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Matt Jenner

Matt Jenner

Current: Founder of Coursensu - the learning design platform.

Previous: Director of Product (PebblePad). Director of Learning (FutureLearn). Distance Learning Facilitator & Learning Technologist (UCL)

Location Edinburgh, Scotland

Achievements

Activity

  • MINDSPACE framework:

    Messenger
    Incentives
    Norms
    Defaults
    Salience
    Priming
    Affect
    Commitments
    Ego

    (just because it wasn't written anywhere in the step :)

  • I looked into nudges in community and social settings. One paper stood out with an interesting outcome from 'social nudges' in social media:

    > "study a type of social nudge, whereby a user’s neighbors on a platform—platform users who are connected to this user—encourage her to supply more content on the platform. [...] This subtle expression of recognition...

  • Building on my previous comment, I'm never going to get rid of leaves, so I guess I'll have to just do better training. Goal: my dog prefers listening to me than she does chasing a leaf. (Reality: wish me luck.)

  • I can relate it to my dog. She lives in a system 1 world and we force her into system 2 through active training, play and affection. You can see her react in real time, and you can see her ignore us in real time. She's not an enigma, she's just a strong personality and has a big, active brain.

    Example: she's in System 2 while we say 'heal' and encourage...

  • I'm sure there's a lot to be said about people and masks. Little cotton protectors on our faces, some of us wearing them correctly, others not at all.

    An interesting outcome from the pandemic has also been misinformation, such as hand washing and how long COVID-19 survives on surfaces, especially outside. We're led to believe it's high and a long time, but...

  • I think the main driver is how much you can afford to lose (finances) or how much you care about the potential loss (personal injury) - as examples.

    It's not fair to compare people too like-for-like. Switching career, for example, is much easier if you're wealthy and have a supporting partner. Much harder if you're poor, less educated and unable to jump...

  • Having started this course, I hope I read enough of the information in order to make an enrolment decision. My intention is to complete it - my behaviour so far has been aligned to that. But what if I fall short? What this due to the information, an external factor or because I didn't achieve my current goal? At this stage, we actually do not know - because...

  • No, we should remain to be ourselves which comes with a degree of involuntary, or chosen, randomness. This is important, if the sun shines, we might still frown - much like we can also be very happy in the rain. This is despite the idea that bad weather can cause the general mood to shift downwards, or vice-verse in summery / dry months. We can model trends...

  • Matt Jenner made a comment

    Looking forward to it!

  • haha different picture but I get the idea :-)

  • I see a blend of industries, hard and mechanical in the background mixed with soft and traditional in the foreground. Cutting through this is nature, the sun especially but also the wind, sky, fish, water all trying to show their dominance in the picture. I am thinking the artists was rough, even intentionally careless, to not capture the detail at the back -...

  • I wonder in this exercise how much we are constrained by the image we chose and the source, such as google, in our task and the image we share. What would it be if we'd gone to our own photos, with the same task? I am sure a different outcome.

  • As I mentioned in another comment, I wonder if ourselves + society is a reflection on the past year, or if perhaps the past year has amplified previous connections between ourselves and society more generally? (probably both!)

  • Having written my solo, I see it having a chance to become a living document, one I come back to and add into it, or revise it as I change as a person.

  • We can also accept there are no wrong answers when you look at it from a global perspective. Different cultures, problems, contexts, mindsets etc are all needed. What looks wrong now might be the best action in the future!

  • me too. Perhaps because we've all been in a very different form of society for the past year that we feel overly disconnected?

  • Me too - educating others and having a passion for it are an excellent combination.

  • Any exercise when you end up in a coded box is, in my view, unhelpful. Don't badge me & I won't badge you.

  • On writing my SOLO - this is quite a cathartic experience!

  • mine is a small fabric frog. It never had meant to be me, but the little thing has been with me since I got it as a teenager, it's been on most of my larger trips and it sits just below the screen I'm writing on. It has featured in animations I've made, been stolen (and recovered) and moved many houses. He matters because he's been a constant in a life full of...

  • I will share a light-hearted version, but I am sure it can connect to other parts of life. The last time was with my dog, she is young, always learning and keen to ignore me for something more interesting. She heard me, but might as well not have. Of course I was frustrated, "every time you ignore me" I say to her, with full knowledge she hears me but has no...

  • When you look back at the timeline it shows how incredibly unjust the world was before. It makes me think: what inequalities exist today, that (we hope) will improve and then, when we look back, will make us think 'how unfair that they existed for so long?' Not looking for a list, but more the mentality that retrospective vision makes things look so **wrong** !

  • One of the most interesting aspects of managing a team is to treat them how you want to be treated by your manager. Applies to everyone in any middle of an organisation. Unblock problems, listen, respect, support their development are all key - but so is letting them be responsible, own the work and to not be a blocker to their success!

  • Matt Jenner made a comment

    I want to unblock my team’s problems but I think that can be achieved if I am there to ensure performance. For me one of the key indicators of a performing team is when they are happy and feel able to do their best job!

  • Can you do more offline? .Or give them more to download? Live sessions are tempting but best being a limited activity (well cover this more in week 2)

  • I bet your role has changed dramatically over the past few week??

    What’s been the most significant change? Any tips for others in a similar position?

  • @SusanaKent thanks for joining. Hope your lockdown has not been too demanding on you all. How is it going so far?

    It must be very though in you, your teachers and students!

  • Welcome, looking forward to sharing advice and approaches with one another! :-)

  • Make the most of the connections do you get with your students when you get them. It will be tough not seeing their faces or reactions but if you run limited live events you can use it to connect and keep it social. This will help keep up the personal connections you’re missing. We will cover it more in Weeks 2&3!

  • Thank you for all the amazing questions. We have answered many but are no longer able to respond to further questions.

    If you see questions you can answer, please do so - but please all be aware that the Educators and Mentors may not be able to review or contribute to the discussion.

    You can also take part in more recent Q&As by joining the latest run...

  • Thank you for all the amazing questions. We have answered many but are no longer able to respond to further questions.

    If you see questions you can answer, please do so - but please all be aware that the Educators and Mentors may not be able to review or contribute to the discussion.

    You can also take part in more recent Q&As by joining the latest run...

  • Thank you for all the amazing questions. We have answered many but are no longer able to respond to further questions.

    If you see questions you can answer, please do so - but please all be aware that the Educators and Mentors may not be able to review or contribute to the discussion.

    You can also take part in more recent Q&As by joining the latest run...

  • Matt Jenner made a comment

    The Educators and Mentors were actively facilitating this course over the past three weeks (23 March - 12 April) and it's been a huge joy to interact with you all via the comments.

    We are now preparing for the second run of the course, which starts on 27 April (Sign up link - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online/2).

    This means we will be...

  • @PatríciaCoelhoSilva your dedication is admirable. Please do remember to be compassionate to yourself too - there’s only so much one person can do and being kind to yourself is one thing we should always do, but especially now.

    Take care!

  • @IainGarioch we have scheduled a second run of this course. It starts on 27 April. You can sign up now at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online/2

    It will attract a new cohort and we will make some small changes to the content based on all the rich feedback we have collected :-)

  • FutureLearn !

    But honestly - there's so much technology that I'll continue with the idea from this course. You need to think what is the purpose of your interaction first and then you can find technology that'll help you to support it.

    Rarely will technology be the solution before you've broken the problem / challenge down into what you're aiming to...

  • @RachelRutland sadly we do not have search for comments so you'll have to investigate learners from reading their comments and then 'Follow' them as we've recommend in the beginning of week 2 - creating a community.

    The more learners you can follow the more you'll be able to filter other steps and see their comments.

    You can use Ctrl+F on a page and...

  • @CaoimheMcGarry are you writing feedback? A faster way to create it is audio, which you can record on a computer or your phone. It may take a bit of getting used to but it means you can read/review their work, speak as you do it (imagine being a doctor?!) and then just send.

    You may need to check your students are happy with this but if they are, and you...

  • Glad to hear :-)

  • Reminder: the whole peer review process can take a day or two for your contribution to get feedback from others. Please do take part and then join in the discussion here to reflect and share back. It's also a great example of asynchronous learning with a brilliant cohort - trust us! ;-)

    (I will unpin this when we're a few days into this week)

  • @RobEdwards @YuliiaPtashnyk my motivation comes from you all engaging in this course. It's circular!? :)

  • We've added a lot more on assessment to Week 3 - it'll be available from Monday 6th April. We're still finishing off the last bit now!

  • Based on demand across this course our FutureLearn Studio colleagues have created a guide for how to produce high quality media while working remotely.

    You can find it at the bottom of the resources list in Step 1.9 - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online/1/steps/739792

  • Learning does not start, or stop, when we're in a physical room. We're always learning and the goal is to think of how we, as educators, can weave these interactions into learning new concepts, applying ourselves, making connections and inspiring/sharing with others.

    Glad you're feeling inspired with going online. The reason we're currently here, in this...

  • One of the biggest issues with online learning is the feeling of being alone and that your efforts are not visible. This can impact us all.

    Another way to help mitigate it is adding moments of celebration along the way, this could be something very small (notice our 'end of week' celebration?). These can be tiny little moments, but the purpose is to...

  • @AmanyTawfiq I share the sentiments above, be compassionate to yourself, try to cut down on 'live' news and remember that you're helping so many people. As well as Aware in Ireland there are some other resources in step 2.2 to check how you're feeling.

    Sometimes we all need to just stop, get some air, stretch it out and walk away from the computer for a...

  • You were excited and challenged at the end of Week 1. Now you are confident and motivated in just one week. You are amazing, well done to everyone. Keep going, you can do this.

  • Hi @DavidClements there is a .docx version above the Google link - https://www.futurelearn.com/links/f/neq7le10xfd56jqac9orw669az0hu9d does that work for you? :-)

  • It’s really encouraging to see students helping each other. Thank you @IdaBrandão @TatianaMesquita @AshrafYusuf @MichelledeLange

  • @EntmontStamatis its interesting. A lot of commentary right now is about the quality of online teaching and that this rapid push to go online will have a range of longer term outcomes. Most is negative; such as backlash on technology, a desire to return to the older approaches etc.

    I have seen less discussion about how it will impact students and their...

  • @YolandeToohey We suggest checking your spam folders or using your email search functionality for 'UCL' that should find it. The Learning Designer is provided by University College London and they are experiencing a lot of demand on their IT staff during the Coronavirus crisis. If you're not getting the email and you've tried to register a few times, you may...

  • A quick reflection; we added the video because we wanted to say hello and share something personal. We recorded it via Zoom and had to do three takes. We then added subtitles. There's no professional production effort beyond this, except maybe Felicity moved her plants around a bit :)

    We wanted it to reflect on the advice we are sharing in the course: keep...

  • Thanks for the comment @SusanDonnelly

    I’ll share one reflection with you, video must have subtitles. Imagine you were not able to share your requirement to watch a video without reading the subtitles, for whatever reason. It means you are less able to connect with the people and topic. It makes learning so much harder. How unfair!

    Video takes little...

  • I love the idea of creating an office table. Even if it’s just a dedicated laptop space, bringing inside a small plant, arranging some pens- whatever! Just rearranging an environment slightly can readjust our brains to think we’re in a new and inviting space for study or work. Even if it has to be built and put away each time we study or work. Great idea!

  • You're doing everything you can @WandaJarrett and you're still keen to keep finding the best for your students. You're a hero.

    First, don't underestimate the effort you've already been made. Everyone's taking to this differently and it sounds like everything you've done is for the benefit of keeping your students learning. In many ways - that's the goal...

  • @AbbasAltaher I'd recommend resources such as the The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) which is a charity campaigning and working in child protection.

    They provide advice on online safety and social media which will include good advice on the use of all the technology that may suddenly become more 'officially recommended'...

  • @EveyRey this is a great question. One area to consider is if any of your plans become less about the 'live' sessions and more designed around the full week for your students. There is still 'contact time' with your students, the live sessions you might be running, but this is only those who log in. Over time even these start to exclude those who can't go...

  • Hey @PeterFitton we have built a step in week 2 (coming very soon) all about how to decide between online and offline - but also synchronous and asynchronous. It's being built on the platform by a colleague as I write this so please do come back in a few days and hopefully we can address some of the major points on 'when to use live' (and when not to). We are...

  • @FJ haha! Of course a poll is only effective if it has purpose.

    We added it to get everyone comfortable and talkative. As @SamanthaB(she/her) noticed, it can work well. The real purpose here was to guide early discussion around important topics. But it also helped us understand what’s most important to you.

    We will cover this more in the beginning of...

  • Keep going! You can do it :-)

  • @JaredCawley “teacher voice” is such a great term, we all fall into it occasionally (sometimes by accident with friends!). It’s great you can keep this going online with younger audiences.

  • that must be so challenging - you must be very determined! Well done for keeping going during difficult times.

  • One of our concerns is that live sessions, such as Zoom, can work the first time but then engagement is lost over time. One of the areas we will explore in week 2 is how to critically compare the value of live vs non-live (synchronous vs asynchronous) learning. There are benefits to both - the value is finding the right balance for your learners. You may not...

  • May I ask what are the key changes your school is making to help support the staff and students? At a time like this it must be very challenging for them and your leadership team to decide what needs continuity and what should change to help adjust to this new situation.

    If there's any insight you can share from the survey (anonymous and aggregated) that...

  • @BénédicteVisonneau this is one of the approaches we are suggesting throughout the course - try something and then improve it with feedback and reflection. Asking your students to give you feedback is the way forward, it means you can combine this with a reflection on your own experience and then see where you can make changes to improve it for the next time....

  • Sorry to hear you're having problems @RaquelLobo and @StephanieHoldsworth - others on here have managed so it may have been a little overloaded. Would you be willing to try again?

  • Keeping students engaged is clearly a huge priority for so many of you and we are exploring how we can put more of it into the week 2 and 3 of this course.

    We are building the course week-by-week so we can keep this level of agility and respond to your most urgent / pressing needs.

  • We gave them a head's up @SueHellman but sometimes an activation email for a new account can take a little while to come when systems get busy @ChrystellaHusseyin Hang in there and we'd love to see what you reuse or create :)

  • Hey @AnishaLakhani did you explore the Learning Designer platform in Step 1.10? If you've got a session plan that works, you're improving it based on experience and feedback, and willing to share - this is a great platform to do so.

    We are searching for shared designs and if you add #flteachonline to the session plan / learning design name / title we can...

  • @BeckyPeters thank you - you've found a typo mistake which I've corrected. We're using #flteachonline as a hashtag in both Learning Designer and on social media, such as Twitter. Add it to your designs or posts and we'll be able to find and share.

    It's day one of the course but we'll be collecting session plans, learning designs and resources shared all on...

  • I didn’t add it but interesting to see ‘safety’ (or safe) so small in the cloud. Maybe there are some principles we just assume by default, or accidentally take for granted.

    Access - for example. If this wasn’t a principle there wouldn’t be much point in anything else!

  • I’m going to be the annoying learner who flips the question around.

    Can we encourage learners to be more empathetic towards each other? Learning you are not the only person in the world can be a long and though lesson. But wouldn’t it be amazing if fellow students also made an effort to identify others in an emotionally intelligent way? I think so...

  • @TejendraPherali maybe also how can we take responsibility for our education and contribute. It sounds like a community collaboration to make those small selfless improvements for others.

  • perhaps foolishly I can't think of an environment being conducive towards my learning without the input of my teacher, my fellow learners and myself. I suspect a classroom with nothing on the wall, no light, no furniture and no resources would be too demanding on a teacher day after day, to inspire us and keep us learning.

    However, I'd prefer that to a...

  • Hi everyone, I work at FutureLearn and I'm taking this course for professional development and to broaden my understanding of learning and teaching in this area. It's great to be learning with you all.

  • Taking this course quite late. Very interesting!

  • Of course the lines are blurry - but I expect you can have both. Again, it can be easier sometimes to compare to housing. Everyone needs somewhere to live but housing isn't a one-size-for-all solution. Some pay, some do not. Some get more than they need, some do not. The challenge within this is finding fairness, access, inclusivity, freedom, choice - the...

  • There's also a challenge - if someone unbundled exercise many would go for the health benefits and that tired feeling. A few (who enjoy it) would unbundle just the tiredness - to keep going for longer. But the thing is, somethings you need more than what you want - you need a fuller package. Often a degree, for example, contains things to pad it out - that's...

  • but @AmandaWhite do you feel that you get the depth you need from watching videos, especially those on YouTube? It may fix a problem you're having with your editing, but does it give you a wider understanding of the issue? (do you even need this?) :)

  • The digital age is an important aspect - it changes how things for life have become things for now. not everything, but I know myself that the skills I need, or think I need, for now are not the same as what I needed ten years ago. Some skills, like working with data, I didn't even need one year ago. I doubt I'm alone, but I suspect my career is 'new' and...

  • I added 'anywhere & anyone' as my motivation for learning. And it's not a projection. While I learn from those around me, mostly my partner, there is also only so much she can teach me. So I need to widen my scope and bring a community of experts and opinions into my world. There's only one way for me to do this; to get connected to the world and seek it out....

  • Perhaps we can transform the future by realising that digital platforms and practices are more malleable than traditional aspects to education. Timetables, room sizes, local town-based universities and, of course, teaching how you were taught, are all in place because of 'tradition'. But technology can shake off a 'feature' or 'aspect' within a moment. We can...

  • Hi @LizJohnson nice to see you in here. Hope you enjoy having a look at the other side! :)

    (we do it too, as much as we can)

  • @GabriellaRomanut don't be surprised with how much your experiences and opinions will be valued in this course. Plus, mice and elephants can always be friends if they share a common platform :)

  • So here at FutureLearn we build new features all the time, most of them are tiny and you only notice them over a period of time. But other times we build quite large things, and it's hard to imagine how we'd release any small part of it before the whole thing needs to go live. Then we can finally measure it. We do lots of testing and follow Agile very well,...

  • I think a prototype is exactly the way to test an idea. The other way is to talk to people, ask questions, see if you lead you to what you think you’re building.

    Try the Mum Test on someone. If you mother understands your product then it’s generally clear in intentions!!

  • Matt Jenner made a comment

    Hi I work at FutureLearn and we use Agile for creating this platform. I’m here to learn a bit more about it :-)

    I am in London, UK

  • I think it has a rather boring name of 'paper fortune teller'! :S

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller

  • Happy to report another successful build over here at the FutureLearn office! A nice warm up to my Monday morning - taking our own courses is one of the things I enjoy the most :)

  • I managed to find (I think) the factory my garment was made in - Marfel Empressa, Felgueiras, Portugal. They make Organic Cotton Shirts.

    Howies, the shop I bought it from, even have published their organic cotton status for the factory, which goes some way (to me) to say 'This is OK'. http://www.howies.co.uk/media/icons/_GOTS_2015-06-08_Risatel-MARFEL.pdf

  • @RebeccaPatchett Totally - working to live is such a hard thing - too many people globally live like this. And yet, surely to live to work sounds so much more fulfilling (if you love your job). But to me it reads as Live to Live; which is maybe cynical or dystopian - but is that where anyone wants to be? I'm undernourished with understanding in this area to...

  • I'm choosing an organic cotton shirt from Howies made in Portugal (http://www.howies.co.uk/men/clothing/shirts/mens-stan-organic-shirt.html). I'm going to be really lazy and ask them... I wonder what they know? :)

  • We must look through other people's eyes, or we'll only ever assume the world is as we see it. The beauty of real life / documentary style capture is it's so easy to get engrossed into someone else's life that you try to feel what they do, nearly automatically. That's why stories woven into courses like this work so well (in my opinion).

  • It's interesting in all three cases they 'relax and watch tv' for 2-2.5 hours each night. I get that relaxation is important, but there's also something about building yourself out of poverty OR, less controversially, if you don't like your situation can you spend a little bit of time each day to get yourself out of it? I don't see the full picture here, but...

  • I chose a shirt I own from Howies - a company from Wales, UK who have one small shop and do a lot of online mail ordering. They are interesting because they are a small company who had a stint being owned by Timberland - a huge company - but then became small again. I think in the process they went a bit wonky so it was nice to see them become more normal...

  • This should just be built into the operating system as a part of usual cleaning up. I'm surprised we're not there yet in terms of basic security. More often or not when you delete, and from the recycler/trash too you want a file gone, not just marked for overwriting when the storage device chooses to. Again another example of odd tech leading us into bad...

  • Everything & Yes.

  • If they have usage rights to my IP and I delete it, how could I be sure they also delete it? Say it was used for a campaign, or a 'massive snoop' I imagine they don't have a system in place that would cleanse it of all deleted IP... but I don't actually mind, I share things on there because I want them to be shared, it's a bit of a paradox.

  • I thought I'd try to do a harder country than mine (UK) so I looked for cyber security regulations in North Korea, out of curiosity and to drive a new angle on this discussion. I didn't find much as
    a) too many sites reporting/claiming attacks from DPRK block decent search engine results
    b) DPRK government site isn't the easiest to navigate or find anything...

  • We are in a bubble of decryption or no-encryption. Eventually most content, comms and connections will be encrypted to such a high level that the encrypted with exposed keys or backdoors (ahem!) would sit within the encrypted with private keys (protected upstream). Encryption is our key to our house and we'll one day be slightly amused that we used to all...