1. From Classroom To Cyberspace Susie Ventura, Mark Dando, Matthew Hughes Senior Lecturers Faculty of Health and Social Care Bristol UWE

2. CONTEXT New Undergraduate pre - qualifying framework for all professional programmes Within each year of these three year programmes is an inter professional module accessed by all Each inter professional module employs an enquiry based learning model

3. The online module Caters for most professional groups Runs twice a year Accessed by 700 students Inter professional level 3

4. Staff Team Total of 21 staff represent all professions 60% of staff had no previous experience of online delivery 90% of staff experienced lecturers and played an active role in IP modules in years one and two Committed, enthusiastic and worked well together

5. Students Less enthusiastic and very nervous Anxiety not appreciated by staff For most excitement replaced anxiety For some discomfort with VLE or technology remained throughout module

6. Rationale for online delivery Previous experience of using a VLE as resource and discussion forum Identification of learning opportunities medium offered, but not exploited IP module would enable us to explore different learning and teaching approaches Accommodation of expanding student population provided added benefit Greater flexibility for students

7. Learning opportunities Extending knowledge and understanding by gathering and sharing information Learning from and with each other development of academic skills Shifting the focus from teaching to learning Promotion of reflection and critical thinking

8. Ideas for the design Essential that students engaged in learning Review of underpinning pedagogy Biggs and constructivism To incorporate constructive alignment

9. A series of tasks to: Maintain interest and focus Build on knowledge and experience Develop new skills Review learning

10. Activities and assessment These addressed the four learning outcomes and included; Two briefing papers Design of a group critique framework Peer Critiquing by collating and evaluating comments from peers & producing feedback A reflective account of their experiences

11. Staff development issues Facilitation skills online different to F2F- recognising when to intervene Staff feeling less than confident working in this new environment - permanence of replies Organisation of time, access, workloads

12. Competencies for facilitators Those identified by Salmon (2000) adapted and utilised as below: Stage 1 Access and motivation Stage 2 Online socialisation Stage 3 Information exchange Stage 4 Knowledge construction Stage 5 Development

13. IT Factors Students’ lack of IT skills and fear of computers Peer support from more competent students Access to computers off campus IT skills increased during delivery Infrastructure, admin, reliable platform

14. Asynchronous discussion Impact on communication style Encourages considered and reflective responses Frustrating waiting for responses Space to think Increased confidence and participation for some Chat room discussions more ‘chatty’ but ? encouraged group cohesion Group processes mirrored those in F2F interactions

15. Conclusion The underpinning pedagogy, that of constructivism, could be utilised across all learning whether online or F2F. Experience suggests that there are advantages of online learning when adopting this approach particularly in respect to encouraging reflection and critical thinking. The environment also promotes collaboration and as all discussions are saved students have the opportunity to review their contributions and learning. Finally it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage students in deep learning when class sizes are so large this environment provides the opportunity to probe, challenge and enrich the experience.

16. Further reading Suggested further reading: Biggs J (1996) Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment Higher education 32 347 – 364 Bruner J S (1986) Actual minds, possi1ble worlds. Cambridge MA Harvard University Press Driscoll M P (1994) Psychology of learning for instruction. Boston Allyn and Bacon Fisher K, Phelps R, Ellis A (2000) Group processes online: teaching collaboration through collaborative processes Educational Technology & Society 3 (3) Palloff R& Pratt K (1999) Building learning communities in cyberspace: effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco: Jossey - Bass Rourke I Anderson T, Randy garrison D & Archer W (1999) Assessing social presence in asynchronous text based computer conferencing Journal of Distance Education 14 92) 50-7] Rust C (2000) The impact of assessment on student learning Active learning in higher education Vol3 (2) 145 - 158 Salmon G (2000) E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online: London. Kogan Page