Towards Ecological Evaluation of Online Courses: Aiming for Thick Description

Fawns, Tim; Sinclair, Christine

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-77673-2_5

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The time constraints faced by clinical teachers, for example, may tempt those delivering educational programmes to focus on the acquisition of teaching techniques, such as tips for small group teaching or delivering a lecture. Whilst these skills are undeniably useful, they fail to take into account that teachers and teaching are situated within complex settings and wider, social and political contexts, where one-size will rarely fit all (Fawns et al, 2021a ; Fawns & Sinclair, 2021 ). It is these wider influences that create the pressures on teaching that lead to its instrumentalization (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making space to learn about teaching: expanding teaching horizons through postgraduate education

Aitken

Fawns

Warren

et al. 2022

Adv in Health Sci Educ

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Clinicians develop as teachers via many activities, from on-the-job training to formal academic programmes. Yet, understanding how clinicians develop the sensibilities of an educator and an appreciation of the complexity of educational environments is challenging. Studies of teacher development have maintained a relatively narrow definition of educational practice. A more expansive view encompasses clinical teachers’ roles in relation to elements beyond learners or content, such as the cultures and other structures of healthcare institutions. In our online Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Education, space and structure are intentionally created for teachers to think and talk about education with colleagues in other disciplinary contexts. We interviewed 17 students about how their approaches to teaching had changed over a year of part-time study, using their teaching philosophies, written at the start of the programme, as points of contrast. We took an abductive approach to data analysis, drawing on the literature and, unavoidably, our own reflexive interpretations of our practice outside of the research context, such as conversations with students and colleagues; our experiences of teaching and our concurrent research and scholarship. Our themes of repertoire building, perspective shifting, embodied practice, and appreciation of context, describe the increasing complexity of individuals’ considerations of teaching. We use our analysis as the basis for a discussion of the blurring of boundaries between staff and students on such programmes as both groups are engaged in an ongoing continuum of development as all teachers, continue to be learners of educational practice. These insights can inform the ways in which postgraduate programmes can make space for clinical teachers to share and reflect on practices, perspectives and contexts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making space to learn about teaching: expanding teaching horizons through postgraduate education

Aitken

Fawns

Warren

et al. 2022

Adv in Health Sci Educ

Self Cite

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“…It is the follow-up of other works in which we have described and evaluated an initial blended course that has inspired the present MOOC [15] and another work [16] in which the design of the MOOC was analysed in terms of its socio-technical context, describing the formal and informal interactions between the different actors involved in the design process in attempting to define a common vision and consensus, as well as the divergences and contradictions that are part of the learning design process. This continuous process of deeply documenting the development and evaluation of a course corresponds to the emphasis on processes of description in social sciences in general [36] and in education in particular [20]. Specifically, in what relates to the development of MOOCs, we can find similar approaches of detailed description in the works of Donald et al [37] and in the works of Freire [38,39].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In the present paper, we widely document, through a relatively detailed description and pilot evaluation, the objectives, contents, modules, and pedagogical foundations of a MOOC on computational thinking, programming, and robotics. This detailed description and evaluation are intended to respond to the need felt by several authors, such as Patton [19] and Fownes and Sinclair [20], to use thick descriptions of the processes of characterising and evaluating courses so that these processes are not limited to superficial indicators about them, but allow a deeper understanding of the pedagogical assumptions underlying a course and its development, its structure, contents, materials and activities, as well as the institutional, disciplinary and social constraints that may affect it.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing a MOOC on Computational Thinking, Programming and Robotics for Early Childhood Educators and Primary School Teachers: A Pilot Test Evaluation

Amante,

Souza,

Quintas-Mendes

et al. 2023

Education Sciences

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This study focuses on developing and evaluating an online course aimed at preschool educators and primary school teachers. It presents a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on computational thinking, programming and robotics developed as part of the project “Laboratory for Technology and Programming and Robotics Learning in Primary and Preschool Education in Portugal (KML II)” The MOOC design was inspired by a blended learning model used in teacher professional development at the project’s inception and incorporates theoretical-pedagogical models of MOOC design as well as theoretical models of online interaction in virtual educational environments. The course will be offered on the NAU platform, a Portuguese MOOC platform. A pilot test was conducted with a purposive sample that included both participants from the target audience of the course as well as national and international experts specialised in these domains. The evaluation included a Likert scale questionnaire survey and open-ended questions. The results aim to validate the MOOC’s quality, including its structure, content relevance, proposed activities, and learning design. The findings provide evidence to improve the final version of the MOOC, contributing to its effectiveness and adequacy to the target audience.

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Postdigital Education

Fawns

2023

Encyclopedia of Postdigital Science and Education

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Towards Ecological Evaluation of Online Courses: Aiming for Thick Description

Cited by 7 publications

References 40 publications

Making space to learn about teaching: expanding teaching horizons through postgraduate education

Making space to learn about teaching: expanding teaching horizons through postgraduate education

Designing a MOOC on Computational Thinking, Programming and Robotics for Early Childhood Educators and Primary School Teachers: A Pilot Test Evaluation

Postdigital Education

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