The use of Visual Control Cards (VCCs)

Here below i have shared with you an example of a VCC that I have prepared for my students in the Summer Course in Project Management. The course is conducted entirely virtually and all communication goes through our learning environment Moodle. It is actually question of a so called MOOC. I have around 50 students from different Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland.

After having familiarized myself with Lean and read the book Lean Teaching by Bob Emiliani (see Featured Post in the left column), I have decided to use VCCs in all my courses as a way of telling the students what I think that they shoukd at least remember from the course. This course, Basics of Project Management, is divided into five Parts with different topics. I will give a VCC for each part and the example below is from the first Introduction Part. I just love to do this visual presentations. It is also a way for me to reflect on the course content again and get new insights. The idea is that I publish these VCCs in the end of the two weeks period for each Part which means that the student has already studies the topic and will be able to use the VCC as a recollection. My goal as a teacher is that it will give the student some "Ahaa's" and perhaps a desire to go back to study the material and check for details again. All this to help the deep learning process to happen.

An example of a Visual Control Card from my course Basics of Project Management. You can enlarge it by clicking on the picture.

About Task Oriented Learning

I keep reminding my students in the on going Summer Course in Project Management that it is wise to study in small chunks in order to keep focused on the topics. I believe that this helps students to learn and to get a deeper understanding for the current subjects. Today I published a VCC (Visual Control Card) to help them to see and remember this. Se the picture below. The cumulative points can be checked by the student together with the teacher's comments in the Learning Environment (@VAMK we use Moodle).

A VCC for the students to explain how to earn points. You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

Task Oriented Learning | An Implementation in Moodle

I have in my teaching implemented something that I call Task Oriented Learning. I do not know whether this is a scientifically accepted term, but that is not the point either. I have actually developed these principles during my educational studies (I made these rather late in my teaching carrier) but has not implemented them until the last three years.

I believe that the student is entitled to know in the very beginning of the course in detail what is expected of him/her in terms of objectives and content, and the amount of work. This is also something that our Pedagogical Guide advises us to take into consideration.
I strive to give the student a clear course plan of the weekly work load and a breakdown into on campus and off campus activities. The studies are divided into small parts/portions/chunks with clear learning goals and study material, week tasks, assignments and other learning activities. The whole idea is to keep the student focused on the subject and give him/her the opportunity to earn points on weekly basis. "Eat the apple bit by bit" if you allow this metaphor.

I have implemented the ideas in our learning environment, we use Moodle here @VAMK. I want the students to know all the time how many points they have earned. I strive to comment the assignments as they are done and the points are to be checked by the student in "Grades" in Moodle.  

I produced a short video (1:10 min) from a Powerpoint presentation using Office Mix which gives you an idea of what I have done with my course in Project Management.

I am happy to share it here on my Blog. You can watch it in full screen by clicking the box down in the right corner. You can stop the presentation (video) whenever you want by clicking the play arrow and continue by clicking the same button

TaaS - Teaching as a Service

Though I have been a teacher for many years, I have only lately started to question my own teaching methods. I have always put the student in the center and tried to be as fair as possible with the assessments and the course grades. I get good feedback and therefore I concidered myself as a good teacher. I know that students learn in different ways but I have not seen it as my task to meet all different styles. I have rather seen the students as a group and expected every student to adapt to my way of teaching. I have been telling myself that I have not been allocated enough resources to differentiate my teaching methods.
Is that really the case? Could I perhaps rethink my doings and get students to take ownership of their own learning in greater extent than right now? That might give me more time to figure out and offer alternative ways to learn. I am still struggling with that question.
BUT...
since I started thinking about teaching and learning in Lean terms, I started to see my reality with different eyes. From now on I concider every student as my customer. As a customer you have needs/goals and that is to learn and to graduate with good or exellent grades. That is my assumption. If a student is willing to try his/her very best and want to learn and succeed, then I should, as a teacher, be able to offer that possibility to him/her, not as a group, but as an individual.

May the rethinking process continue :)

 Student pictures from VAMK's application guide

The Learning Process

In this posting I will reflect on the Learning Process inspired by the "Cone of Learning" (which is actually, and I am glad to say, a part of our Pedagogical Guide here @VAMK) and the possibilities presented in a picture of "Blended Learning" (found on Internet - sorry for not remembering the source). I have combined these and made a Mind Map (actually a Visual Control Card created long before I came on contact with that concept) for my own use. But since I started this Blog I might as well share it here. While reading about Lean Teaching (in the book by the same name by Bob Emiliani, see earlier posting) I found out that I actually think in terms of Lean and that might be why I am so exited about this.

So, the first picture shows the whole picture, but since it is so small i divided it into pieces.

The second picture shows how the student is learning things and that got me thinking, what is my role in the process? In the third picture I have pictured the sources of learning experiences that the student might use or "live through" in order to learn.

OK, so what is my role? In the fourth picture I thought about what I should do to make learning possible. Note: lecturing is actually just a small part of this.
In this reasoning, I take it for granted that students take responsibility for their own learning. I'm still working on changing my way of thinking in order to make it possible for the student to do this and reach his/her goals. Lean Thinking is about helping the customer to achieve his/her goals. Lean Thinking is now helping me to find new ways to implement learning experiences as a teacher. In Lean Thinking, sorry Teaching, the student is the customer.

Based on the "Cone of Learning" the students will remember the most (deep learning) by participating and talking and doing. So it is up to me (us) to make this possible - do you agree?    

So this is the way I am thinking right now. More reflections in my up coming postings. Thanks for reading this one.

Picture 1. The whole Mind Map
,

Picture 2. From the student´s point of view

Picture 3. Learning sources or experiences

Picture 4. From my point of vew - What is my role?

About Waiting and Re-Work

Another picture that got me thinking. The picture is taken from the book "Lean Teaching" by Bob Emiliani. Take a look at the pictures and think for a moment about your own work as a teacher. Here are two of the wastes (read: something that you want to get rid of) in Lean Thinking shown in the middle as "Waiting and Re-Work". These are things that you want to avoid both as a teacher and a student. Administration is then again necessary to some extent, but if you manage to minimize it, you will have more time for the students.  Here some of my thoughts on this.

The goal for me, and by the way for all of us, should in other words be to minimize both "Administration" and "Waiting and Re-Work" and give more room for "Value-Adding and Improving". How do I do that? First thing first. I need to clarify for myself what is "value adding" in my own work. What do I want to achieve? Who are my customers?
The answer right now are: I want (1) my students to succeed and (2) keep myself up-to-date both in terms of subject knowledge and skills and teaching methods. As I see it, these goals feed each other. OK, so I need to focus on those, keep in mind to respect people's time, be sensitive to what is happening around me and keep improving what I am doing.

I might have to analyze and rethink what I am doing and why? I will for sure return to these goals in future postings and especially to the question of who are my customers.

About Feedback from the Student

Here @VAMK University of Applied Sciences we have discussed a large number of times the student's feedback. More exactly why do we get so few students to provide feedback through our official feedback system. *) I think that one crucial reason is that many students believe that it is of no importance. It is easy to assume that the teacher doesn't care. But that is not so.
In order to prove for the students that I do care and I want them to give feedback, I have promised myself and  my students of course that I will provide them with a list of the earlier feedbacks that I have received and also what actions have been taken on the basis of their feedback. Se example below.  This, I hope, will help the students to see the significans of their feedback. They can all help us/me to be a better teacher/to help us to make more efficient learning experiences.
I don't have to say where I got this from, do I.
Ok, if you have not read my earlier postings check out http://www.leanprofessor.com/ 

*) Footnote: Yes, I know that there are many ways to ask for feedback and many teachers ask for it. The point here is to get students to give formal feedback and to get it documented in the Quality System as well.