Bench-marking my practice – professional, ethical and inclusive

In my early years as a trainer and assessor I was encouraged to benchmark everything I developed against others in the industry – hopefully those who were better at it than me! I quickly joined the local Trainers and Assessors Network, but was disappointed to find that most weren’t actually interested in bench-marking, but rather protecting their own intellectual property. That attitude makes it very difficult to benchmark ones’ own professional practice.  To counter that I started to take every opportunity to observe other trainers and learn from them, not only what TO do, but also what NOT to do. In those early days I had the Assessor Code of Practice front and centre, but I find now that many Assessors don’t even know it exists. It’s been a while since I looked at it, so on a recent review, I was surprised to see how much of it has now become something we do for compliance rather than because we believe it’s what is best. Surely protecting the rights of candidates, avoiding harassment and maintaining confidentiality (to name a few points) should be expected of all Assessors because that’s what we WANT to do, not because we’re told we have to.

I’m particularly interested in the way a couple of the last points are worded: “Professional development opportunities are identified and sought” and “Opportunities for networking amongst assessors are created and maintained.”  Both are active, not passive, statements. It’s not “Professional development will be attended (reluctantly) when it’s handed to me on a plate”, but rather implies an active working out what I need and then seeking it out for myself. I think I’ve done this reasonably well in identifying and attending webinars, Twitter chats, live streamed conferences and MOOCs. I still need to work out how I can better engage my colleagues and encourage them to seek out their own PD.

Achieving a qualification can be seen as a means of bench-marking, but there is no specific qualification for my job role, and sadly, many Diploma qualified Assessors can’t navigate their way through a unit of competency, meaning this isn’t a satisfactory benchmark.

I can also benchmark against our organisational Code of Conduct which highlights the values of fairness, respect, integrity, professionalism, accountability and equality of opportunity. A few key points applicable to my role are the need to use current and accurate information and evidence: maintain up-to-date knowledge in our areas of work or scholarship, and in the professional, legal and ethical standards relevant to our areas of expertise: and to practice inclusiveness and respect for differences between people.

How do I do this? I subscribe to a barrage of industry newsletters by email, I participate in LinkedIn group discussions, and follow industry organisations on Twitter. In our team I’m recognised as the “information seeker” and I’m tasked with keeping the rest of the team informed – one of the benefits of our Myers-Briggs analysis a couple of years ago was identifying what tasks each of us enjoys.

Practicing inclusivity on our campus is a must: our staff include tradespeople who have spent years on the tools and come to us having never used a computer, admin staff fresh out of school, highly (and multi) qualified HE Lecturers and everything in between. We may not be multi-racial, but we are certainly multi-cultural. And I get to work with all of them! They know that if my door is open they are welcome to drop in with a query or a chat. They know that if they need assistance, there is nothing I enjoy more than getting out of my office, sitting beside them and helping to work out whatever is the issue. I love working with small groups in a training environment where I can make sure I give everyone opportunities to be involved.

I’d love to hear from other Instructional Designers or Learning Technologists – what are your professional benchmarks and where do you look to for professional development?

An ISFP in training

A couple of years ago our team invested in attending two Myers-Briggs workshops to help us identify our work preferences and develop our work relationships. 

Some people question how an introvert (like me) can possibly be an effective tour guide or trainer. I think the answer lies partly in the “F”, those with preferences for feeling base their decisions on values, empathy, mercy and harmony. We tend to be helpful, caring and very aware of the needs of others. The other part of the answer is the coping and management strategies we put in place.

I love being in a training environment with people who want to learn, I’m excited and invigorated, but by the end of the day I’m drained and exhausted and love nothing more than a quiet night in. For me, tour guiding and training are both acting. The “I” in me gets up in the morning and puts on my costume and away I go. My confidence is grounded in my subject matter knowledge and previous experience. The “F” in me loves to get alongside people and help them to see, understand and apply what they are learning – and rejoices on the inside.

So some of my strategies:

• Preparation, preparation, preparation.
• Wear comfortable clothing and shoes – I don’t want to be worrying about what I’m revealing when I bend, lift or squat.
• “Throw the monkey” – early in the training, get the monkey off my back by asking questions and getting learners actively involved. That gets the focus off me.
• Create engaging activities that make learning fun.
• Make it personal – find out as much as possible about the learners before, or as quickly as possible, and customise activities to their situation or environment.
• Relax – for me that means a coffee on the desk and an unobtrusive piece of Blu-Tack in my hand to fidget with.

Networking with colleagues, peers and other practitioners

Living in Central Australia, and with the rest of my team in Darwin, I’m very conscious that my opportunities for local professional development and networking are limited. As a result, I have actively sought to build my own Professional Learning Network, primarily through social media. This includes actively participating in several weekly educational chats on Twitter (#AussieED, #digitaledchat, #IncludEDau), participating in live streamed conferences, Twitter backchannels and Google Hangouts and joining conversations on LinkedIn.

I find some of our staff are reluctant to share their work, even with their own colleagues, and feel that they have ownership of it personally, rather than the organisation, and in comparison, I have been amazed at the openness and willingness to share of the wider education community. I don’t think anyone has done any research into why staff feel this way; anecdotally they don’t trust the IT systems, they genuinely think their work belongs to them, they don’t want their colleagues to have it easy when they’ve done the hard yards and some don’t want others to be judging their work.

I’m excited to have three sessions in our Learning and Teaching Week this year to share with our staff some of the benefits of seeking out professional development through social media and to introduce them to Twitter chats. I’m hopeful that some will see the opportunities that being open provides and will start to apply that internally as well as externally. (Oh, and if you want to join us - look out for #AusVETchat on Wednesday)

A year since Nepal - why are some learners more enthusiastic than others?

We've just been on holiday for a month, and although I had limited access to internet I did find time to write some thoughts on my training experiences here and overseas. Anyway, why would I want to be on the internet when there were whales, dolphins, bears and glaciers to be watching. (Highly recommend Alaska as a holiday destination.)

I’m starting to get Facebook reminders of our time in Nepal last year, and as each one pops up I’m thinking more about the training we did there, what I learned in those situations, what I’ve applied already and what I would do differently in those situations now.

The most significant experience at the time was seeing the enthusiasm displayed by each group of learners. These were people who were all experienced in their field (community development, nursing, community health, finance) but with limited or no experience of working with a computer. They were amazed that we had travelled to their remote communities to spend time providing training opportunities and were more excited than any learners I have come across in fifteen years training in Australia. This experience has deepened my sense of privilege of access to learning and reignited my passion for training.

Having had this experience, I now question why we don’t see that same level of enthusiasm here. One common reason / excuse for not attending professional development is “I don’t have time”. At the beginning of this year I came across a blog put together by four Educational Technologists from the UK who were experiencing the same issue with their staff. Their blog, “1 minute CPD”, offers daily bite sized, just-in-time, professional development. James Clay’s blog post “I don’t have a dog”, shared recently through my Twitter PLN, is both entertaining and enlightening as he shares his thoughts that we all have the same number of minutes in a day and how we choose to use them is a matter of personal priorities. 

Through following 1 minute CPD this year I have improved my ICT proficiency, acquired new skills in classroom technologies and learnt to use curation tools … and so much more – and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned on my social media and with my colleagues. Sharing the 1 minute CPD concept and James’ thoughts have already proved helpful to me in encouraging staff to re-evaluate their priorities and to see professional development as something desirable and enjoyable and not just a compliance “tick the box”.

I now need to build on this and, with my team, determine the best way ahead for our staff – being very conscious that one model doesn’t fit every situation.

Preparing for Learning and Teaching Week

I'm currently working on developing three sessions for our annual Learning and Teaching week at Charles Darwin University. Each year it's a focused week of professional development opportunities with in-house presentations, panel discussions, webinars and guest speakers.

This year we're opening it up and, with a couple of my colleagues, I'll be hosting a series of sessions for lecturers interested in exploring the use of technology, digital tools and social media for professional development and networking.

The final session in the series is a Twitter edchat on the topic of "Industry engagement in VET", and we’re inviting VET practitioners from other Registered Training Organisations and representatives from industry to join us as we discuss why industry and RTOs need to engage, and some practical approaches to making it happen.

Please join us on Wednesday 14th from 1pm - 2pm ACST on Twitter #AusVETchat

Starting a Reflective Journal

Oh dear!
I'm really not the best at blogging! I find my personal stuff goes onto Facebook and recording some of my professional discoveries goes into Twitter, but I seldom sit down and consciously reflect on what I'm learning or doing and how that impacts on my professional practice.
I'm into the last few units of my Diploma of Training Design and Development and one of the assessment tasks is a reflection journal:

Undertake a reflective process throughout this course of current facilitation and assessment practice, include:

o   Techniques and strategies you have developed appropriate to professional practice

o   How you apply ethical and inclusive practices in professional practice

o   Reflection on professional practice of current knowledge and skills against appropriate benchmarks

o   Networking with colleagues, peers and other practitioners 

So, time to start actually documenting, rather than just doing and thinking.

As a first, here's a short Storify documenting some of the process of preparing for our Learning and Teaching Week in September. In preparing for the sessions I'll be facilitating I've drawn heavily on contacts through my Professional Learning Network (mostly through Twitter), and have had to learn how to use Storify - which actually wasn't hard at all. One of the things we want to share with staff is the enormous benefit of being part of an open community and I'm hoping they will see the genuine willingness of others to share resources and provide additional support through this Storify.

Curating - #BYOD4L

Hmmmmm.

As those who know me will testify, I kinda like to have my stuff all around me. Putting stuff away just isn't my strong point. And it's pretty much the same with curating. I see a website I like and "click" it's in my favourites. I currently have 12 active tabs on the iPad and 15 on the phone! But how to bring this all together?! So "reflect on my current practice" - well, it's pretty much non-existent. Great! Here's an area for improvement in 2016 :)

I can relate to the teacher in the video today because our trainers all say the same. And we say the same in relation to (what we think are) exciting things we include in our online staff PD.

A couple of years ago I (with a few other colleagues) participated in Gilly Salmon's "Carpe Diem" course: A team based approach to learning design. Many of us found the template provided for designing online activities particularly helpful, including a "spark" and a "what's in it for me" as part of the activity introduction. Check it out on page 21 of the Carpe Diem workbook. It's easy for us to get excited about new things and want to share everything, so I think we need to be able to articulate that excitement so that our students also get excited and want to try new things.

So for something to improve on this year, I'm going to try to curate my "stuff". I'm trying Pocket which has been mentioned in this course, as well as giving Evernote another try. I had looked at that a few years ago and didn't find it intuitive, but was recently reintroduced to it as part of the fun 12 Apps of Christmas.

I'm looking forward to a tidier desk by the end of the year!

Communicating - #BYOD4L

Day 2 of #BYOD4L is all about communicating. Specifically, thinking about how we communicate in our professional and private lives, the methods and tools we use.

Rather than just write a list, I found this neat website to create Venn diagrams - because I was sure there would be an overlap - and there is. When I sat down to think about it, there are very few tools that I use exclusively for professional or private use, with most sitting in a blur in the middle. Some, like Facebook, started as a purely social tool, but as more and more businesses and professional bodies create pages I find it an increasingly useful way to be informed and to raise questions.

I then considered which of these tools I use of choice and which I have to use because they are work based, or because that is where to find others with whom I want to communicate. Google tools fit in this latter category with a lot of MOOCs using google as the preferred platform. I'm getting used to it, but it's not my preferred choice.

The day 2 scenarios are interesting and I relate to the educator in the second, as I often hear similar comments from our trainers and assessors: "I'm all alone", "I can't get to that PD session because I'm teaching", "My colleagues are so far away" (At CDU we have over 22,000 students across 4 campuses and 4 training centres). 

To them, and to our man in the video, I would say, "I hear what you're saying. My colleagues are 1,500 km away too. I've been able to explore using technology to help us communicate better. Let's see what might work for you." And then begins a journey of exploration ...

So for me, where to next? I've just returned from long service leave where I spent time in Nepal facilitating training in MS Word and PowerPoint with groups of community development workers in remote regions (Read about that on my other blog), and also introducing them to Twitter and Padlet and blogs. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm. I'm continuing to work with some of them individually, slowly introducing tools and apps they can use on their limited bandwidth. In my day job, I'll be continuing to explore (through courses like this) tools and apps that I can share with our trainers and assessors to help them further develop their skills and give their training sessions some "bling". Exciting times!

Learning on the move - #Fail! #BYOD4L is next.

So I didn't get to participate in #HumanMOOC. Changing locations, dodgy wifi and time zone differences all got too challenging. And then Christmas came along - and time with family was waaay more important. Hopefully #HumanMOOC will come round again.

So now back home and trying to get back into "normal" routines and I'm picking up on #BYOD4L. I lurked a bit here previously and got to share in what one of my colleagues was learning. It's a wild ride of a new topic each day for 5 days using The 5C Framework combined with Twitterchats. We're talking about Connecting, Communicating, Curating, Collaborating and Creating.

Check out the website from the image caption.

BYOD4L

Hello to HumanMOOCers

Hi from Pokhara, Nepal.
I think I've finally worked out a way to post my intro video - working round wifi access, power outages and device incompatibility is a challenge, but hopefully this link will work.
Greetings everyone!

Online learning on the move

Currently in Nepal and eager to start with #HumanMOOC. I'm hoping our travel over the next few weeks won't be too much of a barrier to my participation.

Keeping up with PD in Nepal

While we've been here in Nepal I've been surprised by how easy it has been to keep up with my professional development through a variety of online activities.

During our first week here I was able to join two sessions through Blackboard Collaborate facilitated from my own workplace, Charles Darwin University, as part of our annual Learning and Teaching Week.

I've also enjoyed participating in some of the Sunday evening #AussieED chats on Twitter and have enjoyed following the conversations around digital writing on #DigiWriMo.

Participating in Collaborate session from Pokhara 

Training in Nepal

Several months have passed since I last posted here.

We are now in Nepal and spending a few days in several remote communities, providing IT training for staff of International NepalFellowship (INF). Last week we spent a few days in Jumla and we are now in Gamgadhi with a group of staff who are keen and interested to learn about blogging. This post is to demonstrate to the group how to update a blog.

Our first view of snow from the top of the pass - heading to Gamgadhi

Jumla

Training INF Staff in Gamgadhi

This group also learnt how to use Padlet:

Planning for Mobile Learning

So I've just thrown myself into another MOOC!
This one is titled "Instructional Design for Mobile Learning" #ID4ML. I'm hoping it may give me some tips and ideas to trial during our time in Nepal.
Watch this space 😃

Blended assessments of learning

Wow! 
Listening to the webinar this week and there are some great tips in here. For anyone involved in designing assessments this one is worth watching. Answers to questions about preventing cheating, designing multiple choice questions, using LMS settings and more. Watch the webinar to find out how Brad & Angelina can have a place in assessments :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDzPETEdoP0

The reading for this week highlights the importance of giving really clear instructions to learners, remembering that in a F2F environment there is the opportunity to ask clarifying questions. 

Online tests are often used as a quick and easy assessment, but a good online test will take time to set up: banks of questions, randomized questions, appropriate feedback, test questions in Google (students may do this) ...

We spend a lot of time talking about how to prevent our online students from cheating, so this was interesting to read:

"In the design of effective assessments of learning, Hoffman and Lowe (2011, January) note that the “focus must be on student learning, not student control.” Particularly when dealing with online assessment (e.g., the ubiquitous auto-scored multiple choice quiz tools within learning management systems) it is tempting to design a testing environment in which all variables are controlled and student responses do naught but reveal students’ mastery of course objectives. However, as Dietz-Uhler and Hurn (2011) note, “the evidence, although scant, suggests that academic dishonesty occurs frequently and equally in online and face-to-face courses” (p. 75). It is counter-productive to adopt an adversarial stance as we attempt to fence in students to prevent them from cheating (in any modality). Nevertheless, there are steps we can take to make online testing more effective. Many of these are applicable to face-to-face environments as well."

 I like the idea of the one-sentence summary:

"Students answer seven questions separately: “Who? Does What? To Whom (or What)? When? Where? How? And Why?” Then they put those answers together into one sentence."

Now to consider where I can use that.

Blended Interactions - necessary?

Along with my reading this week I have some questions to think about. The first is:

"Is there value in student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction in all courses regardless of discipline?"

My immediate response is "yes, of course", but after more thought I'm less sure that it is always necessary and need to justify my response. There are many things I have learned in life through my own endeavours, mostly through reading. But how then do I determine whether or not I trust what I'm reading, where do I go if I need something explained. There are definitely times where I need contact with someone else, be that another student or an instructor. There are times when I need some external motivation and contact with other students or instructors can help.There are also times when I'm able to help out another student, and that too gives me a boost. 

As a student, I appreciate interaction with the "experts", the instructors, as that ensures I'm on the right track. As an instructor, I see that I fit well into the model of Concierge Learning ( a new term for me) - providing soft guidance, some traditional teaching but allowing (and expecting) learners to explore for themselves.

I also appreciate the opportunity to share with other learners as we journey together, yet independently, along a path. Sometimes we rub along together for a while, other times we just cross paths briefly, but each interaction adds something important to the experience.

The challenge now is to consider learner interaction in our not for credit course on wildlife rehabilitation. What's in it for them? What are the benefits of interactive activities? How will those link into the face to face workshops?

More work needed ... 

Another year, another MOOC.

This time its Blendkit 2015, aka Becoming a Blended Learning Designer. I'm hoping this will help me as I design courses at work, and also as I revamp the training program for our Wildcare volunteers. And of course, I'm running behind in this so trying to do a bit of catch up.

The first topic is "Understanding blended learning" and for me the key point in this chapter is here:

"Blended learning is not simply adding an online component to a face-to-face course. Technology in a course should be used wisely – to facilitate student learning. Technology should not be used just to show off technology. Excellent opportunities exist for teachers to make learning interactive, dynamic, and fun when used properly. The technology aspect of a lesson should be like a good baseball umpire – it (like the umpire) is good if it (he) goes unnoticed."

Too  many times I've seen a bunch of pdf documents uploaded to a Learning Management System and - bingo! - an online course. Over the last few years I've enjoyed exploring a variety of social tools (padlet, popplet, etc) and for me the challenge is to create a course with social interaction and online activity that complements the course content, not detracts from it.

Looking forward to learning more as the course progresses.     

Part of my learning is trying out new technology, so even though Blogger says it doesn't support my iPad and may not behave properly, I can't resist giving it a try.

While it's a bit challenging moving around the screen, it doesn't seem to be too bad - but won't allow me to upload images :(

New to blogging

So my second attempt at a blog to record my learning journey. This time I need to:

• Remember the title of my blog so I can find it again!
• Come here often to post
• Use it to expand my Personal (Professional, Peer) Learning Network

This attempt at blogging is prompted by an activity in an online course I'm doing - Hybrid Courses: Best of both worlds - for the second time round. I completed this 4 week course last year and enjoyed it so much I'm doing it again, partly to see how different it is with a different bunch of people and partly to see if it is any different (presumably having been reviewed since last year). So here I am doing the 2nd of the listed activities. 

Activity

Select at least ONE item from the following list to expand your online connections and resources as a step towards your reinvention of your self into a hybrid teacher:

1. Subscribe (via RSS feed) to at least one new online education blog. Here is a list of possible starting points: Useful Blogs

2. Start a blog yourself, either for your future hybrid class use or to document some aspect of your teaching life.  You can set one up at blogger.com or at wordpress.com. (I especially recommend this for someone who has never blogged before. It is an empowering experience for teachers and students.) Don't forget to add it to our Compilation Site!

3. Sign up for Google Alerts (or an alternate alert such as Mention) then start to use this tool to get up-to-the-minute articles published on the web. Topics you might sign up for are: hybrid teaching, online teaching, or anything related to your own subject matter.

4. Create your own hybrid class Facebook page that you can start developing for possible use in your own course. (For information on how to set up a private Facebook page, seethis article.)

5. Network online with people in this course. Tweet with the course hashtag #CNhybest.

6. Find your own way to be more connected online and let me know what you will do.

Click "next" to let me know what you have decided to do to make yourself more tech-savvy and connected.