Nilanjana SAXENA
School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE)
Nilanjana shares her experience of designing, conducting and facilitating a workshop on hybrid learning with Microsoft Teams. Nilanjana presented this teaching and learning experience as a PechaKucha during the online Higher Education Campus Conference (e-HECC) 2020.
Recommended Citation Saxena, N. (2020, Dec 8-9). From disruption to possibilities: Moving face-to-face lessons to online while keeping the learning experience in mind [Conference presentation]. Online Higher Education Campus Conference (e-HECC) 2020, Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning, National University of Singapore. https://youtu.be/KTVcx0uqBNM
In this presentation, Nilanjana discusses her experience of designing and delivering a week-long workshop comprising ‘asynchronous’ pre-workshop activities and ‘synchronous’ learning time for learners to experience blended learning in all its nuances. Microsoft Teams, an NUS-wide enterprise tool, was the chosen platform for this workshop while Kolb’s experiential learning model (Kolb, 1984) was the backbone of the learning design strategy. The design and delivery of the learning activities was informed by Chi and Wylie’s (2014) Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive (ICAP) framework.
Nilanjana points out that the workshop intentionally put trainers in the learners’ shoes to instill empathy and reflection from a learner’s perspective. This empowered them to design and deliver online learning experiences for their Continuing Education and Training (CET) learners. As such, this workshop was not just a session of learning the tools, since workshop participants also experienced blended learning in all its nuances, such as participating in a classroom and pedagogically designing and delivering a lesson.
During the presentation, Nilanjana also distinguishes between a ‘tool’ and a ‘learning space’ from a learners’ as well as trainers’ perspective. Tools are a part of the learning space, but not the learning space itself. She also discusses the considerations around designing lessons to optimise the learning space for virtual learning and teaching. Finally, she surfaces key implementation insights gained from the post-workshop. These include but are not limited to: onboarding, the role of trainer and learner in a virtual learning space, and the criticality of close collaboration between academics and non-academics.
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Nilanjana SAXENA is an Instructional Designer at the School of Continuing & Lifelong Education (SCALE), NUS. She started off as a Chemistry teacher, then self-disrupted this fluffing career, & went to the University of Sydney to learn more about designing research informed learning experiences. She has worked on several innovative, research-informed educational & training delivery solutions in Australia, India & Singapore. |
References
Chi, M. T., & Wylie, R. (2014). The ICAP framework: Linking cognitive engagement to active learning outcomes. Educational Psychologist, 49(4), 219-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.965823
Figure. 1. Corner, M. (2020). [A professor delivers an online lecture from an empty classroom in Milan] [photograph] The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-out-for-thecoronavirus-11584485277
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
