Patrick Kelly

Manager of Learning and Instructional Design, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary, Canada

Self-recorded interview July 2020

Q Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about what you do?

PK I work as an instructional designer with the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary. In my role, I support instructors in course design and teaching in different environments, including both in the classroom and online.

Q What is the biggest challenge you’ve experienced when moving to remote teaching?

PK Although I have experienced many years of teaching online, the move to emergency remote teaching was eye-opening in terms of the many challenges and opportunities that came with it. The biggest challenge for me was how quick the move was, with courses going online in a matter of days or weeks. A well-planned online course typically takes months to design and develop, and instructors gather evidence-informed best practices to promote student engagement and meaningful learning. With the quick move to online, we did not have all the answers, and the university community had to come together to create the many online resources and supports for instructors who were transitioning to online teaching in a short time period.

Q What are the opportunities that are created by digital education?

PK The biggest opportunity that I saw in moving to digital education was the meaningful conversations about what good online learning is. Good education practices transcend the different learning environments, from the classroom to online, and these practices opened up discussions on topics like student engagement, quality, good assessment, and teaching and learning in general.

Q What software or tool do you use the most?

PK I spend most of my time on Zoom, D2L, and Microsoft Teams. Like the rest of the University of Calgary campus, I had to move all my workshops and programs online and rely on Zoom most of the time. With the mix of audio, video, and chat interactions, I find the patterns of engagement fascinating. When I have an activity or question in my lesson, I get responses in all these ways, which at first I found challenging. Now I plan for these methods. I’m still getting used to the silence in the Zoom sessions—unlike in a classroom, where I can wait comfortably for someone to speak up.

Q What is your favourite resource for teaching online?

PK My favourite resource is learning from the campus community. Hearing the experiences, reflections, and questions from across the campus helps to direct my work and interest in online learning. Everyone is willing to share their resources and experiences to help others, and the Taylor Institute is compiling many of these on the Teaching Continuity website.

Q What do you expect higher education to look like in ten years’ time?

PK With so many external factors shaping the landscape of higher education today, I see trends in the workplace experience becoming more accessible and playing a key role in a degree. Furthermore, more research experience can be incorporated at the undergraduate level. Micro-credentialing is another area for growth, which could impact the pathway by which students earn degrees with more flexibility and options. What is certain is that online learning is going to have a major role to play in how we work toward creating the most meaningful learning experiences possible.

Reflection

What an adventurous year 2020 was. It was a year full of challenges, emotions, opportunities, problem solving, and deep discussions as we continue to voyage into unknown times. The initial response to the pandemic through emergency remote teaching wasn’t ideal, yet it sparked many discussions around teaching and learning, such as academic equity and good student assessment. Moving all courses online for the 2020/2021 academic year was a huge achievement from everyone, and it taught us some important lessons. Those who had already begun using alternate pedagogies such as blended or flipped learning before the pandemic found themselves being able to reuse online material and were able to stick with much of their original course design. Some of our earlier best practices for online learning were challenged as both students and instructors faced the reality of the workload anxiety, instruction and learning as entire course loads and programs went online for the very first time. Although there was a mix of greatness and struggles during the pandemic, I for one will hold onto those lessons and experiences as we move forward so I can continue to adapt in a changing environment.

As I reflect on the past year and think toward the future, a key issue for me is to intentionally plan for disruptions and uncertainty. Education will continue to need to be flexible and adaptable as we will be faced with a variety of external pressures, including the pandemic. When faced with challenging situations in higher education, my default response was always “use good pedagogy” and many of the strategies for adaptable and flexible learning are based on good pedagogy, with the caveat that it depends on the context, such as large enrolment courses.

This brings me to adaptable course design, which is a relatively unexplored approach to designing and teaching a course. Adaptable course design is all about planning ahead and identifying course elements that can be transitioned to the online environment when faced with disruptions. It is about the ability to maintain continuity for students and the instructor, using assessment strategies that can be completed in different modalities, and leveraging active learning strategies that can engage students, whether in the classroom or in online sessions. And since many of us have already created online content, activities, and assessments during this past year, why not leverage those and take advantage of the opportunities that online learning provides us to be intentionally adaptable as we move forward.

I look forward to the continued discussions around good pedagogy and how the pandemic has shaped higher education and brought to light some of the traditional elements that we were holding on to out of habit. Looking to the future, we have opportunities to rediscover the nature of teaching and learning in higher education.

About

Patrick Kelly is a part of the learning technology & design team and the manager of learning and instructional design at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary, Canada.

His role is to coordinate the instructional design group, collaborating with instructors to design online and face-to-face courses that engage students and promote deep and meaningful learning experiences. He facilitates the Teaching Online Program, and Course Design Program, and coordinates pedagogical support for educational technology.

Patrick’s career at the University of Calgary spans more than fifteen years and includes extensive experience with classroom and online learning. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biomechanics and a master’s degree in education technology.