Activity 2 : My perspective on FL.

What does the term Flexible Learning mean to you?

Following my week's reading flexible learning means a lot more structure, in the development, implementation and delivery of a flexible course than it did before.

Specifically I had not considered than institutional implementation aspects that are required in order to have follow through at a teacher level - ie if the institution isn't behind the idea, and doesn't support the principles and the resources required to teach flexibly, it would be very hard to achieve. I can see the FTI (failure to implement) would be a stumbling block for many along this path without backing from "above.". It is, in some ways, easy to have the ideas, but would be hard to follow through, without support from the outer layers of the ring (refer Figure 1.1 Chapter 1, Collis, B et al.)

The other dimension that really resonated for me was that of flexible learning being tied to learner -centered learning. So the movement away from the instructor driving every piece of learning to one where the learner is choosing how and when to engage, And I can see that for some of my leaners, this approach would be very tricky - those for whom time management and self-directed study are not easily forth-coming.

I also thought the "supermarket' " model was potentially problematic for this cohort - too mach choice, and not enough by way of specifics. (I have quite a number of 17/18 year old, straight out of a school system...). I'm getting a gut feeling that if we were to make generalizations, flexible learning would really suit those of us who have a few grey hairs, and not so much the wrinkle-frees amongst us (there are of courses, always exceptions to these rules.)

I can also see that "when the learner is given more choices, the instructor is increasingly required to respond and individualize rather than plan and deliver" creates some issue with workload, and hours in the day. It is my perception that this would take more hours, than a less flexible course, and this would be problematic.

Why is it necessary to use a more flexible approach in your work?

A flexible approach is always going to benefit everyone - in that being flexible also includes traditional approaches as one of the options of flexibility. So if that suits, we've got it covered - if studying at midnight via Moodle is your ticket, we can do that too. 

Interestingly, as I understand it, there is an expectation, in fact a requirement for my course, which is a OP directive, that my students attend 80% of our teaching sessions (theory and practicals) and that some sessions are just plain compulsory. This is of course, on the continuum that is FL - and the compulsory stuff is largely based around the bits that we believe to have a large health and safety component for those involved.

Course content is NOT very flexible. And our assessment criteria are rigid. However, how the learners choose to go about getting assessed is flexible to some degree (they can choose when to engage in assessments in our surgery sessions, though this has to be done before the sessions are completed for the year.)

VARK springs to mind as a reason WHY we need to be flexible, and provide different modes of information transfer.

What do you need to explore to help this happen?

I liked Annette's scoring so have stolen it as scored my own programme... interestingly, I too would have said we were very flexible - and it is compared to what I experienced when studying myself. BUT, in the field of flexible learning, we are pretty rigid!! An interesting finding - and one that makes us a product of our time. My Dad, and grandmother would be AMAZED that the notes are online not in paper... but for me, this is SO last century. Funny.

Table 2.1: The five dimensions of flexibility
	More fixed <<------------------------->> More flexible
Time	X
Content of the course	X
Entry requirements	X
Instructional approaches and resources	X
Delivery and logistics	X

I'm a bit stumped as to how to make these rigid bits more flexible... course content is largely scaffolded, entry requirements are at a minimum already. There is a lot of practical component (through our surgery and rotations) that our learners can't access anywhere else - and I firmly believe that seeing a cat spey via You Tube is NOT going to simulate anything near the real deal... (nor sort the fainters form the non-fainters...LOL).

So I look forward to exploring options around these issues.

What goals do you have for using Flexible Learning in your work?

I'd like to think that we could support the learners that ARE self-motivated and engaged by being a lot more flexible for the parts of my course for which this would work (thinking face-to-face delivery stuff here). 

I guess one of my beliefs about tertiary education is that if I can send kids (and I have some big kids too) out to the big wide world, with a bit of knowledge, an enquiring mind that can solve problems (albeit, they may have one brain cell jogged by something and think "Oooo, I've heard that before... NOW, where to find the answer? ...") then my job is done.

I believe that  a lot of what we are about is producing a cohort that has basic recognition, or process of enquiry, and THEN can think about where to go to find the answers, AND include in this, thinking critically about what they are reading when they do find this "answer."  (ie there's a lot of crap on the intenet too...). THEN I think I'm part way to doing a good job...

So this is VERY flexible - but based on hard facts of course content... isn't there always a catch...  ??? :-)

I also think there are a number of learners for whom this approach is just never (yup, that's a long time) going to work.

SIGH... oh, gotta love the grey-ness (vs black and white-ness) that is life.