1. “ Not too much facilitation going on” Issues in facilitating online PBL within Academic Development Chrissi Nerantzi Academic Developer University of Salford [email_address] capture on sticky notes and swap What would I need the most during online learning? What would I miss the most during online learning?

3. New pedagogies and Technology-enhanced PBL blended PBL online PBL

5. Supporting online collaborative learning (Thorpe 2002) “ ... seems to be extremely important in an online learning activity.” (Chernobilsky et al 2005, 61) The role of the facilitator

6. the online trial

9. 5-stage model (Mills, 2006)

10. Web 2.0 ‘ Tools like blogs, wikis, media-sharing applications and social networking sites are capable of supporting and encouraging informal conversation, dialogue, collaborative content generation and the sharing of knowledge, giving learners access to a wide raft of ideas and representations.’ (McLoughlin and Lee 2008, 641)

11. Web2.0 toolkit

12. blog wikis web-based ‘calling’

13. method and data collection and analysis

15. Remember? You were asked at the beginning What would I need the most during online learning? What would I miss the most during online learning?

16. Findings

17. we synchronous communication

20. I never, ever, ever have been involved in anything fully online either as a learner or as a tutor or any other thing.

21. Time Managing time Timing of the trial Technology Selection Quantity Communication Asynchronous is slow Synchronous is better Lack of communication Group Yes to multi-institutional collaboration Yes to multi-disciplinary groups Lack of community Group size Rules PBL task Scenario suitable Questioning suitability of scenario PBL Yes, to online PBL Yes, to blended No to PBL PBL in PgCerts Facilitators say yes Participants are sceptic Reflecting Purpose Sharing Time Privacy Facilitation Clarity of role Lack of support More structure Better preparation Assessment Feedback Facilitators concerned Participants: feedback was welcome

22. Clarity of role “ I personally think I would have found at least clarification what the facilitator would do, and again, I might have missed it and it may be my lack of experience, but then again any student who is coming for the first time to do PBL, will have that lack of experience. If I had been told, that the facilitator is there basically to mop up any really serious issues, somebody who is really ill, completely unable to participate before the facilitator steps in, fair enough, I am not going to have kind of support and then I would have to step up to the plate and be a leader.” “ . .. not being sure myself where things were, what we were doing...”

23. Lack of support “ I felt a bit like, I was not knowing which direction I was taking and a bit sort of in a doubtful sort of perspective, whether I’m actually reading the right material, whether I’m going to the right things, whether I’m following all the right stuff that I’m needing. yeah a little bit in the dark. [...] I feel there was a bit of, not too much facilitation going on. [...] I would have encouraged people to, to read the scenario together. Because I think that the initial, do the scenario, read the scenario together and then once you read it, maybe for a very brief time, read it together and, so say “ok, go and think about this, and maybe pay attention to these points a little bit more and maybe come back and we’ll discuss a bit more and then”. Something along those lines” “ I was probably not confident as I would normally do in the sense of directing people and helping people, facilitating as I would normally be.”

24. More structure “ Potentially creating more of a structure, where it would be expected to interact on a more regular basis” “ I really should have had perhaps more structure in arranging meetings with the group…”

25. Better preparation “ PBL depends on very thorough planning” “ I think because it is an online trial, I didn’t realise how I wasn’t prepared, if you see what I mean. Had I known, perhaps I would have had more preparation [...] had I done sort of more research myself it would have helped.”

26. Discussion – Recommendations around online PBL facilitation

28. coaching : push>pull (Neville 1999; Savin-Baden 2006)

30. Progressive online PBL framework Facilitation modes (Heron,1989, 1993) Student perspective TESEP 3E (Smyth,2007) Hierarchical (directive) Enhance Co-operative (partnership) Extend Letting go (autonomous) Empower

31. online training for PBL facilitators Ongoing support Orientation tour Facilitation for 3c Use PBL structure and process Build community! Main recommendations

33. extra slides

34. I participated in a couple of online programmes. Speaking personally, I hated it! There is no scope for discussion. I spent my days sitting in front of the computer. Communicating via email, offering feedback to students, writing things. ... learning needs to be quicker being able to communicate directly with students, it is part of a social process, it shouldn’t be sitting in front of a computer again... I can learn from it, do I enjoy it? No!

35. findings Now I know, what I am doing, yes, I would do it again. And it would be quite interesting I think that what pilots are all about because then you can decide what works what doesn’t work and so, I would do it again. If is more structured I can see that it could be used for undergraduate, maybe not for first years, but for second year. The times we got together we got lots of things done. I enjoyed the early stages: I was quite excited about this and very keen to be a part of it. The possibility of how online collaboration might work. I was quite excited about this and very keen to be a part of it. The possibility of how online collaboration might work. In terms of doing the task, I think we got on very well. PBL really good for a long term project. I think it is a nice way of learning maybe master’s students. There is a lot that can be done with it but it is huge... It was very positive. Especially because we all came from different, different backgrounds.

36. findings I never, ever, ever have been involved in anything fully online either as a learner or as a tutor or any other thing. I wanted to connect I would have liked to come away feeling it was more of a community being created. In my group, there was really lack of communication and I am as guilty of it as anybody else. I was quite excited about this and very keen to be a part of it. The possibility of how online collaboration might work. I didn’t feel the facilitators particularly engaged with the participants which was a big drawback to this process. I felt like virtually walking in the darkness, going to a wrong direction, hitting a wall that suddenly coming up and when I need help, no one responded right away. There was a lack of real human contact eye-to-eye, smile, feeling the other’s real presence.