April 15: Module 1:

Planning for Online Learning

Dr Katharine Jewitt
Module 1
• Online Learning: Planning
• Prepare to teach in an online environment.
• Organise your course materials and communicate with students.
• Conduct classes synchronously and asynchronously online.
• What is different between learning online and learning in the physical
space?
1. Which model of learning would suit my students’ needs?
2. Five top tips to teaching and learning online
3. Summary
4. Activity
How do learners experience the digital
environment?
Differentiation: how learners experience the
digital environment
How we might describe learners and what
research offers to show us how to work with
learners
7 Key themes for students
7 Key themes for students
7 Key themes for students
What can you do?
1. Initiate a digital strategy group, informed by staff and student perspectives and underpinned by local and
national evidence.
2. Engage staff, learners and employers in defining expectations of technology use for staff and learners in
your organisation.
3. Undertake your own evaluations of staff and learners’ use of technology in order to understand the
spread of experiences and expectations within your community.
4. Plan carefully how to engage learners in a dialogue about technology. Consider using a variety of
methods which together: acknowledge how important technology is for learners, encourage learner
voices to be heard, include the variety of learner voices, manage learner expectations and feedback to
learners how their voices have been heard and used.
5. Use technology to collect data and engage learners in debates as part of a ‘bitesized’, ongoing strategy.
6. Evaluation and consultation methods should inform decision making processes to ensure that resource
investments and acceptable use policies are aligned with learner needs.
7. Assess learners’ access, skills and practices on entry and at track at set points to see how they are
progressing.
8. Conduct evaluations effectively within your own contexts which lead to trustworthy results, such as by
sharing appropriate methods and good practice in using these methods.
9. Have discussions with your manager. You need senior manager support to create the time, access and
motivation needed to experiment with technology so that you can gain experience and confidence in
using learning technologies and create modern learning resources.
Learning environment

https://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html
Student Induction
• You’re now going to watch three videos of students sharing their experiences of induction to
online courses.
• As you watch these videos, you'll notice that each person emphasises different things about the
process of beginning an online course.
• Whilst you watch the video clips, please jot down your thoughts and experiences on induction
activities and preparing students for online learning.
• After watching the videos, you will directed to add your notes to a shared, digital noticeboard.

Jon - 2 minute clip Louise - 2 minute clip Kathy - 6 minute clip

Add your thoughts from the videos and from your
experiences on induction activities and preparing
students for online learning.
Why are we looking at a duck’s bottom?
Hybrid Learning Model

Step 3: Break your

Step 4: For each
Step 1: Provide a objectives down
Step 2: Record the event, describe
summary of the into a sequence of
objective of each the sequence of
learning activity learning events
individual learning actions performed
you wish to using as few or as
task / activity by teacher and
describe / analyse many of the
student.
events as you wish

Complete the mapping grid

Thirty Teaching and Learning Verbs
Sample flash cards
Sample flash cards continued
Sample flash cards continued
Sample grid
 Possible Uses for Learning Design Frameworks
Enhanced
briefing Course “The students now demonstrate a greater
for revalidation understanding of what is expected of them.”
students

Reflection,
Sharing evaluation
Peer “Equally suited to describing
Observation Practice and review
of practice Face-to-face and online
learning events, the model
“The downloadable cards from offers a common design
the Hybrid Learning Model Reflection, language for both”
Staff / Improving evaluation
website: student student and review
https://bit.ly/39Mu3mM allow skills
induction of practice
teachers to become effective
practitioners.”
Hybrid Learning Model Mapping Grid
HLM Mapping Grid
Example Mapping Grid
Learning Events and Learning Verbs Combined

On the downloadable
cards, the learning verbs
are matches to the
appropriate learning
events, defining teacher
and learner roles.
Putting them together on
cards, helps in your
planning and reflection.
Learning Design Activity
• Think of a learning activity that you have been involved in recently.
• Describe your activity using the HLM grid.
• Examine each learning event and assign verbs to describe both the
teacher and learner role.
• Identify tools required and any other comments you will find useful.
Synchronous and asynchronous modes of
teaching
One of the most common ways to think about teaching online
is to consider whether it might be synchronous, asynchronous,
or a mixture of both.
5 Top Tips to teaching and learning online

1.
It is worth providing a highly structured set of tasks in the opening
stages of the course, with discrete outputs, which enable you to see
very quickly which learners are completing the tasks on schedule and in
the manner that you desire. You can then follow up individually with
those who are not engaging in the expected manner and offer advice
on how they should approach the tasks and their online learning
experience.
5 Top Tips to teaching and learning online

2.
During synchronous events, you can combine existing classroom skills
with the features of the environment (such as the teacher controlling
whose microphone is enabled at any given time) to avoid any one
learner dominating discussions. In asynchronous discussions,
inappropriate or tangential comments can be moderated or, if
appropriate, challenged publicly, as with a face-to-face teaching setting.
5 Top Tips to teaching and learning online

3.
If you are moving into the online environment with your teaching, you
also need to be aware of the complexities that technology may bring.
Whilst it is not usually necessary to become a technical expert,
familiarity with the common technical issues your learners may face
can be a very useful skillset to develop. If, for example, you can advise
on the common techniques to resolve audio issues during synchronous
online sessions, you can both save time and stress for learners and
build their confidence.
5 Top Tips to teaching and learning online

4.
Your confidence to approach new technologies and to deal with issues
that arise in their usage will grow as you gain experience and this
makes teaching online a much more pleasurable experience. So set
aside some time to play and familiarise yourself with the tools you
expect to use. Also, it is always worth finding out whether there are
training or development opportunities focused on the specific online
teaching technologies that you expect to use.
5 Top Tips to teaching and learning online

5.
Teaching online is a substantially different experience to teaching face
to face, with a substantially different skillset needed for the teacher.
The good news is that most teachers can adapt not only their skills, but
also many of their existing teaching materials, to suit an online
environment. There are a lot of possibilities, but as a minimum, if you
and your students have computers and access to the internet, then you
can start to teach and learn online.
Summary
• Synchronous and asynchronous activities are a key distinction in
teaching online, and deciding which activities or resources should be
used synchronously and which asynchronously is one of the
fundamental skills any online teacher must develop.
• Collaboration between students, and between students and teachers,
is an important factor in both synchronous and asynchronous online
teaching, helping to create a sense of connection between all
participants and to build a sense of community and shared purpose.
• Collaboration in a synchronous environment can be achieved in much
the same way as in a face-to face-classroom, with discussions and
group tasks. In the asynchronous environment, collaboration can be
trickier but is still very important in reducing the sense of isolation
learners may feel when working online. Discussions and group tasks
can work just as well asynchronously as synchronously. Indeed,
because of the lack of time constraints, learners can spend time
composing a quality response when contributing to an asynchronous
online discussion.
Group Discussion - Prompt questions about online course inductions
• Think about online courses you've participated in
• How did they try and induct you into the course?
• Examples:
• introductions discussion boards (participants talking to each other? talking into the void? tutors
responding?)
• welcome videos/podcasts from tutors
• introductory webinars
• ice breaker activities (what sort? in groups or individually?)
• topic activities (diving straight into the course topic)
• guided tours (live, text, video, etc) of the course site and/or other technologies
• face to face meetups or phone calls with other participants and/or tutors
• quizzes (eg 'is your computer set up properly?', 'are you ready for online learning?', 'have you planned your
time?', 'how much do you know about this subject?')
• others…?
• Did you do any/all of the induction activities on offer?
• Did the induction activities help prepare you for the topic of the course? Did they help you feel
comfortable with online learning/interaction? Did they help you become familiar with the
technology and the course site?
• What worked for you? What would you have done differently?