Last week we asked you to tell us what your expectations are for taking part in ocTEL. If you haven’t already, please do add your views via the expectations questionnaire!
We are really hoping to hear from more of you, but from the responses so far, here’s a taster of what the ocTEL community looks like, and what you hope to achieve.
As you can see from this pie chart, most respondents are based in the UK.
The majority also indicated that they work in Higher Eduction, but some cover other sectors including the NHS, private and third sectors. Over half are learning technologists or lecturers, but other roles such as manager and teacher are also represented.
We’re also interested in what experiences participants had prior to taking part in ocTEL. Responses so far suggest most have some experience of using technology for teaching, and of using social media (SM) for their own learning and for networking. Perhaps reassuringly for the course team (!), there are also participants who have joined ocTEL with a view to broadening their understanding in these areas. In the words of one respondent “I know I have big gaps in my knowledge regarding pedagogical theory and instructional design. I’d like to start ‘shading in’ these areas and find out what else I need to know for the future.”
The different learning opportunities offered by taking part in ocTEL were also queried, and respondents see value across the range of options shown in the figure below. Learning about the topics offered as part of ocTEL is seen as most useful, but the chance to experience a MOOC and networking are clearly significant too. For some it is about “Finding out what and who are ‘out there’ in relation to TEL“.
Finally, for now, we asked respondents to choose two themes that matched their ‘big questions‘. These give us an indicator of what the ocTEL cohort as a whole wants to achieve. The strongest contenders are pedagogic theory, finding examples of good practice, and technology selection and effectiveness.
These figures will be updated as more people respond, so if you haven’t already, please do fill in the expectations questionnaire!
Rachel directs Inspire Research Ltd, an independent consultancy specialising in evaluation and research into learning. Rachel has over 20 years experience in evaluation, research and development, much of which has focused on technology enhanced learning. Rachel is a long-standing member of ALT, the BPS, HE Academy, and serves on ALT’s Research Committee.
The figures have now been updated. The main change is in the last pie chart, which now shows a wider spread of interests.