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Simon McIntyre
Simon is the Associate Dean Education at UNSW Sydney | Art & Design, and a member of the Scientia Education Fellowship. He is a multi-award winning educator, passionate about improving the effectiveness, quality and relevance of the student learning experience, and about pedagogically driven use of technology to innovate learning and teaching practices. He is committed to continuing to improve and innovate the learning experience of students in art and design disciplines.
Simon has led the design and management of several innovative professional development and educational programs; working with teams of dedicated academics and collaborators. He leads internationally successful open education initiatives such as widely used open education resources, the multi-award winning Learning to Teach Online Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) https://www.coursera.org/learn/teach-online, and the Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds, emerging technologies, and global audiences MOOC. https://www.coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling
Simon’s commitment to helping students and educators globally develop essential digital literacies is at the heart of his teaching philosophy. He considers these capabilities enable them to actively engage in global, cross-disciplinary collaborative online networks where learning is enhanced by sharing knowledge, experience and curiosity with a diverse cohort of peers. Through such initiatives Simon continues to innovate his own teaching, and to develop his leadership in the field of online education. He is committed to inspiring students, and his work has helped thousands of educators improve their teaching practices in a range of disciplines – locally, nationally and internationally.
Phone: +61 2 8936 0631
Simon has led the design and management of several innovative professional development and educational programs; working with teams of dedicated academics and collaborators. He leads internationally successful open education initiatives such as widely used open education resources, the multi-award winning Learning to Teach Online Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) https://www.coursera.org/learn/teach-online, and the Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds, emerging technologies, and global audiences MOOC. https://www.coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling
Simon’s commitment to helping students and educators globally develop essential digital literacies is at the heart of his teaching philosophy. He considers these capabilities enable them to actively engage in global, cross-disciplinary collaborative online networks where learning is enhanced by sharing knowledge, experience and curiosity with a diverse cohort of peers. Through such initiatives Simon continues to innovate his own teaching, and to develop his leadership in the field of online education. He is committed to inspiring students, and his work has helped thousands of educators improve their teaching practices in a range of disciplines – locally, nationally and internationally.
Phone: +61 2 8936 0631
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Following its release in 2009, the ‘Learning to Teach Online’ (LTTO) project spread rapidly around the world via conduits such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, institutional links and word of mouth — throughout K-12, vocational, higher education and private consultancies across 146 countries and territories. This thesis investigates how the design of LTTO facilitated its discovery, dissemination and integration in a range of educational contexts. There was a large volume of data collected from Web 2.0 activity surrounding LTTO. Using data visualisation techniques, patterns and hidden relationships between individuals sharing and using the resources were revealed, that provided insight into previously invisible relationships between individuals within vastly different established professional networks all over the world. The concept of the rhizome is at the core of this thesis, inspired by the observation of the growing patterns of connection between seemingly disparate educational communities globally, in a manner that was neither precisely controlled nor predictable.
Key outcomes include a detailed analysis of the design of an online professional development resource that was effective across a range of disciplines and education sectors; the determination of an effective method of researching the spread and use of similar initiatives; and observations and strategies that can help others to improve the design process for future online professional development resources.
As online communication technologies rapidly evolve, the creative industries continue to move towards globally networked and interdisciplinary modalities of practice. These inescapable shifts in the ways designers work have challenged many long held assumptions about the nature of individual design processes.
Such revolutionary changes mean that designers must increasingly master new skills to effectively communicate and collaborate in online environments with colleagues from different cultures, disciplines and locations world-wide. Since they may never meet face-to-face, the success of this new working methodology relies on high levels of trust between practitioners, both personally and professionally in order to achieve effective design outcomes.
In turn the need for design educators to equip students with skills to thrive in the face of this new industrial paradigm is highlighted. Trust is integral to developing the personal and professional relationship building and collaborative skills necessary for contemporary digital working practices. By being sensitive to, and cognisant of these issues, educators can initiate and implement strategies that help create the right conditions for trust to emerge between participants in online learning scenarios.
In reality however, the relative suddenness of this shift has seen some educationalists engage in unconsidered responses to this challenge. In the rush to embrace online technologies, the social and cultural dimensions of online pedagogies are often neglected while the relative functionality of digital tools and spaces is given prominence.
Drawing upon three specific case studies of very different applications of online learning in a design context, this paper aims to highlight the impact that fostering positive, interpersonal, interdisciplinary and transcultural relationships between students in online design education can have upon their levels of trust and the effectiveness and outcomes of their online collaborative processes. The projects examined were conducted by COFA Online and The Omnium Research Group at The College of Fine Arts (COFA), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Each case study examines particular dynamics associated with global, local and cross-cultural contexts. They include:
• Global - Fully online Masters of Cross Disciplinary Art and Design
• Local - Blended Learning at The College of Fine Arts
• Cross-Cultural (Australia and China) - The Collabor8 Project, East-West online design collaboration
By triangulating data that examines student/teacher experiences through online surveys, interviews, responses to targeted online discussions and peer reviews, this paper outlines online pedagogical approaches that have successfully engaged students in active, collaborative and trust building online learning environments. It also pinpoints problems that can occur in online teamwork related to trust, communication and interpersonal relationships, and investigates several potential solutions.
If strong human-to-human relationships are seen as the foundation for effective collaborative design practice online, educators will be helping emerging generations of designers maximise their creative potential in a globally competitive market where online collaborative, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary creative skill-sets are demanded as the ‘norm’.
Keywords: online, collaboration, pedagogy, cross-cultural, blended learning
• (2004-2008) The Art & Design Fellowship Programs helped to improve the online teaching practice of 75 UNSW academics, leading to the creation of 50 fully online UNSW undergraduate and postgraduate units.
• (2009-2011) The Learning to Teach Online project (LTTO) [tinyurl.com/lttoproject] evolved the concept of the local programs into a series of open educational resources (OERs) that continue to be accessed since the completion of the project. To date, these have been viewed over 367,000 times from 146 countries; linked to by 153 institutional websites in 19 countries; and embedded in 133 postgraduate or professional development programs in 23 countries.
• (2014-2015) The LTTO MOOC [coursera.org/course/ltto] was the next evolutionary stage designed to help educators develop their own teaching strategies by applying the knowledge gained from the LTTO OER. In 2014, the MOOC attracted over 28,000 enrolments from teachers in 192 countries. Its 2nd offering will be in July 2015, and has been incorporated into the US Government’s ConnectEd Initiative [bit.ly/1Aj98Dw].
This evolutionary approach exemplifies the strategies used to extend a successful face-to-face professional development program (with limited capacity, flexibility and academic access), into online, flexible and openly accessible resource and curriculum. The case history will demonstrate how to adapt to, and maximise the potential of, the rapidly changing dynamics of online education and technology, to continue to improve the teaching practice of an ever-increasing number of teachers around the world.
Similarly, many teachers first embarking on a new online initiative can find it an isolating and frustrating experience, with limited peer support (Bennett, Priest and Macpherson 1999) and practical pedagogical guidance while ‘learning the ropes’ or preparing course curriculum.
So what approach can be taken to firstly connect with these teachers at the ‘coalface,’ and then support them through their initial investigations and subsequent development of online teaching practice?
In 2009, COFA Online at The University of New South Wales won funding from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Competitive Grant Scheme for a project called Learning to Teach Online (LTTO): Developing high-quality video and text resources to help educators teach online http://bit.ly/d18ac5. The project’s aim was to produce a set of resources to enable more educators, particularly those with no online experience, to successfully adopt and develop online teaching practices, and to reach a diverse audience of teachers across different disciplines and institutions throughout the world.
This paper discusses the strategies adopted by the LTTO Project to ensure the resources focused on pedagogy and were perceived as pragmatic, easy to use and readily adaptable. It also outlines how the adoption of social media as a dissemination method facilitated easy access to the resources by a wide audience of teachers both with and without online teaching experience, and promoted greater awareness and uptake across disciplines and institutions around the world. It demonstrates, through summative and formative evaluations, how this approach effectively encouraged teachers to get started with their online teaching and stimulated their interest in further research on the topic.
The Learning to Teach Online project http://bit.ly/d18ac5 is a free Open Educational Resource (OER), designed to offer educators proven advice from a wide range of colleagues in different institutions and disciplines, about the pedagogies, challenges and rewards of online teaching. Following its release in 2010 by COFA Online at The University of New South Wales, the spread of the resources around the world via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, institutional links and word of mouth far exceeded initial expectations. While the use of social media to promote the project was always considered from the outset, the extent of the spread within K-12, vocational, higher education and private consultancies, and the subsequent penetration of the resources into existing educational programs was not expected. In this respect, the dissemination of the Learning to Teach Online project mirrored the behaviour of a rhizome, being widely spread to seemingly disparate educational communities globally, in a manner that was neither precisely controlled nor predictable.
This paper is a snapshot of ongoing research within the author’s doctoral thesis, into the behaviour and significance of the ever-growing digital rhizome surrounding Learning to Teach Online. It begins to unravel how the design of the resource enabled social media to be used for rapid dissemination on a global scale. The paper also explores how, as a result of some members of existing academic communities connecting with the project’s digital rhizome, the resources were able to benefit other teachers not familiar with online teaching or web 2.0 technologies. In these cases, the penetration of the rhizome into many different types of existing academic communities has enabled the transmission and acceptance of new ideas that have begun to positively effect perception and adoption of online teaching practices amongst their members.
The final evaluative report examines:
The project output, outcomes and impact
- Project methodology
- Critical factors for project success
- The dissemination strategy employed
- Evaluation of the success of the project
Since its release, the Learning to Teach Online project has developed a reputation for providing quality, pedagogically sound and broadly applicable professional development resources relevant not only to the Australian higher education sector, but to other sectors around the world.
ISBN number 978-1-921856-70-9
Also watch the accompanying video for this episode http://bit.ly/koVNA2 from the Learning to Teach Online project website.
This case study examines how ePortfolios, used in conjunction with blogs, can encourage students to become more critically reflective learners. The benefits and challenges of using ePortfolios are discussed, along with strategies for providing sufficient technical and pedagogical support, to enable teachers and students to confidently use the technology as a collaborative learning tool.
Following its release in 2009, the ‘Learning to Teach Online’ (LTTO) project spread rapidly around the world via conduits such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, institutional links and word of mouth — throughout K-12, vocational, higher education and private consultancies across 146 countries and territories. This thesis investigates how the design of LTTO facilitated its discovery, dissemination and integration in a range of educational contexts. There was a large volume of data collected from Web 2.0 activity surrounding LTTO. Using data visualisation techniques, patterns and hidden relationships between individuals sharing and using the resources were revealed, that provided insight into previously invisible relationships between individuals within vastly different established professional networks all over the world. The concept of the rhizome is at the core of this thesis, inspired by the observation of the growing patterns of connection between seemingly disparate educational communities globally, in a manner that was neither precisely controlled nor predictable.
Key outcomes include a detailed analysis of the design of an online professional development resource that was effective across a range of disciplines and education sectors; the determination of an effective method of researching the spread and use of similar initiatives; and observations and strategies that can help others to improve the design process for future online professional development resources.
As online communication technologies rapidly evolve, the creative industries continue to move towards globally networked and interdisciplinary modalities of practice. These inescapable shifts in the ways designers work have challenged many long held assumptions about the nature of individual design processes.
Such revolutionary changes mean that designers must increasingly master new skills to effectively communicate and collaborate in online environments with colleagues from different cultures, disciplines and locations world-wide. Since they may never meet face-to-face, the success of this new working methodology relies on high levels of trust between practitioners, both personally and professionally in order to achieve effective design outcomes.
In turn the need for design educators to equip students with skills to thrive in the face of this new industrial paradigm is highlighted. Trust is integral to developing the personal and professional relationship building and collaborative skills necessary for contemporary digital working practices. By being sensitive to, and cognisant of these issues, educators can initiate and implement strategies that help create the right conditions for trust to emerge between participants in online learning scenarios.
In reality however, the relative suddenness of this shift has seen some educationalists engage in unconsidered responses to this challenge. In the rush to embrace online technologies, the social and cultural dimensions of online pedagogies are often neglected while the relative functionality of digital tools and spaces is given prominence.
Drawing upon three specific case studies of very different applications of online learning in a design context, this paper aims to highlight the impact that fostering positive, interpersonal, interdisciplinary and transcultural relationships between students in online design education can have upon their levels of trust and the effectiveness and outcomes of their online collaborative processes. The projects examined were conducted by COFA Online and The Omnium Research Group at The College of Fine Arts (COFA), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Each case study examines particular dynamics associated with global, local and cross-cultural contexts. They include:
• Global - Fully online Masters of Cross Disciplinary Art and Design
• Local - Blended Learning at The College of Fine Arts
• Cross-Cultural (Australia and China) - The Collabor8 Project, East-West online design collaboration
By triangulating data that examines student/teacher experiences through online surveys, interviews, responses to targeted online discussions and peer reviews, this paper outlines online pedagogical approaches that have successfully engaged students in active, collaborative and trust building online learning environments. It also pinpoints problems that can occur in online teamwork related to trust, communication and interpersonal relationships, and investigates several potential solutions.
If strong human-to-human relationships are seen as the foundation for effective collaborative design practice online, educators will be helping emerging generations of designers maximise their creative potential in a globally competitive market where online collaborative, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary creative skill-sets are demanded as the ‘norm’.
Keywords: online, collaboration, pedagogy, cross-cultural, blended learning
• (2004-2008) The Art & Design Fellowship Programs helped to improve the online teaching practice of 75 UNSW academics, leading to the creation of 50 fully online UNSW undergraduate and postgraduate units.
• (2009-2011) The Learning to Teach Online project (LTTO) [tinyurl.com/lttoproject] evolved the concept of the local programs into a series of open educational resources (OERs) that continue to be accessed since the completion of the project. To date, these have been viewed over 367,000 times from 146 countries; linked to by 153 institutional websites in 19 countries; and embedded in 133 postgraduate or professional development programs in 23 countries.
• (2014-2015) The LTTO MOOC [coursera.org/course/ltto] was the next evolutionary stage designed to help educators develop their own teaching strategies by applying the knowledge gained from the LTTO OER. In 2014, the MOOC attracted over 28,000 enrolments from teachers in 192 countries. Its 2nd offering will be in July 2015, and has been incorporated into the US Government’s ConnectEd Initiative [bit.ly/1Aj98Dw].
This evolutionary approach exemplifies the strategies used to extend a successful face-to-face professional development program (with limited capacity, flexibility and academic access), into online, flexible and openly accessible resource and curriculum. The case history will demonstrate how to adapt to, and maximise the potential of, the rapidly changing dynamics of online education and technology, to continue to improve the teaching practice of an ever-increasing number of teachers around the world.
Similarly, many teachers first embarking on a new online initiative can find it an isolating and frustrating experience, with limited peer support (Bennett, Priest and Macpherson 1999) and practical pedagogical guidance while ‘learning the ropes’ or preparing course curriculum.
So what approach can be taken to firstly connect with these teachers at the ‘coalface,’ and then support them through their initial investigations and subsequent development of online teaching practice?
In 2009, COFA Online at The University of New South Wales won funding from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Competitive Grant Scheme for a project called Learning to Teach Online (LTTO): Developing high-quality video and text resources to help educators teach online http://bit.ly/d18ac5. The project’s aim was to produce a set of resources to enable more educators, particularly those with no online experience, to successfully adopt and develop online teaching practices, and to reach a diverse audience of teachers across different disciplines and institutions throughout the world.
This paper discusses the strategies adopted by the LTTO Project to ensure the resources focused on pedagogy and were perceived as pragmatic, easy to use and readily adaptable. It also outlines how the adoption of social media as a dissemination method facilitated easy access to the resources by a wide audience of teachers both with and without online teaching experience, and promoted greater awareness and uptake across disciplines and institutions around the world. It demonstrates, through summative and formative evaluations, how this approach effectively encouraged teachers to get started with their online teaching and stimulated their interest in further research on the topic.
The Learning to Teach Online project http://bit.ly/d18ac5 is a free Open Educational Resource (OER), designed to offer educators proven advice from a wide range of colleagues in different institutions and disciplines, about the pedagogies, challenges and rewards of online teaching. Following its release in 2010 by COFA Online at The University of New South Wales, the spread of the resources around the world via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, institutional links and word of mouth far exceeded initial expectations. While the use of social media to promote the project was always considered from the outset, the extent of the spread within K-12, vocational, higher education and private consultancies, and the subsequent penetration of the resources into existing educational programs was not expected. In this respect, the dissemination of the Learning to Teach Online project mirrored the behaviour of a rhizome, being widely spread to seemingly disparate educational communities globally, in a manner that was neither precisely controlled nor predictable.
This paper is a snapshot of ongoing research within the author’s doctoral thesis, into the behaviour and significance of the ever-growing digital rhizome surrounding Learning to Teach Online. It begins to unravel how the design of the resource enabled social media to be used for rapid dissemination on a global scale. The paper also explores how, as a result of some members of existing academic communities connecting with the project’s digital rhizome, the resources were able to benefit other teachers not familiar with online teaching or web 2.0 technologies. In these cases, the penetration of the rhizome into many different types of existing academic communities has enabled the transmission and acceptance of new ideas that have begun to positively effect perception and adoption of online teaching practices amongst their members.
The final evaluative report examines:
The project output, outcomes and impact
- Project methodology
- Critical factors for project success
- The dissemination strategy employed
- Evaluation of the success of the project
Since its release, the Learning to Teach Online project has developed a reputation for providing quality, pedagogically sound and broadly applicable professional development resources relevant not only to the Australian higher education sector, but to other sectors around the world.
ISBN number 978-1-921856-70-9
Also watch the accompanying video for this episode http://bit.ly/koVNA2 from the Learning to Teach Online project website.
This case study examines how ePortfolios, used in conjunction with blogs, can encourage students to become more critically reflective learners. The benefits and challenges of using ePortfolios are discussed, along with strategies for providing sufficient technical and pedagogical support, to enable teachers and students to confidently use the technology as a collaborative learning tool.
- Provide leadership and vision in learning and teaching
- Enhance the profile and quality of learning and teaching, including innovation in curriculum design and delivery and online education
- Interact with the wider academic body within UNSW and contribute to education strategy and improvements in teaching practice
- Contribute to positioning UNSW as an exemplar institution for student experience and outcomes.
"Mr McIntyre’s teaching passion is to close the digital literacy gap for students and teachers. He has pioneered award winning online teaching practices, motivating hundreds of students to build their digital literacy and collaborative skills. He also led the design and implementation of a series of award winning UNSW professional development programs for online teaching practices. He designed the world’s first fully online Master of Cross- Disciplinary Art and Design program and several successful globally disseminated projects, including the Learning to Teach Online professional development resource and the Massive Open Online Course."
The Reimagine Education Regional Award recognises the best entries from the different regions of the world.
The Wharton-QS Stars Awards is a global competition awarding the best educational innovations worldwide. 22 awards were issued in 2015, judged by a panel of 40 international experts. 520 universities and enterprises from 50 countries entered the competition.
The Reimagine Education Regional Award recognises the best entries from the different regions of the world.
The Wharton-QS Stars Awards is a global competition awarding the best educational innovations worldwide. 22 awards were issued in 2015, judged by a panel of 40 international experts. 520 universities and enterprises from 50 countries entered the competition.
The Reimagine Education Nurturing Employability Award recognises the most innovative programs for nurturing the employability of students.
The Wharton-QS Stars Awards is a global competition awarding the best educational innovations worldwide. 22 awards were issued in 2015, judged by a panel of 40 international experts. 520 universities and enterprises from 50 countries entered the competition.
Engaging students in online learning is critical for success. In this episode, we speak with teachers and students about strategies for improving engagement and motivation in online learning environments. Effective facilitation, creating learning communities, strategies for motivating students, and encouraging and sustaining participation are discussed."
This episode explores some of the key considerations when planning your online or blended (face-to-face and online) class. It examines the importance of considering pedagogy before technology; constructively aligning assessment with learning outcomes; and the integration of digital literacy skills. It also offers some useful strategies for deciding which components are better suited to an online learning environment.
It is strongly recommended that teachers who are considering planning an online class also watch other Learning to Teach Online episodes and case studies for more in-depth information about the concepts discussed in this episode."
While the case study does examine one particular teaching application of a blog, the principles discussed can just as easily be applied to any teaching situation where the ability for individuals to chronologically record a learning process, collate different learning resources such as text, video and audio, and increased peer feedback or discussion between students is desired. This episode will examine the context, planning and teaching within the case study, and highlight any issues that were encountered, and benefits that make this type of online teaching worthwhile."
Have you ever read a book, seen a movie, watched a television show, or played a game that centred around different aspects of a larger story or universe? You may be familiar with popular examples of such universes like Star Wars, Marvel, and The Walking Dead (to name a few).
How do the professionals develop such expansive narratives? How do they ensure that each element stays true to the original story? How do they innovatively use different technologies to share the stories, grow audiences and create an active and involved community of fans?
More and more, we are also engaging with elements or franchises of larger and more complex stories across a much more diverse range of platforms like interactive web experiences, social media communities, mobile devices, theme parks, and even augmented and virtual reality. A major challenge that current and future storytellers face is being able to engage different audiences in a story that is seamlessly told across all of these different platforms.
WHAT WILL I LEARN?
This course will help you to design a strategy for developing and telling your own transmedia story. You will learn about what it takes to:
• Shape your ideas into compelling and well structured narratives and complex story worlds
• Identify, understand, and engage different audiences in your stories
• Create cohesive user experiences across different platforms
• Evaluate existing and emerging technologies to share your story with the world, and help your audience participate in the larger storyworld you create
The course provides you with a unique, authentic, and industry relevant learning opportunity. You will have access to current theory, industry examples and advice and undertake learning activities that will equip you with the tools you need to start developing your own ideas.
The Learning to Teach Online (LTTO) MOOC will help you develop a working understanding of successful online teaching strategies that you can apply in your own practice. The course is based upon the multi award winning open educational resource developed by Dr Simon McIntyre and Karin Watson.
Integrating online technologies into your teaching can be a challenging prospect, and it can be difficult to know how to approach it effectively for the benefit of both students and yourself. No one knows your own content and teaching strengths better than you, and the “one size fits all” formula doesn’t always suit everyone. No matter what type of technology you are interested in exploring or your level of experience, this course will help you draw on your teaching strengths and find the approach that is right for you, your students and your educational context.
This course will guide you through your journey of understanding how online technologies can enhance your course design. You will have the opportunity to develop your understanding of effective online teaching practices and their relationship to the use of different technologies. You will also be encouraged to progressively design and reflect upon your own online learning activity, assessment or resource for use in your own class if you choose to undertake the course assignments.