Rui Oliveira
I am a pharmacist who teaches molecular biology and pharmacology to undergraduate students of Biology and biochemistry.
Location Braga, Portugal
Activity
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
I learnt that I’m not alone in the institution. Besides my level of activity as teacher (course level), BL requires integration at program and institution levels. In addition, there’s the institution culture and my teaching phylosophy. These factors drive BL as these factors have opposite effects.
By acknowledging that BL is not a strict concept and that... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
After reading the paper and looking back to what I’ve been doing in my classes, I think that blended learning must have a meaning. When you blend you want to achieve something (higher learning by the students) and you mix things (teaching strategies, methodologies and technologies) that help you to achieve these goals. It’s just like Hrastinski finishes his...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
The result did not surprise me. Overall, my institution has the tools and some facilities fo BL and there is some concern by the decision makers but a proactive implementation of BL is still missing. For instance, the the teachers activity assessment form to be submitted every 3 years, has more items regarding scientific research than BL, student-centered...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Strengths
Institutional support and professional development. At my institution the rectorate is supporting blended learning even before the COVD-19 lockdown. A large part of the support is on professional development
Weaknesses
Institution strategy and governance which is lacking. An integrated view of teaching and learning to the institution is missing.... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
Yes, although there still is a lot to be done. My experience in the teaching and learning center at my university could be classified as middle-out approach as we have implemented workshops, courses and funding for innovation projects. By directly targeting teachers and using low-budget resources we are similar to this approach to engage students in learning...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
No, this is completely new to me.
A BL design to be coherent with my teaching philosophy involves a high level of creativity to build a course where students feel that the activities are meaningful and their minds become aligned for enjoying learning and get curious for knowledge (as I defined for my teaching philosophy). ABC LD provides an excellent basis... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
One of the greatest problems in changing teaching is to have a framework in which you can rely for structured, coherent and meaningful design of your course. I feel that ABC LD fulfills this role. I will apply it to redesign my courses next year.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Really interesting! A nice way to put educators working on changing their courses in an integrated manner.
I wonder how you recruit them. Do you ask them to join the workshops? Do they just apply? Are the workshops mandatory? I’m very interested because I’m a member of a program board and I would like to motivate teachers to think about their curses and how... -
I can see myself in your comments. You put the the change from the teacher-centered to the student-centered teaching very clearly.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
As a reply to Mark Brown, I would say that this is a new concept to me although I’ve been applying it in my teaching practice without realizing it completely. This is really something that educators must de aware of.
It’s not easy to define my own teaching philosophy but I think it is to open the minds of the learners to enjoy learning, to be curious. -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
This is a very interesting perspective. Each teacher is unique in his personality, education, beliefs… and that is reflected inevitably in his practice. This is in agreement with a very common comment that there are no protocols in what concerns teaching. Each teacher must reflect on his personality and put the best of him in his practice.
Another important... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
The EMBED framework gave me a simplified yet comprehensive perspective on how institutions should prepare the change towards BL. It is really complex and involves many resources such as financial and human resources. However the most important one is a clear strategy and commitment to change to make the different institutional structures, program and course...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
I’m happy to find that my university can be comapred with the examples shown during this week. What we have less is funding, facilities and, most of all, integration of activities and institutional structures to make things actually work and have consequences. There are too many bureaucratic and mentality constraints to make innovation.
What do you want to... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
Impressive sums of funds for teaching innovation. At UMinho, we have also a funding program for innovation (mostly on technologies that allow BL), which, by the KU Leuven’s system, would correspond to micro projects (although with considerable less funding).
I consider that top down initiatives should be directly aligned with the institutional policy... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
The DCU’s example shows an incredible network of structures and self-evaluations linked to external evaluations. It’s amazing how it works. Only with good organisation and commitment of educators, students and the institution you can achieve such an impressively complex and yet purposeful evaluation system.
In Portugal there’s an independent institution that... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
This a good example of institutional investment and support to teaching innovation. It requires specialised personnel, digital platforms, specialised facilities and so on. At University of Minho there is also financial support for innovative teaching projects. Every year we support 10 projects submitted by teachers, individually or in group. One interesting...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
My institution offers workshops (2 weeks per year) and supports 2 communities of practice (on audience response systems and on TBL). With these initiatives, educators can learn on innovative teaching approaches and share their experience. They both are directly supported by the university’s teaching centre (IDEA-UMinho). Promotion is made by normal channels...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
My institution has many of the tools mentioned in the video for KU Leuven. However, as I noticed with the case of U. Edinburgh, we still lack a coherent policy with clear directions to guide the stakeholders.
I think that students and employers are groups interested in the institutional strategy for teaching innovation (not only for BL). Students demand high... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
LTW and the Institute for Academic Development seem to be teaching and learning centres as we have at the University of Minho. The IDEA Centre (https://idea.uminho.pt/en/Pages/default.aspx), to which i belong, provides many of the services mentioned in the description of LTW and the Institute for Academic Development. The difference is that we still are in the...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
The report of the assessment tool was very informative. It gave me a clear picture of my Institution. We have some financial, fairy good institutional support and facilities. In addition, we have a good program for professional development, at least for Portuguese standards. We lack however an integrated view by the institution to provide a strategy to use all...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
There was something quite new for me, which is the design and planning at program level for BL and all the aspects of the EMBED framework. This provides a scaffold where my course can be integrated without disturbing alignment of tools, coherence of the program, flexibility, student learning, study load and inclusiveness. In fact, it helps educators to plan...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Many of the aspects of the EMBED framework are present in the programs I participate in as teacher. In addition, tools for monitoring most of them are also implemented at institution level with surveys on the quality of teaching and learning and the existence of a Program Committee, which includes the Coordinator, three teachers and four students, ensures...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
I think that in the design of a program for inclusiveness, a structure dedicated to identify and manage problems of inclusion would be important. I’m the Academic Coordinator of the Erasmus Program in my department and I solve the problems of lack of equity and adaptation of international students by talking directly with the teachers and the students. So, an...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
In my experience, programs were designed without having study load in consideration. This is a competence of the teachers and program coordinators. So, only after a program is created study load is considered and it works similarly as in KU Leuven (the difference is that the progrms are not BL). In addition, by the end of each semester, students answer an...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
In the case of my university, and I think I can speak for Portuguese institutions, students self-regulation of learning is assessed in institution-wide surveys on perception of the teaching and learning process. As far as I know no bachelors program has been designed to support students self-regulation of learning. I guess neither in masters.
It is... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
Regarding bachelors degree the only flexibility is provided in the form of elective courses in the 3rd year. As for masters degree, the students are given the chance to select a rather diverse elective courses to build their academic program. While in bachelors the choices are somewhat narrow, in the masters programs there is an interesting diversity of...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Nice example of well-aligned tools for blended learning. Each tool has a clear purpose, so it gets very easy for the students how to use them. I’ve been using blogs as well for assignments for my students. It has been a nice experience, the students appreciate the fact that their work is available to a worldwide audience (I ask them to write in English) and...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Before COVID-19 (can’t avoid mention the pandemics), blended education was never considered at program level (at least in the programs where I have my courses). After COVID-19 lockdown, BL was implemented without much discussion among stakeholders, except at institutional level in online forum and social media. So, I guess there’s much to be done.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Apart from the need of evidence to support change, I found many really inspiring examples that can make a huge difference in teaching. You just have to have imagination and be able to motivate the students for the activities. I particularly recall the peer reviewing of chemistry manipulations in video demonstrations.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Basically almost all parameters but sequence of activities and flexibility are the least scored in EMBED. The most important thing I take from this week is to change based in the evidence collected in my practice. I think I can change my courses according to what I read, heard and saw during this week but the to change in the right direction must be supported...
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Rui Oliveira replied to Frédéric Bosché
Absolutely! If you are honest by assuming something you actually don't know or "never thought about it" ,you get your students closer to you.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Yes, and many of them are in the booklet (excellent resource to guide lecturers for inclusiveness!). I think the most important is to “ignore” differences and simultaneously considering them all the time. The closest point in the booklet is “be aware of differences, but don’t always mention them”. If you keep giving examples from Asia in your lectures when you...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
I like the idea of creating a text that will be used in the video. The students will have to take into account the purpose of the text and select carefully the language since it is meant to be used in a specific communication platform.
I imagine that all the class will watch the videos in f2f sessions where they will discuss them to provide feedback. This is... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
Well, I ask my undergraduate students of Molecular Biology to design a protocol for plasmid DNA purification from scratch. I give them the original paper describing the theoretical background and then they work collaboratively in groups (4-5 students) to design the protocol, which they will use in the laboratory session. This gives them a sense of...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
I understand the reason of flexibility to let the students hand their recordings to the teacher only but wouldn’t they gain more skills in terms of self-confidence in their ability to speak Spanish and to communicate by exposing themselves to an audience, even if this audience would be their peers?
The idea of assigning video or audio recordings to the... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
This case has some similarities with what I do in my Pharmacology course (33 students) in a bachelors program. I do team-based learning and my students are quite happy with the fact that they are always up to date in the course (because they have to read a chapter of the textbook beforehand). In addition, as in every TBL activity, they have individual and...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Simple and easy to use tool that makes you think in those 7 processes of EMBED. The distinction between the three levels is quite clear also. Although the next maturity level is too obvious, because it is based on the next level of each process, it provides a clear diagnosis and directions for improvement. A list of clear practical suggestions for improvement...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
I'm going through all three steps. I'm not just wanting to change my courses but also influence the designers of programmes and the institution itself for sustainable implementation of BL.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
The most important experience in this course so far is the integrated view of BL in the context of a programme and institution. I am very interested in moving my teaching activity more and more to BL. So, now I’m more aware of the important role institutions have in the process. Just creating a BL course without any integration in a programme and in the...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Very impressed with the model! It is comprehensive and clear. In the beginning it looked complex but actually it seems to be an excellent tool to assess maturity (quality as well) and a guide for the implementation of courses in existing programmes.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
No, my institution does not use any maturity model. These models are highly important because they help us to think critically what we are doing. A standard or reference example would be helpful in order to know to where we are in comparison with other examples.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
This is getting interesting! The frameworks seem rather complex though.
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Rui Oliveira replied to David Andrew
You raised a good point here. With all the technology and its applications to teaching, which excite me in my teaching, we should not forget one of the most important sources of knowledge: books. TBL, is an excellent example on how we can integrate readings of books with active learning and, if you want, BL. From my experience, I notice that students tend to...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
No and no. BL, assuming as alternative, student-centred, technology-mediated teaching with a strong component of autonomous activities, has been used as a way to face the corona crisis. Only after its implementation my institution is starting to analyse the benefits and risks and try to see how BL can be implemented after the crisis in regular programmes. We...
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A similar situation occurred in my university. The University of Minho provided computers to students and the internet companies offered data to all, including teachers. I agree, this is not a long term solution, equity in BL implies solving this type of issues by institutions and governments.
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Yes, as an adaptive strategy to the corona crisis. In an anonymous survey to my students I found that they were very happy with the possibility of managing the time for their learning activities with much more flexibility than in f2f teaching (as they experienced just before the corona crisis).
For this shift to BL, I relied on infrastructures of my... -
Rui Oliveira made a comment
It didn’t surprise me. It’s a convenient way of describing all the potential of the use of technology in education. I mean, it is natural that conceptualisation of education mediated by technologies is diffuse. There are numerous applications and the potential of new applications is huge. So, in the near future we will witness many ways of integration of...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
As Yi-Shan Tsai said in the video, technology seems to be a common thing among all definitions of blended learning. However technology per se does not define blended learning. On the other hand, I wonder if you can have blended learning in F2F activities exclusively. I think you can, provided you use technology to allow some kind of higher level perception...
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Rui Oliveira made a comment
Hi everyone, just starting! Very impressed with the initial steps of the course!
