Team profile: Central Blended Learning Team
The Blended Learning Team works within the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic). The team was recently awarded the Excellence in Professional Service Award at the Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Awards. Find out more about the team…
Who works in the Blended Learning Team?
- Lynnae Rankine-Venaruzzo, Blended Learning Manager
- Gina Saliba, Blended Learning Advisor
- Elizabeth Black, Blended Learning Projects Coordinator
- Tom Bowring, Blended Learning Professional Developer
- Hermy Cortez, Blended Learning Designer
- Bernard Edmonds, Blended Learning Media Developer
- Mark Cross, Blended Learning Analyst
- Tom Cavdarovski, Digital Media Coordinator
- Gino Soliman, intrepid student intern
What does the Blended Learning Team do?
The Central Blended Learning Team in the Learning and Teaching Unit consists of a small core team of specialist staff with the remit of supporting curriculum change, building capacity in teaching, researching learning technologies and building communities of practice. They have proven themselves to be key change agents, partners and enablers of the University's strategic objectives in UWSOnline, the iPad initiative and the Blended Learning Strategy. They work across all Schools and most departments including Library, IT Services, Student Services, Marketing, Organisational Development Unit and Office of Research Services – to lead learning design approaches, curriculum transformation in online and physical spaces and build innovation in learning and teaching. They lead effective communities of practice through regular Blended Learning Forums and they provide an innovative Pick and Match Teaching Development Program that enables Schools to tailor teaching development enhancement to suit discipline, skill and strategic priorities.
Working collaboratively across the institution, the team supports academic and professional staff to find innovative and creative solutions to new ways of learning in the digital era. One way the team does this is to provide leadership and expertise to the blended learning support staff in Schools and run targeted professional development to build capacity so blended learning staff are not only more effective in their roles but remain at the cutting edge of digital design. Through interactions with staff in Schools, the team recognises sites of best practice and innovation, which are profiled on the Quality in Learning and Teaching (QiLT) webpage (opens in a new window) and YouTube (opens in a new window). QiLT links to the team's social media curation spaces and has garnered 298 followers on Twitter as well as a national and international audience on the Designing for Learning Facebook page (755 views).
Where is the Blended Learning Team located?
Virtually everywhere! We can provide support and deliver workshops anywhere across UWS using online collaborative environments. Our "Batcave" is at Werrington South campus.
Who does the Blended Learning Team work with?
Lots of people, Schools and departments! On a daily basis we work closely with academics and blended learning specialists in Schools. We also work with our friends in the Library, Student Services and ITD Services regularly. Whether we are developing a digital resource together, sharing ideas in a Twitter exchange or working on a new project and initiative, there is always something exciting happening! Watch and see… (opens in a new window)
What would be a good example of the work that you are involved in?
The video above and QiLT webpage (opens in a new window) provide a good overview of what we are involved in.
The team works across four portfolio areas:
Designing for Learning:
- Learning design strategies
- Guidelines, frameworks and standards
- Learning analytics
- Digital assessment
- Mobile/iPads
- ePortfolios
- Game-inspired learning
Teaching Development:
- Pick and Match for Schools and UWSCollege
- Exemplars
- Basic Standards Consistency
- Institutional resource development
- Best practice guides
- Resource repositories (eg, QiLT, vUWS, support sites)
Evaluating Learning Technologies:
- Bring Your Own Device
- Student reflection and engagement
- Student interactions on campus and online
- Student-created resources, content and digital learning assets
- Open units of access
- Alternative modes of learning
Showcasing teaching innovations:
- Blended Learning forums
- Academic exemplars
- Designing for Learning Showcase
- E-learning Technical Officers Network (ELTON )
- Blended Learning Advisors, Designers and E-Learning network
- Special interest groups
Our achievements for 2014 include:
- Winner, VC Excellence Awards in Professional Service (Team) 2014
- 5 Designing for Learning Quick bytes produced (opens in a new window)
- 66 teaching development sessions reaching over 1200 staff (opens in a new window)
- 7 blended learning forums reaching over 250 staff (opens in a new window)
- 43 educational resources developed (opens in a new window)
- 18 vUWS Flashes produced (opens in a new window)
- 8 case studies of good teaching practice produced (opens in a new window)
- 14 iTunes U courses developed for Schools (opens in a new window)
- 9 BLADE Musters coordinated
- 22 UWSOnline Units being supported
- 2 series of Basic Standards analysis and reports for Schools
- 5,000 visitors to QiLT a month
- 1 Designing for Learning Showcase in December and 1 mobile app (opens in a new window)
- 1 Learning Technology Toolkit (opens in a new window)
- 1 Pick and Match Teaching Development (opens in a new window)
- Presentations to Schools, other universities virtually and in-person nationally and internationally.
What challenges does the team face?
We meet the challenges of integrating emerging pedagogical approaches and rapidly evolving technologies on a daily basis. We actively share interesting material and model the practices that we encourage staff to use in our own team sprints and creative gatherings. Like so many other areas in UWS, our staff numbers are fewer than we'd like and we would welcome more long-term approaches to resourcing the team for institutional projects and implementations.
What is the team focusing on in the next 12 months?
We're looking forward to working with our new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and creating a renewed vision for learning and teaching at UWS. 2013-2014 have seen incredible growth and investment in learning anytime, anywhere at UWS and we are looking forward to contributing to UWS's successes in teaching and learning innovation. We also look forward to continuing our collegial partnerships with academics, Schools, the Library, Student Services and ITD Services and everyone else in the digital learning space.
Mobile options: