Professional Development through Collaborative Learning and Open Education Practices for Language Education

Project description:

Currently the re-certification for language educators in Uzbekistan is a 2 month in person training program that is mandatory for all language educators. Anyone who fails the in person training must complete the new pilot online course.

The Uzbek pilot online course will be evaluated and updates will be proposed to include Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Virtual Intercultural Exchanges (VIEs) to improve the online version by providing opportunities for foreign language practising as well as integrating authentic learning activities so that the foreign language teachers get the maximum from the course and are better prepared for the examination.

There are 3 goals for this project:

1. Review existing:  Online Pilot Course in Moodle and make pedagogical, curriculum and technological recommendations to include OEP;
2. Plan a link-up initiative with a unicollaborations project;
3. Beyond: the scope of this project: proposed – Uzbek Statue University of World Languages will send a Call for book chapters to language educators globally in May/June for an open access edited book on practices and approaches of VIEs in the primary and secondary language classroom.

Video presentation of the project available HERE.

 

Author: Dr. Alisher Abidjanov, of Uzbekistan , is the Deputy Director of the National Center for Development of Innovative Teaching Methods at the Uzbek State University of World Languages. In this position, Dr. Abidjanov is responsible for implementing the national program on incorporating new teaching methodologies. As a former professor at the National University of Uzbekistan, Dr. Abidjanov hopes to merge his passion for higher education and the work he is currently initiating as Deputy Director. In the nearest future Dr. Abidjanov will endeavor to improve foreign language instruction in tertiary education through innovative methodology and the leveraging of technology. By merging the two approaches through distance and e-learning, he plans to ensure radical improvement of the current state of English language instruction

Lead Mentor: Ms Naomi Wahls M.A. is a PhD Candidate at Open Universiteit, Netherlands and is also a GO – GN member and volunteer Open Education SIG UK committee member. She has an MA in Spanish and an MA in Information and Learning Technologies. As an entrepreneur, she started a small company: Wahls Instructional Design LLC dedicated to instructional design and research in global online education since 2012. She has worked in online higher education since 2006, including supervising the CU Online Helpdesk, supporting faculty and students. In 2013 she worked with colleagues in a Game Based Learning course design for the Advanced Academic Achievement 109 online course after the Game of Life for the Community College of Denver through a grant. In 2014 she designed the first online Spanish course at the University of Colorado Denver through a grant and taught it for a year. A medical education membership site released in 2014 with her design and in 2015 with a new platform. In 2016 and 2017 she supported and researched Virtual International Exchanges (VIEs) published in FLTMAG.com, Educause, and LearnTechLib. Her latest instructional design was for a Teacher Education MOOC specialization for graduate credit which released in 2017. See here for more.

Co- Mentor: Dr Chrissi Nerantzi (@chrissinerantzi): Is a Principal Lecturer in Academic CPD in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Her approach is playful and experimental and she specialises in creative, innovative learning, teaching and assessment. Chrissi is an open practitioner and researcher and has initiated with many others a wide range of open and successful cross-institutional professional development initiatives, such as the Teaching and Learning Conversation (TLC) webinars, the open courses Flexible, Distance and Online Learning FDOL, Bring Your Own Devices for Learning, Flexible, Open and Social Learning FOS, Creativity for Learning in Higher Education #creativeHE and associated open community, the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education tweetchat #LTHEchat as well OER projects such as Food for Thought, 101 Creative Ideas #101creativeideas and 101 Open Stories #101openstories. Her research interests are in the areas of pedagogic innovation, creativity and open education. In her doctoral studies she explored the lived collaborative open learning experience of academics and other open learners in two cross-institutional academic development courses using phenomenography. This led to the development of the openly licensed cross-boundary framework for collaborative open learning. Chrissi is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association, a Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology, an accredited LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator and a proud alumni of the Global OER Graduate Network. Chrissi is a National Teaching Fellow and won the ALT Learning Technologist of the Year Award in 2017. For more information, please go here.

 

This project is part of the Mentoring Programme “Open Education for a Better World” run in partnership by the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for OER and Open Learning at the Jozef Stefan Institute and the University of Nova Gorica.