ALTO: Adapting your modules for online and blended learning

· Adam Warren

ALTO: Active Learning and Teaching Online

This session aims to help you adapt your modules for online and blended learning by providing a set of eight themes to guide your planning for high-quality flexible learning. You will need to review selected resources to prepare for the session, which will involve discussion in groups as you develop an action plan for adapting your own module(s). It will be an opportunity to experience active online learning ‘as a student’ and share your ideas and experience with colleagues. The session will conclude with a plenary where questions and concerns can be discussed, and follow-up drop-in sessions will provide further support.

Please contact Adam Warren if you have questions about the session and would like further information.

Self access recording

The live webinar session ran in June and July, but a recording is available on the ALTO Blackboard course, along with other self-access resources

Learning outcomes

Participants will be able to:

  1. Align the online/blended delivery of their module with its current learning outcomes.
  2. Use key quality indicators to plan for flexible and accessible delivery of their module.
  3. Plan methods to encourage and track student engagement.

How to access the ALTO Blackboard

The session will take place online in a Blackboard Collaborate Ultra webinar; to access this please:

  1. Log into Blackboard at https://vle.aston.ac.uk
    ideally using the Google Chrome or     Safari browsers. Note that Internet Explorer will not work.

  2. Find the course Active Learning Teaching Online in the My Courses list on the right of your Welcome Page – it is a University or Staff level course.

    If you really can’t find the course in your list, please see this help page.

  3. Self-access recordings: select the menu item Adapting your modules for online and blended learning and follow the instructions.

  4. Live webinars: click its title to open the course and then select Webinars from its navigation menu. Then select the session Adapting your modules for online and blended learning to enter the webinar.

Please join the webinar 5 minutes early as they will start on time.

If you have not used Collaborate Ultra before, we invite you to join us in the ALTO webinar for a practice and orientation session 30 minutes before the advertised start time. We also recommend you watch this 2-minute ‘getting started’ video beforehand. You will need speakers or headphones to hear, and a microphone so you can speak to colleagues during the group-work that is a central part of this session. You do not need a webcam, although it would be great if you do have one.

Study before the session 

This session asks you to complete about 1 hour of study before the webinar, and you will find full details of this on the ALTO Blackboard under the relevant Themes area on the navigation menu. It is fine to do this study just before the webinar but be aware that the main activity during the webinar requires you to review the learning outcomes for your modules, so make sure you also have these to hand.

There are two reasons for this independent study; firstly, we want the webinar to be an active learning experience rather than a lecture and secondly, we want to demonstrate the ‘flipped learning’ approach that we think is essential to high-quality online learning.

Dates
Monday 8th June   2pm – 4pm
Wednesday 10th June   11am – 1pm
Tuesday 16th June   4pm – 6pm
Thursday 18th June   11am – 1pm
Wednesday 24th June   11am – 1pm
Wednesday 1st July   2pm – 4pm

Drop-in follow-up sessions

These will also take place in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra webinars – no need to book.

Please also post questions in the Questions and Comments discussion forum on the ALTO Blackboard course.

Friday 12 June 11am – 12am
Friday 19 June 2pm – 3pm
Friday 26 June 11am – 12am
Tuesday 7 June 2pm – 3pm

How to book

Attendance is limited to 120 for practical reasons, so please book your place through the staff portal.

A step-by-step guide to booking for a session is available; we recommmend you search for ‘ALTO’ to quickly locate relevant sessions.

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