My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (1) - Our presentation

This is the first of a series of blogs I am hoping to do on my experience of the World Conference on Online Learning.

The World Conference on Online Learning was held at Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Canada last week (16-19 October). This was the 27th biennial conference of the International Council for Distance Education.

This was 'the' conference I always wanted to attend and I was delighted when our proposal "Online, Flipped, Blended Approach to Apprenticeship Education: A case study of UCEM's Surveying Technician Diploma" was accepted to be presented at the conference. The conference theme for this time was "Teaching in a Digital Age: Re-thinking Teaching & Learning" and under this umbrella theme we went for Track 5 - Redesigned Institutional Business Models.

Our presentation was on the second day of the conference and was well attended. We had an engaging session with lots of interesting questions. I also created a sway presentation including some interview clips to give a better idea of our project. We are in the process of writing it up for publication.

Don't take my word about the success of the course. Listen to what a student has to say about our approach to apprenticeship education. Here is what students who have gone through the Surveying Technician Diploma has to say ...

Online, Flipped, Blended Approach to Apprenticeship Education

I have been working with Nick Moore, Dean Learning and Teaching at University College of Estate Management (UCEM) on an exciting project, investigating UCEM's new online, flipped, blended approach to apprenticeship education.

The proposal we put forward to the World Conference on Online Learning to present our work was accepted and now we are getting ready for the presentation in Toronto (according to the conference website meaning “meeting place” in Huron Indian), Canada.

As we only have a few minutes to talk about our project, I felt it would be useful to give some background information on the project. Below is a sway presentation I created with some video clips. Here Ashley Wheaton, UCEM Principal, talks about the need for apprenticeship education and why UCEM took up this challenge. You can also hear Lynne Downey, Dean Online Education, talking about the pedagogy behind the approach UCEM took.

Looking through the draft schedule there are lot of interesting sessions with a whopping eleven parallel sessions on Monday afternoon alone! I am looking forward to participating in my first World Conference on Online Learning.

Please maximize the presentation before viewing.