Learning from a workplace perspective

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Learning from a workplace perspective

• Dr. Betty Collis
• Emeritus professor, University of Twente, NL
• JISC Joint Programme Meeting, Curriculum Design
  and Curriculum Delivery,
• Nottingham, 13 October 2010

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Why a Workplace perspective?
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• For UK HE institutions and their future scenarios

• For UK students and their professional futures

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This presentation

• Frame of reference
• Key trends in workplace learning
• Implications for university learning
• The JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery projects
• My conclusion

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Frame of Reference
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WORK-BASED LEARNING PROVISION ACCREDITATION
PERSPECTIVE
Central is the idea of creating effective ways
for students to learn while they work and to gain
credit for their experiences. The curricululum
meets the needs of both HEI and employer and is
jointly planned, delivered and assessed.(pp. 3-4)
Most commonly in higher education this relates to
PARTNERSHIPS between a university and an employer
with courses (or other sources of transferable
credit) and accreditation as the objects
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My Frame of reference An organic interpretation

• Learning strategies,
• A guiding philosophy for learning,
• Learning methods, and Tools

HOW do professionals learn in their workplaces?
Including occasional courses but much more
organic
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Work processes with learning as a by-product Learning Actions located within work or learning processes Learning Processes at or near the workplace
Participation in group processes Working alongside others Consultation Tackling challenging tasks and roles Problem solving Trying things out Consolidating, extending and refining skills Working with clients Asking questions Listening Observing Getting information Learning from mistakes Reflecting Locating resource people Giving and receiving feedback Being supervised Being coached Being mentored Shadowing Visiting other sites Independent study Conferences Short courses Working for a qualification
Source Early Career Learning at Work and its
Implications for Universities Michael Eraut,
University of Sussex, Teaching and Learning
Research Briefing, TLRP ESRC, 2007.
http//www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/Eraut20RB2025
20FINAL.pdf
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Where I am coming from

• Corporate Sector

• Academia

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Quick scan of my work at Shell
Shell Professor of Networked Learning
(2000-2005) Shell International Learning
Innovation Consultant (2005-2008)
Training courses (classroom)
Learning (formal and informal) integrated with
work, all using the same tools and strategy
Some university partnerships for MS degrees
Knowledge Manangement (KM) CoPs
Small number of official coaches
E-modules
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Learning in a professional/corporate context

• Key trends in Workplace Learning

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Key Trend A culture change for learning
Culture From I learn for myself , Through I
learn with my group, To I learn in order to
contribute to the learning/work of others
throughout the enterprise
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Key Trend Integrate Work Learning
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Key trend Use knowledge sharing tools
processes for all forms of learning
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Key Trend Coaching as knowledge sharing and
Scaffolding
Coaching -Everyone has a coaching responsibility
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Key Trend Blended learning
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Key Emerging Tool the Corporate Wiki

• Knowledge sharing
• Team support
• CoP workbench
• Content by disciplines

Used by all Commented on by all in a
discipline Added to by those in a discipline via
procedures Quality monitored by seniors in
discipline
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Characteristic 1 Knowing when/where/what/how to
learn
Need to know how to ask the right questions, in
an appropriate way, of appropriate sources
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Characteristic 1 Knowing when/where/what/how to
learn
Need to know how to ask the right questions, in
an appropriate way, of appropriate sources
Employer Frustration 1 Graduates Wait to be told
when/where/what/how to learn
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Charteristic 2 Learning for and during projects
with multi-disciplinary teams
Team members have different experiences in the
field and are from all over the world
-Complex and fuzzy problems -High pressure tasks
and deadlines -Need to find a quick shared
understanding with persons from other disciplines
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Charteristic 2 Learning for and during projects
with multi-disciplinary teams
Team members have different experiences in the
field and are from all over the world
-Complex and fuzzy problems -High pressure tasks
and deadlines -Need to find a quick shared
understanding with persons from other disciplines
Employer Frustration 2 Graduates have Little
experience in projects with multi-disciplinary
teams
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Characteristic 3 sharing responsibility for the
learning of others
Need a sense of shared responsibility for
knowledge sharing and building within ones team,
ones discipline group, the enterprise
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Characteristic 3 sharing responsibility for the
learning of others
Need a sense of shared responsibility for
knowledge sharing and building within ones team,
ones discipline group, the enterprise
Employer Frustration 3 Graduates have little
experience in sharing responsibility for the
learning of others
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Implications for Higher Education
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Design Cross-Disciplinary projects for
realclients use workplace tools and methods

• Tutor each other within and across disciplines
• At final debriefing answer questions for each
  others disciplines

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Stimulate a programme (or discipline) Wiki
Plan as a programme for its use
Used by all Start orientation with guidance in
Year 1 Start commenting on entries with
assignment in Year 2 Start adding to with
assignments in Year 3, final projects, Masters
theses, dissertations, Quality monitored by
seniors in discipline, Task for Masters students,
led by Seniors
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Design Cross-Year Activities
Year 2 activities -Give feedback to Year 1
student Suggest study aid or FAQ for Year 1
module Year 3 activities As with Year 2 but
more complex Create, try out, study aid for Year
1s
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Use e-Portfolios as learning tools for others
In disciplines with a professional portfolio as a
final product Each year Add links to selected
examples to the programme Wiki Year 1 Study
examples to see examples of artifacts aligned to
competences, make first baseline selection for
themselves Year 2 Example choices of artifacts
more analytically, refresh your own choice Peer
feedback for plan for last year Year 3 Midway
Peer feedback Final products include a public
view for other learners
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Design a developmental approach to learning
activities over a programme (and beyond)
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Make use of a common pedagogic philosophy
The Contributing Student
1. Make a contribution
1.2 Adapt or create, contribute
1.1 Find, contribute
2. Build on contributions
2.2 Compare and contrast, contribute results
2.3 Add to, update, extend contributions
2.4 Combine contributions to create a product
2.1 Locate something specific within
contributions
2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across or
outside of the course
2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course
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Now, what about the JISC Curriculum Design and
Delivery projects?
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Which projects relate to the How of
professional learning?
Key trends
A shared strategy for learning (aka
ASK-LEARN-SHARE) for both formal and informal
learning and shared tools (not specific to a
course or module)
Everyone a coach
Knowledge sharing over a discipline (programme)
Integrate work learning
Key frustrations
A developmental approach to ones own role
responsibility for knowledge sharing and coaching
Learning while/for working in multi-disciplinary
teams
Knowing how/where/when/who to ask
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JISC Curriculum Design Delivery projects

• Through the lens of Learning in the Workplace

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Curriculum Delivery projects
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E-portfolio Sharing, interacting with others
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Curriculum Design projects
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Leeds Metropolitan
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Tools and processes that can facilitate
cross-programme activity design
Birmingham City
Manchester Metropolitan
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My conclusion?
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Away from an anachronistic model of human
capital skills to meet workplace demandsand
toward a focus on the creative possibilities of
graduate/college culture (p. 6)
Secondly, universities are no longer so dominant
in the knowledge game - but neither are they so
alone. Instead Universities will constitute
crucial nodes in knowledge networks that pervade
the whole of twenty-first century society
(Castells 1996) . (p. 6)
Personal, individual, informal structured
formal learning will begin to merge..
Situative perspective Learning as social
practice. Learners develop their identities
through participation in specific CoPs. (JISC,
p.11)
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Learning from a workplace perspective
Key trends
A shared strategy for learning (aka
ASK-LEARN-SHARE) for both formal and informal
learning and shared tools (not specific to a
course or module)
Everyone a coach
Knowledge sharing over a discipline (programme)
Integrate work learning
Key frustrations
A developmental approach to ones own role
responsibility for knowledge sharing and coaching
Learning while/for working in multi-disciplinary
teams
Knowing how/where/when/who to ask
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To strengthen the student's transition to
productive functioning in a professional
workplace instructors in higher education
should anticipate the way the student will learn
and work in the workplace. From my view of the
employers perspective this involves moving to a
vision of learning that emphasizes knowledge
co-construction and sharing across a professional
community, using the tools of the professional
community, with the goal being the learning of
all.
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Thought for the Curriculum Design
projects Perhaps its time to reconsider the
orientation that Design for learning refers to
the complex processes by which practitioners
devise, structure and realise learning for
others ?