TEL-lingit like IT is

Elevator tale: this post tries to place TPACK in an ODE context. ODE works best when design is consistent, creative, collaborative, and comprehensive across the student tuition experience. These suggest a team-based approach to TPACK, involving specialist TEL and learning design roles working with subject experts. This teamwork often leads to tensions, which might be managed through a sound design methodology (such as Agile). In the previous post I provided an overview of TPACK and noted that "The goal for all TEL practitioners and online educators is the nirvana of TPACK, where Technology, Pedagogy And Content Knowledge all synergise into an optimal learning experience for the student." In this post I want to suggest how that nirvana might be reached in online and distance education (ODE) contexts. It's important to begin with a description of the main elements of the online and distance context of practice. Four foundational principles for effective online distanc...

In my previous role I was responsible for the development of distance education courses in an institution exploiting Agile project management for its software development work. Note the capital 'A'; this was Agile as a noun, not as an adverb! Before I left, we had several important internal conversations about how Agile methodologies might apply to course design and development across what was a classically industrialised process. At the time we were working within the Scrum methodology, and we had successfully experimented with scrums, t-shirt-sizing and regular stand ups within our existing course development workflows.  In my current role I've maintained this interest in how Agile might be applied to course design and development. Module design here at the Open University continues to partner academics with TEL, editing, media development and project specialists. The multiple people involved lends things nicely to a team-based Agile approach. Both Open Polytechnic an...