“Not too much facilitation going on” Issues in facilitating online PBL within Academic Development

Chrissi NerantziAcademic DeveloperUniversity of Salfordc.nerantzi@salford.ac.uk

capture on sticky notes and swap

What would I

need the most during online learning?

What would I

miss the most during online learning?

overall research aim

to introduce and evaluate an online PBL approach within Academic Development and explore if and how it could be used within the PGCAP‘Relatively little research has explored students’ experience of facilitation’ (Savin-Baden 2003, 56)

Focus: online facilitation within PBL

New pedagogies

and

Technology-enhanced PBLblended PBLonline PBL

Online PBL within AD

• PBL module (Donnelly 2002) – model used: Computer-Mediated Collaborative Problem-Based Learning (CMCPBL) (Savin-Baden 2003) based on CSILE (Scardamalia and Bereiter 1994)

• CMCPBL also used for this trial

Supporting online collaborative

learning (Thorpe 2002)

“... seems to be extremely

important in an online learning

activity.” (Chernobilsky et al 2005, 61)

The role of the facilitator

the online trial

• complete PBL task

• Share findings with

other group

• Peer and tutor

feedback• Closure

• Create online space

• Find participants (AD, PgCert

participants) – SEDA

• (AD) familiarise with

technology and PBL

• (AD) exploring PBL

• (AD) work on PBL scenario,

assessment criteria, peer

feedback template

• (AD) finalise PBL scenario, assessment criteria, peer feedback template

• (AD, P) familiarise with technology• (AD, P) socialise

• (P) explore PBL• (AD, P) grouping

structure & timeline

Salmon (2004) 5 stage model http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml

PBL scenario theme: assessment and feedback

“Just finished marking 150 essays, the one and only assignment for this challenging module. I can’t understand why students don’t do well! Is one essay too much? I have been using this essay title for the last 10 years – I love it! – and students just don’t seem to engage with it, not even the brighter ones, which is really strange!

I have given the students an extensive reading list and during the lectures I always tell them that they can ask me if they don’t understand something. Not sure what I am doing wrong… Students have never complained about anything and the module evaluation is always positive.

They had a whole month to write the essay… but I know that many just do it a few days before the handing in date. At least they hand it in I guess. Writing feedback is a hard job! I don’t know these people. I see them 2h a week over 10 weeks and there are 150 of them in the lecture theatre. I find it really time consuming and am not sure if they read it. Am I wasting my time?”

5-stage model (Mills, 2006)

Web 2.0‘Tools like blogs, wikis, media-sharing applications and social networking sites are capable of supporting and encouraging informal conversation, dialogue, collaborative content generation and the sharing of knowledge, giving learners access to a wide raft of ideas and representations.’

(McLoughlin and Lee 2008, 641)

Web2.0 toolkit

blogwikis

web-based ‘calling’

method and data collection and analysis

… there are limited ways in which individuals experience the same phenomenon (Marton 1981)

‘describe qualitative variations in people’s experience of phenomena’ (Dortins 2002, 207).

phen

omen

ogra

phy

Data collection• individual remote interviews• surveys (initial and final)• reflective accounts

Remember? You were asked at the beginning

What would I need the most during online learning?

What would I miss the most during online learning?

Findings

we synchronous communication

• learning in multi-disciplinary teams

• learning with colleagues from different HE institutions

• the opportunity to participate • learnt a lot from the trial and

the issues experienced

we also

• Time available and extent of task • Technology was frustrating for some• Working 100% online problematic• Asynchronous communication slowed

things down• The social element was missing, no

community feel• Facilitation! This was the biggest issue

of all and recognised by participants and the facilitators themselves

main issues

I never, ever, ever have been involved in anything fully online either as a learner or as a tutor or any other thing.

Time

Managing timeTiming of the trial

TechnologySelectionQuantity

Communication

Asynchronous is slow

Synchronous is better Lack of

communication

Group

Yes to multi-institutional collaboration

Yes to multi-disciplinary groups

Lack of community

Group size

Rules

PBL task

Scenario suitable

Questioning suitability of

scenario

PBL

Yes, to online PBLYes, to blended

No to PBL

PBL in PgCerts

Facilitators say yes

Participants are sceptic

Reflecting

PurposeSharing

TimePrivacy

Facilitation

Clarity of role

Lack of support

More structure

Better preparation

AssessmentFeedback

Facilitators concerned

Participants: feedback was

welcome

Clarity of role“I personally think I would have found at least clarification what the facilitator would do, and again, I might have missed it and it may be my lack of experience, but then again any student who is coming for the first time to do PBL, will have that lack of experience. If I had been told, that the facilitator is there basically to mop up any really serious issues, somebody who is really ill, completely unable to participate before the facilitator steps in, fair enough, I am not going to have kind of support and then I would have to step up to the plate and be a leader.”

“. .. not being sure myself where things were, what we were doing...”

Lack of support“I felt a bit like, I was not knowing which direction I was taking and a bit sort of in a doubtful sort of perspective, whether I’m actually reading the right material, whether I’m going to the right things, whether I’m following all the right stuff that I’m needing. yeah a little bit in the dark. [...] I feel there was a bit of, not too much facilitation going on. [...] I would have encouraged people to, to read the scenario together. Because I think that the initial, do the scenario, read the scenario together and then once you read it, maybe for a very brief time, read it together and, so say “ok, go and think about this, and maybe pay attention to these points a little bit more and maybe come back and we’ll discuss a bit more and then”. Something along those lines”

“I was probably not confident as I would normally do in the sense of directing people and helping people, facilitating as I would normally be.”

More structure

“Potentially creating more of a structure, where it would be expected to interact on a more regular basis”

“I really should have had perhaps more structure in arranging meetings with the group…”

Better preparation

“PBL depends on very thorough planning”

“I think because it is an online trial, I didn’t realise how I wasn’t prepared, if you see what I mean. Had I known, perhaps I would have had more preparation [...] had I done sort of more research myself it would have helped.”

Discussion – Recommendationsaround online PBL facilitation

“Facilitators new to problem-based learning often feel that it is better to say less – or even nothing – so that the students feel that they are taking the lead in the learning.” (Savin-Baden 2003, 50)

“[...] students new to problem-based learning, [...] (feel) that the lack of direction is duplicitous because they feel it is the facilitator’s way of avoiding a declaration of their own agenda and concerns. (Savin-Baden 2003, p. 50)

coaching: push>pull

(Neville 1999; Savin-Baden 2006)

• Communication, communication, communication!

• More hands-on approach required initially!• Task setting and timelines• Use the structured PBL model and PBL tutorial

process• Use available technologies for (a)synchronous

collaboration• Lay the foundations of a learning community

PBL facilitators engagement

Facilitation modes (Heron,1989, 1993) Student perspectiveTESEP 3E (Smyth,2007)

Hierarchical (directive) Enhance

Co-operative (partnership) Extend

Letting go (autonomous) Empower

Progressive online PBL framework

Main recommendations

online training for PBL facilitators

Ongoing support

Orientation tour

Facilitation for 3c

Use PBL structure and process

Build community!

referencesBowcott, O (2011) Open University may be in its 40s – but students are getting younger, Guardian online, 3 January, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/03/open-university-students-younger [accessed 4 January 2011]Chernobilsky, E, Nagarajan, A & Hmelo-Silver, C E (2005) Problem-Based Learning Online: Multiple Perspectives on Collaborative Knowledge Construction, in CSCL '05: Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Computer support for collaborative learning (2005), pp. 53-62. Donnelly, R. (2002) Online Learning in Teacher Education: Enhanced with a Problem-based Learning Approach. Mimeo, Dublin: Dublin Institute of Technology.Dortins, E. (2002) ‘Reflections on phenomenographic process: Interview, transcription and analysis: Interview, transcription and analysis’ in Quality Conversations, Proceedings of the 25th HERDSA Annual Conference, Perth, Western Australia, 7-10 July 2002, 207-213.Downes, S (2010) New Technology Supporting Informal Learning, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, 2(1), pp. 27–33.Herron, J. (1989) The Facilitator’s Handbook. London: Kogan Press.Herron, J. (1993) Group facilitation. London: Kogan Press.Hmelo-Silver, C E (2002) Collaborative Ways of Knowing: Issues in Facilitation, in: · Proceeding CSCL '02 Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning: Foundations for a CSCL Community, available at http://elc.fhda.edu/faculty/faculty_docs/facilitation.pdf [accessed 12 January 2011]. Marton, F (1981) Phenomenography – describing conceptions of the world around us, Instructional Science, 10, pp. 177-200.Meiszner, A (2010) The Open Education Movement, 24 April, available at http://www.openedworld.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=25 [accessed 6 January 2011]Mills, D (2006) Problem-based learning: An overview, available at http://www.csap.bham.ac.uk/resources/project_reports/ShowOverview.asp?id=4 [accessed 5 March 2010]Neville, J A (1999) The problem-based learning tutor: teacher? facilitator? evaluator?, Medical Teacher, 21(4), pp. 393-401.Savin-Baden, M (2003) Facilitating Problem-Based Learning, Illuminating Perspective, Maidenhead: SRHE and Open University Press.Savin-Baden, M (2006) The challenge of using problem-based learning online, in: Problem-based Learning Online (2006), pp. 3-13, available at http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335220061.pdf [accessed 12 January 2011]. Scardamalia, M. and Bereiter, C. (1994) ‘Computer support for knowledge-building communities’ in The Journal of Learning Sciences, 3(3), 256-283.Smyth, K. 2007. ‘TESEP in Practice The 3E Approach’, available at http://www2.napier.ac.uk/transform/TESEP_3E_Approach.pdf [accessed 1 January 2011]

extra slides

I participated in a couple of online programmes. Speaking personally, I hated it!

There is no scope for discussion.

I spent my days sitting in front of the computer.

Communicating via email, offering feedback to students, writing things.

... learning needs to be quicker being able to communicate directly with students, it is part of a social process, it shouldn’t be sitting in front of a computer again...

I can learn from it, do I enjoy it? No!

Now I know, what I am doing, yes, I would do it again. And it would be quite interesting I think that what pilots are all about because then you can decide what works what doesn’t work and so, I would do it again.

If is more structured I can see that it could be used for undergraduate, maybe not for first years, but for second year.

The times we got together we got lots of

things done.

I enjoyed the early stages: I was quite excited about this and very keen to be a part of it. The possibility of how online collaboration might work.

I was quite excited about this and very keen to be a part of it. The possibility of how online collaboration might work.

In terms of doing the task, I think we got on very well.

PBL really good for a long term project. I think it is a nice way of learning maybe master’s students.

There is a lot that can be done with it but it is huge...

findings

It was very positive. Especially because we all came from different, different backgrounds.

I never, ever, ever have been involved in anything fully online either as a learner or as a tutor or any other thing.

I wanted to connect

I would have liked to come away feeling it

was more of a community being

created.

In my group, there was really lack of communication and I am as guilty of it as anybody else.

I was quite excited about this and very keen to be a part of it. The possibility of how online collaboration might work.

I didn’t feel the facilitators particularly engaged with

the participants which was a big drawback to this

process.

I felt like virtually walking in the darkness,

going to a wrong direction, hitting a wall that suddenly coming up and when I need

help, no one responded right away.

There was a lack of real human contact eye-to-eye, smile, feeling the

other’s real presence.

findings