On Thursday Kevin Thompson and I went to Edge Hill University in Ormskirk to present the research paper Learning to learn through real world inquiry in the virtual paradigm (extended abstract here ). 

A number of emerging themes from our presentation (emerging from dialogue with national and international peers)

* Action research is a sought after approach to undergraduate learning but there is general apprehension about implementing this vehicular approach to learning, it needs to be explored and explained in an accessible way so that it can inform practice more widely. 
* Practitioners in HE are seeking ways to enable learners to negotiate problems – the action research approach to learning was welcomed as an authentic and scalable approach.
* Learning support is rarely called upon in the facilitated personalised learning approach because learners negotiate and control their learning – they do not have to navigate barriers but have control. 
* Distributed academic teams are rare, if not unheard of. The delivery team for the online degree is still an enigma. 
* Patchwork media is widely welcomed as a successor of patchwork media but the risk and challenge to barriers and systems in permitting media patchworks is perceived as evident. 
* The concepts packed in to the BA Learning Technology Research were welcomed as influential. But they need to unpacked to promote the potential benefits, replicability and appreciation, adaption and adoption. 

I was stunned at the reception that the work received. The online action research personalised work based degree has become normalised at Anglia Ruskin, in this was it is easy to forget the ground that is broken with this, to take for granted the unusual practices associated with this approach.