“I engaged in the program to refresh my engagement with learning and teaching pedagogy – it met this need and more. The program introduced me to new approaches and it’s very practical – I was able to implement many of the ideas directly into my subjects. I have been recommending it to my colleagues – it makes such a difference to have rich models at hand when designing learning experiences.” – Lecturer, DAB
“I enjoyed the blended learning experience, particularly the pre-work activities which gave a glimpse of what was to come in the face-to-face session and allowed me to consider concepts and reflect on what they meant to me before sharing my thoughts and consolidating these ideas in the face-to-face class. I was impressed by how well integrated the online content was with the in-class content” – Lecturer, Health
The program – which we will be running again in August – is made up of five ‘blended’ modules run over a period of 10 weeks. Each module involves online and face to face activities, just like your subjects, and tackles a key element you need to get across, not only to teach well but to make sure your subject aligns well with UTS learning.futures (details here).
10 weeks! Does that mean it involves a lot of time?
No. While it runs over 10 weeks, each module only involves around 4 hours of work over a fortnight – and that’s the face to face as well as the online bits. Plus the work you do is focused on getting things done to improve your subjects, as a Lecturer from the Graduate School of Health commented:
“In Pharmaceutics, calculating the dose administered to the patient has always been a topic students struggled with. Last semester I implemented the “show cards” technique where students work together on a problem, explain it to each other before giving their answer as a group. The feedback from students was very positive and they requested more sessions to run using the same setup.”
Ok – what’s so good about the program?
Well as the participants comment it models a blended approach so it ‘walks the talk’. And as it’s run in UTSOnline the whole program has the ‘look and feel’ of a UTS subject. You, just like your students, participate online between attending face to face classes, doing activities designed to build engagement and interaction. So while you are learning about how to enhance your teaching, you are also experiencing – as a learner – the approaches, tools and technologies you can use in your subjects with your own students.
The program also tackles the ‘why’ along with the ‘how’. We marry a practical focus with the chance to think about and critique the thinking behind the focus on learning, blending and learning.futures.
You also get to meet others who are tackling similar challenges and bounce around ideas together. Given they come from different disciplines and diverse backgrounds you’ll get to hear lots of perspectives and ideas, and have heaps of examples you can draw from in planning your own subjects.
And that’s not all (at this point I feel I should be offering you six free steak knives!). You also get the space to think about how teaching and learning fits into your career and the sorts of evidence you could and should be collecting to get ready for that next promotion.
What will you leave with?
Along with some great connections, an understanding of how to put key elements of learning, teaching, designing, assessing and evaluating to practice to ‘blend’ your subjects and align with learning.futures, you’ll also have a portfolio and some good ideas for building a case for a teaching promotion!
We hope we’ve piqued your interest! If so let us know by completing this form.
Should be an interesting session, I think I’ll drop by at UTS main tower to enquire more about it, thanks for sharing either way.