Teaching in a Digital Age Teaching in a Digital Age A.W. (Tony) Bates Teaching in a Digital Age by Anthony William (Tony) Bates is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Contents Scenario A: A university professor addresses change viii About the book - and how to use it 1 About the author vii Other books by the author ix Updates and revisions x Chapter 1: Fundamental Change in Education 1.1 Structural changes in the economy: the growth of a knowledge society 13 1.2 The skills needed in a digital age 17 1.3 Should education be tied directly to the labour market? 21 1.4 Change and continuity 23 1.5 The impact of expansion on teaching methods 26 1.6 Changing students, changing markets for higher education 29 1.7 From the periphery to the center: how technology is changing the way we teach 33 1.8 Navigating new developments in technology and online learning 36 Chapter 2: The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching Scenario C: A pre-dinner party discussion 40 2.1 Art, theory, research, and best practices in teaching 42 2.2 Epistemology and theories of learning 44 2.3 Objectivism and behaviourism 46 2.4 Cognitivism 49 2.5 Constructivism 53 2.6 Connectivism 56 2.7 Is the nature of knowledge changing? 59 2.8 Summary 66 Chapter 3: Methods of teaching: campus-focused Scenario D: A stats lecturer fights the system 71 3.1 Five perspectives on teaching 72 3.2 The origins of the classroom design model 74 3.3 Transmissive lectures: learning by listening 76 3.4 Interactive lectures, seminars, and tutorials: learning by talking 82 3.5 Apprenticeship: learning by doing (1) 86 3.6 Experiential learning: learning by doing (2) 91 3.7 The nurturing and social reform models of teaching: learning by feeling 100 iv 3.8 Main conclusions 104 Chapter 4: Methods of teaching with an online focus Scenario E: Developing historical thinking 109 4.1 Online learning and teaching methods 111 4.2 Old wine in new bottles: classroom-type online learning 112 4.3 The ADDIE model 115 4.4 Online collaborative learning 119 4.5 Competency-based learning 126 4.6 Communities of practice 132 Scenario F: ETEC 522: Ventures in e-Learning 138 4.7 'Agile' Design: flexible designs for learning 140 4.8 Making decisions about teaching methods 144 Chapter 5: MOOCs 5.1 Brief history 151 5.2 What is a MOOC? 153 5.3 Variations in MOOC designs 156 5.4 Strengths and weaknesses of MOOCs 164 5.5 Political, social and economic drivers of MOOCs 178 5.6 Why MOOCs are only part of the answer 182 Scenario G: How to cope with being old 186 Chapter 6: Understanding technology in education 6.1 Choosing technologies for teaching and learning: the challenge 191 6.2 A short history of educational technology 194 6.3 Media or technology? 201 6.4 Broadcast vs communicative media 209 6.5 The time and space dimensions of media 214 6.6 Media richness 219 6.7 Understanding the foundations of educational media 223 Chapter 7: Pedagogical differences between media 7.1 Thinking about the pedagogical differences of media 227 7.2 Text 232 7.3 Audio 238 7.4 Video 242 7.5 Computing 247 7.6 Social media 252 7.7 A framework for analysing the pedagogical characteristics of educational media 259 Chapter 8: Choosing and using media in education: the SECTIONS model 8.1 Models for media selection 264 8.2 Students 268 8.3 Ease of Use 274 8.4 Cost 278 8.5 Teaching and media selection 285 8.6 Interaction 290 v 8.7 Organisational issues 297 8.8 Networking 301 8.9 Security and privacy 304 8.10 Deciding 307 Chapter 9: Modes of delivery 9.1 The continuum of technology-based learning 314 9.2 Comparing delivery methods 318 9.3 Which mode? Student needs 322 9.4 Choosing between face-to-face and online teaching on campus 326 9.5 The future of the campus 333 Chapter 10: Trends in open education Scenario H: Watershed management 342 10.1 Open learning 345 10.2 Open educational resources (OER) 349 10.3 Open textbooks, open research and open data 355 10.4 The implications of 'open' for course and program design: towards a paradigm shift? 359 Chapter 11: Ensuring quality teaching in a digital age 11.1 What do we mean by quality when teaching in a digital age? 368 11.2 Nine steps to quality teaching in a digital age 374 11.3 Step One: Decide how you want to teach 376 11.4 Step two: what kind of course or program? 380 11.5 Step three: work in a team 382 11.6 Step four: build on existing resources 385 11.7 Step five: master the technology 388 11.8 Step six: set appropriate learning goals 393 11.9 Step seven: design course structure and learning activities 397 11.10 Step eight: communicate, communicate, communicate 406 11.11 Step nine: evaluate and innovate 412 11.12 Building a strong foundation of course design 417 Chapter 12: Supporting teachers and instructors in a digital age 12.1 Are you a super-hero? 423 12.2 The development and training of teachers and instructors in a digital age 424 12.3 Learning technology support 429 12.4 Conditions of employment 431 12.5 Team teaching 435 12.6 An institutional strategy for teaching in a digital age 437 12.7 Building the future 439 Scenario J: Stopping the flu 444 Appendix 1: Building an effective learning environment A.1 Integrating design principles within a rich learning environment 448 A.2 What is a learning environment? 449 A.3 Learner characteristics 452 A.4 Managing content 455 vi A.5 Developing skills 459 A.6 Learner support 462 A.7 Resources 466 A.8 Assessment of learning 469 A.9 Building the foundation of good design 474 Appendix 2: Questions to guide media selection and use S: Who are your students? 479 E: Ease of use 480 C: What is the cost in money and time? 481 T: Teaching and other pedagogical factors 482 I: Interaction 483 O: Organisational issues 484 N: Networking 485 S: Security and privacy 486 Appendix 3 Online learning quality standards, organisations and research Appendix 4: Independent commissioned reviews The independent review process 490 A review from a faculty perspective: Professor James Mitchell 492 A review from an open and distance education perspective: Sir John Daniel 494 A review from a digital education perspective: Digital Education Strategies, Ryerson University 496 Feedback on Activities Activity 1.8 Main conclusions from Chapter 1 499 Activity 6.1 How many technologies can you see in Figure 6.1? 500 Activity 6.3 How would you classify the following (either medium or technology)? 501 Activity 6.4 Broadcast or communicative 502 Bibliography 504 Index 512 vii viii • TEACHING IN A DIGITAL AGE Scenario A: A university professor addresses change Overheard in a coffee shop near campus: Hey, Frank, you don’t look too happy. Yeah, I’m mad as hell. Our Dean called a meeting yesterday of all faculty to discuss the university’s new academic plan, and what it means for all the academic departments in the Faculty. I knew there had been meetings earlier in the year, a few of which I’d attended, but it seemed to be the same old waffle about building a university fit for a new age, and revolutionizing the way we teach. But those discussions didn’t seem to affect the courses I’m teaching – it was clear early on that there was no threat to the department being closed down. If anything, it looked like my classes would be getting even bigger, with the usual statements about having to do more with less. My research is going well, and there was no talk this time round about having to take on an increased teaching load. At that point, I’d switched off: I’d been through all this many times before. But as soon as the dean started yesterday, I sensed trouble. He started talking about the need for the department to be more ‘flexible’ in its teaching. What the hell does that mean – yoga exercises at the beginning of each lecture? Then he went on to talk about ‘defining clear learning outcomes’ and ‘personalizing learning.’ Well, that’s stupid. Anyone knows that you have to internalize what you learn or it doesn’t happen. And my courses are changing all the time – if I set outcomes even at the beginning of a course, they’ll probably be different by the time we get to the end. But then the real kicker, when I knew things were going to be difficult. ‘We want to have at least 50 per cent of all classes taught in a blended or hybrid manner within the next five years.’ OK, I guess I could handle that – I’ve been using the LMS to back up my lectures already, but when he said that means offering the same content across different courses, and getting rid of most lectures, I really started to worry. He started rambling on about needing to serve all kinds of learners from high school entrants to lifelong learners, and for us all to teach in teams, with the senior faculty member as a teaching consultant. Now if he thinks I’m going to let some of the other idiots in this department decide what I’m going to teach, he’s out of his mind.