Professional Doctorates and Emerging Online Pedagogies
Sheena Banks, Jerry Wellington
School of Education, University of Sheffield, UK, s.b.banks@sheffield.ac.uk,
j.Wellington@sheffield.ac.uk
Gordon Joyes, School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK,
Gordon.joyes@nottingham.ac.uk
Abstract
The development and implementation of networked learning within postgraduate
programmes is increasing, but there is emerging evidence that the use
of networked technology within these programmes is creating specific challenges
that reflect the cultural, professional and educational expectations of
students as they develop expertise in research, particularly in the case
of the professional doctorate. The implications of using networked technology
for the development of communities of practice of researchers have not
yet been fully identified nor understood nor have its benefits been explored.
In this paper, we address these issues by presenting a case study of the
development of interactive online research narratives as the basis for
the teaching of research methods in professional doctorate programmes.
New technology and networked learning has had to date a surprisingly limited
impact on teaching and learning practice within professional doctorate
programmes. Learning technology has been identified by a number of researchers
as having potential to bring more flexibility into the learning and teaching
of research methods. Despite the existence of considerable distance learning
provision supporting remote location students, however, there is not much
evidence that this is happening. We argue that networked learning has
the potential to change the pedagogic practice of professional doctorates,
not only through flexible learning in relation to time, place, topics
and use of resources, but also for the development of higher order knowledge
and metacognition where we can involve students in rich interactions with
peers and more experienced researchers and engagement with authentic examples
and insights about practice
We will present outcomes from the V-ResORT Project (Virtual Resources
for Online Research Project to address these issues. This work has been
funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) over
a three year period from 2004-7. The V-ResORT Project has developed innovative
online learning materials that provide video narratives of researchers
exploring key questions connected with their work. These narratives are
displayed using the MS Producer video streaming software as a series of
short 3-5 minute clips in higher resolution alongside PowerPoint slides
and a transcript that enable the user to easily navigate through a complete
narrative and provides them with support for the often complex language
used within research methodology.
We will give a demonstration of some clips of video narratives that capture
effective practice as case studies of use. We will briefly discuss the
theoretical framework for the context of use in professional doctorate
programmes and for developing the video narratives. We will draw on empirical
data to present evidence of how we achieved this, particularly in attempting
to embed capabilities within the online materials of reusability and personalisation,
the relationship between these and student feedback. Our strategies for
reusability have resulted in new scenarios of use, for example the development
of a Virtual Graduate School.
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