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John Baglow

Feedback on feedback

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Three Steps to a Collaborative Learning Environment: the discussion continues


My conference input enabled me to explore ways of getting students collaborating and in the process giving each other feedback and comment. Some interesting points were raised by the other participants and I would be pleased to hear what you think about these aspects of collaboration:


Is the resistance to collaborative approaches because of how trainee teachers are trained -- or about their own educational experiences as students? Or something else? Is a change of culture needed if teachers regard feedback as a judgement?

I think that if you are not used to working in a way which means you have to comment on other people’s ideas and work, it must take a while to get used to it. What do you think?


Are schools leading the way?  One delegate said: “I have been amazed at peer feedback activities. They’re in every lesson” 


Should we assess feedback and collaboration as important 21st century learning skills?

I hadn’t thought of that as an argument in their favour - I was coming from the belief that peer feedback and collaboration result in more-effective learning. Do you think it is a kind of basic skill?


Do you give students a 'crib' for feedback? I do find that the trainee teachers need to practise giving feedback in the fairly formal setting of the micro-teach, when they feed back on their peers’ sessions. One of the reasons giving this kind of feedback is valuable is that to give it you have to have a reasonably good grasp of the criteria for judging a session; these are complex and have to be learned.


Is Padlet the best tool for (online) collaboration? I think you have to strike a balance between making use of the many new technologies and running the risk of intimidating some learners. I have had some good successes with getting students to work together on Padlet, but as I said there are many more-accomplished practitioners than me around. My main vehicle are discussion forums, online meetings and swapping slides. 


How do you get your students working together with each other and with you?

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John Baglow

Recognition at Last!

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Clear evidence at last for my skills as a networked practitioner. My VW garage sent me a video the other day, showing me what they were doing with my car so I replied to them with a video clip. When I picked up the car they gave me an Oscar. I'ld like to thank the OU, my tutor Dave Martin, Simon Ball, my peers on H818, the elearning team in college.....My Oscar!

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John Baglow

What do you call your students?

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Have you noticed that the issue of gender identity seems to be coming to the fore? A recent BBC programme talked about the 'gender continuum' and looked at some of the differences between gender and sex. The programme memorably suggested that sex was what was between your legs and gender was what was between your ears. But then pointed out that it was possible to have female chromosomes and male genitalia.

Why am I wondering about this? Well, because I recently spoke to a school teacher who was in the habit of addressing her class as 'ladies and gents', but recently one of her pupils took exception to this and asked why she didn't use a gender neutral term. So that is my question: how do you address your students? If there really is a gender continuum rather than clear categories is this something we need to think about?

I know that some teachers address their students as 'guys', which seems to have become slightly non gender-specific in the plural - but if I said I met a guy recently, wouldn't you nevertheless think I meant a male?

What do you call your students?

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John Baglow

Taking my own medicine.

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A large part of what I am advocating in my OU project is that the learning process can be much improved if students are encouraged to work collaboratively. When this goes well, students will not only work towards a joint outcome, which in itself can be a valuable process. Along the way they will exchange information and opinions on each others' ideas. They will express their anxieties, their wishes and their doubts and they will seamlessly and continuously move between all of these aspects of the process. They will test ideas against each other and will arrive at some sort of a consensus.

So how does it feel to be taking some of this medicine myself? When sharing my work I have had some very helpful comments about:

  • my peers' ability to access my materials and the need for me to use platforms which are readily accessible
  • whether I was getting my message across
  • the relevance of my topic to my peers
  • passages which could have been better expressed
Does the medicine work?

On the whole, the process has been formative, helpful and has forced me to clarify exactly what my aims were. The tone of comments has been very professional. That is very important. When someone gives me feedback, I am almost subconsciously asking myself if I should be influenced by their views. Does this peer sound like someone who has similar values and experiences to me? Is it an advantage of online collaboration that such personal judgments are pushed more to the background than would probably be the case in face-to-face teaching? I think I have detected a tendency not to argue with peers's comments. Is that a problem? I don't think so.


And we are also doling out the medicine too. I think evaluating a peer's work is every bit as challenging as marking and giving feedback in my role as a tutor. You are conscious that your peer shares the same anxieties as you. You don't want to give excessive praise and you want to avoid concentrating on negative comments. At the same time, unlike the tutor who has a higher position in the feedback hierarchy, you can't be sure that you are applying the right criteria.

 Has the medicine worked for you?

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John Baglow

Conference abstract: 3 steps to a collaborative learning environment

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Edited by John Baglow, Sunday, 20 Dec 2015, 17:15

Three Steps to a Collaborative Learning Environment: a module for teachers and trainers in the post-16 sector 

 This conference session will be of interest to anyone engaged in the teaching and learning process. It is designed for trainee teachers in the Further Education sector and in the post-16 sector in general but it looks at issues of pedagogy which go to the heart of teaching at any level.

 Effective collaboration through openness: we will consider the impact of some aspects of openness on teaching and learning. I shall argue that implementing Weller’s “open state of mind” is perhaps the most relevant aspect of openness in the context of teaching in the post-16 sector. It is implicit that students and teachers will need to deliberately implement an approach where they are happy to be open about their methods, where they encourage their students to feed back to them about the learning process and where there is an understanding that the teacher is also a learner.

 Have you considered the implications of an environment which encourages sharing of comments on each other’s ideas and work? Would such an approach be universally popular and effective? What are the pitfalls of expecting students to collaborate and be open with each other in this way? What has been your experience of sharing drafts on H818? Feel free to exploit the backchannels! Contact me on Twitter @JohnBaglow or in OpenStudio or on johnbaglow.wordpress.com so that your views can be incorporated in the conference. 

Effective collaboration using technology: The Initial Teacher Education (ITE) module will look at how a range of technologies can play a part in the implementation of a collaborative learning environment in the classroom and online. For example, students can collaborate using discussion forums, video conferencing, wikis, online bulletin boards and a host of other platforms. Peer feedback can use the same vehicles and can be almost instantaneous if necessary. There is great scope for achieving a sophisticated and nuanced feedback approach which makes use of screencasts, podcasts, online written feedback and online tutorials. There is the additional benefit that trainee teachers become familiar with these new technologies whether or not they adopt them. 

Tailoring your approach to your students’ needs: it is fair to say that the student body which my trainees will be teaching is much less homogeneous than that at a university. For example, a colleague reports that written feedback, whether electronic or not, is invariably perceived as rather intimidating by his BTEC students. They much prefer oral feedback, whether face-to-face or in a video clip. So whether you are a practising teacher who is keen to increase student engagement in the learning process or are just interested in finding out more about how technology has increased the options for introducing an open outlook in education, this presentation is for you.

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John Baglow

Accessibility frustrations

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I am in the process of completing the 'poster' we are producing for our OU course but I seem to be spending a lot of time making the 2 minute powerpoint accessible:

  • despite my best efforts I have failed to add any Alt text to the images
  • I can't remember what is considered best practice as regards fonts for accessibility
  • I have added a transcript of my narration simply by using a text box at the bottom of each slide. Is there a better way of doing this?
  • I have used Arial Unicode as my font as I remember reading once that it is best for students with dyslexia
I think I need to do this more often to learn the ropes. At present it is disproportionately time-consuming.
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John Baglow

One step forward....

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Much as I like my Mac, using it to produce materials for my online teaching has meant that I always have to remember to convert my files to Word and PowerPoint before uploading them to Blackboard. And also, it has not always proved easy to access students' work when it is on PowerPoint. In particular, sound and presenter notes can be elusive when accessing them on my Mac.

But now my elearning colleagues in college have taken pity on me and have helped me download Office 365 Education so that now I can produce and access files more reliably.

There seems to be no getting away from the fact that most students seem to use Word and Powerpoint, and universal access to materials is surely a basic prerequisite of online learning.

The next job for the elearning wizards is to help me decide which apps are most likely to be universally accessible. For example, using Padlet recently I found that not all students could access it, and of those who could, not all could add a comment. Using screencast-o-matic for screencasts works pretty well but sometimes students can't hear the sound - but that could be because they haven't got sound set up correctly. The same issue can arise with synchronous online tutorials.


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John Baglow

A la carte or fixed menu?

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Edited by John Baglow, Saturday, 28 Nov 2015, 13:17

I think I am moving to a more nuanced position about how my students can get the most out of the online eAward. Although I do firmly believe that use of a range of online technologies contribute to the students' learning experience I am learning not to be too dogmatic. In other words I am more relaxed about letting the students pick and choose from the menu of resources, activities and technologies.

 For example, we have 3 ebooks on the VLE (Blackboard) and I encourage students to dip into them. One student has bought a print copy of one of the books and has suggested that in our pre-course information we give students the option  of buying the book

Mind you, I am still trying to devise ways of increasing participation in the discussion forum. Some students say they feel discouraged when they see that a thread is started by a student who writes a scarily impressive post which they feel they can't match. A suggested solution is for me to nominate a different student to start each thread. Let's see how that works!

the à la carte approach to online tutorials has had mixed success. It enabled students who were a bit nervous about the idea simply to opt out. I am going to hold sessions at fixed times each week, rather than letting students choose the time.

..and to return to my hobby horse of how best to give feedback to students, my own experience and the students' own views are very much suggesting that an à la carte mix is the best way forward. For example, maybe oral feedback (synchronous or recorded) has immediacy and can be more subtle with its use of body language and tone of voice, but written feedback is more convenient and less time-consuming for the student if the feedback needs to be referred to more than once.

I wonder if online learning actually gives the students more à la carte choice than would be

possible in a face-to-face setting.

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John Baglow

How can students collaborate online?

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Edited by John Baglow, Wednesday, 25 Nov 2015, 14:38

Please go to my Padlet wall and add your ideas to my suggestions for getting students to collaborate online

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John Baglow

Back Channels

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Edited by John Baglow, Tuesday, 24 Nov 2015, 12:53

Exploring the Association for Learning Technology website and catching up on this year's annual conference has turned out to be more interesting than I expected. I wonder how I can make use of some of the features with my own work.

  • is there scope for me to build up a library of my own YouTube videos? I don't make 'presentations' as such though.  Maybe I could video snatches of my sessions? 
  • the buttons linking to Twitter etc. This might help get to the people  who are missing out on my fantastically interesting blog posts. How do I add these buttons?
  • really interesting is the page of links to blogs which comment on the conference. But some people do blog at excessive length, I think. Get your point across!
  • the ALTC monthly community call is a good idea for networking. 
Actually, I don't go to conferences any more. That is partly because my college has a strong programme of in-house CPD and also because I work part-time now. I shall make more effort to engage with online resources like these from ALT. 






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John Baglow

PEST analysis

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I have never done a PEST analysis before - and after reading this you may well conclude that I still haven’t! In the time available I have just chosen a few sources of information and comment which perhaps throw just a little light on the wider context in which my study of feedback and collaboration in the teaching and learning process in Further Education is situated.

  1. FE and its political and economic context:In a paper for LSIS Buddery (2011) makes the point that to underline its value to the economy, the sector “must broaden its approach”. This is largely in the context of local employment issues and catering for local needs but there is one aspect which it could be argued is in step with the idea of using online technology for increasing student interaction. The young people of 2020 will have been brought up in environments which are “strongly participative” and where “knowledge is becoming more participative”. I would see that as being in step with some of the characteristics of what I have been examining.

        We are told “The more-for-less drivers are strong.” What are the cost implications of a feedback approach which

        encourages collaboration and uses technology to achieve it? My first response is that it is cost-neutral.


The OfSted FE Handbook stresses the importance of a range of features of effective teaching and learning such as:

  • the use of technology in assessment
  • the extent to which learners understand their progress towards their learning goals and what they need to do to improve
  • how well progress is recorded in feedback to learners
  • learners’ understanding of what they have to do to improve their skills and knowledge, which is checked and reflected in subsequent tasks and activities.
  • marking and constructive feedback from staff are frequent and of a consistent quality, leading to high levels of engagement and interest.

These are all features of the approach I have been looking and they reinforce the idea that an effective feedback process is important.



2. Schroeder et al. take a broad look at the strengths and weaknesses of using social software in further education. Their list of software includes many of the vehicles used in online collaborative activities, such as discussion forums, blogs, video conferencing, podcasts and videocasts. They suggest that improved learning, enhanced communication between students and tutor and the building of social relationships are among the advantages. Weaknesses include what they call workload issues such as waiting for the contribution of others and perceived limitations in the quality of interactions.


Buddery (2011) The further education and skills sector in 2020: A social productivity approach. London: Public Services Hub at the Royal Society of Arts, and Coventry: Learning and Skills Improvement Service, LSIA, 246.

Schroeder, A., Minocha, S. and Schneider, C. (2010) ‘The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of using social software in higher and further education teaching and learning’, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(3), pp. 159–174.

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John Baglow

Openness is a state of mind

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I am finding that my feedback practice and my thoughts about it are changing by the day. Here are some of my latest musings:

  • I think I have got past the point of feeling (subconsciously) that if I use flashy technology then my feedback is bound to be effective
  • my eureka moment of a few weeks ago is still going strong. The idea that feedback should permeate a course, rather than being an occasional event and should be tutor >student and even better student>student,  is dominating my thinking about my own teaching 
  • is feedback anything to do with the openness agenda? I believe that in the widest sense of the term it certainly is.
  • some students resist the idea of expressing their thoughts openly. As Weller says, "openness is a state of mind".
  • the H818 course is giving me the opportunity to examine my own state of mind: we are commenting on each other's drafts 
  • ...and I can see that it is not as straightforward as I have argued in the past. On my teacher-training I sing the praises of peer assessment because it requires the students to understand the topic and to have an insight into the assessment criteria
  • ....but I am finding that some of the feedback I am getting is making me realise that my peers' understanding of the criteria is different to mine. You could argue that that is the exactly the point of peer assessment. 
  • For example, one peer suggested that I had too few references. That has got me thinking.
  • Another suggested that I should take more account of students who may not share my enthusiasm for wall-to-wall feedback. Good point.
  • And 2 peers thought my language was a bit too chatty in places. The problem there is that I try hard to avoid pompous language; perhaps I go too far in the other direction

My reason for taking H818 is mainly to engage with practices which I can incorporate into my own teaching. There is no doubt that this peer  feedback process is contributing to that process. So I am happy! 

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John Baglow

Not so fast!

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My enthusiasm for audio and video feedback received a bit of a reality check today. I thought I would impress my students who have just completed an assessed task on the subject of assessment and feedback by giving them feedback using a screencast -o-matic screencast. I think the process of producing the screencasts went well and the combination of text highlighting and my supportive comments seemed to me to be very effective.

That may still turn out to be the case, but one student who had already expressed a preference for written feedback, has written a reflective journal entry extolling the virtues of written feedback despite my enthusiasm for the asynchronous video cast. She says she had to watch the video twice to take in my points and to be able to make a note of the 'feedforward' points which I included. She feels that written feedback would be more convenient to revisit in future.

She also made the point that I assumed that all the students would have the facility for watching a video clip - but surely any device, whether PC, laptop, tablet or phone would enable a student to hear, and usually watch, a video clip?

Maybe I should go along with the idea of offering students choice of feedback modes.

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John Baglow

Feedback on Feedback

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Edited by John Baglow, Saturday, 7 Nov 2015, 12:53

I have just been giving some of my students feedback on their written work about good feedback practice. I used screencast-o-matic to give spoken feedback with the students' submitted work on the screen.

Several things occur to me:

  • whether feedback is written, face-to-face (synchronous) or via a podcast or screencast (asynchronous) is a matter of student and tutor choice, but something tells me that using a variety of approaches is likely to be best practice
  • some of my students expressed a preference for one mode of feedback without having experienced the others. 
  • in any case, some research has pointed out that what students prefer is not necessarily what is most effective!
  • the time taken to produce feedback is an important consideration. After about half a dozen recordings I feel the time required was acceptable. I did not write any feedback. Instead I highlighted things I wanted to talk about
  • in an effort to get a 'feedback loop' or 'feedback conversation' going, I raised points which I asked the students to respond to in their journals
  • I have also asked them to give me feedback on my feedback, so watch this space for the results of that request.

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John Baglow

Feedback for All

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I think I had a bit of a eureka moment today. Instead of seeing feedback as something which is given by the tutor at various points in a course, I am beginning to realise that it can become an integral and continuous part of the teaching and learning process involving the whole group.

Feedback has traditionally been seen as something passed from tutor to student. Best practice has sometimes involved an attempt to get a dialogue going between tutor and student. 
Yang and Carless (2013) extend the definition by seeing feedback as “all dialogue to support learning in both formal and informal situations” but they are well aware of the “imbalanced power relationship between tutor and student”, in which the student may well experience negative emotions. 
How can we avoid this imbalance and achieve a real dialogue or a “conversational framework”?

Just as “assessment for learning” is all about using assessment as a formative activity throughout a course, feedback can also be seen as pervading almost every aspect of a teaching programme. Some ideas for achieving this:
   + peer feedback can be more effective as it has the potential to avoid the power relationship issue and it results in a different    type of feedback
   + opportunities for dialogue occur as students interact 
   + collaborative assignment production would incorporate continuous peer (and tutor) feedback 
   + the tutor could show all students all their feedback (not just each individual’s) which they then discuss in small groups
And there is scope for making the dialogue between tutor and student more of a formative conversation:
   + offer students choice about the form of feedback they prefer (Nicol 20010)
   + podcasts and video casts offer alternatives modes of feedback
   + students can make requests for specific feedback about aspects of the topic when submitting work
   + students can submit a note in which they are asked to say what their main points are, to highlight what they see as the strongest and weakest sections and to say what questions they have for the tutor.

My next task is to look at how this kind of conversation can be achieved online. 

Nicol, David. "From monologue to dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education." Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35.5 (2010): 501-517.

Yang, Min, and David Carless. "The feedback triangle and the enhancement of dialogic feedback processes." Teaching in Higher Education 18.3 (2013): 285-297.

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John Baglow

Can online feedback be effective?

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Please have a glance at some of these points about how I am planning to explore the effectiveness of online feedback to (and from) students



Can feedback to students in online courses be effective?  or something along those lines. 

1

Plan for preparation and research 200 words

  • should I use examples of feedback from my own practice?
  • interview a colleague who has used video feedback?
  • consult sources from previous modules (if I can find them!)
  • consult peers on H818 about detailed aspects of the proposal

2

Topic and scope 200 words

  • What is a learning dialogue with students?
  • what are the characteristics of an effective feedback process?
  • how can they be achieved online?
  • what technology is readily available and what are its pros and cons?
  • are there some students who will not benefit from audio/video feedback?
  • I am looking at practice in F.E.

3

4 main sources of information 200 words

4

Rationale for format 100 words

  • Not sure about format yet. I need to decide on the audience. 
  • Some people have mentioned ebooks so I shall explore how that might work. 

5

New skills required 100 words

  • making podcasts and videocasts needs to become routine
  • ability to convey feedback orally in a supportive way
  • striking balance between style and substance

6

Existing skills to be used  100 words

  • I have been devising and delivering online programmes for 2 years
  • Some experience of podcasts and video casts
  • ongoing feedback practice

7

Areas of uncertainty or risk  100 words

  • How will I know if the forms of online feedback I look at are successful or not?
  •  I need to ensure that I don’t just draw conclusions based on my own experience.


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John Baglow

Decisions, decisions!

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We have been asked to mull over possible topics for our conference project on the OU H818 course working towards the MA in Open and Distance Education. There is quite a lot of overlap between the 3 themes but I have tried to come up with some possibilities for each. No prizes for noticing that I am interested in practice to do with interaction in the learning process, and looking at ways of making the feedback process more effective.

Inclusion:

  • case study on how non-academic students on my teacher-training courses can be supported 
  • production of a potted guide to accessibility for inclusion in my teacher-training courses
  • ......

Innovation:

  • using reflective journal posts to improve tutor-student and student-student dialogue
  • what are the principles of running effective online tutorials?
  • how can collaborative student work be facilitated using digital technology?

Implementation:

  • using video casts for giving students feedback
  • developing the use of discussion forums to maximise student interaction
  • using a studio approach to improve the learning process

Have you any experience of any of these? Any ideas, suggestions or criticisms gratefully received.

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John Baglow

Starting H818 the OU Digital Practitioner

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Edited by John Baglow, Sunday, 4 Oct 2015, 11:08

I'm looking forward to experiencing more technology but, as always when I start this kind of course, I shall try to keep a sense of proportion with the bewildering array of apps and fancy gizmos.It's easy to feel that others are more into the latest offerings but I shall try not to confuse the medium with the message. As with any teaching resource I think you should only use it if it helps you get your learners to the desired objectives and not just because it has some snazzy facility.

I like the strong collaborative element in H818 as it will enable me to get more ideas for getting my own students working together online. At the moment in my courses we are using:

  • Discussion forums
  • Online tutorials using Webex
  • Student collaborations using Webex
  • Wikis (a bit!)
  • Padlet (still working on this)

Do you have any more ideas?


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John Baglow

Some difficulties producing an accessible resource

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Edited by John Baglow, Sunday, 16 Nov 2014, 15:17
  1. Given that Windows seems to be the standard vehicle for producing accessible courses (correct me if I'm wrong!), the fact that I use a Mac made me constantly worry about whether links etc would open properly
  2. I use Blackboard so I have a ready-made vehicle; for H810 I was unsure which vehicle to use.
  3. I have read contradictory advice about the suitability of using the PDF format.
  4. I need to learn more about adding captions. Is it possible to add captions automatically (i.e. like a kind of speech-to-text facility)? I added captions to a video clip I uploaded to YouTube but I had to type in the captions)
  5. I do not know what HTML is but it seems to be useful for accessibility. I read that:

    Images without an alt attribute are likely to be inaccessible. Is an 'alt attribute' a description of an image written underneath or is it something more technical?

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John Baglow

New blog post

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Edited by John Baglow, Thursday, 11 Sep 2014, 01:39

I have started on the OU H810 course looking at disability and the on-line learner. It has already got me thinking:

  • we should not concentrate on disability as something within a learner but rather we should think about whether there is something in the learning environment which is a barrier to a student's learning
  • in my online course maybe I should ask for students to declare any potential barriers they anticipate before the course starts.
  • How do we decide what measures to remove a barrier are reasonable and which are not?
  • I am hourly-paid; does that have any impact on the extent of the measures I would be expected to take? Should my commitment be open-ended?

I can already see that H810 is going to help me do a much better job of making my course more accessible.

 

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John Baglow

New blog post

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The Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box document sets out what I see as the overarching principles of assessment for learning.
  • it is embedded in a view of teaching

and learning of which it is an essential part;

  • it involves sharing learning goals

    with pupils;

  • it aims to help pupils to know and to

    recognise the standards they are

    aiming for;

  • it involves pupils in self-assessment;

  • it provides feedback which leads to

    pupils recognising their next steps

    and how to take them;

  • it is underpinned by confidence that

    every student can improve;

  • it involves both teacher and pupils

    reviewing and reflecting on assessment data.

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John Baglow

OpenMentor feedback analysis

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Table 3: Comparing ‘Ann Other’ Bales’s analysis by hand and by OpenMentor

 

Bales’s categories

 

John

OpenMentor

A Positive reactions

 

0

1

B Attempted answers

 

8

7

C Questions

 

2

1

D Negative reactions

1

2

  • it is remarkable that OpenMentor can categorise the comments in this way.
  • I’m unclear what the ‘ideal’ totals are based on. Who or what has determined what they should be? How are the ‘expected’ totals arrived at?
  • some of the tutor’s comments seem to have been left out (but spookily I still seem to have the same total number!)
  • the negative category is open to interpretation more than the others. If it means the tutor is making a negative and unhelpful comment which is unsupportive, then I don’t think any of the comments fall into that category, but if it means telling the student they did something wrong then one comment (about page numbers) does belong there.
  • maybe D is not so much about what is said but how it is said
  • why is Bales’s Category B called ‘attempted answers’? Would ‘suggested answers’ be any better?
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John Baglow

Feedback through the ages

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Feedback through the ages

I have to say that this is the first time in my long and illustrious teaching career that I have ever looked at my feedback in such depth

  • early on, my feedback used to belong to the "you need to pull your socks up" school of feedback
  • then came the feedback sandwich and medal and mission
  • then came the realisation that feedback and the learning process should ideally not be a top-down process; the emphasis should be on the student taking responsibility for their own learning
  • and now we reach a new level of sophistication with the excellent level of feedback achieved by the OU, along the lines suggested by Bales - though the challenge is for the tutor to maintain a balance between top-downness and leaving the student to sink in a sea of vagueness and unanswered questions
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John Baglow

Mobile learning - my thoughts

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Edited by John Baglow, Saturday, 13 Jul 2013, 13:15

I am quite pleased with how I have managed to keep up with the last few weeks' work whilst I have been on the move. I have noticed some differences in how I am able to work when I'm reliant on public wi-fi and occasionally friends' computers:

  • it is hard to be so organised when all you have is a phone. You can't have multiple documents open or make use of sites like Refworks.
  • the keyboard and fonts are so small!!
  • working on public wi-fi means working in environments which are not so conducive to study and thought - though it is great for eating ice-cream
  • I didn't really manage to get Google + working whilst I was away
  • you have to remember to take passwords etc with you, or have access to them somewhere
  • the OU forums were very temperamental on the phone (the technology, not my fellow students!) I lost several amazingly profound posts
  • I couldn't work for sustained periods so my contributions were shorter and pithier (even) than usual
  • I downloaded (or so I thought) all the sources I needed for the activities and took them on a memory stick. That worked quite well but a few items didn't open properly. For example, the tutor's comments were absent from the Ann Other TMA.
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John Baglow

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I certainly read and re-read the comments.

·         I value positive and encouraging comments. Learning can be quite demanding and I need to be told I am making progress. Interaction with peers can alternately produce the feeling that I am holding my own or that many of them are operating at a higher level.

·         Asking questions is clearly appropriate, though it can be overdone, unless there is an opportunity to follow up the questions. On another course I found the questions quite frustrating – I would have welcomed just a bit more of a steer from the tutor

·         …..so I believe that the tutor should provide answers and suggestions, not in a didactic way but as possible answers

·         If ‘negative’ means pointing out areas where I am on the wrong track or where I need clear guidance, then I think such comments are fine

I am not sure what the questions about more positive comments and more questions are getting at so I think my answer has to be that for me there is no difference between the two.

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