The 3 BOLD units are: 
Preparing for Blended and Online Learning Delivery
Designing Blended and Online Learning and Engaging and 
Supporting Learners in Active Blended and Online Delivery.

I have written the specifications for all modules, managed the accreditation process with NOCN, designed the Moodle VLE to be used as well as creating bespoke resources in the form of Articulate 'topic tours'. I have briefed the team who are to deliver the course which goes live in spring 2016 and will be acting in a QA capacity when the course begins.

From past experience, I have found that when a course such as this is delivered entirely online (with online tutor facilitation and feedback being the only interaction), that a sound induction informing learners of support and expectations is vital. Because of this I will also be designing both online and face-to-face induction sessions to ensure that all learners are well propared for their studies

Further details of the specification and key features of the Moodle course can be seen in the evidence below. I am indebted to Helen Pinn and Alison Wooton at HoW who have audited the course for me and made some helpful suggestions for further development of it. As they will be the main delivery team, I will hand it over to them as each module is completed so that they can add personalised touches to 'make it their own'.
I aim to trail the course with some new members of staff at HoW College in the next few weeks to establish clarity of instructions and resources, robustness of VLE and that work level and time commitment are appropraite for the qualification. Until this is done we can never be sure that a new course design is robust, fit for purpose and meets our learners' needs.

Updates to my academic qualifications:
I began an M Phil qualification through Sunderland University and have now transferred to a Doctoral programme and will be completing my PhD in spring 2020. My area of study is FE educators’ use of social media for informal professional learning. 

I am now collecting feedback on the design to allow me to refine it based on delegates’ experiences. On reflection I think that it may have been better to 'push' for an asset with 3 levels of path based on user experience - though that would have necessitated deciding whether ‘experience’ should be judged on FE sector expertise or digital skills level, which brings its own complexities. The design also needed to fit with 2 companion pieces for maths and English onto a pre-determined template which do ‘force my hand’ somewhat and all added to the design challenge. As elearning designers we will always be a little dissatisfied as compromise is always required!
What I now need to do is ensure that I continue to keep abreast of each new T Level specification and assessment framework as it is launched so that I am able to refine my resources to be dynamic, reflecting the wide and growing range of digital skills and professional behaviours required by the new qualifications.

As experienced learning technologists we accept that all of these systems use a similar user set of operations where we upload assets and then link to them often using some form of tiny MCE. What I think some organisations fail to appreciate is that though a move from 1 platform to another can be done with a little ‘mental translation’ and experimentation by ILT-literate practitioners, how bewildering this can be to those with lower levels of digital experience and resilience. Often trainee teachers talk to me of ‘one change too many’ or ‘not another new system to learn’. I think we forget that they may have VLEs, LMSs, CRMs, social media and specialist software to wrangle as part of their job and some new teachers arrive in the sector from industry with no experience of, say, PowerPoint or Excel past a basic level. Personally, I’ve struggled with Slack’s more ‘organic’ way of approaching collaborative tasks versus my previous tool for this kind of project, Trello. I'm self-teaching with YouTube but then I have the confidence to do this without frustration or blame.

What I would be valuable, on reflection on my platform challenges, is to step back from a ‘click here then there’, functional training model. Instead we need to develop learners’ and teachers’ broader IT and ILT skills to give higher cross-platform confidence to help them 'get inside the heads of the system designers'  and this is something I plan to focus on in my ITE work in the coming months with the help of the FAB model:

I’ve undertaken research on and then used a netnographic study (after Kozinets) to analyse teachers’ activity on 3 Twitter-based educators’ communities over a 6-month period and found that thematically, dialogues fall under 3 lenses. The ‘Pedagogy’ and ‘Learning Community’ lens discourses show teachers collaborating to build technical and practical wisdom and dialogues under the ‘Identity and Voice’ lens speak to educators’ praxis in demands for agency in CPD choice and a desire for holistic, democratic learning experiences for their students. Value-laden, political engagement is a key part of participating educators’ identities and they demonstrate critical digital pedagogy. Community participants advocate for Social Purpose Education. Subsequent focus groups and 1-1 interviews have enabled me to perform member checking corroborating my ‘3 lens’ model. Participants tell me they gain valuable learning from online activity and discourses replace the sense of community removed by fractional contract working and removal of staff room learning cultures. My work is being published in the BERA Journal in December 2019 and as a book chapter for Palgrave-McMillan's ' Practice-Focused Research in Further Adult and Vocational Education'

(Gregson, M. ed.) in Spring 2020.

 

That said, engagement was problematic and the vast majority of participants did not formally document informal online activity as CPD or disseminate outcomes from it. I feel that this area is an important one requiring further research. When my PhD is complete I aim to undertake further practitioner research exploring how we might better capture the value and impact of teachers' short, informal social media-based learning dialogues and look to encourage them to use forms of 'bite size' online CPD to develop their practice and professional networks. 

I will be helping FE teams to engage in blended Communities of Practice as well as growing their digital confidence, skills and techniques.
Reflecting on my current projects and changes to my work there appears to be clear community and social purpose themes emerging from the curriculum focus. As these projects are DfE/ETF funded then perhaps this is some national impetus we are seeing - both in digital and F2F community focus. What I will need to do is to develop my knowledge of the attributes of successful community-building projects with both digital and social purpose focus, going beyond use of technology for work and learning to its use with moral, emancipatory purpose.

·        To familiarise myself with team collaboration through the use of Slack and evaluate its capabilities in comparison to Trello, This will enable me to inform colleagues and learners about the benefits, challenges and designer mindsets for each platform

·        To continue to develop my knowledge of AR and VR as this is a real challenge for small independent training providers who may not have the budget for significant technology spends. AR and VR have some significant mentions in the new T Level outline content documents and may feature significantly in the specifications for the Digital and Construction courses. I need to keep abreast of affordable technologies which are accessible for educators with less experience so that I am able to guide them in their use as well as having an overview of the uses of complex, cutting-edge new technologies for learning  

·        A significant area for my professional development will be developing my knowledge of underpinning pedagogy and in particular critical digital literacy allied to Social Purpose Education. My first step has been to sign up as a delegate at the 3-day Hybrid Pedagogy conference at OU, Milton Keynes in March where I will be presenting my Doctoral research and looking to collaborate by extending my professional network. I aim to enter into dialogues with those with more experience in critical digital pedagogy and the use of learning technology for social purpose. I hope that experience will introduce me to the work of new theorists and literature in this area which I can use in my own practice 

·        An ongoing aim is to ensure that I am keeping my learning technology-focussed professional network dynamic and fresh and encouraging others to enter into communities of practice around evidence-informed learning technology use. With the aim in mind, I continue to work as active member of the ALT West Midlands Learning Technology Group and also aim to extend my range of contacts and experience with BERA.