Neil Hughes
My name is Neil Hughes. I am Professor of Languages and Digital Learning Technologies at the University of Nottingham and the author of Introduction to Blended and Hybrid Learning Design.
Location United Kingdom
Activity
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Neil Hughes replied to Phalangchok Wanphet
Haha, many thanks for your comment @PhalangchokWanphet. I'll see what I can do the next time there's a global pandemic on the horizon.
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Neil Hughes replied to Peter Thompson
As they say, good things come to those that wait .....
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Neil Hughes replied to Adi Riskayadi
@AdiRiskayadi Thank you Adi for your very kind comments. Good luck with your future plans.
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Neil Hughes replied to Oliver Castaño Mallorca
@OliverCastañoMallorca, many thanks for your very kind comments and, of course, for your wider contribution to the course. it is very much appreciated.
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Neil Hughes replied to Veronika Motlova
@VeronikaMotlova Many thanks for your very kind comments Veronika. I'm really pleased that you got so much out of the course. I would also like to thank you for the many thoughtful insights you shared from your own professional context. They are a really invaluable contribution to the course.
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Hi Wendy, welcome to the course. Which country do you work in? I'm guessing Latin America, but I'm not sure where exactly!
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Neil Hughes replied to Margie Sy
Thanks Margie for your very kind feedback. I'm very pleased that you found the course useful and that you might be able to apply some of the ideas in your own teaching context.
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Neil Hughes replied to HUMAN KHANAM
Thanks Human, that's great to hear!!
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Neil Hughes replied to Sarah Penn
Thanks Sarah for your kind comments. I'm very glad you enjoyed the course.
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Neil Hughes replied to Arantza Otaduy Tristán
That's great to hear Arantza. I wish you all the best for the future.
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Neil Hughes replied to Katie Smith
Hi Katie- many thanks for the feedback. I'm glad that you got so much out of the interactive aspect of the course.
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Neil Hughes replied to Evelyn S
Thanks Evelyn. I'll go back and take a look at your comments to see if there's any scope for adding examples along the lines you suggest. I hope you enjoyed the course and I'm very pleased that you made it through to the end.
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Hi Bounkong- welcome to the course.
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Hello Obuumneme- you are very welcome to the course. I hope you find it useful.
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@TSHEPISOSithule welcome to the course. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
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@LCraddock welcome to the course Laura!
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Hi Felister- welcome to the course. I hope you enjoy it and get something positive from it.
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Neil Hughes replied to Maria Patricia Simuț
@MariaPatriciaSimuț many thanks for your very kind feedback Maria. I'm very pleased that you have enjoyed the course and that you will be able to apply your learning within your own teaching context.
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Neil Hughes replied to Tehzeeb Karim
Dear Tehzeeb- many thanks for your very kind words. I'm very pleased you enjoyed the course and that you will be able to apply some of the ideas and concepts within your own context of teaching.
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@PhilomenaKafuiAmaAhey welcome to the course Philomena.
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Neil Hughes replied to Carmen Usategui
@CarmenUsategui Gracias Carmen, estoy muy contento que te haya gustado!!!!
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Hi @CarolinaLuda Carolina- welcome to the course. I hope it provides you with some ideas you can use in your school.
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Hi @MariaPatriciaSimuț Maria- welcome to the course. I hope it lives up to your expectations!
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Neil Hughes replied to Mark Hughes
@MarkHughes That reminds me, Nick has been promoted to Prof. I'd better change it before he notices :)!!!
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Neil Hughes replied to Mark Hughes
@MarkHughes thanks Mark, your comments are much appreciated. I'm really pleased that your experience of the course was positive.
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Neil Hughes replied to Richard Skowron
@RichardSkowron thanks Richard, much appreciated.
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Neil Hughes replied to rob stewart
@robstewart many thanks Rob. I'm glad you enjoyed the course and many thanks for the suggestions for improvement.
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Neil Hughes replied to Keith McGraw
@KeithMcGraw- Thanks Keith, I'm really pleased you enjoyed it. Also, many thanks to you for sharing your ideas and insights into your own practice over the course of the last few weeks.
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Neil Hughes replied to Alex P
All fixed!! If anyone else spots broken links, please let me know.
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Neil Hughes replied to Alex P
@AlexP many thanks Alex- I'm glad you enjoyed the course (and I'll fix the broken links!).
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Hello @GannaGaidai - you are very welcome to the course. I hope it provides you with some ideas you can use to help redesign your new course.
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Neil Hughes made a comment
This is one of, if not, my favourite video in the whole course. What I think is really interesting is the way in which Pushpika thinks in terms of a week-long pedagogical sequence comprised of mutually reinforcing elements. This is an idea we look at in more depth in week 3.
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Neil Hughes replied to Sarah F
@SarahF Hello Sarah, welcome to the course.
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@SarahField-Richards, this mirrors my own experience of hybrid teaching. I think the main problem has to do with the fact that many classrooms are ill-equipped to deal with hybrid teaching and that there is very little in the way of technical support. I think you'll be interested in the steps they have taken to crack this nut at the University of Amsterdam,...
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@BenGoldsmith Hi Ben, welcome to the course! Given the focus of your teaching, I think you might find some of the contributions in week 2 of particular interest.
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Neil Hughes replied to Laura Fiddaman
@LauraFiddaman One thing I have noticed, this academic year, is that my own undergraduate students are spending more time in VLE sites for my modules than prior to the pandemic. Unfortunately, this has also been accompanied by an appreciable drop in attendance at on-campus classes.
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Neil Hughes replied to Keith McGraw
@KeithMcGraw I couldn't agree more. In my own case, I have recently added synchronous sessions to a CPD course (a webinar at the start of the course and an in-person workshop at the end) previously delivered asynchronously. If feedback from the participants is anything to go by, this was a welcome addition. That said, one thing I did notice, and had not...
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Neil Hughes replied to Keith McGraw
@KeithMcGraw Hi Keith, Maria's contribution to the course (as in the case of the other contributors that were interviewed for the MOOC) is limited to her video. I will, however, let her know that there are questions about her practice that she might want to respond to.
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@MarkHughes Hi Mark, while we do look at tech, the main focus here is on questions of pedagogy and design- especially in weeks 3 and 4.
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Hi Memoona, welcome to the course!!
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Neil Hughes made a comment
Hi everyone, I am very much looking forward to exploring the temporal, spatial and technological dimensions of blended and hybrid learning with you this week.
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Hi Tendai, welcome to the course. I very much hope the course meets your needs.
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@SarahField-Richards Hi Sarah- it would be amiss of me not to welcome UoN colleagues to the course!! It's Given your interest in sociological perspectives, I think you'll find Neil Sewyn's contribution in week 2 of particular interest.
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@LucindaPearson Hi Lucy, welcome to the course. Hopefully, you will enjoy the fact that the course comes at BL very much from an Arts and Humanities perspective. This is reflected in the emphasis it places on the role of isssues such as writing, aesthetics and usability in learning design and in the way in which different cultural products are used to...
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@PaddyU I also agree. I'm a firm believer in the idea that the 'art' of blended learning is to integrate the different dimensions of the blend in ways that are mutually reinforcing. This is an issue we look at in more depth in week 3. Pushpika Vishwanathan's contribution this week is also interesting in this regard. As you're watching, pay attention to how she...
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@RachelHartshorne I couldn't agree more. In fact, this MOOC had its origins in a project in which I worked with a group of current and former PhD students to design a CPD course in the area of learning design. One of those students- Gary Fisher, appears in week 2 of the course.
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@RachelHartshorne, that's interesting. I wonder what the rational was for that decision? Did it have something to do with the notion that 'blended learning' had somehow been tarnished because of its association with teaching during the pandemic?
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Neil Hughes replied to Paddy U
Hi @PaddyU - welcome to the course. I'm especially looking forward to your contribution to discussions in week 4, when we look in more depth at questions of accessibility and usability.
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@CoralCondeco-Dunachie Hi Coral, welcome to the course.
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Hi @RachelHartshorne - welcome to the course. I'm hoping it will provide a new perspective on some familiar issues.
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Neil Hughes replied to Nichola Lindsay-Folkes
@NicholaLindsay-Folkes Hi Nicholas, welcome to the course. I hope it meets your expectations!!!
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@EmilyArmstrong Hi Emily, hopefully there's a lot here that you can pass on.
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Hi @AlisonSkoyles - welcome to the course. I hope you find it useful.
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Neil Hughes replied to Amanda H
@AmandaH I think you might find week 4 interesting. In it, we look at 'learner personas'. These are fictional descriptions that are used in course design to ensure that courses are fit for purpose and address learners' needs.
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Neil Hughes replied to Naixia Wang
@NaixiaWang it's very nice to see a University of Nottingham colleague joining us on the course. I hope you enjoy it.
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Neil Hughes replied to Amanda H
@AmandaH I think the point you raise about workload is absolutely crucial. In HE, in particular, students can often become overwhelmed when academics lose sight of the fact that their module isn't studied in isolation, but as part of a course.
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@FRONSTONEDANG-IW I very much agree with your claim that blended learning is a 'contested' concept with no universally accepted definition. That said, I do think we can talk about the current 'consensus', as tending to see blended learning as the 'intentional' integration of synchronous and asynchronous time, online and offline space, digital tech and...
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@LauraFiddaman Hi Laura, welcome to the course. I'm hoping it will prove useful for you in your new role.
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Haha- yes, sad but true!!!
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Neil Hughes replied to David Ojah
@DavidOjah I think an induction to online courses, where possible, is good practice. That said, I am not sure that in and of itself, an induction would have much impact on attendance or engagement. To address this, I would explore the reasons why students aren't engaging or attending. There are many possible answers to this including time constraints due to...
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Neil Hughes replied to Amanda H
Hi @AmandaH welcome to the course. I'm hoping that it will address your needs by helping you to put in perspective your experiences during the pandemic as well as providing you with some insight into the future of learning and teaching in Higher Education. There's a great contribution next week on precisely that issue from Professor Neil Selwyn from Monash...
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@MADEEHAMINHAS It really was a very difficult time, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. And it wasn't just coming to terms with new technologies and pedagogies that was a challenge. We also had to adapt all of our rules, norms and guidelines to the new reality not to mention support students as they also adjusted to lockdown.
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@KeithMcGraw to explain, the expert contributions included in the course such as this one from Norm Vaughan, are limited to the video content they kindly provided in response to a request from me. I then built a narrative around that content and the related learning/discussion-based activities. As a consequence, I don't think he'll see your request for...
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Neil Hughes replied to David Ojah
Hi @DavidOjah yes, I very much follow. I'm finding in my own context of teaching (Higher Education) in the UK that it is proving a challenge to re-engage students following the return to campus. I really think there is something in the idea that Covid-19 has disrupted the relationship between students and universities and that many of the norms and...
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Neil Hughes replied to Rachel Wood
Hi @RachelWood- I'm hoping that the videos in the steps that follow will clarify for you the main differences between the variants of blended learning discussed here as well as some of the things they have in common.
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Hi @KeithMcGraw - welcome to the course. I really hope you find it interesting and that it provides fresh insight into the issues addressed. While the focus is on blended and hybrid delivery, it does include some contributions from colleagues at the University of Nottingham that are involved in delivering online courses. These come towards the end of the...
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Neil Hughes replied to Naomi L
Hi @NaomiL- welcome to the course and thanks for your insight into the challenges you face in East Timor. I'm really hoping that it will be enhanced by contributions from colleagues from around the world. As mentioned in an earlier reply, the course includes a number of contributions from language/ESL teachers such as steps 1.7 this week and 2.3 next week.
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Hi @RohiniKarandikar Rohini- it's great to be able to welcome you to the course. I really hope that the course provides you with the knowledge you need to be able to create your own hybrid courses. In addition to the definition of hybrid that comes this week in step 1.8, look out for steps 2.7, 2.8 and 2.9 next week. They contain interesting interviews with...
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Hi @MADEEHAMINHAS- it's very nice to be able to welcome you to the course. I know what you mean about greatness being thrust upon us. I think that's how a lot of people felt about teaching during the pandemic. I'm hoping that this course might be an opportunity firstly, for colleagues to reflect on that experience, and secondly, discuss which aspects of our...
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Hello @DavidOjah - welcome to the course. I notice you have a background in language education as do several of the contributors to the course- myself included. Regarding particular steps to look out for, I would say 1.7 in which Russell Stannard introduces 'flipped learning' and 2.3 where Maria Guarnieri shares her experiences of teaching Italian during the...
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Hi @RachelWood welcome to the course. I hope you find it both interesting and enjoyable as well as adding something to your design practice. I look forward to your comments as your progress through it.
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Neil Hughes made a comment
Hello everyone. My name is Neil Hughes and I will be facilitating this course over the next five weeks. You can learn a little bit about me by reading the brief biography above. One thing I'm hoping to get from your contributions is some insight into blended and hybrid learning practice in different parts of the world, and what direction you think learning and...
