Learning to Learn about Flexible Delivery

by

Lisa Schubert, Jane Paterson, Margaret Lund-Adams, Geoff Marks
Nutrition Program, Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health and Nutrition

and

Trish Andrews
Learning Resources Development Unit

the University of Queensland

 

Abstract

The Nutrition Program (NP) and the Learning Resources Development Unit (LRDU) are collaborating to develop flexible delivery subjects appropriate for simultaneous delivery to on-campus international students and Australian students in a distance setting. The nutrition subjects will offer both a developed and developing country perspective.

The NP staff have taken a team approach to this developmental task. Designated Flexible Delivery meetings have been used to discuss aspects relevant to all academic staff. Topics discussed have included market research of prospective students, academic workload distribution and support, orientation to the web based platform used to support flexible delivery, review of flexible delivery materials developed by other departments, and modelling of tasks involved in subject development. Writing of course-work modules has predominantly been the responsibility of one academic staff member. However, input and feedback is gained from all team members at regular review meetings.

This process, while time consuming, will help ensure that we are adequately prepared and ready to facilitate future student learning.

 

Background

In 1999, the NP at the University of Queensland (UQ) is offering the coursework Master of Community Nutrition (MCN) degree for the twentieth year. There are now almost 300 MCN graduates, drawn from 35 countries. Many of the MCN students are recipients of government scholarships from their country of origin where they have typically held positions requiring expertise in health and/or nutrition and/or agriculture.

Enrolments over the last five years have been in the range of seven to 14 students, representing a considerable decline from previous enrolments. This decrease has been largely due to a reduced number of students from South East Asian countries. The reason for the decline is complex, and discussions with government officials have suggested that it may be different for each country. For example, the government of the Philippines has customarily designated nutrition as a high priority area for overseas training. However, nutrition has often been removed from the list of priority areas to allow the backlog in other areas to clear. Elsewhere, prospective students have had difficulty meeting English language requirements.

The course was not marketed in Australia until 1995 when Department of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA)-funded student places first became available. The number of Australian students has grown since 1995 with more intensive marketing. A total of 10 graduates are Australian.

Impetus for change grew following a staff retreat in late May 1999. NP academic staff (n=4.5) were presented with a discussion paper outlining potential opportunities for attracting new groups of students and for packaging existing courses differently in order to offer overseas students increased flexibility in their studies. The main aims were to achieve a situation where :

At this point, it was decided to engage the services of an educational designer from LRDU.

 

Defining 'Flexible Delivery'

The term 'Flexible Delivery' seems to have different meanings for different people. It is worth clarifying our interpretation in this paper. "Flexible Delivery" for us is a means by which both on- and off-campus students can participate simultaneously in study for further education. We will be replacing traditional lectures by a print-based learning guide (including directed readings, study questions and activities) and all interaction will be facilitated by WebCT (a software package designed for managing coursework communication.) The subjects will be highly interactive, and students will communicate with each other, the course facilitator, web-based learning resources and assessment activities all via WebCT.

 

Challenges for Reorientation of Teaching and Learning

As outlined above, a major challenge was to ensure that in expanding the audience for our subjects, that we maintained a clear idea of the student characteristics from both markets, ie. the traditional overseas markets and new domestic and overseas markets. In composing these profiles, attention needed to be paid to characteristics of particular student groups that might be interpreted as resistant to new modes of teaching. It was also important to acknowledge the existing good reputation of the course and student expectations.

Students from our traditional markets are typically on full scholarships, have a International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of around 6, have qualifications in health, agriculture or a related field, and have previous workplace experience in a developing country. While still in the realm of the unknown, our students from new markets are likely to be self funded, be proficient english speakers, have a health promotion, nutrition or education degree, may be more familiar with nutrition issues of relevance to developed countries, and will have a reasonable level of computer literacy.

The challenges that this situation generates for redesigning subjects are twofold. Firstly, to address diverse needs (eg educational backgrounds, language proficiency, computer literacy, work experience) and secondly, to create a learning environment that encourages students to share their own knowledge and experience with other class members

. A strong commitment was expressed by academic staff to continue to offer postgraduate Community Nutrition courses to on-campus students, and that high levels of staff/student interaction would be maintained. This implied that one subject facilitator would be concurrently managing two student groups: one on-campus; and one off-campus. The challenge lay in designing a subject delivery format that meant that task duplication was avoided.

The development of a suite of nutrition subjects in flexible delivery mode was seen as an excellent opportunity to reorientate subjects to a more student-centred approach. Incorporating existing nutrition-related knowledge and experiences of the students and developing problem solving skills for community nutrition scenarios will be the over-riding aim of the new approach. All subject material has been taught previously, and detailed class notes and lecture presentation material exist in various incarnations. Despite some efforts to incorporate a problem solving focus, the previous approach was very teacher-centred. Staff agreed that this style gave little recognition to the experiences students brought to the subjects. There was more a 'transmission of knowledge' rather than 'construction of knowledge'.

 

Taking Time to Learn

In taking a team approach to the development of subjects for flexible delivery, the NP academic staff have met with an educational designer at regular intervals since June 1999. These meetings have focused on issues of general relevance, with modelling of tasks involved in subject development being used to facilitate the learning of the new skills being discussed. For example, for the first subject, "Introduction to Nutrition" team time was allocated to discuss and agree on subject content, aims/educational purpose, learning objectives, assessment load and tasks, mode of class interaction between on- and off- campus students, teaching strategies to be used, communication with students, and content and structure of weekly modules. Issues included:- ensuring a common student-centred approach to the development of the subjects; academic workload distribution; up-skilling and support for staff; orientation to WebCT; introduction to multimedia available for use in flexible delivery and review of flexible delivery subject materials developed by other UQ departments.

Writing of course-work modules has predominantly been the responsibility of one academic staff member. However input and feedback has been gained from all team members at regular review meetings. Team sessions with the educational designer have additionally been used for skill development (eg. choosing web based tools to meet our requirements, using concept maps as an educational tool).

 

Reflecting on our learning

Professional development gains for NP staff include subject planning and subject writing skills, and knowledge of, and some hands on experience with, a range of web-based tools for flexible delivery. One outstanding benefit of approaching the task of developing materials for flexible delivery as a team, is the increased opportunity for discussion about educational design and course delivery and management amongst a group of academics who share a common interest in this area.

 

The End Product

The NP are working towards having one subject available in flexible delivery mode (for both on- and off- campus enrolments) in semester one, 2000 and two subjects available for semester two, 2000.

Some features of our 'new look' "Introduction to Nutrition" subject are a print based learning guide incorporating required readings, study questions and activities. Some of these activities include using e-mail and bulletin boards in Web CT to facilitate interaction. Students will be allocated to a small discussion group which combines both on- and off- campus students and will be required to participate in asynchronous discussions during the semester. Subject activities incorporate public health nutrition issues relevant to both developing and developed countries.

Careful attention has been paid to orientating students to new technologies. A plan to introduce tasks in a gradual fashion to promote acceptance of the new technologies has been employed.

 

Conclusion

The NP currently offers Australia's only specialist post graduate Community Nutrition qualification. Considerable potential exists for expansion of our student base with individual subjects being offered in flexible mode. Introducing change has brought with it the opportunity to reorientate subjects to a more student-centred curriculum, increasing the emphasis on students' exchange of their considerable experience, as well as catering to individual student needs. In addition, the gains for NP staff from their collaboration with an educational designer from the LRDU have been wide ranging.

 

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