Back to front page

“Success factors are: clear and unambiguous learning design and a good and safe learning environment”

Susanne Koch and Ann-Margret Hasselgård, interviewed by Kari Olstad April 8th 2024

We were talking to Susanne Koch and Ann-Margret Hasselgård at Lovisenberg Diaconal University College (LDUC) where they educate nurses. Susanne is a long time online education enthusiast and has been involved in several digital learning projects. Today she is a pedagogical adviser at LDUC, and among other things responsible for development of online courses. Ann-Margret is an intensive care nurse and has an education in guidance. She is now teaching and developing courses at LDUC. Susanne and Ann-Margret are colleagues, but in the course Teaching and learning in higher education Susanne was a teacher and developer, and Ann-Margret was a student.

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: a 100% Online Course

The target group is primarily those who teach in higher education. The spring 2024, about 1/3 are LDUCs own academic staff. The course is aimed at educators in professional studies, and the students are from professions as different as veterinarians and military and police officers in addition to health care professionals. Susanne tells us “I’ve actually had students with a Ph.D. in pedagogy, and that was both exciting and challenging”.

The course is set up to be very flexible. The students have some choice among nine modules in the LMS Canvas and the corresponding meetings via Zoom. Three modules are mandatory and are completed in the first month. Of the remaining six modules, the student selects three. “There were lecture videos, films with assignments related to the video, but you also had to use the curriculum,» Ann-Margret says. “And the connection between the videos and the curriculum was good. We gave each other feedback in the discussion forums and on the assignments. The method was ‘two stars and a challenge.’”.

“We describe clearly the requirements both for their entries and the feedback they give,” Susanne explains. “The three mandatory online meetings are two hours long sessions with a high degree of structure and instruction. For the following specialization modules, the meetings open with a brief introduction followed by academic discussion.”

The final exam is project based. The students choose a development area in their own teaching to improve. The first draft is a video that is also peer-reviewed. Then text is written and revised, and the course team will give their feedback before the final version is submitted.

Success factors for the course

“We are very conscious that our own teaching is ‘modeling.’ We try to use many features in Canvas and many types of learning activities, assessment, and feedback, “Susanne says. “This is not only to demonstrate various teaching methods but also for students to gain firsthand experience of many aspects of the student experience.”

Most colleges and universities in Norway offer courses in teaching and learning for their own academic staff, and these are typically brick-and-mortar studies. “But these students are also busy researchers and educators with a great need for flexibility. By delivering the course online, we recruit students from many professions who seek a more flexible solution,” Susanne says. “As a bonus, we now have a fruitful interdisciplinary student environment where learning happens with peers from other professions.” “I collaborated with two colleagues who work here, so we met physically, and it went well,” says Ann-Margret. “If I had to work with fellow students only online, it would probably have been a different experience. But I didn’t find the online formats challenging. I am familiar with online communication and using digital tools.”

“What about scalability?” we ask. “The course is quite scalable, but we give feedback on forum discussions, which can be time consuming. However, having students provide feedback to each other can help with scalability, especially because our students already have a lot of teaching experience. If our team puts in extra effort early in the term, being active and ‘visible’ from the start, we can lay the foundation for a good study environment characterized by trust. This is an essential success factor for online studies and can contribute to students benefiting greatly from peer assessments later in the course.”

The course is conducted only once a year during the spring term. The course team makes notes and asks for feedback after every Zoom meeting in addition to the formal course evaluation at the end of the term. They then improve the course further during the autumn term.

What should we know about making successful online education?

We asked the experienced educators about what key factors they believe contribute to success of online courses and online education in general.

“A safe and clear learning environment. It’s important for students to understand what is expected of them and what the instructors will provide. Students should be visible to each other, so they can be each other’s learning peers throughout the course. Think of the initial steps in Gilly Salmon’s five step model,” Susanne says. “The course started with a good introduction where we were introduced to how it would work, expectations for us as students, how to contact the team, and how the study was structured,” Ann-Margret confirms.

“Understanding the framework factors is essential for us as developers. We need to know how much time and resources we can allocate to communication with students. In online studies, it’s particularly important for students to have good access to course coordinators/instructors. For example, they should receive prompt responses to emails. Otherwise, they may feel somewhat isolated in the student role because they don’t have the faces of peer students and teachers in their daily lives. As the number of students increases, more time is needed for communication unless the learning design is changed,” Susanne says.

“Explicit learning design and scaffolding is even more critical in an online environment than on campus. The student role is different for adults. Many have jobs and family responsibilities. We build ‘guardrails’; explicitly connecting each module to learning outcomes, specifying approximate time requirements, and learning activities. Because time should be spent learning, not navigating around. We use Richard Mayer’s principles for multimedia learning, and his warnings against cognitive overload. Learning is not, and should not be, effortless. Students should challenge themselves. But on the academic side, not on trivial matters,” Susanne says. She sums it up: “Important success factors are clear and unambiguous learning design and a good and safe learning environment.”

Challenges and the dreaded “black screens”

“Students can become somewhat invisible and ‘fuzzy’ to each other, and instructors fuzzy to the students. The framework conditions can also be somewhat unclear for the students,” Susanne says. For Norwegian readers she recommends Hilde Larsen Damsgaard book Studielivskvalitet which presents a broader and deeper concept of the student environment. Student-student and student-teacher relationships are described as essential for success. Students benefit from being resources for each other online. And it is perceived as a resource that teachers are clear and accessible. This requires conscious effort to achieve in online studies.

“One challenge is that students can become quite passive when sitting at home with the camera and microphone off. It all becomes extra anonymous. You’re anonymous in a large auditorium as well, but even more so when you’re sitting behind a screen with the microphone and camera turned off,” Ann-Margret says. “What do black screens do to the sense of community? It probably reduces it. Because we’re doing something together even though we’re sitting there not saying anything. We’re still part of a community.”

“Can you talk a little bit about the dreaded ‘black screens’?” we ask. “Do you have any advice?”

“The teacher can say that it would be appreciated if everyone turns on their camera – that it provides input to me as a teacher if they nod, shake their head, etc. The teacher can pose questions in the chat, or ask: «how many of you have experienced….» and then people can raise their hands. When there are many students, there are many who don’t participate in a way that can be heard or seen. But there are many ways to participate. As a teacher, it’s easy to ‘translate’ physical teaching to digital, and think that the screen replaces the auditorium, but it doesn’t. So maybe ask yourself if there are other kinds of activity that don’t include eye contact? What can replace eye contact? Maybe activating students between sessions. For example, they could write posts in discussion forums and give feedback to classmates’ posts. When I teach, I’m very little concerned about whether students are visible on the screen with the camera. I think it’s very nice with feedback, but I trust that what I’m doing is good enough, and otherwise, I’ll hear about it later,” she laughs. “Sometimes it’s nice to not have the camera on in a learning situation. In the auditorium, I am very anonymous as a student, but on screen, everyone looks at me. As an adult student, I believe I’m responsible for my own learning. The same applies to those I teach – they’re responsible for their learning. The discussion often revolves around not wanting black screens. We could instead talk about why we’re so focused on it. Is it really important for the adult student? In breakout rooms, it’s a different story. There small groups of students are supposed to talk to each other. Then it’s important that they have their cameras on. If not, it’s perceived as passive by the others, as if someone were sitting with their back turned in a small group room.”

The best advice to new online course developers and online students

As Ann-Margret’s student experience is fresh and new, we asked her two give advice to new online teachers and course developers:

1. Don’t schedule too many hours of teaching per day. Sitting in front of a screen and being lectured is exhausting. It might be better to give students tasks to break up long days. If you have a full day online, two-three hours could be full class and the rest smaller group or some individual assignment. The digital platform provides good opportunities for that.
2. Encourage students to answer with short texts, as it provides writing practice and enhances deep learning. Then you can potentially increase the number of words as the study progresses if there’s time and space for it. But it must be manageable for the teacher to read and give feedback. 300 words is quite reasonable. But in longer studies, you might increase it to 500 words and use peer assessment to help with some of the work. There’s good learning in giving feedback to others.

Susanne and Ann-Margret agree that it is important for students to be aware of their motivation when they start, and to be reminded of it along the way in the study. It’s part of this guardrail the LDUC team constructs, and it’s especially important in online studies. One of the most important motivational factors for adult students is relevance.

“It’s also important to be aware of your own motivation as a teacher/developer/course coordinator,” Susanne says. “I ask myself: What am I looking forward to in the development and implementation of this study? What strengths of mine can I leverage here? Where do I fall short, so I should rely on my team? A team with a wide expertise and complementary skills and mindset is a great strength.”

“For the adult student in an online course I have three tips,” Ann-Margret says.

1. Practice a bit on Zoom/Teams – familiarize yourself with the tool and practice being comfortable with video conferencing. For example, log in with a friend. It’s nice to feel you are confident with the equipment beforehand, so you don’t have to stress about it.
2. Solve the tasks you are asked to solve. It provides good practice for the exam – it does some of the work beforehand, so there’s less workload for the exam.
3. Be active. When the lecturer asks for feedback, what you’re wondering/thinking about, others are probably thinking about too. There are no stupid questions – only stupid answers. It’s better to ask one time too many than one time too little. Or comment. Students are very concerned with getting feedback, but the teacher also needs feedback. The adult student also has a responsibility for quality and the study environment.

Have a good plan. Create a good structure.

Torunn Drage Roti, interviewed by Kari Olstad January 24th 2024

BI Norwegian Business School is proud to be a triple accredited business school, but is also a pioneer in online education, developing its own LMS in the nineties and distributing teaching online even before the world wide web. That is why we wanted to talk to them for the project “100% Online”. We went to Nydalen to interview Torunn Drage Roti, lecturer at a BI online introductory course. That turned out to be an insightful conversation, and we wanted to share the highlights here on the project blog.

Except for what we have come to know as the “corona ad hoc zoomification”, Roti was quite new to online teaching. We found that she therefore offers some very interesting post-corona insight to the subject.

The online studies at BI are structured within a set frame to make sure the online learning experience for students is as seamless as possible. The creativity of the lecturers and developers must flourish within these frames. The students in the introduction course have access to a learning path where Roti has created and organised learning videos, summaries and exercises. “In addition, we have live webinars which are not mandatory but where I aim to add additional value. It can be summaries, something new and relevant or deeper explanations of difficult concepts.”

She believes that structure is a key to success in her online course. “Yes, we thoroughly and methodically prepare our students for the final exam. To be able to sit for the exam, the students will need to complete, and pass, work assignments. And to rehearse for the assignments we give them exercises. The learning process is a sequenced and timed suggestion, but except from the mandatory assignments to keep them on track, the students have full flexibility to work with the content of the subject.” Roti believes that flexibility can work well for some, but tells us that her students usually express that they want clear instructions on what to do and when to do it. And she adds another little tip to educators who create their own learning paths or otherwise structure content in the VLE: “When you add new and fantastic content, remove the old or less relevant so that the students don’t get confused or overwhelmed.”

BI has a routine of surveying all students mid-term and at the end of each course. Roti’s students usually express a high rate of satisfaction, and she uses the feedback to improve her course further. “Especially the mid-term review is good for adapting and improving the course and tuition for that particular student group.”

To summarise the main advice from the BI lecturer to teachers and developers who are new to online is “Have a good plan and create a good structure.”

Just do it!

Karense Foslien, intervjuet av Kari Olstad 3. oktober 2024

Karense Foslien er grunnlegger av nettskolen NoTe (Norwegian Teaching), men for svært mange som har lært seg norsk de siste årene er hun best kjent under YouTube-aliaset «Norsklærer Karense».

NoTe er først fremst en språkskole med Norsk fra A1 til C2, yrkesnorsk, forretningsnorsk, men også engelsk, samfunnsfag og suggestopedi. Det siste kommer vi tilbake til, men det ser ut som om Karense lever etter samme motto som et berømt joggeskomerke: Just do it!

Vi tok turen opp til fargerike Startblokka i Groruddalen for å lirke ut Karenses beste tips:

Første tips er å ha god og oversiktlig struktur i læringsplattformen slik at studentene vet hva de skal gjøre og hvordan de skal finne frem. NoTe har laget en kursguide i form av en video som forteller studentene hvordan de kan bruke kurset, og den virker tydeligvis godt siden de får få spørsmål av «teknisk» art.

Men så viser det seg at NoTe slett ikke baserer seg på fast struktur i selve kursinnholdet. Tvert imot. Språkkursene er ikke lagt opp som strengt oppmerkede læringsstier, men kan heller sammenlignes med smågodthylla i butikken. Studentene skal kunne plukke ressurser som motiverer dem, pirrer nysgjerrigheten eller interesserer dem på andre måter. Hvert kurs har et enormt antall tekstsider, videoer, podcaster, lytteoppgaver, skriveoppgaver og så videre som studentene kan velge ut og bryne seg på i eget tempo og selvvalgt rekkefølge. Og skjer det  noe spennende i norsk offentlighet så dukker det sannsynlig vis opp en ny og aktuell ressurs inne i kurset.

Og her kommer vi tilbake til suggestopedien og andre tips: Det skal nemlig være gøy og motiverende å lære. Kursdesignen innebærer å foreslå. Valgfrihet og positiv motivasjon vil i seg selv kunne virke læringsfremmende.

Og så skyter Karense inn at mesteparten av suksessen nok skyldes teamet hennes. Et lite utvalg svært dyktige og solide pedagoger som også er innovative og har en samlet erfaringspott med voksenopplæring, design av digitale læringsressurser, sosiale medier i læring, litt mer gründervirksomhet, prosjekterfaring og en hel del andre nyttige kompetanser. Det skal nemlig også være gøy å lære bort! Når lærere og kursutviklere får bruke kreativiteten sin og gjøre ting de selv synes er artig og spennende skinner det gjennom til studentene. Det er Karenses grunnleggende teori.

Men alt er selvfølgelig ikke bare lek og moro. Studentene kan tvert imot være svært tradisjonelle i sin tilnærming til læring og ha et ønske om å bli instruert. Da er den tredje suksessfaktoren å være tett på studentene. De skal få tilbakemelding på skriftlige oppgaver, kan være med i videomøter hver uke og de skal oppleve at det er lav terskel for å ta kontakt, stille spørsmål og få svar.

Og tett på kommer de i sosiale medier. Karense er skolens ansikt utad, og på en måte sin egen merkevare. Med over tusen små videosnutter på YouTube og tilstedeværelse på Facebook er hun på samme tid nærværende og litt superstjerne for et samfunn av norskinnlærere som også hjelper og støtter og forklarer hverandre i kommentarfeltene. Man kan si at Karense er navet i et hjul der eikene består av både formell opplæring og uformelle læringsnettverk.

Selv om ikke alle kan være YouTuber eller håndplukke sine egne team, mener Karense bestemt at mye av det hun gjør er tilgjengelig for alle:

1. Prøv å ha det moro på jobb. Om du har det gøy er det sannsynlig at det blir morsommere for den som skal lære også.
2. Gjort er viktigere enn perfekt.
3. Ikke vær redd for å prøve noe nytt. I beste fall blir det en suksess, i verste fall en erfaring å lære av.

Just do it!