Thursday, May 12, 2016

Creating blended learning approaches: An exploration of educational thinking and theory to inform the development of blended learning approaches including how technology can support learning & how it can be used to develop learning resources





"Dear workshop participants, the Padlet wall below, which is an online "graffiti" writing and posting surface / website, has been created to support a Post Workshop task in Blended Learning. The details of this Post Workshop task are described on the first post/document on the Padlet wall. 

This Padlet wall is an internet accessible (but not searchable) space, on which you can write and post documents. You can write and post on this Padlet wall by clicking on the red + circle on the Padlet link, or within the embedded Padlet wall in the blog.  You can continue to write/edit/delete your post as long as you use the same mobile or internet enabled device/tablet/laptop/computer. I have organised the Padlet wall so that each latest post will always be at the top, which will enable you to find your original post. You can access this Padlet wall either through this blog, or on its own hyperlink https://padlet.com/dnrgohps/CreatingBlendedLearning.

(Please be mindful that similar to this workshop blog, content on the Padlet wall is viewable on the internet. We remind participants to be professional, and both follow and respect confidentiality, privacy and intellectual property best practices and guidelines).

As you write each post on the Padlet wall, please identify yourself, and let us know where you come from, in additional to the content of your post. You should aim to complete your Post Workshop task in Blended Learning within three months of AMEE 2016."






Creating blended learning approaches:
An exploration of educational thinking and theory to inform the development of blended learning approaches including how technology can support learning & how it can be used to develop learning resources


What can we best do "live"?
What are the strengths of online learning?
Why blend? 
How can we best blend? What are best practices? Evidence based practices?
What are the roles of content repositories?
What is the role of the teacher? Instructor? Guide? Coach? Curator? Content developer?

Explore "blended learning" and "Flipped classrooms"

Explore educational theory/instructional design/technical matters




"Our challenge is to deepen our understanding of, and skill in using technology to support teaching and learning; to progressively and systematically increase our experience and evidence base of good practices; and learn how to best blend the use of technology, with traditional teaching and training methods to take advantage of the best features of both older and newer methods."

above from
Goh PS. eLearning or technology enhanced learning in medical education - Hope, not hype. Med Teach. 2016 Mar 16:1-2. [Epub ahead of print]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26982639






Goh, P.S. A series of reflections on eLearning, traditional and blended learning. MedEdPublish. 2016 Oct; 5(3), Paper No:19. Epub 2016 Oct 14.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15694/mep.2016.000105



"We feel that there are close parallels between the culinary arts and practices with the teaching and learning practices of medical educators. In this article we explore this culinary analogy as a means to help medical educators think about their educational practices and to develop their scholarship in medical education."

above from
Insights from the culinary arts and practices for medical educators
Poh Sun Goh and John Sandars (2016)








"Technology enhanced learning or eLearning allows educators to expand access to educational content, promotes engagement with students and makes it easier for students to access educational material at a time, place and pace which suits them. The challenge for educators beginning their eLearning journey is to decide where to start, which includes the choice of an eLearning tool and platform. This article will share one educator's decision making process, and experience using blogs as a flexible and versatile integrated eLearning tool and platform. Apart from being a cost effective/free tool and platform, blogs offer the possibility of creating a hyperlinked indexed content repository, for both created and curated educational material; as well as a distribution and engagement tool and platform. Incorporating pedagogically sound activities and educational practices into a blog promote a structured templated teaching process, which can be reproduced. Moving from undergraduate to postgraduate training, educational blogs supported by a comprehensive online case-based repository offer the possibility of training beyond competency towards proficiency and expert level performance through a process of deliberate practice. By documenting educational content and the student engagement and learning process, as well as feedback and personal reflection of educational sessions, blogs can also form the basis for a teaching portfolio, and provide evidence and data of scholarly teaching and educational scholarship. Looking into the future, having a collection of readily accessible indexed hyperlinked teaching material offers the potential to do on the spot teaching with illustrative material called up onto smart surfaces, and displayed on holographic interfaces."

Above abstract from 
Goh PS. Using a blog as an integrated eLearning tool and platform. Med Teach. 2015 Nov 11:1-2. [Epub ahead of print]


"An explicit description of the educational theories used to inform the design of an intervention with technology can provide potentially useful insights into why some interventions with technology are more effective than others. An explicit description is also an important aspect of the scholarship of using technology in medical education."

Above from
Sandars J, Patel RS, Goh PS, Kokatailo PK, Lafferty N. The importance of educational theories for
facilitating learning when using technology in medical education. Med Teach. 2015 Mar 17:1-4.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25776228


"We propose the need for a specific educational scholarship when using e-learning in medical education. Effective e-learning has additional factors that require specific critical attention, including the design and delivery of e-learning. An important aspect is the recognition that e-learning is a complex intervention, with several interconnecting components that have to be aligned. This alignment requires an essential iterative development process with usability testing. Effectiveness of e-learning in one context may not be fully realised in another context unless there is further consideration of applicability and scalability. We recommend a participatory approach for an educational scholarship for using e-learning in medical education, such as by action research or design-based research."

Above abstract from
Sandars, J and Goh, PS. Is there a need for a specific educational scholarship for using e-learning in medical education? Med Teach. 2016 Apr 19:1-2 [Epub ahead of print]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27093587




Some literature on the Flipped Classroom:





some Additional resources