Flexible approaches to unit delivery

Over a decade ago, my colleague, Michael Henderson, and I responded to demand from students for more flexible options. The current iteration of EDF5648 - Instructional design with digital technologies is a 3-week rotating block model. The weeks differ in terms of the learning experience and interaction that students have:

• Week 1: students are on campus for a face-to-face delivery, with the session being streamed live for remote international students
• Week 2: students undertake synchronous online activities
• Week 3: students study asynchronously online.

Listening to students was an essential component in determining what works effectively. Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) data is one way students can have a voice, but also actively seeking out student feedback, via conversations, polls, or however students want to give their input is valuable and necessary in being able to fine tune a new or innovative idea and bring it into the learning environment successfully.

Series of steps

	Design content for four modules. The 3-week rotating clock model runs four times in the semester, so we had to design the content to be delivered in four modules. This allows us to take advantage of the affordances of each of those different modalities and to also highlight the limitations.
	Understand and use the expertise available. Something that is important to consider is the student cohort, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching team. Between Michael and I, we have 25 years of secondary education teaching. We also have an incredibly diverse group of students, coming from very different walks of life, such as university staff, the military, and hospital staff, so our backgrounds and the backgrounds of our students played a role in what was conceivably possible.
	Blend the experience across classroom and online. One of the elements that we had to engineer was in opening up the face-to face learning experience with those who study online. We bring our own camera into the room and one of us operates the camera, moving around and following whoever is teaching. This gives a very different kind of an experience to a static camera stuck in one place that doesn’t and can’t enhance the experience. The person doing the camera work is also engaging in conversation with the online students in the chat. We encourage all of the students who are physically attending to bring a device so that they can participate in that chat as well.
	Design for flexibility and choice. It's not that one way of learning is better than another. One of the key principles in the unit is the notion of flexibility and choice and as an educator we had to think about how we design for flexibility and choice.

With this model the students have greater flexibility in maintaining their study/life balance and the blend of synchronous and asynchronous activities offer authentic learning experiences and outcomes. Students can choose to either be in-person or be online and experience the same quality of education irrespective of the mode that they're in.

This unit has broken away from the norm in terms of unit delivery. It offers flexibility without compromising on the learning experience. This is an idea that carries into assessment too. We received positive feedback from students when we used video feedback for an assessment, so we started to investigate the ideas of multi-modal feedback. We did a lot of work around synthesising design principles and ideas to create a design framework for video and to date we’ve provided many thousands of videos. Videos can be richer in terms of information they provide, as in 5 minutes I can certainly say more than I can type. This allows for more detail and more personalised feedback.

For this unit’s second assessment, the task is a negotiated project. Flexibility and openness to students having a choice in how and where they learn has created more of it. The unit has evolved a great deal over the decade, and it all stemmed from Michael and I trying to walk the walk as much as talk the talk.

Hybrid classes need a student or teacher-controlled roaming camera/laptop setup that gives remote participants an authentic in-room experience. This effort ties together the online and in-room participants to make everyone feel engaged in the activities.

Teaching activities need to be carefully considered and planned to ensure that both on campus and online students are able to participate equitably

Ensure that on campus participants also have a device and are logged into the Zoom session (making sure they are muted and their speakers are off) to allow the conversations to include all members of the class including those that are online. It is really interesting to see how the chat adds a different dimension to the class discussions!

To other educators looking to try more flexible approaches to teaching, I’d say just give it a go. Don't be frightened to do it and don't be afraid to break something. The way I see it, if I don't break some sort of tech during the semester, then I haven’t pushed hard enough.

It’s necessary to experiment with the teaching model and find the right balance of flexibility that suits your students without compromising the quality of your delivery. For hybrid classes consider combining two classes together. This way, one educator can be focused online and supporting the technology, while the other can focus on the students physically present. You can effectively facilitate dual conversations which can be quite powerful.

Something to consider is that adopting this model as it currently is, may not work in exactly the same way in another context. It’s important to unpack why things work, or don’t work in particular ways. What opportunities might a blended mode bring? What are some challenges that are associated with it? Consider how to adapt it, give it a go and then, most importantly, listen to the students. As educators, we get a certain idea about how something is working, but students are the ones who are really going to be able to tell you what's working and what’s not.