OE Global 2019

The art of effective teaching is continually under the spotlight no matter the stage of education and becomes a point of difference when students are selecting institutions to start or continue their pursuit of knowledge. As such, universities seek to provide more engaged learning for their students creating within academics a desire to improve their teaching skills. While traditional professional development has its place, more diverse approaches to academic professional development should be considered that create opportunities for more practice-based, peer-supported and collaborative engagement that empowers academics to share ideas and practices, problem solve and feel part of a network or community. 

This poster contribution reports on the first stage of the Teaching and Learning Conversations global project (TLCglobal). Using an Open Education approach, a project between Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and Charles Sturt University (AU) started in 2018 where academics from both institutions, collaborated to discuss blended teaching practice online. Over 14 weeks, these academics shared and interrogated each other’s teaching methods with a collective aim of supporting and developing one another. A number of benefits manifested themselves as this project unfolded. Working in pairs, the conversations between the academics were impactful, founded on an erstwhile desire to improve teaching and committed to achieving an outcome in the project. Interestingly, and importantly, the cross-discipline pairings facilitated the critical and collegiate analysis. Avoiding intra-discipline pairings eschewed rivalry and subject-specific discussion and created ‘safe spaces’ which liberated the conversations providing opportunities for open and meaningful shared reflections to materialise. 

Invigorated, academics experimented and implemented newly found ideas into their own practice and developed a greater understanding of the different pedagogies. Due to the project’s success, in 2019, it will expand further to include more academics and institutions, and continue to provide open, cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary global conversation to facilitate professional development.