LEGO related publications by Chrissi Nerantzi
International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 2018
James, A. and Nerantzi, C. (2018) Guest Editors: A Potpourri Of Innovative Applications Of LEGO® ... more James, A. and Nerantzi, C. (2018) Guest Editors: A Potpourri Of Innovative Applications Of LEGO® In Learning, Teaching And Development, International Journal of Management and Applied Research, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 153-156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18646/2056.54.18-011
This special issue of the International Journal for Management and Applied Research is dedicated to LEGO® and a method of using it which has been established for almost 20 years and which is well known in business and management circles. While associated with, and widely used for, the development of executive and strategic thinking to facilitate change, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is increasingly being used in higher education to explore complex issues and questions and engage learners and academic staff in more hands-on approaches to learning and development. As this collection of papers reveals, its techniques are being widely used and adapted in diverse contexts; its effects and outcomes are also being considered through a range of lenses, including the critically reflective and the research-based. The photographs included bring some of the contributions alive and provide valuable visual insights. This issue reinforces for newcomers to LEGO SERIOUS PLAY key aspects of its purpose and application. As you read through the different contributions you will notice the dense theoretical underpinnings present in most, if not all, papers. Some sources are repeatedly cited, while the inclusion of others indicates the extent of literature on the method now available. Theoretical considerations are also enriched across the papers by an intermingling of the subject-related and pedagogic, as well as those associated with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY and LEGO more widely. Our contributors are located in different countries, disciplines and professional areas, and as a result you will find competing views, perspectives and experiences alongside commonalities of belief and position. You will also find tensions between the serious and the playful, constraint and freedom, recurring in the many motifs. There is both unity and diversity of different theoretical and practical domains, including considerations of:
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International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 2018
Nerantzi, C. (2018) LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® As An Affective Experience In Doctoral Researchers’ Suppo... more Nerantzi, C. (2018) LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® As An Affective Experience In Doctoral Researchers’ Support: Tensions And New Freedoms, International Journal of Management and Applied Research, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 290-303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18646/2056.54.18-022
This paper reports some of the findings linked to a small scale phenomenographic study in which it was explored how LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® (LSP) is experienced by coaches working in higher education as supervisors of doctoral students, are involved in doctoral researchers' development or doctoral supervisors' development. Data was gathered through five individual semi-structured interviews. Through the iterative phenomenographic analysis three categories of description emerged, 'LSP as a relational experience', 'LSP as an affective experience' and 'LSP as a facilitative experience' and their limited qualitatively different variations. The findings in relation to 'LSP as an affective experience' created tensions relating to participation, expression and the material itself as well as new freedoms that were invigorating such as opening-up, engaging in playful explorations and combining more than one method.
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Nerantzi, C., Moravej, H. & Johnson, F. (2015) Play brings openness or using a creative approach ... more Nerantzi, C., Moravej, H. & Johnson, F. (2015) Play brings openness or using a creative approach to evaluate an undergraduate unit and move forward together, JPAAP, Vol 3, No. 2, pp. 82-91, available at http://jpaap.napier.ac.uk/index.php/JPAAP/article/view/141
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media-enhanced learning by Chrissi Nerantzi
International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 2018
Academic development has become a core element across many higher education institutions around t... more Academic development has become a core element across many higher education institutions around the globe, supported by management strategic plans and educational agendas. It has been linked with job satisfaction, student retention and teaching quality. However, it is important for academic development to harness the needs and aspirations of academic staff more fully, meet these and drive innovation in learning and teaching. To address this gap, this article introduces the FLEX initiative, developed at Manchester Metropolitan University in early 2014 and offered since then. This discussion and associated reflections are timely as the FLEX initiative is currently being reviewed.. The article is based on an invited webinar offered by the authors on the 11 th of April 2018 for the Higher Education Academy/AdvanceHE and specifically for the Flexible Learning Group to share with the wider community what FLEX is and how it works. The aim is to present a reflective narrative and tell the story of the designer of FLEX and an academic from the same institution who engaged with FLEX. This reflective dialogue informs specific recommendations that can support academic developers in managing relevant programmes of study in higher education.
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Nerantzi, C (2013) “Sell your bargains” Playing a mixed-reality game with academics to spice-up t... more Nerantzi, C (2013) “Sell your bargains” Playing a mixed-reality game with academics to spice-up teaching in HE, in: Baek, Y and Whitton, N. (Eds.) Cases on Digital Game-Based Learning: Methods, Models and Strategies, Information Science Reference, Hershey: IGI Global, pp. 131-144.
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Nerantzi, C (2013) Using Voicethread to enable media-rich online collaborative learning, in: Midd... more Nerantzi, C (2013) Using Voicethread to enable media-rich online collaborative learning, in: Middleton, A. (ed) Digital Voices. A collaborative exploration of the recorded voice in post-compulsory education, MELSIG publication, pp. 160-165.
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Nerantzi, C (2013) Tutorial Audio Feedback, in: Middleton, A. (ed) Digital Voices. A collaborativ... more Nerantzi, C (2013) Tutorial Audio Feedback, in: Middleton, A. (ed) Digital Voices. A collaborative exploration of the recorded voice in post-compulsory education, MEL SIG publication, pp. 128-131.
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open education publications by Chrissi Nerantzi
Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2021
We educators may have been obsessed with perfection, expertise, polished experiences and performa... more We educators may have been obsessed with perfection, expertise, polished experiences and performances too much for too long. Where is the human? Ironed out? This provocative opinion paper is a collection of the authors' reflections based on experiences, observations, ideas and readings. We invite educators to consider and explore what may help them (re-) connect with their inner selves and others socially, emotionally and cognitively in the context of learning and teaching in HE during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. With reference to a collaborative creative initiative that was implemented under the auspices of the Global OER Graduate Network, the paper aims to instigate a discussion around the importance of building and sustaining effective relationships in HE. These are perceived as the drivers that potentially boost participation and student success using collaboration, creativity and openness. Working in partnership with students, recognising and accepting individuality as well as creating opportunities for connection can support the operationalisation of these reflections in practice.
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Compass Journal, 2018
Nerantzi, C. Jackson, N. J., Mouratoglou, N. and Baff, D. (2018) Learning and teaching partnershi... more Nerantzi, C. Jackson, N. J., Mouratoglou, N. and Baff, D. (2018) Learning and teaching partnership narratives relating to the open course Creativity for Learning in Higher Education (#creativeHE), Compass Journal, London: University of Greenwich, Volume 11, No. 2, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21100/compass.v11i2.794
In this article, the authors share their experiences about partnership learning and teaching approaches they experienced within the open course 'Creativity for Learning in Higher Education' (#creativeHE), linked to the postgraduate module offered by the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Manchester Metropolitan University in collaboration with the Creative Academic, London Metropolitan University and colleagues from other institutions in the UK and further afield, such as the University of Macedonia in Greece. Through reflective narratives from student and staff learners on the course, a facilitator and an organiser, insights are gained about their experience. Lessons learnt are shared, so as to inform future iterations of #creativeHE, and may also be useful for others who consider opening up courses in higher education.
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In this opinion piece, I offer an alternative vision to the TEF that positions universities at th... more In this opinion piece, I offer an alternative vision to the TEF that positions universities at the heart of communities and society through greater collaboration among higher education institutions and involving the wider public. I argue that this approach is a rewarding way for academic staff to innovate and develop their teaching capabilities, so as to improve the student experience and outcomes at universities. This contrasts with a TEF model of measurement of indicators as proxies for teaching quality. Boundary-crossing professional development Learning and development should be lifelong, lifewide and lifedeep (Bell, 2012) and universities and their people play a key role in modelling such ways of being and becoming (Barnett, 2007). We academic staff have a passion for experimenting, creating, debating and sharing ideas and knowledge that helps others, the community, and society more widely. It's vital that, now and in the future, we find imaginative ways to inspire staff and students to teach and learn within and across subject boundaries; perhaps only this inter-disciplinary collaboration will lead to those novel connections of ideas and people that generate discovery and drive innovation. The UK HE system is already ahead of many other countries in recognising the importance of quality teaching: we have dedicated in-house teaching qualifications, nationally-recognised professional standards and institutional provision for initial and continuous professional development. To support these activities, most UK universities have an academic development unit. Even so, academic developers are often criticised for being slow both to embrace new pedagogies and technologies and to encourage in staff a willingness to share ideas, reflect, act upon insights and innovate (Education Technology Action Group, 2015). In this context, there is now greater pressure to raise the quality of teaching and achieve excellence, in the shape of formulae linked to financial incentives – something guaranteed to increase competition among HEIs (BIS, 2016a; 2016b). The TEF is a UK Government initiative that aims to achieve teaching excellence through published benchmarking of HEI with the added incentive of linking results to the opportunity to increase student fees. This has the potential for yet greater competition between universities. Just what will be the impact of such pressures upon students and staff in
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Chrissi is an experimenter, open practitioner, academic developer and PhD student. She works in t... more Chrissi is an experimenter, open practitioner, academic developer and PhD student. She works in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. She has had a varied life and career path so far across three countries and cultures. She has seeded many open professional development projects such as the TLC, FDOL, BYOD4L, #LTHEchat, FOS, #creativeHE, #101creativeideas and turned them into collaborative and community-driven initiatives that enable them to grow and aim to bring diverse people and ideas together. Chrissi is a member of the Lifewide Education team and co-founder of Creative Academic. She was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the HEA in 2015, was one of the five finalists of the Open Education Europa Teacher Contest by the EC in 2015 and the runner-up ALT Learning Technologist of the Year in 2016. Visit Chrissi's blog at https://chrissinerantzi.wordpress.com/ to find out more about her work. The quotation above is written on a piece of wood that has been hanging above the inside of my front door for past six years. It is a great reminder for all of us to appreciate and enjoy an exploration in the moment and celebrate the little achievements we are making in our lives without constantly focusing too much on the end, the destination... As a professional educator life is a constant journey of exploration as we continually update our knowledge and skills, try out new ideas, approaches and new technologies and tools. And we learn so much with and from others, through sharing, discussion, creation, research and debate. This process of exploration fills me with enormous excitement and gives me wings to experiment and play with what is novel and nobody else has tried before. In this article I want to share one area of my life in which I have undertaken many creative explorations namely my PhD journeys. And yes, it is a plural, which is perhaps less common… Both explorations described in this article are driven by my curiosity to learn and discover something new that will be valuable for others and my own practice and bring new insights for anyone who is interested. I hope that the discoveries I make will tickle imaginations to actively experiment and take our understandings in specific areas to new levels and enable us to be bold and creative. My drive to create new paths where others haven't been before using imagination, resourcefulness and playfulness is a cocktail that boosts my determination to enjoy the journey and continue my quest to discover the gems on my journey of exploration. My PhD quests have offered me new opportunities to discover and connect, ideas and people in an area that hasn't been explored before. Going into the unknown awakens my whole body and mind and makes me come more alive. It all started in 1996. While working for publishers and enjoying translating mainly children's literature, I was encouraged by a former tutor at the Ionian University of Corfu where I did my undergraduate degree to start a full-time PhD in the area I was translating… children's literature. This was such a great opportunity and too good to say no. I continued translating books throughout my studies and therefore combining research and practice, and actually my practice was constantly informed by my research and the little discoveries I was making. This PhD journey was smooth and took me through three scholarships to work and research at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germersheim) and Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt) in Germany and the Internationales Institut für Kinder-und Jugendliteratur und Leseforschung (Vienna) in Austria. I learnt so much and worked systematically on my research during those stays. I also had the opportunity to teach translation at one of the biggest
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Nerantzi, C. and Hannaford, L. (2016) Flipping the classroom using teams. A case study from Acade... more Nerantzi, C. and Hannaford, L. (2016) Flipping the classroom using teams. A case study from Academic Development, in: Whatley, J. and Nerantzi, C. (eds.) (2016) Teaching with Team Projects in Higher Education, Santa Rosa, CA: Informing Science Press, pp. 119-130.
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Nerantzi, C. and Withnell, N. (2016) We just ‘clicked’ or sharing team experiences, a reflective ... more Nerantzi, C. and Withnell, N. (2016) We just ‘clicked’ or sharing team experiences, a reflective conversation between a learner and a facilitator of an open online course. In: Whatley, J. and Nerantzi, C. (eds.) (2016) Teaching with Team Projects, Santa Rosa, CA: Informing Science Press, pp. 43-60.
In this reflective dialogic paper a participant and a facilitator capture their experiences and reflections as a member of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) team and a facilitators' team during the open course Flexible, Distance and Online Learning (FDOL). FDOL was organised and offered by three academic developers as an experiment to trial a collaborative open online learning approach based on a simplified Problem-Based Learning model called Collaborative Open Online Learning (COOL) Focus-Investigate-Share (FISh). FDOL was offered to teachers in Higher Education (HE) from around the world from February to May 2013. The course acted as an informal Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunity and attracted in total eighty HE practitioners from the UK, Sweden, and other countries around the world. Personal reflections are interwoven into the conversation and frame three thematic areas: people, media, and experience. Conclusions are drawn from the variation of the experience presenting two lived perspectives. Ideas are shared on how learning and facilitation was organ-ised and experienced. Through the reflective conversation deeper insight is gained into how working and learning in different teams within the open online FDOL course was lived. The learner and facilitator perspectives and reflections are brought together and recommendations are made to how working in open online teams in the context of col-laborative learning can be enhanced further.
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Nerantzi, C. (2016) My reflections on #creativeHE, in: Creative Academic Magazine, Issue 4, Janua... more Nerantzi, C. (2016) My reflections on #creativeHE, in: Creative Academic Magazine, Issue 4, January 2016, pp. 57-60, available at http://www.creativeacademic.uk/magazine.html
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Nerantzi, C. & Gossman, P. (2015) Academic Development, a developers society, in: Educational Dev... more Nerantzi, C. & Gossman, P. (2015) Academic Development, a developers society, in: Educational Development Magazine, London: SEDA, 16.4, Dec 2015, pp. 21-22
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Yeager, C. & Nerantzi, C. (eds.) (2015): Open facilitators’ stories, Annual Collection 2014, Lear... more Yeager, C. & Nerantzi, C. (eds.) (2015): Open facilitators’ stories, Annual Collection 2014, Learning and Teaching in Action Journal, Volume 11, Issue 1, MMU in collaboration with the Open Knowledge Foundation. available at http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/index.php
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Nerantzi, C. (2015) ‘The importance of social glue in open facilitation, a personal
exploration’,... more Nerantzi, C. (2015) ‘The importance of social glue in open facilitation, a personal
exploration’, Learning and Teaching in Action, 11 (1) pp.17-26. Manchester Metropolitan
University (Online). Available at: http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/Vol11Iss1
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Nerantzi, C. (2015) Who says academics don’t do CPD? Connecting practitioners and developing toge... more Nerantzi, C. (2015) Who says academics don’t do CPD? Connecting practitioners and developing together through distributed cross-institutional collaborative CPD in the open, in: Rennie, F. (ed.) The distributed university, JPAAP Special Issue, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp.98-108, available at http://jpaap.napier.ac.uk/index.php/JPAAP/article/view/136
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LEGO related publications by Chrissi Nerantzi
This special issue of the International Journal for Management and Applied Research is dedicated to LEGO® and a method of using it which has been established for almost 20 years and which is well known in business and management circles. While associated with, and widely used for, the development of executive and strategic thinking to facilitate change, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is increasingly being used in higher education to explore complex issues and questions and engage learners and academic staff in more hands-on approaches to learning and development. As this collection of papers reveals, its techniques are being widely used and adapted in diverse contexts; its effects and outcomes are also being considered through a range of lenses, including the critically reflective and the research-based. The photographs included bring some of the contributions alive and provide valuable visual insights. This issue reinforces for newcomers to LEGO SERIOUS PLAY key aspects of its purpose and application. As you read through the different contributions you will notice the dense theoretical underpinnings present in most, if not all, papers. Some sources are repeatedly cited, while the inclusion of others indicates the extent of literature on the method now available. Theoretical considerations are also enriched across the papers by an intermingling of the subject-related and pedagogic, as well as those associated with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY and LEGO more widely. Our contributors are located in different countries, disciplines and professional areas, and as a result you will find competing views, perspectives and experiences alongside commonalities of belief and position. You will also find tensions between the serious and the playful, constraint and freedom, recurring in the many motifs. There is both unity and diversity of different theoretical and practical domains, including considerations of:
This paper reports some of the findings linked to a small scale phenomenographic study in which it was explored how LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® (LSP) is experienced by coaches working in higher education as supervisors of doctoral students, are involved in doctoral researchers' development or doctoral supervisors' development. Data was gathered through five individual semi-structured interviews. Through the iterative phenomenographic analysis three categories of description emerged, 'LSP as a relational experience', 'LSP as an affective experience' and 'LSP as a facilitative experience' and their limited qualitatively different variations. The findings in relation to 'LSP as an affective experience' created tensions relating to participation, expression and the material itself as well as new freedoms that were invigorating such as opening-up, engaging in playful explorations and combining more than one method.
media-enhanced learning by Chrissi Nerantzi
open education publications by Chrissi Nerantzi
In this article, the authors share their experiences about partnership learning and teaching approaches they experienced within the open course 'Creativity for Learning in Higher Education' (#creativeHE), linked to the postgraduate module offered by the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Manchester Metropolitan University in collaboration with the Creative Academic, London Metropolitan University and colleagues from other institutions in the UK and further afield, such as the University of Macedonia in Greece. Through reflective narratives from student and staff learners on the course, a facilitator and an organiser, insights are gained about their experience. Lessons learnt are shared, so as to inform future iterations of #creativeHE, and may also be useful for others who consider opening up courses in higher education.
In this reflective dialogic paper a participant and a facilitator capture their experiences and reflections as a member of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) team and a facilitators' team during the open course Flexible, Distance and Online Learning (FDOL). FDOL was organised and offered by three academic developers as an experiment to trial a collaborative open online learning approach based on a simplified Problem-Based Learning model called Collaborative Open Online Learning (COOL) Focus-Investigate-Share (FISh). FDOL was offered to teachers in Higher Education (HE) from around the world from February to May 2013. The course acted as an informal Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunity and attracted in total eighty HE practitioners from the UK, Sweden, and other countries around the world. Personal reflections are interwoven into the conversation and frame three thematic areas: people, media, and experience. Conclusions are drawn from the variation of the experience presenting two lived perspectives. Ideas are shared on how learning and facilitation was organ-ised and experienced. Through the reflective conversation deeper insight is gained into how working and learning in different teams within the open online FDOL course was lived. The learner and facilitator perspectives and reflections are brought together and recommendations are made to how working in open online teams in the context of col-laborative learning can be enhanced further.
exploration’, Learning and Teaching in Action, 11 (1) pp.17-26. Manchester Metropolitan
University (Online). Available at: http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/Vol11Iss1
This special issue of the International Journal for Management and Applied Research is dedicated to LEGO® and a method of using it which has been established for almost 20 years and which is well known in business and management circles. While associated with, and widely used for, the development of executive and strategic thinking to facilitate change, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is increasingly being used in higher education to explore complex issues and questions and engage learners and academic staff in more hands-on approaches to learning and development. As this collection of papers reveals, its techniques are being widely used and adapted in diverse contexts; its effects and outcomes are also being considered through a range of lenses, including the critically reflective and the research-based. The photographs included bring some of the contributions alive and provide valuable visual insights. This issue reinforces for newcomers to LEGO SERIOUS PLAY key aspects of its purpose and application. As you read through the different contributions you will notice the dense theoretical underpinnings present in most, if not all, papers. Some sources are repeatedly cited, while the inclusion of others indicates the extent of literature on the method now available. Theoretical considerations are also enriched across the papers by an intermingling of the subject-related and pedagogic, as well as those associated with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY and LEGO more widely. Our contributors are located in different countries, disciplines and professional areas, and as a result you will find competing views, perspectives and experiences alongside commonalities of belief and position. You will also find tensions between the serious and the playful, constraint and freedom, recurring in the many motifs. There is both unity and diversity of different theoretical and practical domains, including considerations of:
This paper reports some of the findings linked to a small scale phenomenographic study in which it was explored how LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® (LSP) is experienced by coaches working in higher education as supervisors of doctoral students, are involved in doctoral researchers' development or doctoral supervisors' development. Data was gathered through five individual semi-structured interviews. Through the iterative phenomenographic analysis three categories of description emerged, 'LSP as a relational experience', 'LSP as an affective experience' and 'LSP as a facilitative experience' and their limited qualitatively different variations. The findings in relation to 'LSP as an affective experience' created tensions relating to participation, expression and the material itself as well as new freedoms that were invigorating such as opening-up, engaging in playful explorations and combining more than one method.
In this article, the authors share their experiences about partnership learning and teaching approaches they experienced within the open course 'Creativity for Learning in Higher Education' (#creativeHE), linked to the postgraduate module offered by the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Manchester Metropolitan University in collaboration with the Creative Academic, London Metropolitan University and colleagues from other institutions in the UK and further afield, such as the University of Macedonia in Greece. Through reflective narratives from student and staff learners on the course, a facilitator and an organiser, insights are gained about their experience. Lessons learnt are shared, so as to inform future iterations of #creativeHE, and may also be useful for others who consider opening up courses in higher education.
In this reflective dialogic paper a participant and a facilitator capture their experiences and reflections as a member of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) team and a facilitators' team during the open course Flexible, Distance and Online Learning (FDOL). FDOL was organised and offered by three academic developers as an experiment to trial a collaborative open online learning approach based on a simplified Problem-Based Learning model called Collaborative Open Online Learning (COOL) Focus-Investigate-Share (FISh). FDOL was offered to teachers in Higher Education (HE) from around the world from February to May 2013. The course acted as an informal Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunity and attracted in total eighty HE practitioners from the UK, Sweden, and other countries around the world. Personal reflections are interwoven into the conversation and frame three thematic areas: people, media, and experience. Conclusions are drawn from the variation of the experience presenting two lived perspectives. Ideas are shared on how learning and facilitation was organ-ised and experienced. Through the reflective conversation deeper insight is gained into how working and learning in different teams within the open online FDOL course was lived. The learner and facilitator perspectives and reflections are brought together and recommendations are made to how working in open online teams in the context of col-laborative learning can be enhanced further.
exploration’, Learning and Teaching in Action, 11 (1) pp.17-26. Manchester Metropolitan
University (Online). Available at: http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/ltia/Vol11Iss1