| Pre-Conference Workshops | |
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| 3 July 2012 | The Open University of Hong Kong |
Designing an inquiry-based approach to blended learning
Dr Norm Vaughan,
Mount Royal University,
Canada
According to a survey conducted a few years ago, over 80% of higher education institutions in the United States offer courses in a blended format (Arabasz, Boggs & Baker, 2003) and the projection is that in the near future over 80% of all courses in higher education will be blended. In the words of Gladwell (2000), we have gone over the ‘tipping point’; blended learning has become an educational epidemic. The three societal forces that have converged (the perfect wave) to drive this epidemic are technology, financial constraints and quality concerns. The blended approaches to learning that have arisen to address these forces have led to three major non-contradictory affordances — effectiveness, efficiency and convenience. The result is an era of engagement and sustainable communities of inquiry. Blended learning has become the dominant paradigm in 21st-century higher education. In a recent edition of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks dedicated to blended learning, Laumakis, Graham & Dziuban (2009) state ‘the impact of blended learning is potentially monumental — permanently changing how students interact with higher education’ (p. 86).
An inquiry-based approach to learning is based on John Dewey’s (1933) philosophy that education begins with the curiosity of the learner. This workshop will provide participants with a ‘hands-on’ opportunity to design inquiry-based learning activities that engage students and align with the learning outcomes for a blended course or programme.
| 3 July 2012 | The Open University of Hong Kong |
Introduction to open peer collaboration models for open textbook development
Dr Wayne Mackintosh
The Open Education Resource (OER) Foundation
Wayne Mackintosh, Director of the OER Foundation, founder of WikiEducator and member of the international Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation which oversees the popular Wikipedia website, will lead a hands-on practical workshop on open peer collaboration models for the design and development of open textbooks.
The workshop will commence with a critical reflection on the concept of open educational resources with particular reference to the practical implications for collaborative and open textbook development. Participants will consider the challenges and complexities of copyright and alternatives for open licensing to address these issues.
The workshop will use a wiki authoring model as an example to highlight important considerations which open textbook developers need to consider. This hands-on approach will enable participants to interrogate red herrings, myths and the limitations of transparent and open peer collaboration approaches for the development of teaching resources. The workshop will also illustrate the potential of automated recongfiguration of OER for alternative delivery platforms and how institutions can save cost and time in the development of reusable learning resources.
The workshop will be suitable for beginner, intermediate and advanced wiki users.
For registration details, click here.