This reflection series is a of case studies which have had success implementions of blended learning (or flipped learning) encompassing more than just what is known as 'putting lectures online'.

A common thought associated with flipped learning is putting all lectures online. Speak to any learning technologist or learning designer and discover it's not the case. Terms like 'chunked', 'enquiry driven', 'community learning' and 'digital assessment' or 'project based learning' should be mentioned in the ensuing conversation. These terms are often overlooked when the idea of subject redesigns comes into discourse. This is very understanable. Overshading pedagogy is video. Video media is everywhere, highly accessible and pervasive to the point where video has saturated every screen, phone, and industry. It's too easy to record lectures with lecture capture technology, place it online and say, 'the lectures are online. I have flipped my subject.' However, education is much more than content consumption. Learning is not a form of osmosis a 2 hour lecture recording can deliver. More needs to be done.

To begin, this post will not cover everything. The aim is to post serveral articles all going into detail about what constitutes good practice in online learning from both a literature standpoint and personal reflection. This post will introduce concepts for further disucssion by posing a philosophical question with the aim of setting the current epistomology one faces when addressing an academic teaching staff whose main research field is not education in any way shape or form;

What is online education?

Much research has been dedicated to education. Additionally, much research has been dedicated to online education. But ask the regular academic what is online edcuation, and the answer usually comes back something along the lines, 'putting lectures slides, reading and videos online. I do that, but students just don't read'. Every academic is busy. I am not doubting or suggesting the opposite. It is understandable how such a simple idea of online learning has proliferated organically throughout higher education. Our teaching staff have little time to actually consider the potential in effective engagement online. Shifting this ontology is very easy for a learning designer but impossible for academics and requires a leap of faith and some hard truths from their behalf.

The hard truth:

You are an elder Professor in Physics, not a practitioner or researcher in online learning.

It is OK to not know how to develop digital media and online learning. It OK to accept the world around you from a socio-technological standpoint has dramatically changed over the past 30 years when you studied your undergraduate. It is OK realise how previously delivery methods are not adequate anymore, and help is needed. No one will judge you. You are still very very clever, and very very knowledgable. It is time to dive back into the unknown in order to share that knowledge with those who seek it from you. The sage on the stage is dead, Google, YouTube and Social Media have seen to that. The time of the community learner is at hand.

This journey will be easy, but you will need to come to terms with your academic ego and realise how much no body outside of your research field cares about you if you don't care about them. Believe it or not, most students; they just want to learn what you have learnt.

Information Architecture as a body of research tends to lean heavily on principles of UX/UI. A massive research field unto itself, UX/UI focus is on creating a usable and intuitive experience for users of technology. But what does this even mean? In short, it is a philosophy whereby the user of technology can achieve their goals by using technology, but without feeling like they are actually using technology, or that it feels less of a hindrance and more of joy. A lot of this philosophy is built on the idea of metaphors encompassing technical outputs, for example, a window. Literally, a window is something in which we look through to see the outside world. However, the metaphor of a window in terms of UX/UI encompasses an entirely different meaning. The metaphor applied to computing allows the end user see something on a computer screen that is viewable within a 4 sided object, also known as a window. A window metaphor now has new meaning in the technical sense.

What does this have to do with Information Architecture?

When we explore the metaphor of Information Architecture, we begin to look at how information is structured. So let's think about how this is done on our computer. We have files (a metaphor (because the files are not really files (they are a digital print))). These files sit in a folder (which isn't really a folder either), which can sit inside another folder (again, not literally a folder but rather a digital print), which can potentially be zipped up (spot the metaphor?). What we are seeing here is a linear file and folder metaphor used to describe how we store and retrieve our information. Makes sense right? This is pretty easy to follow because it is linear. To get to file X, I open folder A, then folder B, and so on and so on. However, when we move to non-linear structures, such as the Internet, then concepts like Information Architecture become paramount for our end users.

The Internet aka the web is a web of linked artifacts. In no way, shape or form is it linear. Unlike linear file folder structures, where to access file X I need to follow a path of folder structures, the number of paths I can take to reach file Y on the web is potentially unlimited, hence the web is a good metaphor. Paired with the idea of search engines (Google) providing me with a dynamic link to the information I search, then there is no logical folder structure. What happens if I need to go back? Or even worse, what happens when I, my whole life, have been using Google to find information I need but said information sits within a locked environment such as your Learning Managment System? To add to this I don't know the actual folder directory structure and I only have 2 weeks to learn before my first assessment is due?

Cue in Information Architecture with the Learner Experience

I commonly hear the phrase

They just can't find the articles. I know I put it in assessments, and I've told them it's there...

Naturally, I take a look at the assessments section on said subject. Within assessments is a complex, but linear folder and file directory that is impossible to navigate. I don't know how the directory has been set up, and there is no search feature in LMS to help me just find the document. I can't find the assessment task sheet after looking for 5 minutes. Here is what goes through my mind as an end user of this situation:

Minute 1:
1. It's in assessments
2. There are 3 folders in assessments, it has to be in one of those
3. There are 4 folders in the first folder in assessments, I'll go check there
Minute 2:
1. Wow. There are about 32 different folders in assessments
2. Why is there a 2016 folder with a 2015 Turnitin dropbox?
3. What am I looking for again?
Minute 3:
1. I'm going to text Mike. Mike knows where to find the assessment task sheet
2. No reply from Mike.
Minute 4:
1. This is horrible. I can't find the assessment task sheet, I don't know what the assessment is.
2. Bad SFS brewing in my mind
Minute 5:
1. I AM GOING TO EMAIL THE SUBJECT COORDINATOR.

See how bad AI lead to a bad learner experience? The technology is getting in the way, instead of facilitating access to information and learning. Does this sound familiar? Planning information architecture in your subject is the most underestimated aspect of online learning. Cleaning up the assessments folder would probably help the IA and help the learner have a better experience in finding required information. I know right, it's a no-brainer, but I have seen a lot of subjects with previous session content, Turnitin submission boxes, multiple levels of folder structures etc. You see it everywhere.

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So I just discovered electron. What now?

I was introduced to slack as the first gateway into the world beyond WordPress. It was a beast of a tool for collaboration, messaging, and all things integrated. It wasn't a blog. It wasnt a website. It was online. It was, for me, an enigma and I loved it.

After a year, I got onto Ghost. The missing link to slack. The counterpart to everything slack offered. It was amazing. When ghost released Ghost for desktop, I saw incredible similarity... Then it hit me. They work on the same framework. After some research, I saw it: Electron.

what happens now?

I'm not a developer. I'm a digital person insofar as I use digital, social and interactive media to the point where I can create and replicate, but I dont/can't develop. I think I need to remedy this, but how?

I hear React.js, Django.js, Modernize.js as frameworks but have no idea how they work. I know Node.js is the driver of these frameworks, but have no idea how it works. Where do I go from here?

Ghost has nailed what I need for content. Slack nails what I need for collaboration. But what exists for coordination? WordPress offers event management plugins and more. I assume, with an advance knowledge of all these frameworks and APIs, js and Node can easily the same. But how and where do I learn? Where? I want to build what I need with these frameworks and electron. Someone help me now!

Waiting for Ghost apps is like waiting for Affinity Publisher; The promise is getting old.

I'm all for waiting. I waited for the PS2 when I was in high school. I wait for the bus every day. I'm waiting right now for the next four hours to pass so I can start my weekend. I'm used to waiting. The thing about the aforementioned situations was that I knew what I was waiting for, but more importantly how long I would be waiting.

The PS2 was announced with a release date. It was a shocking 2 months, but I waited, and by the end, I had no finger nails. But I waited, and the reward was totally worth it. I was the undisputed king of Tekkan tag team (Paul and King). I live on one of the busiest roads in Sydney, so while I wait for the bus with know knowledge of when the next one will be, I wait patiently because there are so many people waiting with me, we know we won't be let down. And four hours one a Friday is nothing to wait before the weekend starts, in fact, I do this every week.

So why, with all my patience, am I sick of waiting for Ghost apps?

I have visited the 'Coming Soon' app page on Ghost.org every month since I saw the page. I read everywhere for people to subscribe to the mailing list and wait, but I like the pleasant surprise of opening up my present before being told what it is. So I am not going to join the mailing list. But when I am greeted each time with the coming soon every time, I begin to lose faith. I don't mind waiting, but tell me how long I should wait. It's like watching 'Waiting for Godot' twice where nothing happens four times. Just let me know how long I have to wait, and I'll wait until then. The suspence is killing me!

Like the bus, I wait with a lot of other people out there. I am sure I am not the only one desparate to see what Ghost apps do!? Am I right? I want to see what this modern blogging platform can do with developers and apps going nuts on it, and I know I'm not alone! That's why I continue to wait. Ghost has too much riding on apps to let it fail. The communit eagerly waits.

Let four hours become 3, and go with a beta release... please!

There is this term that people say, but have no clue what it means.

blended learning.

So what do people say? 'let's just blend it', 'it's the best of face to face and online: blended', or the chic and trendy 'let's flip it'. I hear all this, all the time, all day, every day. Its then followed up with, I don't need support with my learning and teaching, I can say the word blended.

what are you talking about?

Blended isn't a word that encapsulates modern learning practices unto itself. It's way more than that. It's built on the years and years of research. 'But I have a PhD, I'm pretty sure I know what teaching is.' Really? Honestly? If they don't learn it's because they're not motivated right?

Go to your classes and say, 'OK students, here are the readings. Now go home read them, stay off Facebook, don't socialise and write 3,000 word articles and i'll give you a mark with no real feedback...'

It'll fly real well...

And while you do that, you lose respect of your students, and that one brilliant student drops out becuase their learning is clearly not important to you.

The problem with higher education isn't higher education, it's academics who have egos that span size of the galaxy, and can't get to grips with the fact that the next Nobel prize will be won by one of their students.

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Actually, one more: there is a disconnect between how important your research isn't, to how much a student pays for your feedback. Feedback isn't just words at the end of an essay, it's also a geniune interest in their lives. Be involved.

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