Category Archives: MAOT

What could our educational future look like? A visual dialogue between Carmel Kent and Dall-e.

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Carmel Kent had a dream. A dream about the future of education. She then encountered Dall-e, an AI tool that generates digital images from natural language descriptions. This is the result of Carmel’s ‘conversation’ with Dall-e. We would welcome any further contributions to the blog on this theme, long or short, illustrated or not – what do you think our educational future could look like? 

Like any one of us, I dream a lot (on all levels of consciousness) about how learning would or could look in my community, country, university or globally. I am often very anxious about it. However, I sometimes get so hopeful that I can barely keep myself from jumping excitedly or just mumbling all over the place. I guess as long as I keep on imagining – I keep on learning and vice versa.

For this exercise, I needed a partner to bounce some balls with; it would be even better if this partner could do something I am not very able at – such as create some visuals. So, I found Dall-e. As it turns out, she was even available exactly when I wanted to chat. She was quite patient with my indecisive thoughts and my constant and iterative search for appropriate words. So, we had this back-and-forth: me telling her what I see, she responding with how she sees what I just shared with her, me thinking of new themes coming from her responses, and so it went.

Here is a synopsis of our dialogue:

At first, I was consumed with worry about the climate crisis. I kept imagining us, humans trying to figure us what went wrong at the very last minute:

A Dall-e image showing a group of people kneeling and praying in front of a forest aflame.

Even when I took us humans inside, trying to learn about our world from an imaginative, safe technology-oriented shelter, it still looked quite depressing:

A Dall-e image of three people sitting indoors looking at a laptop screen, while a dark and bleak landscape is viewed through the large window.

I then turned to more optimistic scenarios:

What if we do become kinder to our surroundings?

What if we also become kinder to children and young people?

What if we stop imposing certain types of knowledge and ways of knowing on them, and let them explore their own ways of learning while experimenting with what works for them and keeping them curious about themselves?

A Dall-e image showing a brightly coloured child-like drawing of a house with interconnected outside rooms and people interacting with one another in various spaces, all surrounded by vegetation.

Nice, don’t you think?

I then asked Dall-e what if it’s not just children? How would it look if people, no matter how old, could get out of schools and institutions and get together in learning communities, bringing their life, families and experiences into whatever new paths they want to explore? Yes, at this point, I became a bit ‘light-headed’, I guess. But she was still there with me:

A Dall-e image showing a group of people sitting cross-legged on grass in front of a row of houses, all reading from books, papers or laptops.

I was in the flow … maybe … just maybe … ‘learning’ or ‘education’ will not be associated necessarily with fixed qualifications, with marginalising people who cannot follow those fixed paths, or with following the artificial processes that give us the illusion of progress (e.g., you’re graduate year 2, you will now start year 3)?

Could learning become an activity associated with sensory life around the clock? with different people, different cultures and geographies? As Papert said when asked what he would change about education now that we have technology available to us:

“Do away with curriculum. Do away with segregation by age. And do away with the idea that there should be uniformity of all schools and of what people learn”.

A Dall-e image showing a group of people gardening in a communal garden in front of a row of houses.

I must say, Dall-e and I started connecting at this point. I felt we are getting somewhere. I loved how she kept the characters in her drawing a bit blurry, leaving me some space to guess what they were up to… were they building something? Growing new vegetables? Immersed in a discussion? Taking an online course? Reading a book? Daydreaming like she and I were?

A Dall-e image showing a group of people relaxing, reading, and playing games while others in the background tend a large garden.

I loved how the objects in her drawings didn’t always look like something I could quickly identify from my life. Perhaps those people are innovating? Maybe they are creating a world so different from what I imagined when Dall-e and I started chatting.

I guess that’s the beauty of collaborative learning: you can only know how it starts…

 

Uganda: Barriers to Open Practice in Teacher Professional Development – paper by two former MAODE students

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Two of the graduates of our Masters in Online and Distance Education have published a paper entitled “An Assessment of Factors Hindering Educators in Primary and Secondary Education from Utilizing Open Education Resources, Open-Source Tools, And MOOCS in Professional Development and Practice in Kampala District, Uganda”.

These students, both participants in the Commonwealth Scholarship programme, have researched why Teacher Professional Development in their region of Kampala under-utilises the available Open Educational Resources, Open Source tools and MOOCs that could potentially transform knowledge of technology-enhanced education.

Their findings make for a very interesting read. The paper is published under a Creative Commons licence and can be accessed here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370299673_An_Assessment_of_Factors_Hindering_Educators_in_Primary_and_Secondary_Education_from_Utilizing_Open_Education_Resources_Open-Source_Tools_And_MOOCS_in_Professional_Development_and_Practice_in_Kampala_ 

Photo of Moses Mwebaze

Moses Mwebaze Mukisa, Head of Online and Distance eLearning at Avance International University, Uganda

Photo of Charles William Zulu

Charles William Zulu, Learning and Innovation Adviser, VVOB Education for Development, Zambia

From Disability to Head of Accessibility via MAODE

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Nicki Berry, Head of Accessibility for a major UK Government department and 2017 MAODE graduate, explains how her MAODE not only gave her the opportunity to study in a way that worked with her accessibility needs, but also brought her a whole new career!

Photo of Nicki Berry

Nicki writes:

I was a teacher. It was all I’d ever wanted to do, and I loved it. That was until I had a spinal cord injury whilst living in Finland in 2012. That changed everything.

We returned to the UK, and I tried to continue teaching but it was just too difficult as a newly disabled person, and I realised that I had to find an alternative career. As my other passion was IT, I explored the possibility of moving into eLearning, and began studying for the MAODE in 2014.

Having struggled to get through university as a young person, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed studying again. The style of learning with the Open University suited my learning style well and as well as learning the course content, I learned how to study effectively and how to write academic papers. I had expected the course to be a means to an end, but it opened up a whole new world to me, which also helped me to come to terms with my disability. I was assessed as a disabled student to find out whether assistive software could help me in my studies, and was given Dragon Naturally Speaking, a voice recognition software to help with dictating assignments.

I graduated in 2017, by which time I was working as an Area Manager for our local authority’s Adult Learning Service. As a result of my new MAODE qualification, the senior managers there created a new position for me, as Area Manager – Digital. I took on responsibility for improving the entire IT hardware across the estate, and then began to explore the possibility of providing some of our courses online. This was pre-Covid though, and although there was initial interest, the organisation wasn’t ready for it. So, slightly disheartened, I began to look for a job in eLearning.

In January 2019, I began work as a Junior eLearning Designer for SSCL, a company that provide services for government departments. I started learning to use Articulate 360, one of the eLearning rapid authoring tools, along with Adobe Creative Cloud. I loved my new role and enjoyed immediate success, being promoted within five weeks to Senior eLearning Designer. I managed our contract with the Ministry of Justice, providing bespoke eLearning products for HM Prison and Probation Service, which is possibly one of the most interesting and eye-opening jobs I have ever done. I absolutely loved it! I thought I’d found my new career.

One of the first things SSCL asked me to do, when I started there, was to look into the accessibility of eLearning courses. It was fortunate that I’d had an introduction to accessibility as part of the MAODE course. By now, I had also become proficient in using my Dragon software, using it to operate my computer and navigate the Internet, as well as for producing text. So I began to learn about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how to apply them to eLearning courses. I learned how to use a screen reader to test our products and over a couple of years, developed expertise not just with eLearning accessibility but also document and web accessibility.

I began to realise the importance of accessibility in product design of all kinds, not just eLearning, and took on the role of Chair of our Disability Network. I pushed for a new, full-time role to be introduced, but again, they weren’t ready for this and I started to look into accessibility roles in other companies, to demonstrate its importance.

That was when I saw the advert for a Senior Accessibility Specialist with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It was just what I was looking for to show SSCL what I felt they should be doing… but then I realised that the job advertised was exactly what I wanted to be doing.

So in January 2022, I moved into accessibility as a career. I had a great boss, who taught me even more about legislation, accessibility compliance, assistive software and coding. I felt like I’d finally found my niche. When my boss got another job at the end of 2022, I was initially really worried, but he encouraged me to apply for the temporary backfill of his role. I did and that’s what I’m doing now. I’m Head of Accessibility for DWP. It is possibly the most rewarding job I could have imagined after more than 20 years in teaching. However, it is also extremely challenging and I often find myself drawing on skills that I learned and developed with the OU, whilst studying for the MAODE.

Let’s talk finances for a moment. When I began my studies, I’d just left the only secure career I’d ever known. I was doing little bits of tuition here and there but I had no guaranteed income. Setting out on the course was a huge financial commitment! It was a risk. I might not have passed. It might not have led to anything. It might have been £10,000 for nothing. When I started work in Adult Learning, my salary compared to a teaching salary was low. The initial move to SSCL was another backwards step financially, though the quick promotion helped. However, moving to DWP took me back to where I would have probably been if I’d stayed in education and continued to pursue a leadership path… and now, I’ve probably gone beyond that.

Money isn’t everything, but investing thousands of pounds in study is definitely a risk. I approached it with the view that I had very little to lose. My career was over. It was a sink or swim situation.

I look back and with so much gratitude, realise that the MAODE got me swimming again. It wasn’t just the course content, great as that was. Studying gave me confidence, made me believe in myself again. I thought my life was over, I had nothing to give anymore. The OU gave me new skills that have been instrumental in rebuilding my life.

I wake up every morning, happy to start work. I feel like I have a purpose. If I could turn back time and not injure my back, of course I would be very grateful, but with help, I have turned it into something positive. I can use it to help others and to advocate for the many disabled people who aren’t as lucky as I am.

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials. One of these new MAOT micro-credentials ‘Online Teaching: Accessibility and Inclusive Learning‘ focuses on the kind of issues Nicki has become expert in during her recent career, including Assistive Technologies, accessibility legislation, making learning materials accessible, and evaluating the accessibility of teaching materials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

 

The Future of Education Will Likely Determine the Future of the Planet

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Matyas Baan, safeguarding advisor at Save the Children and 2020 MAODE graduate explains how the critical reflection skills he gained from his Masters study have influenced him in connecting education with the future of our planet.

Photo of Matyas Baan

Matyas writes:

My name is Matyas Baan, I work as a safeguarding advisor at Save the Children, and I run my own company offering social and environmental safeguarding consulting services. I completed the Master of Arts in Online and Distance Education, the predecessor of the MAOT, in 2020. Besides all the subject-specific knowledge I gained, I credit this programme with introducing me to critical reflection and research.

I believe we must rise to the challenge of taking responsibility for shaping our educational future. When I think about technology, I try think of what good it can do for humanity and the Planet, rather than get caught up in a feeling of awe. There is a huge cost to technology, its production has had a devastating environmental impact, so we had better use it wisely. It has recently been estimated that by 2027 the Earth will likely have warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius. At the same time, we keep flooding our environment with unprecedented levels of chemical pollution. At the same time, we are in the middle of man-made mass extinction event and the loss of biodiversity and natural habitats increases our chances of more, potentially deadlier pandemics. At the same, time our mental health is on the decline. Etc.

What can educational technology and educators do? Firstly, technology enhanced learning can reach people all over the World and content can be created by anyone, from anywhere. Consequently, it is an incredible tool with many possibilities that can help us shape our future. I would like to mention an often overlooked such possibility: decolonising education. Although some of us may believe that we Westerners are the best caretakers of the Earth, the current state of affairs suggests otherwise. There are indigenous civilisations out there that may have more expertise – expertise not only expressed in technological advances – than we do. One such group is the Kogui tribe in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia. Their environmental expertise has been recognised by the United Nations and they claim to be willing to share it. It is up to us educators savvy in Educational Technology to help the voice of these experts be heard.

Image of a Kogui tribe member standing in a forest.

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials. One of the micro-credentials we will offer from autumn 2023 will be Teacher Development: Addressing the Climate Emergency which focuses squarely on the urgent need for climate emergency-related education and awareness of climate justice and ways to teach climate science and ways of embedding relevant topics in the curricula of other subjects. Keep an eye on the link below for details as they emerge over the coming months.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

Inspiring new research in social media use in education.

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Dr Phillippa Seaward is an Associate Lecturer and Practice Tutor at the Open University, and an Assistant Professor /Senior Lecturer at a large post-92 campus university. She graduated with online teaching modules in an MA and M.Ed in 2015 and this learning inspired her research for the OU Doctorate in Education (EdD), completed in 2020. Here she talks about the impact her studies had on inspiring new research in the use of technology in education.

Photo of Phillippa Seaward

 

Phillippa writes:

It’s trite to say higher education is fast moving, but it really has been in the last decade. I came from senior management in the car manufacturing industry, and while I had business knowledge to share with my students, I had a lot to learn about education. The Masters in Online and Distance Education inspired my interest in a new role for the internet and the ways online learning could motivate and support learners. I realised there were many aspects of online learning that educationalists needed to understand more, to improve our effectiveness and reach.

The online teaching modules encouraged students to pursue areas of our own interest, and practice that were relevant to our roles and own development. I did an initial, small study looking at how distance learners used social media study groups to support their learning, and I quickly found a gap in a new area of unexplored knowledge. This made it relatively easy to define my area of research for a proposal for the Doctorate in Education (EdD) and I could directly show how this would be relevant for my role as a tutor of undergraduates. I was happy to be accepted on the programme, and was pleased to be studying in a varied cohort of energetic people. Some of these are now lifelong friends.

My research investigated reasons why learners choose to use study groups in social media; the types of learning taking place there; the nature of support there; and types of disruption experienced and its effect on student learning. Much of the doctorate is then about finding answers to your research questions in a scholarly rigorous way and communicating your work to others. My principal findings suggest learner experiences in Facebook module study groups converge around five themes of activity: community and relationships; academic subject learning; learning with others online; managing own learning; and difficulties and conflict. This analysis represented an original and new typology of student activity that extended existing published empirical work, and used the novel research context of student-led Facebook module study groups for distance learners.

Social media study groups provide important relational and community supports to learners, and valued information. While Facebook has the potential to disrupt student learning, diverse views were usually embraced constructively as an opportunity for skill development and critical thinking. As a result, this research helped in my role to improve student experience and qualification completions. I gained and shared new insights in the crucial importance of academic and social integration for online undergraduate learners, and I extended the field of contemporary knowledge about this. You can read more about this work and the findings in the OU research repository online at https://oro.open.ac.uk/70905/ .

 

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in Online Teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

 

Headlines, Heel-digging Politics and an Inspiring Community of Practice

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Cllr Dr Wendy Maples (BA, MA, PhD, SFHEA) is a Green Party Councillor and Education Consultant who graduated with an MA in Online and Distance Education in 2016. Here she talks about the impact her studies have had on her approach to new technology in education and public services.

Photo of Wendy Maples

Wendy writes:

Changes in education generate a lot of headlines. Hyperbolic stories suggest we are under imminent threat from new technologies. When I first started teaching, Wikipedia was going to destroy higher education; today it’s LLM-generated essays; in between it was online teaching and learning.

I had been a university lecturer and academic author for over 20 years when I took my first MAODE course (the predecessor to the MA in Online Teaching https://www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate/qualifications/f98). I’d read Vygotsky and Paolo Friere and managed a team of (wonderful) tutors – but I wanted to update my professional practice.

The MAODE made me a more deeply reflective practitioner and gave me the skills and confidence to evaluate the promises of new teaching and learning tools and environments, as well as the variable existing conditions that affect education practice and practitioners. I’ve recently created professional development materials for ‘hybrid’ learning centres where there may be computers but, from one day to another, no electricity to run them, and I’m currently preparing the 6th edition of Good Essay Writing (Redman and Maples, Sage) and considering how ChatGPT can be used to help students improve their essay writing.

I bring my MAODE learning into my education consultancy work of course, but also into my work as a local politician. During the pandemic, I was able to facilitate our town’s very first online and hybrid Council meetings despite some colleagues’ anxieties and heel-digging resistance. More recently, I’ve ensured councillors have had considered discussions about introducing ‘digital’ into the adult social care sector and the importance of carers’ as well as clients’ support needs.

I dip into the Alumni circle from time to time and am always re-invigorated by the variety of inspiring practices of my former fellow learners. I also look forward to the online conference where new MAODE students and invited guests talk about their wide-ranging projects and research.

It is truly exciting to see this community of practice in action and to continue to be a part of it.

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

Knowledge and skills that keep on giving.

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Sam Marks, safeguarding education professional and 2015 MAODE graduate explains how she still uses what she learned in everyday practice.

Photo of Sam Marks

Sam writes:

When I started my studies with the OU in 2011, I hated the e-learning my organisation provided and was determined to do better. I never imagined signing up to the Masters Online and Distance Education that I would still be actively using the skills I developed ten years later, supporting education professionals to deliver safeguarding lessons and training in their organisations.

My career path has always been very practical. I worked as a pub manager and area training co-ordinator, learning and teaching by doing for many years. When I then changed career to the charity youth sector, I applied these skills but needed the theory to help underpin and rationale my approach to training. MAODE gave me this. A core part of learning about what works in technology enabled education, was learning theory, and applying that theory to the context. This is something I still do now, for both online and offline education, and teach others too, so they have a good grounding in why we teach and train adults in the way we do.

It wasn’t just the theory which equipped me over the last ten years though. Through this Masters I got to be, and continue to be a real life networked practitioner, using forums, blogs and creative online tools to bring learning to life, support colleagues across the globe and keep myself up to date. The focus on accessibility and inclusion, has also help me train my colleagues to use in built accessibility features,  and ensure our products provide equity of access.

Having MAODE on my CV has prompted discussions and opened doors for my work, and of course, when the pandemic came in 2020, I was already working online and able to help others to do the same. It really was the best decision I made, and the masters that keeps on giving.

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

 

A successful novelist and a career in digital technology

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Digital technologist and award-nominated author Dr Michael Flavin writes about his MAODE experience and the developments it has led to in both of his parallel careers.

Photo of Michael Flavin

Dr Michael Flavin writes:

I studied the MA Online and Distance Education, 2007-10. On enrolment, I was an Associate Lecturer at the OU, having done a degree, MA and PhD in English. I was also teaching at a school. Studying for the MAODE undoubtedly made it clear that I was committed to and engaged with the digital environment, and led to me getting a full-time university post in my first year on the MA, at King’s College London, where I still teach.

The MAODE re-ignited my love of learning and, on completion, I went straight on to do a second PhD, this time in technology enhanced learning, leading to two books, Disruptive Technology Enhanced Learning (2017) and Re-imagining Technology Enhanced Learning (2020), both published by Palgrave Macmillan, together with a range of other academic articles (see Google Scholar).

Getting back into the study groove on the MAODE also led to me doing a third MA post-second-PhD, this time the OU’s MA in Creative Writing, by the end of which I had a full first draft of a novel. I kept working at it and my début, One Small Step, was published by Vulpine Press in September 2022. The novel is set in the community I grew up in, the Irish diaspora in Birmingham at the time of the IRA’s mainland bombing campaign. I’ve written about One Small Step for the Irish Post and writing.ie, and have been interviewed about it on the Irish Left Archive podcast.

Cover of the bookOne Small Step by Michael Flavin

You can read One Small Step in the gaps between assignments on the Masters in Online Teaching. For me, postgraduate study at the OU was a springboard, one from which I’m still rising.

Editor’s note: Michael’s short story ‘Berthing,’ has been shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship prize: https://alpinefellowship.com/writing-prize

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

Global community led by award-winning MAODE student

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Since 2018 The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology (IET) has hosted Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships for citizens of low- and middle-income Commonwealth countries to study IET’s Masters programme, fully funded. Pakistan-based Munir Moosa Sewani was in the first cohort of Commonwealth Scholars, commencing his study of IET’s Masters in Online and Distance Education (MAODE) in 2018. Since then Munir has led numerous initiatives in his home country, and beyond, intended to support social justice and educational equity, drawing on the knowledge and skills he gained from studying the MAODE.

In March 2023 Munir was awarded The British Council’s UK Alumni Award for Pakistan in the Social Action Category as recognition for his socioecoethical model of human rights education in addition to Munir’s leadership of the Global Forum for Teacher Educators (GFTE), which he created and runs voluntarily.

Photo of Munir Moosa

The GFTE now has over 22,000 members from over 65 countries around the globe. As Director of the GFTE Munir brings the community together online for regular knowledge-sharing activities, utilising crowdsourcing and his socioecoethical vision to build capacity and advance techniques that utilise technology in the most effective ways in education settings around the world. The forum also works to enhance access to education for elderly citizens and to increase drug literacy around the globe.

Recently, the GFTE 2023 International Symposium brought together a range of keynote speakers and educator stories to create an event that attracted over 3500 attendees. IET’s own Associate Director (Curriculum) and Qualifications Director Dr Leigh-Anne Perryman, and Associate Lecturer Dr Simon Ball, were both honoured to be invited as keynote speakers, alongside the distinguished guest speaker Jennifer Hancock, founder of Humanist Learning Systems. In addition Rosa Zubizaretta and Dr Patricia Omidian spoke together on “From Conflict to Creative Collaboration: Tips for Teachers”. A range of vignettes from educators around the globe were presented to highlight the passion and commitment of teachers to making their profession better at every turn. The event was extremely well received with many hundreds of positive comments from audience members.

Everyone at IET would like to congratulate Munir on his British Council award, and we wish the Global Forum for Teacher Educators every success as it grows and strengthens.

MAODE: sailing into changed practice and further study!

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Language educator Wayne Rimmer, who graduated from The Open University’s (OU) Masters in Online and Distance Education in 2022, tells us about how it impacted both his teaching and his desire for further study with the OU.

Photo of Wayne Rimmer

Wayne Rimmer writes:

I embarked on the MAODE because I felt my teaching was getting stale and I’d always been curious about the Open University experience. In the distant past, I had done a TESOL teaching diploma by correspondence course (how dated does that sound!) so I felt I could cope with asynchronous learning. Plain sailing? Well, two things happened to blow my boat off course. First, the pandemic struck. Second, almost concurrently, I started my new job teaching English for Academic Purposes at the University of Manchester. New course types, all the teaching switched online, I had colleagues and students I’d never physically met, an assignment was on the horizon… Time to bail out?

I can honestly say that the MAODE kept me afloat. The course contained a lot of content which I could adapt to my teaching context. For example, I became much more aware of the affordances of technology and I began to see advantages of online teaching such as interactive documents for collaborative student writing. I also became very interested in Open Educational Resources and their potential for sharing and the co-creation of knowledge. The discussion boards were also a terrific stimulus as students were approaching the course from all sorts of perspectives and I found it refreshing to switch off from my English-teacher persona.

I completed the MAODE in 2022 and immediately signed up for an MA in Classics (OU A863). Things are going swimmingly with Classics, thanks to the springboard of the MAODE. I can’t say land is in sight, there is a dissertation to write next year, but the water is lovely!

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.