Observation for Learning

Professor Hazel Melanie Ramos,
Nottingham University

Greetings from EduTech Asia 2024 in Singapore. I am attending the first workshop on the use of observation, before the mail conference starts tomorrow. Professor Hazel Melanie Ramos from Nottingham University's Teaching and Learning Observation College is talking about how teachers can learn from observing peers and being observed in their class technique. An online tool is used to prompt the participants. The approach can be applied from primary school teaching to university. One example given was for the Higher Education Academy fellowship process. 

ps: I am speaking tomorrow at EduTech on AI and curriculum.

Lego Play for Higher Education Academy Recognition

My teaching philosophy,
expressed in Lego.

Today I took part in a Lego Serious Play session run for staff at the Australian National University in Canberra. This was conducted by Dr Stephen Dann, who customized the session to help those working on their Higher Education Academy Professional Recognition.

We were each provided with a pack of Lego bricks and taken through a sequence of quick exercises, where we each built something and then discussed what we had built. This was a very carefully structured process, starting with concrete exercises to get us used to working with the bricks, through increasingly abstract discussing of our teaching and supervision practices.



This may sound like a frivolous exercise of adults playing with children's blocks. However, it was a way for us to reflect and discuss what we do with teaching and research. It turned out to be a very intense and at times emotional process. In a few hours of "play" I discovered aspects of how I think about teaching which I had not realized in my previous three and a half years of formal graduate education. I am tempted to submit a Lego stop-motion movie as my HEA application, in place of the usual text document. ;-)


There is a 22 page "Introduction to LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ®". No fee needs to be paid to Lego to use the "Method", but obviously they would like you to buy their Starter Kits of Blocks. In addition there are are books on the method and scholarly papers. 

E-portfolios for Professional Certification

Today I took part in an excellent webinar on support for applying for membership of the UK's Association of Learning Technologists (ALT), Certified Membership (CMALT) . The webinar was run by Mark Northover from the Centre for Learning and Teaching, Auckland University of Technology. The first tool mentioned was the CMALT Professional Development Module from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (David Watson). The second was Mosomelt  (Thom Cochrane, AUT). Also ASCILITE run CMALT Australasia. These both provide online support for applicants.

The UK also has the Higher Education Academy's (HEA) fellowship scheme. Like CMALT this requires completion of a reflective portfolio. For those not used to this approach, the process can be daunting, thus the need for support. Late last year I completed a reflective e-portfolio for a MEd, which used a similar process.

One thing unclear is the relationship between certification and formal educational qualifications. ALT and HEA ask applicants to describe their training and experience with education (and the in the case of ALT, with technology). However, there is no requirement for formal educational qualifications and these certifications are not educational qualifications. In contrast, membership of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), and the British Computer Society, are expressed in terms of educational qualifications and relevant experience.

An ACS "Certified Technologist" would normally have a Diploma of IT (one year study) and the higher "Certified Professional" a Bachelor of IT (three years study), plus relevant experience. It would seem reasonable for the ALT and HEA to set educational requirements, but perhaps at a lower level, reflecting the lack of maturity of higher education as a profession. A certificate or graduate certificate (six months study) for entry level and an advanced diploma or masters (two years study) for full membership would be reasonable.

ps: On thing to keep in mind with certifications is how long they last and what are the ongoing obligations and costs. The annual fee for CMALT holders is £79.

Help with ALT and HEA Teaching Certification

This is to ask if there are any on-line self help, or formal on-line asynchronous courses, to assist non-UK people with applying for Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT's CMALT) and Professional Recognition by the Higher Education Academy (HEA's A/S/P/FHEA). While ALT and HEA offer some assistance to applicants, they charge only a modest amount (£150.00 each) and so applicant's can't expect much in the way of help, particularly internationally.