Academic & Digital Development

Abstract

Tomorrow is already here. In fact, it probably arrived yesterday. The pace of change in our modern, digital, global-world is relentless; we often seem to be a step behind. The internet now provides daily news, communications, maps, calculations, encyclopaedia, storage, health and well-being, and a host of other things. And yet in higher education we still seem to brandish pedestrian, passive forms of education, fit for a bygone era. The gap in understanding the educational potential of technology sometimes results in students being banned from using their phones in class, the argument being that it is a distraction. But in truth, it is not difficult to be distracted from a boring, passive lecture. So, what kind of a world are we preparing students for?

This talk will explore some underpinning beliefs about higher education and how our approaches to teaching may need to be reoriented if we are to prepare our students for a digital future.

Bio

Professor Linda Price is the Director of Academic and Organisational Development in the University of Bedfordshire. She is also a visiting Professor in Lund University in Sweden. She previously worked at Kingston University, London and the Open University, UK. Linda has over 28 years of experience in a range of national and international contexts. Her research investigates how organizations can holistically advance teaching and learning through sustainable and appropriate uses of educational technology. She has advised the Danish government on the future of higher education and has given numerous international keynotes on how to improve the quality of learning and teaching, supported by technology.

Abstract

The evidence is clear that Active, Blended, Collaborative learning works! So why isn’t this the orthodoxy in higher education? A significant challenge of implementing such innovations in higher education is the ability to scale the approach to large numbers of students and prevent the erosion of pedagogical principles with time.

Team-based learning (TBL) is a highly-structured, Active, Blended and Collaborative approach to learning. In this talk I will describe our experience of rolling out TBL on a large scale and our plans for sustaining this approach at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a joint school of Imperial College London and Nanyang technological University Singapore. The undergraduate medical program, established in 2013 and developed jointly by faculty at both institutions, uses TBL as its main learning and teaching strategy, replacing all face-to-face lectures. TBL accounts for over 60% of the curriculum in the first two years, and there is continued learning through TBL during campus teaching in the remaining years.

I will focus on three critical success factors: (1) "team-centric" learning spaces, to foster active, collaborative learning; (2) an e-learning ecosystem, seamlessly integrated to support all phases of the TBL process; and (3) teaching teams in which experts in the pedagogical process co-teach with experts in the subject matter.

Bio

Dr Preman Rajalingam is Assistant Dean, Educational Development and Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at LKCMedicine. He has master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering (The University of Queensland, 2004) and Education Research Methods (The University of Western Australia, 2007). He received his Ph.D. in Education Psychology from Monash University, Australia in 2012. 

Dr Rajalingam started his career as an engineer but quickly realised he’d rather be an educator. He is a passionate advocate of active and student centred approaches to learning, and an expert in the pedagogy of higher education; in particular Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Team-Based Learning (TBL). Prior to joining LKCMedicine he was a pioneering faculty member at the Republic Polytechnic, where he helped launch the Diploma in Biomedical Electronics, and also at the Duke-NUS medical school, where he was active in medical education evaluation and scholarship.

Having joined LKCMedicine in 2012, Dr Rajalingam was instrumental in setting up the TBL approach used at this institution. His other responsibilities include educational development, consulting on curriculum development and e-learning, and scholarship in medical education. As an expert in higher education, he regularly conducts local and international workshops on how to effectively employ innovative teaching methods within various subject disciplines. His current research interests include TBL, the psychology and neuroscience underpinning active learning approaches, and the evolving roles of teachers in higher education.

Research Interest: Team-based Learning, Faculty Development, Educational Psychology