments that can provide an efficient environment for the other three stakeholders to operate effectively.

Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.
Voltaire

As an educator, my main focus is on the individuals in or preparing for the workforce. Work is extremely important, most of us find meaning in the work we do, the majority of the socialising and connections to other people is through our jobs, and they allow us to develop mastery. Gaining the right skills to get a good job also provides financial rewards that offer us freedom and independence.

All four stakeholders aim to narrow this gap and provide bridges between people and jobs. The UK Government has recognised that the increase in higher education participation rates to over 50% of the population has not narrowed this gap. They have taken bold steps to address this issue with the apprenticeship levy, postgraduate loans, and the recent technical qualifications. Many university leaders following the Augar report are pushing for lifelong learning credits or similar to support the reskilling in additional to the other changes.

Further increasing participation in higher education is not enough as there needs to be an effort to match the skills required with the ones being taught. There are significant moves from the government towards addressing this issue so it now the turn of educators to take the raw materials we are given and work with employers and students to build the bridges to connect the two.

The SAMR Learning Model

The first digital iteration of technology in any field tends to replicate its analogue predecessor, the next iteration then starts to exploit the possibilities
Kevin Kelly

SAMR is a model of learning and teaching created by Dr R. Puentedura frames the use of technology into four categories based on its impact on the student experience.

SAMR model

Enhancement
- Substitution – Technology acts as a direct substitute, with no functional change
- Augmentation – Technology acts as a direct substitute, with functional improvement
Transformation
- Modification – Technology allows for significant task redesign
- Redefinition – Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable

The first two categories are where the teaching has been enhanced by technology, and the second two is where it has been transformed by technology. The use of technology in the enhancement categories may bring some benefits, but the real improvements come when technology is used to do something that was not possible or practical previously.

Substitution could be represented by synchronous video calls with all the students and academics present at the same time to replace an in-person seminar or pre-recorded video used to replace lectures. The technology has enabled remote access to learning, but the method of delivery has not really changed. Augmentation then brings some functional improvements such as the students using the chat function to create rich conversations around the seminar topic and answer each other’s questions with higher engagement than in a physical classroom with one person talking at a time and the most confident students taking up much of the dialogue. Lectures might be reproduced in smaller 6-10 minute videos interleaved with automated knowledge checks (self-marking quizzes) that allow all students to test their learning and the academic know which ideas might need revisiting.

The benefits of digital technologies will come with the modification of teaching and the move from a focus on ‘contact time’ to ‘learning hours’. Academics can be freed from the traditional constraints of the timetable and campus and design teaching around ideas and exploration rather than hour slots and room capacities. Modification might include the mixing of what used to be taught as in-class, such as the presentation of content in a lecture, and independent study, such as reading journal articles or problem sets to create a more natural route through the subject. Modification might be experiencing too by exploiting the interconnected nature of the internet to create new social learning experiences. Redefinition could suggest using technologies to allow students to take greater control of their learning and might include teaching through questions like platforms include Brilliant.org and Smart.ly or practical competency-based methods like Khan Academy that adapt to the strengths, weaknesses, and pace of each student. These digital approaches can free up time for academics to work with small groups of students on problem-based projects and other classroom-based active learning methods.

Redefinition should be the goal in the redesigning of learning and teaching, using the internet to remove the traditional constraints of in-person instruction and create a richer student experience around the subject narrative.

How to use SAMR

Universities could use the SAMR learning model as a benchmarking exercise to help people understand how technology can transform teaching to help planning or as an audit approach at module, course, and department level to understand the maturity of blended and online learning practice. It could just be used as a framework to help academics think about the use of technology in teaching and remove the pressure of moving too quickly.

It is at this point in the year that university leaders and academics are starting to think about next year. Do we move back to predominantly in-person teaching, continue with our enhanced approaches or learn from emerging transformational practice that will deliver a step-change in the student experience? The more important question might be, how fast do we change? Do we push ahead with improvements and push academics too far or risk losing some momentum to protect teaching staff?

If possible, we need to maintain the progress we have made this year and allow the majority of academics to evolve their practice with some incremental enhancements while supporting those that want to go faster to create transformational approach. Redefine learning and teaching and can then be seen as a direction of travel with speed controlled by individuals as they become comfortable with the benefits different technologies can bring.

Watch a six-minute video with Dr Ruben Puentedura describe his model. Get in touch on Twitter if you are thinking about using the SAMR model or are starting to plan what the 2021/22 academic year and beyond might look like.

Running programme duration

I have just completed my final hard weeks of training in the sharpening phase of my half-marathon plan and now have two weeks of taper before my time trial on the 20th December. I am 25 miles ahead of my target 2000 miles for the year, and blogger Geek in the hills has suggested instead of taking half a week off after my virtual race, I should aim for 2020 for symmetry. We shall see.

With two weeks left of my current plan, I have started to think about what next. In last weeks Sunday Runday post, I talked about creating a plan, and the week before I talked about picking a peak race. This week I wanted to cover step two of programme creation and talk about plan durations and start dates.

With any plan, you want to prepare for an event to improve fitness significantly. The peak race must be far enough in the future to prepare for optimal performance but not too far away to lack urgency and motivation to train for it. Suppose your goal race is significantly in the future such as the end of the summer next year. In that case, you might want to commit to a more immediate goal, such as the next step on the distance runners progression and start the preparation for your goal event later in the year.

Choosing the ideal programme length depends on two things, your current level of fitness and the distance of the peak race. The fitter you are, the less time you will need to prepare so the shorter the duration. More extended distance events such as the marathon require more preparation time and so longer plans. Maintaining a base level of fitness at all times and never dropping training completed will allow you to skip the first few weeks of most programmes. The longer the peak event, the longer the recovery period after so remember to take at least two weeks of rest at the end of the year to recover.

Aim to peak three and no more than four times per year.
Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald

Optimal training plan duration by peak-race distance*

5k: 12-16 weeks

10k: 14-18 weeks

Half-Marathon: 16-20 weeks

Marathon: 18-24 weeks

*Running Faster, by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald

Spring in the UK starts on the 21st March next year and the start of the road Marathon season begins towards the end of April with the London Marathon (it has been moved to October again this year). If we start training at the start of winter (20th December this year), we could peak for a 5k in mid-March, or a 10k in April towards the end of April, a half marathon in May, or a marathon in June. These lengths could be shorter if you carry fitness into the new year but allow you to have an enjoyable festive season too.

Pick up a copy of Run Faster by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald and contact me on Twitter if you have picked a peak event for Spring next year and have started training already.

Rite of passage

According to the Oxford reference website, a rite of passage is ‘A ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone’s life, especially birth, initiation, marriage, and death.’ In Pavel’s book Enter the Kettlebell, he writes about a Russian rite of passage; a boy becomes a man when he can one-arm strict press a 32kg kettlebell over his head.

The book provides a simple programme to prepare you for this initiation; performing clean and press ladders three days per week with a heavy, light, and medium day. The book suggests to use Saturday as your heavy day, Monday as the light day, and Wednesday as your medium day. Start with a Kettlebell you can strict press 5-8 times with your weaker arm. For better progress and balance, do pull-ups in between each rung of each ladder matching the number of presses.

Heavy day

Week 1: 3 sets of a 1,2,3 ladder
Week 2: 4 sets of a 1,2,3 ladder
Week 3: 5 sets of a 1,2,3 ladder
Week 4: 5 sets of a 1,2,3,4 ladder
Week 5: 5 sets of a 1,2,3,4,5 ladder
Week 6: move to a heavier Kettlebell and start again on week 1

For the light day do five sets, but two rungs less than the heavy day. For the medium day do five sets, but one rung less than the heavy day.

So week one you would do a clean and press with the left arm, then a clean and press with the right arm and then one pull up to complete the first rung on the ladder. Then two clean and presses with the left arm and two clean and presses with the right arm, then two pull-ups to complete the second run. Then three clean and presses with the left arm and three clean and presses with the right arm, then three pull-ups to complete the first ladder. Rest before starting the second set.

Each rep is one clean and one press. The aim is to practice the clean and press as a pair to prepare you for heavier Kettlebells.

I can do eight presses with a 24kg Kettlebell, and so I am using that for the next five weeks before moving up to the 32kg. I am continuing with the swings from my earlier post and including five sets of five goblet squats with the 32kg kettlebell. The combination of heavy swings, goblet squats, clean and presses, and pull-ups is an excellent strength and conditioning routine on top of my running.

The ultimate goal described in Enter the Kettlebell is to press the Kettlebell closest to 1/2 your body weight (40kg Kettlebell for me) and do 200 kettlebell snatches in 10 minutes with 24kg. This book will provide a good six months of training to get me to that benchmark.

So, if you haven’t already, buy at least a decent 24kg kettlebell (cheaper bells can have uneven and rough handles) and work through the progression of the swings, training most days based on feel. From there, get a 32kg and then a 40kg kettlebell and build your ‘Courage corner’.

I aim to test the 32kg press on new years eve. Let me know on Twitter what training you are up to at the moment, and any rites of passage you think are worth achieving.

Why Die?

Owning a Kindle has increased my reading significantly; I advise everyone to get one to read in bed before sleep. Last night, I finished the book Why Die? The Extraordinary Percy Cerutty, ‘Maker of Champions’. It is a biography of the famous and controversial Australian running coach from the 50s and 60s.

…through a program of violent physical exertion, a diet of natural foods, alternative theories of medicine and the forensic examination of his inner life, sculpted it into an organism capable of sublime physical expression. Graem Sims

Cerutty’s Stotan lifestyle was based on the ancient Greeks stoic philosophy and spartan physical training. He saw modern urban life and office work as emasculating men and removing their emotion and passion. The only solution for men to rediscover their true nature and thrive was to respect their bodies and seek to perfect them.

Percy viewed running as a purifier of the soul and the ultimate physical expression. He often told his athletes to conjure up primitive fight or flight responses to maximise performances in races and valued effort above all else. Although known for producing some of the greatest milers in history, he advocated running long distances on trails and in the wild to reconnect with nature and push the body to its limits.

This book is full of great lessons, deep thoughts, and self-sabotage collected around the colourful life of a true character. His message is as important today as it was in the 1960s; Re-educate yourself, lift weights, eat real food, run a lot, climb mountains, sprint up dunes, swim in the sea, read widely, write a lot, and most of all live a life of freedom and adventure.

Caramel coffee, Panda Dung tea, and gaining aesthetic and ethical knowledge

It is strange how your memory works and the way you connect specific Knowledge with experiences, even if they are entirely unrelated. My wife bought me a series of Chrismas coffee pods calendar for our coffee machine as a homemade advent. Each morning I come down to the kitchen and see a plate with two coffee pods and some other treats to mark one day closer to Christmas day.

This morning one of the pods was a caramel flavoured coffee that was distinct enough for me to stop my working and enjoy the hot cup of joy. While drinking it, I was transported to a sleepy bus ride in Thailand a few years ago between an airport and a ferry on the way to Koh Samui. I had fallen asleep listening to the Homo Deus audiobook by Yuval Noah Harari and woke up to a story about tea.

Take tea, for example. I start by drinking very sweet ordinary tea while reading the morning paper. The tea is little more than an excuse for a sugar rush. One day I realise that between the sugar and the newspaper, I hardly taste the tea at all. So I reduce the amount of sugar, put the paper aside, close my eyes and focus on the tea itself. I begin to register its unique aroma and flavour. Soon I find myself experimenting with different teas, black and green, comparing their exquisite tangs and delicate bouquets. Within a few months, I drop the supermarket labels and buy my tea at Harrods. I develop a particular liking for ‘Panda Dung tea’ from the mountains of Ya’an in Sichuan province, made from leaves of tea trees fertilised by the dung of panda bears. That’s how, one cup at a time, I hone my tea sensitivity and become a tea connoisseur. If in my early tea-drinking days you had served me Panda Dung tea in a Ming Dynasty porcelain goblet, I would not have appreciated it much more than builder’s tea in a paper cup. You cannot experience something if you don’t have the necessary sensitivity, and you cannot develop your sensitivity except by undergoing a long string of experiences.
Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus

The author was describing the need for an alternative approach to the scientific method of empirical data and mathematics for gaining knowledge about ethical and aesthetic things. The humanist approach suggests Knowledge = Experiences x Sensitivity. Experiences are subjective and require a mixture of sensations, emotions, and thoughts. Sensitivity requires you to pay attention to your senses and then allow these sensations, feelings, and ideas to influence you. In this way, knowledge is built up with cycles of experiences and actively practising sensitivity to your reactions. This type of knowledge is not from a book but a practical skill gain by continuous iterations towards enlightenment.

Harari writes that ‘The highest aim of humanist life is to fully develop your knowledge through a large variety of intellectual, emotional and physical experiences.’ Close your computer, make a coffee, sit back in your chair and close your eyes, and start your journey to aesthetic and ethical knowledge.

Pick up a copy of Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow and contact me on Twitter once you have read it.

Can Hyflex save us?

Most universities are currently delivering via blended learning with social distancing. Students get a mix of in-person teaching supported by synchronous sessions via Microsoft Teams or Zoom and asynchronous online learning through pre-recorded video and digital activities. In most situations, academics have curated the mix by keeping collaborative learning in-person and moving content delivery online.

Many academics have struggled to adapt to this new mode of teaching that requires a skill set that they have had to pick up over the summer break and have not had a chance to explore and test with student groups to learn what works. There are varying views from students too; many students want more in-person teaching, whereas others want to stay away from campus to feel safe.

The Hyflex module of course design as started to be discussed as a possible solution to the rapid move to blended learning. In Hyflex, both online and in-person modes are developed for the same cohort, with multiple paths of equal quality through the content. Students have the choice on a session by session basis which mode is most suitable for them and building in shared comprehension checks, and discussion threads can bring the modes together.

This approach is different from a blended course where academics choose which parts are best delivered online and which are best delivered in-person. Also different from providing video feed of an in-person session for people who can’t attend. Hyflex puts the mode of learning entirely in the control of the student.

“You want to be able to create a fully online version and a fully face-to-face version and find ways to bring them together into a single course experience that has multiple participation paths … And the student gets to control whether they’re doing it online or in the classroom.”
Brian Beatty, creator of the Hyflex model

The Hyflex course design model was created by Brian Beatty and colleagues at San Fransisco State University and first introduced in 2006 to make their campus-based Masters course more accessible to their students, many of whom were working adults. It has been continually developed since and detailed in an ebook written by Beatty that he gives away for free.

I am interested in reading the book to understand the model fully. My first reaction was scepticism to the idea when an American university administrator raised it in a conversation at a conference. High-quality online learning and high-quality in-person teaching are hard to design and develop, so asking academics to do both for the same cohort was expecting a lot. Expecting them to have a cohesive thread running through the course to track engagement and maintain a community within a cohort when each student is continuously moving between modes seems like a high-level skill developed over many course iterations. To deliver at scale would present a challenge for staff new to online learning and require significant investment in training, support, and set up time.

For term one this academic year it was impractical to expect staff to develop fantastic blended courses in a short period due to workload. But many students feel they have not had enough in-person or quality online learning for their needs or preferences. Perhaps Hyflex development as an exolving approach where the course gets better over time might solve many of the problems we currently face and deliver authentic student-centred flexible learning.

Let me know what you think on Twitter.

Online programme Management (OPM): what are they good for?

Core competencies are the resources and skills that give an institution its unique place in the market. It is a management theory created by Prahalad and Hamel and published in the HBR in 1990. An institution should never outsource its core competencies.

An Online Programme Manager (OPM) company in the Higher Education sector is a private company that provides core services to a University to get them delivering online courses. These services typically come as a package for a percentage of the student fee with the University providing the academics and the degree awarding powers. The OPM may provide individual services such as marketing and recruitment with the institution doing the rest.

The typical services include:

Market research for which courses to develop
Marketing these courses
‘Active’ recruitment
Learning Design and development
A virtual learning environment ecosystem and other technologies to deliver the courses through
Student engagement & retention services

The question is, what are a university’s core competencies and, with an OMP deal, are we outsourcing these to a third party? It is clear the quality of the institutions academics are one, and the degree-awarding powers and how they maintain the rigour of these are another, but Learning design, and student engagement and retention services must be others?

For institutions that are starting in the online learning area, OPM deals can help them learn how to do online learning properly. However, it could be argued that the services OPMs provide are becoming core competencies. Universities that have not been developing these skills for the last few years will have found themselves with a vast skills gap this academic year with blended learning with social distancing delivery.

For those institutions looking to partner with an OPM:

Approach the partnership and the contract as an opportunity to learn how to do high-quality online learning not to outsource a future core competency.
Make sure the agreement provides opportunities to terminate the contract if the OPM does not deliver the required student numbers or quality promised.
Get the OPM to demonstrate, with examples, how they define quality online learning and make sure the team that build those examples are the team you will be getting.
Have a solid financial model for income and expenditure over the first three years and get evidence that the OMP can deliver this.

Get in contact with me on Twitter if you want to share experiences of working with OPMs or if you are thinking of partnering with one and want to talk it through.