Feedback
Trainees from the recently-concluded PPCII have also given the law school feedback on their training trajectory, as it moved online in the spring.
“Building a learning community while teaching and learning online is of course a great opportunity – as well as a significant challenge,” say faculty staff Antoinette Moriarty, Gabriel Brennan and John Lunney.
A mini-series of complementary online lunchtime seminars to motivate and connect the educational staff will begin today (4 September).
Today’s keynote address, ‘Meaningful teaching and learning in the virtual space’, was delivered by Dr Seán Arthurs, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Dr Arthurs is a lawyer with a focus on making education more enjoyable, research-based, and effective.
Dr Arthurs’ talk ranged across the wealth of tech tools freely available to enable engaged online education.
He shared images of himself as a child at his grandmother’s house in Keady, Co Armagh, pointing out that photographs work well for visual learners.
Ice-breaker
Dr Freda Grealy, of the Blackhall Place Diploma Centre, pointed out that pictures that represent ‘home’ are a good ice-breaker and build openness and trust in an online learning environment.
An online environment does not allow a lot of time to establish oneself as an effective lecturer, Dr Arthurs said, but sharing credentials and building community are key.
The use of Excel documents to store typed questions is also useful for faculty staff, Dr Arthurs said, and can eliminate duplicated queries.
Dr Arthurs also spoke about the level of student engagement in an online environment.
More time
“Virtual learning requires more time than in person. It also requires more intentionality, especially in the community building phase,” he said.
He referred to the ‘learning sciences’ and said scientific principles can demonstrate how people learn well.
“Students learn well when they feel safe and connected. Collaboration and social interaction can be powerful learning experiences,” he said.
"Students retain content better if you build community in your classroom,” he said, referring the faculty staff to the ‘community of inquiry’ model.
Dr Arthurs said building a learning community requires a social presence, interactivity and engagement, and breaking into small groups.
'Like pizza'
“Small groups are like pizza – done well, it can be amazing,” he quipped.
“A lot of us think any small group is good… but it needs to be done well,” he concluded.
He distilled this to:
- clear directions,
- a clear learning objective,
- making learning visible.
The mini-series will continue online for the next several weeks.