1. #FDOL132
unit 4: collaborative learning and communities
with Dr Keith Smyth & Dr David Walker
Hello and welcome
to the #FDOL132
webinar
29 October 2013, 7-8pm (UK time)
Please go to:
Meeting > Audio setup
wizard
to check your audio
Flexible, Distance and Online Learning an open course using COOL FISh
http://fdol.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @openfdol #fdol132

2. FDOL132
Learners
• Registered: 107
• FDOL132 community in G+ until now: 71
• Signed up for PBL groups: 31
• PBL groups: from 4 to 3 (group 2: 6, / group 3: 5 / group 4: 6)
• PBL facilitators: 4
Countries
• UK - 66
• Sweden – 17
• Canada – 4
• Ireland – 2
• also participants from: Hongkong, Argentina, Greenland, Switzerland,
New Zeeland, Slovenia, Belgium, New Zealand, Norway
29 October 2013

3. FDOL overview
Unit 1 (12 – 25 Sep): Orientation
Unit 2 (26 Sep – 2 Oct): Digital literacies
Unit 3 (3 – 16 Oct): Flexible learning and teaching in the digital age
Unit 4 (17 – 30 Oct): Collaborative learning and communities
Unit 5 (31 Oct – 13 Nov): Supporting learners
Unit 6 (14 – 27 Nov): Open educational practices
Unit 7 (28 Nov – 5 Dec): Sharing

4. Dr Keith Smyth
Senior Lecturer,
Senior Teaching Fellow
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Dr David Walker
Senior Learning Technologist
University of Dundee, UK
Twitter: @smythkrs
Twitter: @drjwalker

5. Collaboration beyond
boundaries: enabling crossinstitutional practice
Dr Keith Smyth and Dr David Walker
Webinar for Flexible, Distance and
Online Learning #fdol132

6. Future of HE: Identity and Place
• Collaborate to compete (HEFCE Task Force)
• Review of Higher Education Governance in Scotland (2012):
– Collaboration a ‘fundamental principle’ of Scottish HE system
– “…interest of Scottish universities...is collectively best served by creating
collaborative partnership arrangements with other higher education
institutions, and this should override any perceived competitive advantage for
an individual institution.”
• Online provision recognised as potential means to address diverse
learning needs and open education to a wider audience
• Increasing scrutiny of publically funded provision (duplication)
• Content versus experience – added value (Welsh initiatives)

7. Global Dimensions in Higher Education
•
Identified need for CPD provision that offers a
pragmatic way to engage academics in the critical
exploration of global issues in HE
•
Development informed through discussions and
contributions on these issues with international
colleagues and partners
http://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/

8. About Global Dimensions in HE
• Development focused on ensuring the integrity and relevance of
the module within international contexts
• An educational action research approach has allowed the
development of the module to take place within a framework of
‘public and reflective inquiry’ (Cousin, 2009)
• Project members, and potential international partners and
contributors, have engaged in a range of reflective activities and
joint dialogue, and experts from within the global education sector
have contributed ‘Global Stories’
http://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/global-stories/

9. Pedagogic Principles
• Structuring a collaborative learning experience that moves
participants from collective exploration of key issues to applying
concepts and ideas to their individual context
• Focus on choice and negotiation of tasks, and learning being driven
by both individual and collective needs within the group
• ‘Learners as tutors’ and ‘tutors as learners’

10. Pause for Thought
• It is proposed by some that fully online
learning is more suited to ‘motivated self
starters’ who understand themselves as
learners. What is your view on this?
• Is collaborative online learning more suited to
postgraduate and professional education?

11. Progress to date
• Development of four units and associated readings, activities, and
student guidance designed to support critical engagement with
themes of the module
• Creation of digital artefacts (e.g. video interviews, podcasts,
interactive case studies, digitised texts)
• Development of project blog where project we are documenting
progress and challenges, and papers to share ‘lessons learned’ with
the sector including challenges that need to be addressed to offer
true collaborative provision (e.g. OER13, Ascilite 2013)
• Development of the module nearing completion, to be piloted as an
open collaborative course during 2013/14 before being refined and
made available as an OER course.

12. Practical Challenges
• Joint approval of collaborative provision
• Potential need to restructure institutional policy and
regulations to accommodate collaborative open
educational course design and delivery (IPR?)
• Alignment and compatibility of institutional curricula
models (including credit levels and teaching periods)
• Enrolment and assessment of open access versus
institutional participants
• Access to licensed resources
• Integration of open platforms of delivery with
institutional educational technologies and administrative
systems
• Distribution of developmental/administrative costs

13. Boundaries
• Language of openness – not shared, but ‘culturally bounded’
• Institutional systems and process are proprietary by design
• Educational model and the institutional educational technology (i.e.
The VLE) is fundamentally built upon information architecture - less
about meaningful interaction but managing data (where students
and course codes are ‘units of data’ in information transactions)
• Economics of openness – reputational (brand enhancement)

14. Isolation through massification?
• Can truly collaborative open, online learning be
enabled within large or massive contexts?
• Can we balance the needs of the individual, and
development support for the individual, when
learning in open online contexts?
• As we move from small to large to massive open
contexts, do we reduce our focus from collaboration
to cooperation to communication?

15. Pause for Thought
• How open can we be?
• How open should we be?

16. Contact Details
Dr Keith Smyth
Office of the Vice Principal (Academic)
Edinburgh Napier University
k.smyth@napier.ac.uk
Twitter: @smythkrs
Dr David Walker
Library & Learning Centre
University of Dundee
d.j.walker@dundee.ac.uk
Twitter: @drdjwalker

17. Any questions and/or
reflections?

18. FDOL132 team
Chrissi Nerantzi
Academic Developer
University of Salford,
UK
Lars Uhlin
Educational Developer
Karolinska Institutet,
Sweden
Maria Kvarnström
Educational Developer
Karolinska Institutet,
Sweden
Neil Whitnell
Senior Lecturer in
Nursing, University of
Salford
FDOL organiser
PBL facilitator
FDOL organiser
PBL facilitator
FDOL organiser
PBL facilitator
PBL facilitator

19. #FDOL132
next webinar
unit 5: supporting learners
Thank you for
joining us today.
See you online!
Fred Garnett
7 November, 6.30-7.30pm (UK time)
Flexible, Distance and Online Learning an open course using COOL FISh
http://fdol.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @openfdol #fdol132