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Interview with Dr Clare Bentall, Programme Leader, MA in Development Education and Global Learning, on her approach to asynchronous teaching on a fully online programme.

Following on from his recent interview with听Dr Nicole Blum on designing asynchronous activities, Eliot Hoving (Learning Technologist, 香港六合彩中特网 Digital Education) sits down with Dr Clare Bentall, Programme Leader of the听MA Development Education and Global Learning.听 Here, he shares her experience of using asynchronous activities, their benefits and her approach to encouraging student participation in online forums.

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About the programme

The听Development Education and Global Learning MA听introduces students to a range of perspectives and approaches to development education, global learning and global citizenship. The programme offers a collaborative online learning environment through which students develop their own knowledge and skills, as well as interacting with, and learning alongside, peers from around the world.

The programme started in 2008 and runs completely online and asynchronously.听The cohort is mostly practising teachers based in the UK or overseas, and professionals working for education not-for-profit organisations. Students are typically part time, often working professionals, with family and work commitments.

How do you use asynchronous activities?听

The MA in Development Education and Global Learning was designed to be online from the off, so students who choose it know that they鈥檙e choosing to work at a distance. So, we designed it to be asynchronous completely. Partly, because the tools available now weren鈥檛 around then but also because we have people in many different time zones and it wasn鈥檛 possible to find a time when working professionals around the world could be online at the same time.

We do some 1:1 synchronous tutorials using Zoom or Teams or whatever the person prefers 鈥� it鈥檚 much easier to arrange with an individual.

Because this has worked so well, I鈥檝e designed my newer module to be completely asynchronous even though 鈥� because there were more full-timers based in the UK in that cohort 鈥� it might have been possible to do more synchronous activity. It works extremely well so I don鈥檛 feel there is a great need to work out which day is going to suit which time zone for a whole group of students.

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What is your approach to asynchronous teaching?

The way we鈥檝e designed these modules reflects the way we would teach anyway. I don鈥檛 ever do a long lecture; even with a face-to-face group of 200, I wouldn鈥檛 ever do a long lecture.

My take on teaching and learning is the learners need to be working because they鈥檙e the ones predominantly doing the learning. Obviously I will learn as well, but it鈥檚 predominantly their job to do the learning for their course, so they need to be working.

I might do very short presentation of 10-15 mins on something, but there would always be an activity and always something collaborative for them to do in the class.

Students learn an awful lot from talking to each other, particularly if there is variety in people鈥檚 backgrounds in the group. They need to be thinking and trying out the ideas, not just listening to them, thinking they get them but then not having the opportunity to apply it.

We have designed our modules to give our students tasks to do where they have to produce something collaboratively. It doesn鈥檛 have to be particularly complicated. They might have to agree a summary of an understanding of a theory perspective for example, or present something diagrammatically or fill in a grid. So, not anything too complicated for them, involving too much technology, but something that requires them to individually process the content that we鈥檙e giving them; apply it 鈥� in the case of our students, we ask them to apply it to their professional context; and then come up with a group consensus about something which they鈥檙e prepared to share with the wider group.

So, our online asynchronous work mirrors what would happen in the classroom where you鈥檇 put students into a group, they鈥檇 discuss something, they鈥檇 try it out, and they鈥檇 come up with their final presentation to the class. We use a very similar structure online.

The content is given to them through our readings. On our MA, we don鈥檛 even do any recordings, talking heads etc. 鈥� it鈥檚 all in the readings or links to videos, Ted Talks etc.

I have done some short voiceover on PowerPoint for a different module I teach, just for variety and so they can hear what I sound like, but basically the content comes through the readings, material on the Moodle site and what they bring from their professional backgrounds. We see our students has a huge resource. They know their professional context far better than we do, and we use that. We want them to help each other understand the different contexts.

So that鈥檚 essentially our model, it鈥檚 very simple 鈥� not overly exciting with different tools etc. but it works so we鈥檙e not desperate to try to fix it!

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How do you facilitate asynchronous discussion?

We basically use the discussion forums a lot. We create forum spaces for each of the activities. Over a ten week term, we will probably have five main activities. We鈥檝e worked out with part-time students that two weeks per activity is better for collaboration 鈥� one was too short.

Each activity has its own forum space to mirror the experience of sitting in class, having a group discussion, where students are not yet ready to share with us but are sharing with each other. So we鈥檝e got four groups, a discussion space for each group and then the main discussion space for the final activity. They post in the final activity space when they鈥檙e ready to share.

You have to deal with each of these discussion spaces slightly differently. We worked out early on that if you go into these group discussion spaces as a tutor and you say something sort of authoritative about what they鈥檙e discussing, they stop discussing. And that鈥檚 a bit similar to when you鈥檙e monitoring a class during group work; when you sit down at a group and you join in the discussion, all the talking comes to you and they stop talking to each other.

So, in order to keep them working and talking to each other, we work very hard to let them know that we鈥檙e there; you know, we are reading what they鈥檙e putting, we鈥檙e aware what鈥檚 going on, we know if they鈥檙e stuck. So I would do something like: 鈥淥h, that鈥檚 a very good start鈥�It鈥檚 interesting that you鈥檇 mention this鈥�I鈥檓 looking forward to seeing what you do with that when you present the final version鈥�. So, it鈥檚 just a way of saying yes, you鈥檙e on the right track keep going.

They might say 鈥淚 wonder what Clare thinks about this鈥� because they can鈥檛 decide and then I鈥檒l go in and say 鈥渨ell, I think that might be the easier way to go鈥� or something similar, but I鈥檒l try not to give my view on the content unless absolutely necessary because what you鈥檙e trying to do is encourage the discussion, encourage them to share, chase up members of the group who haven鈥檛 posted yet. So what I might do is say 鈥�well done to the two of you for getting going, I鈥檒l see what鈥檚 happening with your colleague鈥� and then I will email that colleague and say 鈥�Look, do go in and participate, they鈥檙e waiting for you before they can move on鈥�.

Once they鈥檝e posted in the final activity space, we comment then on the final product. Which also means then that you don鈥檛 have to comment individually on every single person鈥檚 work; you comment on the four groups or five groups or however many groups you鈥檝e got. And what I tend to do is read it through, make notes of things that capture my attention or are a bit controversial, or where I think they鈥檝e maybe misunderstood a bit of research or writing. I might look for something that maybe relates to my own experience that I can then talk about. I comment in no particular order on the things that have caught my eye.

I try to pick up on each group鈥檚 activities without necessarily saying 鈥淕roup 1 said鈥︹�� and try to do it in a way that is not closing the debate on whatever the topic is. Rather, I present more information for them to think about so that there is a chance that they will also then reply to those comments and we have a bit more of a dialogue, rather than 鈥榯his is Clare鈥檚 final comment on the subject and then we move on鈥�.

Obviously, our content is very debatable which lends itself to this approach. It鈥檚 not so fact-based as some other courses might be; a lot of theory, different perspectives, scope for applying it to this or that type of education and coming up with a different view, so it lends itself to that.

Really understanding when you need to encourage participation and when you need to focus on content is quite crucial to getting this to work. 听

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How do you encourage student participation?

We do monitor participation. When we developed the MA originally, we had a big debate in the IOE about how we translate what was then our 80% attendance requirement into online. In a class you can attend, sleep your way through the class, sign the register and count as having attended. Online, you can鈥檛 attend without doing something. So, in a sense our attendance requirement was a participation requirement, so we agreed to translate the attendance requirement into a participation requirement and we told students we would be monitoring this.

Anyone who looks like they are getting behind, very early on in particular, would get an email saying 鈥淟ook, you do need to participate otherwise you might not have done enough of the module to be able to do the assessment at the end鈥�.

But we find on the whole that we don鈥檛 have to use the stick too often. On the whole, if students aren鈥檛 participating it鈥檚 because they鈥檙e ill or because life has gotten very busy that week and they鈥檝e failed to do is to let us or their colleagues in the group know. So, what we do a lot of is say 鈥�Look, you might have a really busy week; if you鈥檙e in a group, you need to tell your group members that you鈥檙e going to be a but behind, you need to discuss in your groups who is going to do what when; what are your internal deadlines you鈥檙e aiming for in order to make our deadlines; if you can only work at the weekend, let them know that鈥檚 the case, so everyone is able to manage their own time鈥�.

I don鈥檛 think many people pay for a huge amount of money for a masters course and decide not to participate. I think that would be a very strange decision to make. I鈥檓 not saying we鈥檝e never had someone like that but on the whole, they have invested quite a large chunk of money and they are doing it for their own professional benefit so we probably don鈥檛 have to chivvy as much as you might students in other contexts.

Our numbers are also much lower than some; I was reading some of the contributions to the Connected Learning Essentials staff development programme and听some colleagues have hundreds of students where it鈥檚 quite hard for one student on a very large cohort to feel that the lecturer knows who they are. Wheras if we鈥檝e got 30, they can feel that by the end of the module, we do know every single person we鈥檝e got. We know where they鈥檙e based, what they鈥檙e doing, what their professional life is, or if they鈥檝e got particular family or work contexts that makes life difficult, so getting a sense of a cohort such that people want to help contribute to each other鈥檚 learning as well as their own is possibly easier than it is in large groups or other contexts that people have but it鈥檚 important.

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Image credit: Anete Lusina /