Journal Entry #3
Objective Questions: What have you learned about the topic?
Knowing our learners is very important. It does not matter if one is teaching face-to-face (F2F) or teaching online courses. In either case, what worked for F2F may or may not work online. Each discipline both have positives and negative aspects of it. The traditional classroom ways of presenting information may not be the most effective delivery method for students who have grown up with digital methods. And ultimately, the more ways an instructor can present ideas, the better chance an instructor will have by letting the learners have enthusiasm about what they are learning. The job of faculty needs to become more focused on designing learning experiences and interacting with students. While we, as faculty, consider ourselves as course designers, we still mostly deliver content. Now that technology has created a cheaper way to deliver content, faculty should spend more time finding the right entry point, creating a supportive environment, communicating high standards, and guiding student learning (Bowen, 2012, p. 246).
Taking an online course should be more than sitting in front of a computer. I have yet to teach an online course formally, many online courses have been taken. As online learners, we quit more quickly. In a classroom, most learners are comfortable enough to wait things out and ask the instructor to clarify things. There is no such social pressure to stay at the computer if an online course is not meeting expectations. Sometimes, as online learners, we are balancing the work-life ratio, and things do come up unpredictably. Since our course is asynchronous, in one of the VCC instructor videos, if we are ever stuck or need assistance, we are to inform the instructor immediately. What a great way to begin the personal interaction. Very fortunate enough that our instructor does provide on-going praise, encouragement, and tries to keep us engaged.
Students in an online course are in a different learning environment (at home, Second Cup, on a train) and are expecting different things from a classroom-based course. You need to understand the experience of learning from their point of view if the course is to be successful and you are to meet their expectations. So what does this mean? Ask yourself these questions about the students that will be taking the course:
What does this truly mean for me? I need to be ready to succeed. Online learning can be so incredible that some students start with an unrealistic vision. In reality, online courses require just as much, if not more, time and energy as traditional F2F classes. It also requires specific computer skills and learning strategies to succeed.
Knowing our learners is very important. It does not matter if one is teaching face-to-face (F2F) or teaching online courses. In either case, what worked for F2F may or may not work online. Each discipline both have positives and negative aspects of it. The traditional classroom ways of presenting information may not be the most effective delivery method for students who have grown up with digital methods. And ultimately, the more ways an instructor can present ideas, the better chance an instructor will have by letting the learners have enthusiasm about what they are learning. The job of faculty needs to become more focused on designing learning experiences and interacting with students. While we, as faculty, consider ourselves as course designers, we still mostly deliver content. Now that technology has created a cheaper way to deliver content, faculty should spend more time finding the right entry point, creating a supportive environment, communicating high standards, and guiding student learning (Bowen, 2012, p. 246).
Taking an online course should be more than sitting in front of a computer. I have yet to teach an online course formally, many online courses have been taken. As online learners, we quit more quickly. In a classroom, most learners are comfortable enough to wait things out and ask the instructor to clarify things. There is no such social pressure to stay at the computer if an online course is not meeting expectations. Sometimes, as online learners, we are balancing the work-life ratio, and things do come up unpredictably. Since our course is asynchronous, in one of the VCC instructor videos, if we are ever stuck or need assistance, we are to inform the instructor immediately. What a great way to begin the personal interaction. Very fortunate enough that our instructor does provide on-going praise, encouragement, and tries to keep us engaged.
Students in an online course are in a different learning environment (at home, Second Cup, on a train) and are expecting different things from a classroom-based course. You need to understand the experience of learning from their point of view if the course is to be successful and you are to meet their expectations. So what does this mean? Ask yourself these questions about the students that will be taking the course:
- When will learning occur? At what time of the day will the students be taking the course?
- What are their needs? Are these different from in-class students?
- What is their level of education? It is important to know their academic (particularly literacy and numeracy) level, computer skills and their ability to self-manage their learning.
- Does your audience already know something about the course content? Check out their prior knowledge. You must be clear on what they already know, what their incoming skills are and their “desired end state.”
- Will your audience benefit from taking the course? Getting to know their objectives and expectations in taking the course is very important. Particularly try to understand their expectations of engagement – how will they expect to interact with you, the materials and with other students?
- Is your audience already interested in the topic? If you discover they are not, you have to think how to engage them.
- What will the students be able to do with the content that you transmit through the course? What use will they put the course to?
- What are their expectations about assessment? Do they expect frequent or infrequent assignments and do they expect self-assessments as well as formative and summative assessments from you?
- Level of academic challenge – how challenging are the learning activities? Do you have the right balance between challenge and competence of your students?
- Active and collaborative learning – Do the students get to engage with others (collaboration) and solve problems and be creative? Are you thinking about activities, not just content?
- Student-faculty interaction – how and for what purpose will they interact with you? What have you designed into the learning that requires and enables this interaction?
- Enriching educational experiences – if the student wants to pursue an idea, line of thought or develop their skills, how have you enabled this online?
- Supportive environment – is the course and the students’ experience one of being supportive and enriching?
What does this truly mean for me? I need to be ready to succeed. Online learning can be so incredible that some students start with an unrealistic vision. In reality, online courses require just as much, if not more, time and energy as traditional F2F classes. It also requires specific computer skills and learning strategies to succeed.
Reflective Questions: What has been your experience with this topic? How do you identify with it?
Online learning is most effective when delivered by teachers experienced in their subject matter. The best way to maintain the connection between online education and the values of traditional education is through ensuring that online learning is “delivered” by teachers, fully qualified and interested in teaching online in a web-based environment (Feenberg, 1998, p.7).
For the courses that I teach F2F, I know my subjects. However, teaching F2F is entirely different from online instruction. Currently, for job opportunities, every single job will ask for online creation and development. About a year ago, I looked at two different institutions. I could take the Online/eLearning Instruction Certification Program at VCC that consists of only three courses with a combined 135 hours of coursework. At the University of Calgary, the Adult Learning in eLearning Program is 300 hours long. However, let’s faced it, time is money, so the VCC route it is. Not qualified at this time, many of the desired skill sets such as completion of Provincial Instructor Diploma or Adult Education Certificate to strong instructional design and training background to graphic design skills can be cross-off the list.
I agree with students taking the course: What is their level of education? It is important to know their academic (particularly literacy and numeracy) level, computer skills and their ability to self-manage their learning. I know for a fact, that some of the classmates in the BC PID program were very leery in taking the online courses because of the lack of computer skills or self-managing. One needs to be self-disciplined in taking the online courses. However, I truly believe if a learner is taking an online course, especially if it is a paid one, I would think they are vested in the course because they need to learn it for work or career opportunities. If the online course is free or maybe someone else is paying for it, the learner may not be interested in the online course and are just taking it for the sake of taking it!
Online learning is most effective when delivered by teachers experienced in their subject matter. The best way to maintain the connection between online education and the values of traditional education is through ensuring that online learning is “delivered” by teachers, fully qualified and interested in teaching online in a web-based environment (Feenberg, 1998, p.7).
For the courses that I teach F2F, I know my subjects. However, teaching F2F is entirely different from online instruction. Currently, for job opportunities, every single job will ask for online creation and development. About a year ago, I looked at two different institutions. I could take the Online/eLearning Instruction Certification Program at VCC that consists of only three courses with a combined 135 hours of coursework. At the University of Calgary, the Adult Learning in eLearning Program is 300 hours long. However, let’s faced it, time is money, so the VCC route it is. Not qualified at this time, many of the desired skill sets such as completion of Provincial Instructor Diploma or Adult Education Certificate to strong instructional design and training background to graphic design skills can be cross-off the list.
I agree with students taking the course: What is their level of education? It is important to know their academic (particularly literacy and numeracy) level, computer skills and their ability to self-manage their learning. I know for a fact, that some of the classmates in the BC PID program were very leery in taking the online courses because of the lack of computer skills or self-managing. One needs to be self-disciplined in taking the online courses. However, I truly believe if a learner is taking an online course, especially if it is a paid one, I would think they are vested in the course because they need to learn it for work or career opportunities. If the online course is free or maybe someone else is paying for it, the learner may not be interested in the online course and are just taking it for the sake of taking it!
Interpretive Questions: What does this new learning mean to you? What new insights do you now have? How has your thinking changed because of this learning?
With F2F, the verbal and non-verbal gestures, emotions, and the a-ha moments can be viewed in person, but with online courses, we do not physically see or interact in real-time with our students. That in itself creates a challenge. Part of the F2F instructing will come into play here as well. Such as creating an open, accessible environment for learners. One of the best methods for keeping students on task has been the creation of virtual office hours. Making myself available at a particular time to chat or video conferences have worked well (Skype).
Another method is to build and maintain an online community. An example, a group of learners with common interests who use the Internet (websites, email, instant messaging, etc.) to communicate, work together and pursue their interests over time. Another method that I could know my learners is asking them what they want to learn while keeping to the main structure of the course. I do this in my F2F classes on the very first day, and again on the 3rd class too. On the first day, I ask for introduction about themselves and what they hope to learn, and on the third day, I ask learners to write on post-it notes in what can be changed in the course. I could use discussion boards, padlets, forums to get my learners desires and feedback. I truly believe if one can make the course more personalized for the learners themselves, they will stay motivated to learn and engaged to continue learning.
With F2F, the verbal and non-verbal gestures, emotions, and the a-ha moments can be viewed in person, but with online courses, we do not physically see or interact in real-time with our students. That in itself creates a challenge. Part of the F2F instructing will come into play here as well. Such as creating an open, accessible environment for learners. One of the best methods for keeping students on task has been the creation of virtual office hours. Making myself available at a particular time to chat or video conferences have worked well (Skype).
Another method is to build and maintain an online community. An example, a group of learners with common interests who use the Internet (websites, email, instant messaging, etc.) to communicate, work together and pursue their interests over time. Another method that I could know my learners is asking them what they want to learn while keeping to the main structure of the course. I do this in my F2F classes on the very first day, and again on the 3rd class too. On the first day, I ask for introduction about themselves and what they hope to learn, and on the third day, I ask learners to write on post-it notes in what can be changed in the course. I could use discussion boards, padlets, forums to get my learners desires and feedback. I truly believe if one can make the course more personalized for the learners themselves, they will stay motivated to learn and engaged to continue learning.
Decisional Questions: How can this new learning be applied in your online course?
The following is based on both the instructor and learner roles:
Instructor: Being new to the online learning and creating courses, there isn’t a fast, a miraculous way in getting up to speed. There are online platforms offering opportunities to become an online instructor and create online courses. Udemy, Thinkific, and Skill Success are companies that one can think of who are the players on the market who are vying for the market share for online learners. Looking at a company called Thinkific; it is the all-in-one platform for independent experts and entrepreneurs to create, market and sell online courses. Thinkific will help create online courses and customize the course-landing page as an example. They will even suggest different ways of creating a course and how to market the classes. I can learn how to create a hybrid course from the professionals themselves, and transfer that learning in creating a hybrid course and make it into a hybrid at Langara College. With no training offered by Langara College CS, I do need to take the training into my own hands. The goal of a hybrid course is to combine the best features of face-to-face teaching with the best features of online learning to promote active, independent student learning and reduce class seat time. However, with me taking the VCC Online/eLearning program, I could also pick the brain of the head instructor in the program who teaches the three courses but as well gain the foundation, knowledge and skillsets directly related to this unique teaching and learning environment too.
Learner: Online learning communities can be educationally and personally fulfilling when students approach their courses with a commitment to initiate, respect, value, and fully engage in the material, dialogues, and group work. There is a tremendous influence of the online peer community. The benefits of peer learning can be easily applied to the online environment such as the Royal Roads degree programs. Royal Roads typically uses the cohort model of education with a group of classmates. There are many assignments with your classmates! Being in an online environment such as Royal Roads means your peers are there to help you, give you a boost or pep talk, community building, collaboration & networking opportunities to brainstorming ideas, relationships with people who have similar goals. On that note, as an adult online learner, we bring life experiences that enhance our discussions and force us to view the concepts with new perspectives. Sometimes the best that can be said in a class is that we learned more than we taught. Those are the classroom experiences that I treasure. The idea of transformative reflection can apply to us, even in our roles as instructors too.
The following is based on both the instructor and learner roles:
Instructor: Being new to the online learning and creating courses, there isn’t a fast, a miraculous way in getting up to speed. There are online platforms offering opportunities to become an online instructor and create online courses. Udemy, Thinkific, and Skill Success are companies that one can think of who are the players on the market who are vying for the market share for online learners. Looking at a company called Thinkific; it is the all-in-one platform for independent experts and entrepreneurs to create, market and sell online courses. Thinkific will help create online courses and customize the course-landing page as an example. They will even suggest different ways of creating a course and how to market the classes. I can learn how to create a hybrid course from the professionals themselves, and transfer that learning in creating a hybrid course and make it into a hybrid at Langara College. With no training offered by Langara College CS, I do need to take the training into my own hands. The goal of a hybrid course is to combine the best features of face-to-face teaching with the best features of online learning to promote active, independent student learning and reduce class seat time. However, with me taking the VCC Online/eLearning program, I could also pick the brain of the head instructor in the program who teaches the three courses but as well gain the foundation, knowledge and skillsets directly related to this unique teaching and learning environment too.
Learner: Online learning communities can be educationally and personally fulfilling when students approach their courses with a commitment to initiate, respect, value, and fully engage in the material, dialogues, and group work. There is a tremendous influence of the online peer community. The benefits of peer learning can be easily applied to the online environment such as the Royal Roads degree programs. Royal Roads typically uses the cohort model of education with a group of classmates. There are many assignments with your classmates! Being in an online environment such as Royal Roads means your peers are there to help you, give you a boost or pep talk, community building, collaboration & networking opportunities to brainstorming ideas, relationships with people who have similar goals. On that note, as an adult online learner, we bring life experiences that enhance our discussions and force us to view the concepts with new perspectives. Sometimes the best that can be said in a class is that we learned more than we taught. Those are the classroom experiences that I treasure. The idea of transformative reflection can apply to us, even in our roles as instructors too.
References
Bowen, J. A. (2012). Teaching Naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.
Ontario's Distance Education & Training Network. (2013, August 7). Getting to Know Your Students: Preparing to Develop and Teach Online and Blended Courses [PDF]. Thunder Bay, Ontario: Contact North.
Office of Academic Planning and Assessment & University of Massachusetts Amherst. (2002, September 12). Teaching and Learning Online Communication, Community, and Assessment [PDF]. Boston: University of Massachusetts.
Bowen, J. A. (2012). Teaching Naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.
Ontario's Distance Education & Training Network. (2013, August 7). Getting to Know Your Students: Preparing to Develop and Teach Online and Blended Courses [PDF]. Thunder Bay, Ontario: Contact North.
Office of Academic Planning and Assessment & University of Massachusetts Amherst. (2002, September 12). Teaching and Learning Online Communication, Community, and Assessment [PDF]. Boston: University of Massachusetts.