H808 Activity 6.2 Best Practice Examples: 2

Of the four case studies I looked at, the second most interesting was th Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, (CASTL) Higher Education Program, http://cms.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/supporting_the_process_of_building_and_sharing_knowledge.html
Creating and Nurturing Robust Intellectual Communities

The e-portfolio describes the learning environment in which Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning scholars are able to document and share the progress of their research projects. They describe this workspace as scaffolding for a group of post graduate research students.

Some important principles that would seem to promote and support the learning of these students are:

The Collaborative Workspace serves as an excellent arena for students to showcase their learning. This would be a great example innovation in the design of learning environments.

Much emphasis seems to be given to the use of the snapshot tool. As I understand it, this is a tool which creates a pdf document of an original document or webpage? From the teaching point of view, this seems to be an example of an innovative use of technology to create presentations.

Students are required to give progress reports throughout their project, and this structure must encourage a reflective approach to learning. This could be given as an example of good teaching and learning support.

The fact that each progress report requires the student to respond to a template of open ended and searching questions is an example of an innovation in learning design, which will encourage individual learning and critical thought.

More generally, the posting of these progress reviews in the collaborative workspace creates an environment in which (formal or informal) peer review can thrive. This is an example of the teachers establishing an online community of learners in which learning from other students is potentially as important as learning from traditional academic sources.

Finally, the regular publishing of students research activities also provides the evidence for teachers to assess student progress, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme.

Whilst I would not necessarily see this as a stunning example of best e-learning practice, it does show how a period in which students are doing research can be elevated to a group learning experience and would be a neat device that could be added to many programmes, whether or not they were fully delivered online.

Madeleine