Emily Armstrong
Former Libraries & eLearning Manager for the Hull College Group - now Learning Technologist at Hull University. Recently completed an MSc in Technology-Enhanced Learning with Huddersfield University
Location Hull
Activity
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
The Great Minds on Learning podcast (and of course our own Cup of TEA podcast, celebrating good practice in our own University!)
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I think it is important that we explain the rationale for any constraints on practice, support staff to ensure conforming with them is as easy as possible (e.g. prescheduled lecture recordings) and always be prepared to consider whether we need to allow more flexibility in our approach - for example we are currently rolling out a institutional VLe template but...
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Lovely to see ALT and JISC mentioned - they are my key sources of support
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Emily Armstrong replied to Richard Skowron
Again, as a learning technologist, it is hard for me to comment but I do get plenty of positive feedback
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
THE WCAG guidelines are a key part of my role - not only in terms of the materials I produce but in supporting staff in producing their own materials. I try to model n 'accessible first' approach and where there are multiple issues, get them to focus on the 'easy wins'.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
As a staff trainer, my context is becoming increasingly influenced by staff reductions and increasing workloads - training needs to be bitesize, highly relevant and easy to access if staff are to engage
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I like the idea of signposting - shall start trying to do this in my video guides
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I feel the principle of good online content design apply equally to the online parts of hybrid and blended delivery but... in the cases where the materials might be supportive rather than central, I do feel we can take at more informal approach at times - many of our students have grown up with YouTube, they are more interested in the usefulness of the content...
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We are using Canvas templates and blueprints to try and 'scaffold' our staff in producing more usable and consistent courses.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Sam is a new lecturer at the University who has worked there a few months. He has seen technology used by other staff but so far not had to take primary responsibility for it. He lacks confidence and undervalues his previous teaching experience as he see that University as 'different'. He struggles, especially with jargon as English is not his first language.
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Emily Armstrong replied to Nisha Joseph
I see it as a way of 'testing' your ideas against a variety of factors e.g. age, income, responsibilities, preferences?
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Emily Armstrong replied to Paddy U
Though surely our entry requirements tell us something about the limits on the personas we need to consider?
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I think backward design could be a very productive technique - we have tendency as subject specialists to cram is as many exciting topics into each module as we can and in doing so can often lose site of the purpose and thus end end up with ineffective or unauthentic assessment methods.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
The level of planning and preparation needed is clear once again - I worry about how our staff will find opportunities for this alongside their everyday work
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I feel there are many of these affordances we should be promoting further with our teachers - many of whom primarily focus on temporality and traceability. In particular promoting the roles of modularity and multi-modality to support both accessibility and personalised learning and the roles of editability and co-production in increasing student engagement and...
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
We use the ABC model that focuses on Laurrillard's leaning activity types and gives a structure to module planning. We encourage module teaching teams to use it as group where possible to promote discussion and negotiation. It also explictly encourages teams to examine the 'blend' within their course.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
A useful reminder of the learning theory and I have learned some new concepts and am finally close to getting my head round constructive alignment! The reminder of the Learning Designer was timely and will get a great help in monitoring the 6 types and ensuring realistic amounts of content for the time available in my course redesign.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
A work in progress - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/learning-designer/viewer.php?uri=/personal/ejarmstrong/designs/fid/0a564b774738c01a0b3194d271fccdd49c31fd907d852a0373692d24f25edebf&v=2.61
Mapping the current course to help identify areas for improvement - think the Learning Designer is an immensely useful too for this.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Our Digital Teacher course:
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Define key elements of online, blended, hybrid and flipped learning models
Plan your course based on your preferred model and explain the purpose in selecting it
Identify and experiment with appropriate digital tools to support your course -
Emily Armstrong made a comment
I really like the idea of using humour to engage students nut I guess the really important bit is helping them to understand why they are being asked to do it and what is in it for them. Too often, I think we assume formal assessment is the only way to motivate our learners.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
To me, to move towards the best Blended Learning seems resource intensive at a time when our resources are increasingly stretched. So the important question is how we get those senior leaders (who may not have had the same learning experience during Covid) on board?
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
These principles seem to fit as an approach to life, not just to education.But dome of them seem to be presenting us with issues right now, particularly Autonomy, with increasing fees seeming to lead to less student autonomy and a greater expectation of just being 'given knowledge'. Also struck by how hard it can be to provide 'diverse activities' in online...
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
in terms of connectivism, I have formed a plan to review and reflect on the things I have learned so far in order to update our Digital Teacher course - at the moment I have ideas of things I feel are important but know I can revisit earlier weeks to add the detail.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I don't consider my self a teacher, however I do provide 1 to 1 and small group training and help design and facilitate online course. I like where possible to use a 'bitesize' approach to inputs supported by opportunities for practice, reflection and where possible peer support.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I think sadly unless the marketisation of education slows, we will see a move towards technology supporting that approach so allowing students to achieve more flexibly, faster, with more personalised programmes - but all focused on the end qualification rather than learning for the sake of learning unfortunately.
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Emily Armstrong replied to Sarah F
@SarahF I agree - look for tools that don't require students to create an account and explore your institutional tools thoroughly - there will be more innovative ways of using them that you realise!
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Aim for a balance - consistency is important in the core aspects such as content structure and online delivery but using a wider range of tools can help with engagement - don't underestimate the 'novelty' factor. However, accessibility and security are always key - we should expect students to create personal accounts om external tools.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Ours have not changed enough. most only have a basic microphone and no camera. Hard to support staff when the classroom set up is so inconsistent.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
As a VLE manager, I have worked with Moodle and now with Canvas. I do miss the flexibility and customisation of Moodle but my sense is that many staff and students appreciate the clear interface and mobile-friendlyness of Canvas.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
I agree that the asynchronous aspect is becoming increasingly important especially for those students facing time and economic pressures. However, establishing this aspect effectively is extremely resource intensive and I worry many Universities will not be prepared to support staff in doing it well.
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Where resources allow, paired teaching can be very helpful, so that someone can monitor the chat and provide ICT support. It is important to bear in mind both digital poverty and the impact of online on neurodiversity when considering how to present content and expections re. use of cameras. I find tools such as Mentimeter and Twitter very useful for...
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
My my positive experiences have been where there was a clear underlying purpose for use of a particular model e.g. hairdressers moving the 'theory' elements online to give the students more opportunities for hands-on practice. Currently in our University, there is a rise in interest in models that will reduce the time students spend on campus, to address...
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Equivalent experience rather than the same experience seems key
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Thanks - I had never really registered before the importance of the connectivity of the activities and then what takes place in the classroom and also the 'flip' in terms of the classroom focusing on higher order thinking
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I agree - being a student on an online or blended course yourself gives you a much clearer idea what does and doesn't work
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Hi, I am a Teaching Enhancement Officer at the University of Hull. I am hoping to gain some insights I can pass on through training and advice to academic colleagues struggling to adapt to these forms of delivery
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
The online Digital Skills course we are developing is aimed at staff and will sit alongside our existing Digital Teacher course so our target learners are likely to be non-teaching staff or teachers wanting to develop their more general digital skills. The fact the course is online and seen as CPD rather than 'staff development' means we are unlikely to get...
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Emily Armstrong made a comment
Hi, I am Emily, a Learning Technologist in Hull in the UK. I am currently involved in designing an online course to help staff improve their deigital skills and am looking for ideas to make this more interesting.
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Liz Bennett has done some very interesting research on learners responses to data - https://www.srhe.ac.uk/downloads/reports-2016/LizBennet-scoping2016.pdf
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But do we all need our learning experiences to include some element of fun or it can be too tempting to quit? I guess a lot depends on the background and motivation of your students...
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I agree that it is important to have a balance of types of communication but online can sometimes be particularly beneficial to those who are not confident to speak out in class.
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Emily Armstrong replied to kwok Ng
We did a project that included an introduction to flipped learning - i don't know if any of the references here are useful? https://hcukflipped.wordpress.com/overview-of-previous-research-into-flipped-learning/
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Emily Armstrong replied to Phil Hitchings
Well done!
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Emily Armstrong replied to Jade Hale
That's interesting to know - although I guess as the course is primarily intended for teachers some tasks will always have that focus but am sure the team will reflect on any hints and tips they can provide to help those not in a teaching role
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But are these sort of digital literacy skills important for them to learn? If so, is embedding them in a subject a better approach than than teaching them as an 'add-on'? Is it possible that student would find the novelty of a different assessment approach more engaging? Maybe the whole approach may be too radical for your setting but are there any aspects...
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Although is learning to manage such distractions an important life skill? And can some means of electronic communication help support students who do not feel confident to contribute in person in a class? Many factors to consider.
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I am sorry to hear that - what device and browser were you using?
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Maybe you could consider ways to record the feedback conversation? I know I have struggled with feedback that I have only been given through discussion because it is difficult to look back on afterwards. As for the video of a 'competency' I guess it depends on the skill - if you videoed me riding my bike , I would hope to still be doing that in 10 years time...
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You might be able to do something around proving feedback through Google Apps or Office 365 if you have either of those?
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Emily Armstrong replied to Leanne Jackson
Sounds like a great plan - this sort of 'small change, big difference" approach has worked well for me in the past - once staff are confident with one tool and can see its impact, they are often keen to try another.
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Emily Armstrong replied to Jade Hale
Is that a problem with the tasks themselves or with the time they take?
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Emily Armstrong replied to Sonja Tomaskovic
Often it helps if there is some sort of 'check' or visible activity to motivate them to complete it? e.g. an online quiz, asking them to comment on a Padlet wall, having a face-to-face discussion or Kahoot quiz at the next face-to-face session. I even heard of a college which gave students 'the iPad of shame' for them to complete the flipped work in the next...
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You might find this project that Oldham College undertook interesting? https://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/content/etf2342
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Turnitin and Google Docs also allow this - Turnitin also allows you to save and re-use 'frequently used' comments
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Do you think that students appreciate these Facebook sites though as a 'student-only' space for peer support? Maybe as tutors, we shouldn't try and be everywhere?
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Thanks for this feedback
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Does it still allow audio rather than written feedback?
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Emily Armstrong replied to James Choles
For anyone looking at 'bitesize' as a method to train staff to use new technologies - check out #1minuteCPD - https://1minutecpd.wordpress.com
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Maybe introduce some more 'synchronous' elements like webinars?
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Emily Armstrong replied to Mairead McQ
When I worked with college tutors, the flipped elements had to be carefully planned but some areas did have a lot of success - for example by starting each session with a Kahoot quiz on the materials that have been 'flipped' that week or by offering more 'practical' time to vocational students who had completed the theory element online - see...
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Great ideas - you can find Socrative here - https://www.socrative.com/
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Can you think of other ways to promote engagement with non-assessed activities? Maybe discussing readings in class or displaying results of Moodle activities?
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How would you encourage students who find being recorded a bit scary?
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You might find this project that Oldham College undertook interesting? https://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/content/etf2342
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Emily Armstrong replied to Edgar Alosbaños
Thanks for sharing that resource
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Do you think you learned something you can use for the future curriculum design from this project?
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Why not give it a try? I lovePrezi - I find it easy to use, there are great ready made templates and it stores all my presentations in the cloud so I don't forget where I saved them!
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Are you still having problems with this? It is working for me.
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Emily Armstrong replied to M Ranaweera
This is positive to hear - it backs up my research finding into FE teacher's digital skills which showed that sometimes when we think change isn't happening, it is - it just we have been unrealistic in how long it will take for those changes to be 'visible'.
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I guess it is easier for conversation to get side-tracked into 'non work' matters face-to-face - online I tend to be more task-focused and gossip less!
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That's an interesting reflection - I find I get more distracted face-to-face, particularly with people I know well...
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I think you are right but the difficulty is that I don't know of any examples of employers enforcing this and there are plenty of organisations sharing content under CC licences - I guess trying to get managers within our organisations to discuss it and clarify their positions would be a good place to start.
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Glad to hear that!
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Thanks - I have not heard of that one - I will check it out!
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Are there any particular platforms you have found useful in supporting your professional development? Personally I love Twitter for this.
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Even for public organisations this can be difficult - I was surprised by the verdict in this recent case since the original use seems to have been educational: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/08/europe_supreme_court_copyrighted_images/
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You are right - this a difficult area and could be helped a great deal by educational employers being more explicit in their support for open access and sharing of resources.
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A good understanding of Creative Commons licences can help people feel confident about creating content but of course if they are really worried that can always use text and images they have created themselves
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Emily Armstrong replied to Gennie Rose
Training does help with confidence but also practice and 'bitesize' chunks - I think if employees are encourage to undertake small digital tasks regularly , it builds confidence to move on
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This might be of interest? https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Spain
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In my experience 'non-commercial' can sometimes be difficult to define - https://creativecommons.org/faq/#does-my-use-violate-the-noncommercial-clause-of-the-licenses
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I also use Wordpress but just the free parts it has lots of functionality even for free
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That seems very thorough plan
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The link to the Exercise?
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I guess it depends on what the incentive is to complete the content and the independence of your learners. If they were suitably motivated to complete it, you could maybe just offer drop-in support for any that were having problems?
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I agree that you can sometimes spend too long looking for the 'perfect' tool - once you find one you like I would just use that unless you find a problem with it. And you certainly shouldn't need to pay for one unless you require something very specific. You can make usable learning materials with something as simple as Powerpoint.
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Changes to licences are definitely something we all need to look out for - often they are not publicised as much as they should be.
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Thanks for sharing that useful resource
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That's a lovely example Oliver
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Emily Armstrong replied to Finbar Lillis
The Blended Learning Essentials courses are funded for and specifically targeted at the FE sector so that is why all the examples are from there.
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I guess that depends on their purpose - if they are to share in public then maybe something like Wordpress or OneNote - if they are just for their own use then maybe something like Google Docs?
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Emily Armstrong replied to John Bishop
Hopefully you can identify and follow such people through these discussion sections? One of the reasons for using Padlet is to demonstrate an anonymous tool and enable people to post who might be uncomfortable or embarrassed otherwise.
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You may find more examples in this area in BLe2: Embedding Practice - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/blended-learning-embedding-practiceif you have not already completed it
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Thanks for sharing - such feedback is always useful although I guess it would be difficult to create a tool to please everyone
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Do you have a plan to address these issues?
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Those are digital tools - anything that is online and helps with your teaching would count as a digital tool.
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Emily Armstrong replied to ceronne prevatt
You might need to click on All Entries at the right hand side?
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What do you dislike about it?
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Using your initiative I'd say!
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Emily Armstrong replied to Zahra Shafiee
Have you looked at free tools like Edmodo - https://www.edmodo.com/ and Google Classroom?
