Do short courses need a different pedagogy?

I’ve been teaching my 5-day 30 hour PTLLS course recently and I have been thinking about whether short courses require a different pedagogy to long ones. There is a lot of emphasis on:

• knowing your learners’ needs
• student interaction at the heart of learning
• assessment for learning
• establishing a learning dialogue with your learners
• encouraging learners to take responsibility for their own learning
• creating a positive learning environment
• establishing effective ground rules
• making the feedback process central to the learning process

But how does all of this work if your course lasts just a few hours, a day or even a week? I would like to come up with a pedagogy-lite approach which encourages my PTLLS students to incorporate these important principles but which recognises the time constraints.

 

Improving feedback

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 students;

• it aims to help students to know and to recognise the standards they are

  aiming for;

• it involves students in self-assessment;

• it provides feedback which leads to students  recognising their next steps

  and how to take them;

• it is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve;

• it involves both teacher and students reviewing and reflecting on assessment data.

We talk and read a lot about  assessment for learning; maybe thinking about these principles will be a step towards helping students and tutors use assessment in its many forms to improve the learning process. 

Time to Rationalise my Social Media

1. Now that my OU course is coming to an end I shall concentrate my periodic blogging activity here on WordPress
2. I am discussing with JISC South West ways of improving my links with other practitioners , especially those in Further Education who have an interest in using online technology. JISC have an online ‘newspaper’ which I like the look of.
3. I am thinking of starting a Google+ community for people in FE who want to collaborate and share ideas and materials.
4. If I ever get to the point where I understand how Twitter might help me (ideas on a post to me please!) I have a feeling it may be useful

I think 4 vehicles for keeping in touch are probably as many as I would be able to keep up with. What do you think?

Feedback with audio and video

I’ve written a report for my OU H817 course on using audio and/or video as a medium for giving students feedback, as an alternative to written feedback. I’m intending to try it out with some of my PTLLS (teacher-training) students. My plan is to post video feedback on Blackboard in my college. Have you had any experience of this form of feedback?