What helped my learning?

August 18, 2008 at 6:20 am · Filed under Uncategorized

What helped your learning?

I cannot thank my peers enough for their insightful feedback, research, and comments.  Having 7 other sets of eyes (along with Alex) to critique and force me to think more clearly made this so worthwile.

Using diigo to share links with each other broadened each of us to new sources of research.

What would have helped your learning more? What hindered your learning? What got in the way of your learning? How did you feel?

What would have been very enjoyable was having more “forced interaction” via voice.  I would have enjoyed more components where the voicethreads was used.  I really liked how this course was laid out; I don’t think (after the initial getting used to the technology) that anything hindered my learning whatsoever.  Changing my perspective of having everything be synchronous to an asynchronous world was the impetus behind me being so comfortable in the course.

Robert (2)

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What Have I Learned?

August 11, 2008 at 5:20 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

What did you learn?

I learned how important it is to structure my content around providing the students with teaching presence, not teacher presence.  I’ve realized I can rely on my students to guide each other and trust them more when I design a course that is effective.

How do you know you learned it?

I learned it by listening to feedback from my instructor, my peers, and by continually reviewing the content myself.  I’ve never felt so renewed in my teaching style.  Being able to reanalyze my beliefs and styles throughout this semester has enabled me to truly focus on providing a better product for my students.

Can you provide examples of things that you have learned? – be specific, give details.

Each module that I put together, I was forced to put myself into the eyes of a new student, a new online student, a fellow instructor evaluating my course, and also in the eyes of myself.  After designing what I thought was an effective online course, I received feedback on my discussions that “they really aren’t discussions, they are written assignments.”  I took this feedback positively, and looked at the outcomes I was seeking to get from my students, and realized that if I put together this portion of the course a bit differently, I could attain the same results.

I also learned how to reflect better on the course material, and use the material to provide my peers with insights that I probably couldn’t have prior to this course.  Reading over posts by my peers, and following up those posts with research (both from the in-course required materials, and from outside sources I researched on my own), I received high rankings on my posts that I never felt before that I could accomplish.  I pushed myself outside my comfort zone and was able to contribute to the course effectively through my strategy of enhancing the course material with outside research.

Robert (3)

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Re-thinking Theory to Practice

August 4, 2008 at 3:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

In moving from theory to practice, I had to let go of any thought of the in-class classroom (at least at first.)  This helped me get away from one thing I couldn’t let go of from F2F, which is the whole nature of the “syncronous” classroom.  Anderson describes this hangup as necessary to let go of because ” it constrains participants in terms of a single time that learners and teachers must be present.” (Anderson, 348). To get past this concept, I needed to rethink how I looked at discussions, and looked at ways to get the same content across without relying on time as being a necessary component (other than the two week time period.

Anderson also discusses my attempt to combine some of the more transferable elements of the online course in describing some of his best practices.  He states “many institutions, including Athabasca
University, are developing both paced and unpaced models of delivery to accommodate student learning preferences and needs. Within a single class, it is possible to offer optional synchronous activities…” (Anderson, 362).  I’ve been able to integrate this into my course as their are some activities that require a synchronous component in discussion (you must post a response to a written assignment before you post comments on anothers).

It made me also curious after reading bits of Anderson’s book to explore what exactly they do at Athabasca, and direct from their website (http://www.athabascau.ca/aboutAU/).  They break down barriers by:

• Time: Individualized study courses allow you to learn at your own pace. Flexible instruction frees you from the demands of specified class times and rigid institutional schedules. For undergraduate individualized study courses, there are no admissions deadlines; students may enrol year-round.
• Space: The University can be wherever you are, through individualized-study packages (student manual, study guide, textbook(s), and if appropriate CD-ROM, audiocassettes and videotapes) and the Internet.
• Past educational experience: Any person, 16 years of age or older, is eligible for admission to the University.
• Level of income: AU’s method of learning allows you to pursue part-time studies and a full-time career. No longer does a university education necessarily mean the loss of employment income.
• Recognizing prior learning: AU’s Prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) process permits you to seek credit for learning that you have acquired through your workplace or your life.

(excerpt from http://www.athabascau.ca/aboutAU/)

This has given me more to think about when it applies theory into practice.  How can I take into account students who may not have the time to complete all the activities?  How can I structure future courses to allow attendance at asynchronous times (i.e later start dates?)

Robert (4)

Sources:

Anderson, Terry.  Teaching in an Online Learning Context.  Retrieved 8/4/08 from

www.aupress.ca/books/Terry_Anderson/TerryAndersonEntireBook.pdf

Athabasca University.  About Athabasca University.  Retrieved 8/4/08 from

http://www.athabascau.ca/aboutAU/

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