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The community of inquiry (CoI) has been suggested

to be the most promising design based on critical thinking and collaboration which are regarded to be central in higher education (Lipman, 1991) . The CoI framework has been extensively validated (Garrison, 2011). The three basic elements of this theoretical learning framework are the social presence, the cognitive presence and the teaching presence. Briefly, social presence creates an oppen environment and group cohesion, cognitive presence enables exploration and resolution while the teaching presence is associated with design, facilitation and direction (Vaughan et al. 2013). Importantly, the third element is called teaching and not teacher presence as all students, not only the teacher/facilitator, are required to contribute in order to acquire deeper learning.

In such a collaborative environment, seven principles are of importance: open communication and trust, critical reflection and discourse, group cohesion, purposeful inquiry, respect and responsibility, resolution, and assessment (Vaughan et al. 2013)

References

Garrison, D. R. (2011). E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and

Practice (2nd Ed.). London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis.

Lipman, M. (1991). Thinking in education. Canbridge: Cambridge University Press.

Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton: AU Press.

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• Harastinski (2013) emphasizes the importance of collaboration, participation, social structures. The importance of learning in a warm context (the grit- also means that one must learn by testing and "failure") that learning takes place through social learning, through the interaction. Various methods were emphasized, which I can see highly valuable in relation to succeeding in achieving course goals, and for a high throughput of students. Furthermore, it is concerned with "peer teaching", which is useful both for the teacher and the student. Good interactive teaching requires, however, improvisation on site, in response to events that they naturally occur in the classroom!... both within small and large target groups, classes. According to the literature, learning outcomes take place on three levels: "exam- results, program results and course results". The challenge will succeed in interpreting a student's "practical wisdom" (this is complex concept to evaluate!) according to (Biggs & Tang, 2018). Moreover, the literature also says that training in "creativity, ethical practice, teamwork and collaboration", are complex challenges. These have no single reason for success. They need a complex college environment. As well as a suitable model present (Hrastinski, 2016), and relevant personal life experience among the students many times. It is a lifelong, sustainable learning, where an active student is emphasized that one focuses on at universities today internationally (Biggs & Tang, 2018).

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• Harastinski (2013) emphasizes the importance of collaboration, participation, social structures. The importance of learning in a warm context (the grit- also means that one must learn by testing and "failure") that learning takes place through social learning, through the interaction. Various methods were emphasized, which I can see highly valuable in relation to succeeding in achieving course goals, and for a high throughput of students. Furthermore, it is concerned with "peer teaching", which is useful both for the teacher and the student. Good interactive teaching requires, however, improvisation on site, in response to events that they naturally occur in the classroom!... both within small and large target groups, classes. According to the literature, learning outcomes take place on three levels: "exam- results, program results and course results". The challenge will succeed in interpreting a student's "practical wisdom" (this is complex concept to evaluate!) according to (Biggs & Tang, 2018). Moreover, the literature also says that training in "creativity, ethical practice, teamwork and collaboration", are complex challenges. These have no single reason for success. They need a complex college environment. As well as a suitable model present (Hrastinski, 2016), and relevant personal life experience among the students many times. It is a lifelong, sustainable learning, where an active student is emphasized that one focuses on at universities today internationally (Biggs & Tang, 2018).

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 My references; Hrastinski, S. (2013). Web-based education: an introduction. (2nd edition) Lund: Studentlitteratur.    Biggs, J & Tang, C (2018). Teaching for quality learning at University. The Society for Research at Higher University. Hrastinski (2016). Emotional Presence in a Relationship of Inquiry: The Case of One-to-One Online Math Coaching Online Learning. Volume 20 Issue.

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 My references; Hrastinski, S. (2013). Web-based education: an introduction. (2nd edition) Lund: Studentlitteratur.    Biggs, J & Tang, C (2018). Teaching for quality learning at University. The Society for Research at Higher University. Hrastinski (2016). Emotional Presence in a Relationship of Inquiry: The Case of One-to-One Online Math Coaching Online Learning. Volume 20 Issue.

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One way of making use of the community of inquiry model established by Garrison et al. is the 5-stage model. This is a robust model based on evidence-based research at Open University by Prof. Salmon. The background however, is from more than 50 years of pedagogical research. For online learning, the five stages to go through are:

Stage 1: Access and motivation, the foundation for further learning. Setting up a system and ensuring access to the platform in use. Motivation and encouragement to keep on studying is also part of the first stage; otherwise the rest will be unnecessary.

Stage 2: Team building, online socialisation, a microcommunity is being built among the students. This is a crucial step for them in order to later find themselves in an environment where they can expose their ideas to the others and be creative together. Please see paper by Berge et al. on Socialization in the Online Classroom: http://ascilite.org/archived-journals/e-jist/docs/vol9_no1/papers/full_papers/irwin_berge.htm

Stage 3: Information exchange, a stage of close co-operation and mutual exchange of information. This stage is very interactive.

Stage 4: Knowledge construction, more complex matters are dealt with. Students can act as contributors, not only consumers of knowledge. Using, applying, practising!

Stage 5: Review, students can now reflect deeper into their learning process. Not only will they be able to report their results of a specific task but also how they arrived at that position?

References

The Community of Inquiry Theoretical Framework:

In the Context of Online and Blended Learning

The Community of Inquiry Theoretical Framework:

In the Context of Online and Blended Learning

Garrison DR, Akyol Z, E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Community of Inquiry Framework for Research and Practice (3rd Edition, 2017). London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis

Salmon, G: E-tivities. The Key to Active Online Learning, Taylor & Francis, 2002.

Irwin C, Berge Z, Socialization in the Online Classroom, e-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology (2013), Handbook of Distance Education

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A Thought Experiment for a practical Blended (not necessarily collaborative) Learning Design

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A Thought Experiment for a practical Blended (not necessarily collaborative) Learning Design

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While reading this topic's literature, and after the discussions we had during our online meetings, I came to the conclusion that not every online learning design should a priori strive to become a necessarily collaborative one. To better explain what I mean, I will present a personal example. This term I have been assigned to teach a course on webdesign, where the first part of my teaching involved a series of lectures on how to build a simple website using WordPress. I had to give the exactly same lecture, focused on showing the students how to use the software, to a number of student groups. This was a very repetitive, extremely boring, and quite monotonous series of lectures - both for me as well as the students, since after a while my own attention was completely driven to remembering what I said to the previous groups, to ensure that every group got the same information. So, my idea for this topic's digital artifact is to speculate whether it is possible to shift only a part of a course to an online platform, that is a partial blended learning design - for example, in the case of this specific lecture I feel that the most efficient (my performance-wise, student's attention-wise, as well as the course's cost-wise) way would have been to record a good quality video, with the same duration that the lecture was supposed to run, where I step-by-step show on the screen which buttons to press and where to click, additionally explaining everything with a voice-over.
Within the Gilly Salmon's 5-Stage model this would correspond to the first stage, Access and Motivation, without the need (at least initially) to go over all the remaining stages - in the future an additional step could be added, allowing for online socialization and so on, where the students could exchange their ideas, debate on the topics, and collaborate. However, at this very early stage, the whole focus would be on making the learning efficient - that is to "provide access, quality and cost-effectiveness in education delivery" (Cleveland-Innes & Wilton, 2018, pp. 48-49).
Instead of rushing through the 5-stages of Gilly Salmon, or overthinking the 7C's of Gráinne Conole, the general idea behind my experiment is to first focus on the cognitive presence of the Community of Inquiry model, and from there try to, but only later on, expand into Social and Teaching presences. My overall aim is, first taking slow baby steps, to overcome the challenge of bringing myself and my students together in "sustained ways, while not losing the focus and direction central to any educational experience" (Vaughan et al., 2013, p. 20).

References:
Cleveland-Innes, M. & Wilton, D. (2018). Guide to Blended Learning. Burnaby: Commonwealth of Learning.
Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton: AU Press.

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Blended? Flipped? Inverted? The taxonomy may be confusing sometimes. Here is a short intro to the flipped classroom:
FLIP = Flexible environment, Learner-centered approach, Intentional content, and Professional Educators
An optimal flipped learning environment supports and engages students by increasing both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, as well as managing the cognitive load more effectively (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2014).
Just providing videos outside the classroom is NOT flipped learning! The instructor should re-design the onsite experience to make it into a dynamic, interactive learning environment.
That said, flipped learning still has no unified theoretical framework or methodology (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Zuber, 2016), and it continues to present widely varied implementations across educational settings and academic disciplines (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Estes et al., 2014; Lage et al., 2000; Uzunboylu & Karagozlu, 2015; Zuber, 2016).
References
Abeysekera, L., & Dawson, P. (2014). Higher Education Research & Development, 34(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.934336
Bishop, J., & Verleger, M. A. (2013). The Flipped Classroom : A Survey of the Research. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (p. 23.1200.1-23.1200.18). https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2013.6684807
Estes. M. D., Ingram, R., & Liu, J. C. (2014). A review of flipped classroom research, practice, and technologies. International HETL Review, 4(7).
Lage, M. M. J., Platt, G. G. J., & Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220480009596759
Zuber, W. J. (2016). The flipped classroom, a review of the literature. Industrial and Commercial Training, 48(2), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-05-2015-0039

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UDL (Universai Design for Learning) by Gamze Part #1

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UDL (Universai Design for Learning) by Gamze Part #1

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What is UDL (Universal Design for Learning)?

The perfect example to explain UDL is a ramp. It is first designed to accommodate the people with wheelchair. However, it turns out they are not the only users to benefit from. Mothers with strollers, children with skateboards, roller-skates or tools and toys placed on wheels, and even the pets prefer to use them as well. Why?  Because at certain times and instances, they offer the advantage to anyone in need. This idea is the driving force of UDL in the education.

Photo by Brandon Erlinger-Ford on Unsplash

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When we design learning experiences based on UDL, we know that representation of the information should be in various formats (audio, text, visual, or hands-on), learners should have the chance to interact with the materials and this way motivated engagement with all those materials is ensured. Through UDL, all learners, with all kinds of mental and learning disabilities constitution many students in each and every classroom, are provided with the better and best accessibility options.

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UDL Guidelines

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Coming soon! UDL Guidelines 3.0

The UDL Guidelines are a living, dynamic tool that is continuously developed based on new research and feedback from practitioners. In 2020, CAST launched our most recent effort to update the UDL Guidelines, with a specific focus on equity. There has been a strong call from the field-both practitioners and researchers alike-to more fully develop the Guidelines to address critical barriers rooted in biases and systems of oppression. The current update aims to respond to this call and to work toward fulfilling the promise of the Guidelines as a tool to guide the design of learning environments that more fully honor and value every learner.

Since our launch in 2020, we have been committed to a community-driven, inclusive, and transparent updating process. As part of this effort, we are:

Collaborating with an Advisory Board, a UDL Guidelines Collaborative, and a Young Adult Advisory Board to guide our work

Conducting focus groups with a diversity of participants to learn from their perspectives, lived experiences, and feedback

Reviewing the research on the UDL Guidelines research pages to understand the balance of different research fields, methodological approaches, epistemological approaches, and author positionalities

Conducting literature reviews of equity-oriented research that connect to and extend the Guidelines, such as disability studies and critical pedagogy studies

We are excited to share this next iteration of the UDL Guidelines in 2024. If you are interested in receiving our UDL Guidelines 3.0 newsletter to stay updated on our progress and to share your ideas and perspectives, please complete this brief form.

Review the Summary

Explore the Full Draft

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST.

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The Difference Between UDL and Traditional Education

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching that aims to give all students equal opportunities to succeed, no matter how they learn. While some teachers in traditional schools may use UDL principles and practices on their own, traditional and UDL approaches to education are very different.

This chart, created with the help of the CAST, highlights some of the differences between traditional classrooms and UDL classrooms. CAST, an Understood founding partner, developed the UDL framework.

In the traditional classroom

In the UDL classroom

Teaching focuses on what is taught.

The primary focus is on teaching the subject matter students need to learn. Lessons are designed and taught with a "typical" student in mind.

That often means the teacher will present the material in one way for the entire class.

A lesson on the Civil War, for instance, might involve the teacher lecturing the class and writing facts and dates on the board.

Teaching focuses on both what is taught and how.

The primary focus is on finding ways to teach the material to the many types of learners in a classroom. Teachers plan lessons to address a wide range of needs and strengths. There's no "typical" student.

The teacher will present the material in a variety of ways. A lesson on the Civil War might include a traditional lecture. But there might also be a video for students to watch or an online class forum for discussion. There might even be a board game that students play to understand the history of the war.

Accommodations are for specific students.

Accommodations are only for students with an IEP or a 504 plan, the goal being to help these students learn the same material as their classmates.

For instance, a student with accommodations listed in an IEP or 504 plan might get an alternate format for a book, like an audiobook. But alternate formats aren't available to the whole class.

Accommodations are for all students.

The accommodations some kids might get in their IEPs and 504 plans are available to all students. The idea behind this is that all kids may benefit from multiple formats. Some say, too, that providing accommodations for all can reduce stigma students may feel about using accommodations.

For instance, if a lesson relies on a book, the book will be available to the entire class in multiple forms. That includes text-to-speech, Braille, digital text and large print.

The teacher decides how the material is taught.

The teacher teaches in one way for the whole class, and all students are expected to learn in that way.

The teacher works with the student to decide how the student will learn the material.

Teachers and students work together to set individual learning goals. Each student gets to make choices about how to accomplish personal goals. The aim to is to have the student understand how she learns and become an "expert learner."

The classroom has a fixed setup.

It looks like a traditional classroom-desks lined up in rows or grouped in pods. The teacher stands in front and teaches to the whole class at once.

The classroom has a flexible setup.

The room is laid out with different spaces for different kinds of work-quiet, individual work, small and large group work, and group instruction. Teaching is flexible, depending on the lesson and student needs. The teacher moves around from space to space, helping students as they work.

There's one way for a student to complete an assignment.

There's usually only one way for a student to show what he knows.

For instance, a book report might be assigned only as a written essay.

There are multiple ways to complete an assignment.

There are many options for students to show what they know, because students have different strengths in how they express themselves.

For example, students can choose the format for their book report, such as a video, slideshow presentation or essay.

Grades are used to measure performance.

Students get periodic feedback on how they're doing through tests, quizzes, projects and assignments. But grades typically aren't used as part of an ongoing discussion about goals and learning.

Grades are used to reinforce goals.

Students get continuous feedback on how they're doing. They're encouraged to reflect on their learning and whether they met lesson goals. Grades feed into that discussion.

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The Difference Between Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Traditional Education

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching that aims to give all students equal opportunities to succeed, no matter how they learn. While some teachers in traditional schools may use UDL principles and practices on their own, traditional and UDL approaches to education are very different.

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Emotional presence is the outward expression of emotion, affect and feeling by individuals and among individuals in a community of inquiry. This presence builds on the community of inquiry model i.e. social, cognitive and teaching presence. Garrison et al indicate that emotional presence exists in social, cognitive, and teaching presence.

This concept of emotion and learning has been neglected considerably in the past, however, more recently, there has been focus of its inclusion in development of education and instructional models (Dirkx 2008).

Emotional presence happens rather seamlessly in face to face settings as compared to online environment where the physical distance and technology makes contact a challenge. Feelings of learners and their emotions in online and blended learning have an impact on learning outcomes (Rienties and Rivers 2014). It is therefore critical that online designs create a space that can trigger emotional interest (Fielding 2006). New digital tools for example demand development of new competencies. This change for some individuals may trigger an emotional response that may impact on the online learning hence emotional presence needs to be considered as a vital element in this environment.

Emotions may be considered as positive (appreciation, delight, desire, enjoyment, excitement, happiness hope, humor, like, passion, thankfulness) or negative (disappointment, dislike, fear, frustration, irony/sarcasm, pride, unhappiness, wonder, yearning) Suggested methods/practices that can be used to enhance emotional presence i.e. eye contact, knowing learners by name, smiling include:

·         Synchronous discussions through videoconferencing tools like zoom and skype that provides the teachers with opportunity to see their learners hence can assess their emotions (positive or negative) when contributing to these discussions.

·         Word clouds gives the instructor insight into how students are feeling, and validates students’ feelings by sharing. Analysis of written texts in discussion forums may provide insight to the leaner’s emotions. In addition, behaviors such as log in frequencies may also be useful

It is therefore important to bnote that emotion cannot be ignored in the learning environment as this has a direct impact on learning outcomes. (Brookfield, 2006) and further research is needed in this area (Dirkx 2008). This will enhance the delivery of quality education to the learners.

References

Brookfield, S. D. (2006). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust and responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Dirkx, J. M. (2008). The meaning and role of emotions in adult learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 120, 7–18.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 1–19