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Welcome to LDRS 663: Effective Coaching for Transformational Learning in Blended Learning Environments!
Course Description
Students will examine the theoretical foundations and professional practices of coaching learners in blended learning environments with an emphasis on facilitating transformational learning experiences. The intersection of adult education, educational technology, and international education thought is investigated in relation to the development of effective strategies for coaching learners within the emerging context of technologically distributed global higher education. Projects develop digital literacy skills, including the use of communication, collaboration and publishing tools; and media literacy, including knowledge of copyright, open licensing, and digital citizenship.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate effective facilitation and coaching communication skills (eg. active listening, developing rapport, providing feedback)
- Identify a variety of facilitation/coaching methods and techniques.
Course Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- analyze the characteristics of the coaching role within theoretical models of blended teaching and learning;
- demonstrate the ability to model metacognitive strategies for self-regulated learning;
- apply intercultural competencies in coaching learners in transformational blended learning environments;
- evaluate the quality of feedback in light of evidence-based research
- evaluate interactions in a learning environment and develop strategies for high quality educative interactions;
- Design cognitive and social activities to meet learning outcomes.
- apply multi-modal communication and collaboration tools effectively to support learning in a higher education context.
- apply information and media literacies to research, produce, analyse and present information online.
Resources
Please note that you are not required to purchase any of the folllowing resources. They are freely available on the web or accessible through the library.
- Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university: What the student does (4th ed.). New York: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. Available as eBook through TWU Library.
- Committee on How People Learn II: The Science and Practice of Learning, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. National Academies Press. Link
- Vaughan, N., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Athabasca: AU Press. Retrieved from Link
- Bates, A. W. (2019). Teaching in a Digital Age – Second Edition. Tony Bates Associates Ltd. Link
- Campbell, G. (2009). A Personal Cyberinfrastructure. EDUCAUSE Review, 44(5), 58-59. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure
Assessments
Details on the procedures for completing these assignments will be provided.
Learning Labs (required but not assessed)
Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to attend learning labs. During lab times, the instructors will be modelling learning facilitation and coaching principles and skills. The instructors will be guiding group discussions, answering any questions you may have about the course, helping you understand your assignments, and giving feedback on your participation. The learning labs are not graded; however, lab learning is connected to the graded activities below.
Note: Learning labs are scheduled for Wednesdays from 6-7:30 PM Vancouver time. Learning labs will be accessed synchronously via the Zoom video conferencing system.
Learning Pods
At the beginning of the course everyone will be placed into small groups called learning pods. these groups, of about four people, will be the place where you will practice learning facilitation and coaching principles and skills that you are learning in this course. The pods will also form the working group for doing a curriculum analysis and developing a facilitated learning resource.
Learning Reflection Blogs (25%)
Throughout this course, you will be invited to write five “working” posts about what you are learning in this course. This will start with you posting to a Moodle Discussion forum, and then transition to your blog (to be introduced in Unit 3). You should consider your posts as a place for you to try out new ideas, to test your assumptions, and to share what you are learning with your community. At the end of the course you will produce a Showcase Post, which will represent your best work. The showcase post will be the only graded post; however, your final grade will also consider how your ideas developed over the process of you writing five working draft posts.
Each of your draft posts should be 400-500 words.
Post 1
Due at the end of Unit 1
Read and Discuss
Review Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction by Terry Anderson.
Read Interaction and the online distance classroom: Do instructional methods effect the quality of interaction? by Heather Kanuka.
Then, post a reponse in the Unit 1 Forum in Moodle - defending or criticizing Anderson's Interaction Equivalency Theorem. Ensure that you defend or criticize the idea, not the person, and include something that you have learned about interaction from somewhere other than the assigned readings.
If your birthday is between January 1 and June 30, defend Anderson's Interaction Equivalency Theorem.
If your birthday is between July 1 and December 31, criticize Anderson's Interaction Equivalency Theorem
Feel free to respond to arguments presented by your colleagues for or against the theorem.
To submit this discussion post, click on the "Unit 1 Forum" link below.
Post 2
Due at the end of Unit 2
Topic
Choose ONE of the Learning Activities in Unit 2 and respond to one or more of the prompts, or follow your own questions and thinking about the topic.
To submit this discussion post, click on the "Unit 2 Forum" link below.
Post 3
Due at the end of Unit 3
Topic
Copy the text of Post 1 and Post 2 from Moodle, and recreate them as posts on your blog. For each post, make sure you include links to 1 or 2 of your colleagues' posts, a 'Featured Image' and the category ldrs663 or ldrs463 as appropriate.
Post a link to your blog in the 'Unit 3 Forum' in Moodle.
In a new post, expand on your reflection on the idea of Visitors and Residents in online spaces. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
To submit all of your posts for the rest of the course, create a new post on your own WordPress blog and use the category ldrs663 or ldrs463.
Post 4
Due at the end of Unit 4
Topic
In your Discussion Post for this unit, you are being asked to select one core coaching competencies identified in this unit and reflect on how you might apply it in an educational setting. You can use the following questions to guide your writing:
How would you define the coaching competency?
Why is the competency important?
What set of integrated knowledge, skills, aptitudes and attributes help define, in more detail, how to successfully perform the job to be done?
To submit this discussion post, click on the "Unit 4 - Discussion Post" dropbox. It can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
To submit this discussion post, create a new post on your own WordPress blog and use the category 'ldrs663'.
Post 5
Due at the end of Unit 5
Topic
To submit this discussion post, create a new post on your own WordPress blog and use the category 'ldrs663'.
Showcase Post
Due at the end of the course
Topic
Choose one of the previous 5 posts that you would like to showcase as your best work. Take some time to polish and expand your post (aim for 600-700 words). Ways to expand your post might include:
finding more published research about the topic to integrate into your post;
writing about how your views have changed on the topic during the course;
writing a counter-argument refuting your previous post.
Please include citations (links) and a reference list at the end of your post.
To submit this discussion post, create a new post on your own WordPress blog and use the categories 'ldrs663' and 'showcase'.
Facilitated Curriculum Analysis (10%)
Working together in your learning pod, you will examine the curricular resources that are, or could be, used with a facilitated learning approach. Emphasis will be placed on higher education courses and or programs of study. However, a range of other formats are open for investigation, including (but not limited to) community-based programs, professional certification programs, corporate workshops and training programs, and masterclasses. You will be invited to select a specific course of study and asked to assess the curriculum from a facilitation and coaching perspective.
Peer Coaching Session (15%)
Working with another student (in your pod), you will each coach each other through the process of writing your final “showcase” post as part of your learning reflection blog assignment. You will record a video of your session and write critical reflection on your actions as the learning coach.
Small Group Facilitation (15%)
Working in a learning pod you will each choose, prepare, and facilitate one 15 to 20 minute long small group discussion that is based on one of the units/topics from LDRS 663. You will record a video of your session (likely in Zoom).
Following the facilitation, your group will engage in a 10-15 minute debrief about your facilitation. You may choose to structure the debrief following the What, So What, Now What? W³ from the Learning Activity in Unit 2, Topic 6.
Finally, you will write a 1-2 page critical reflection on your actions as the learning facilitator, including the debrief.
Your reflection should be submitted as 1-2-page document.
In your facilitation session, demonstrate and reflect on the following:
First, preparing for the session (as evidenced by your composed materials to support learning in your session).
Second, creating a supportive environment (referring to participants by name, clarifying expectations, responding in an affirming way to others, and acting in and communicating in a respectful and supportive manner).
Third, managing the learning process (beginning and ending the session on time, fostering participation by all learners in the group, keeping the learning group on track, facilitating interaction within the learning group, and summarizing learning, calmly and creatively adapting to unexpected events).
Fourth, fostering learning (showing interest and enthusiasm, spending more time asking than telling, posing open-ended questions, waiting for learners to respond, seeking clarification, activating learners' prior knowledge effectively, using appropriate forms of engagement to stimulate learner involvement).
Facilitation Resource Project (40%)
Working as a learning pod, you will create a guide to serve as a resource for you and others to facilitate a particular course of study. We can't emphasize enough how important it will be for you to have analyzed, critiqued, and integrated into your practice the model of coaching and facilitation in real-world settings. As you may be facilitating learning experiences in subjects where you may not have significant domain knowledge, it will be critical for you to be able to lead students through thinking and learning processes that will lead to them discovering what they need to know from the expertly prepared course materials in order to help solve their questions.
It will be assumed that you have read, understand, and agree to the information provided at the 'Academic Dishonesty Policy' button below. If you have any questions at all please contact your instructor.