At the end of every lesson, I ask my students to write a short reflection of their key takeaway for the lesson. Three guiding questions are: (1) What must I remember?, (2) What must I learn?, and (3) What must I do?

What must I remember? Everyone is different. I am used to designing courses and setting assignments that require students to collaborate and work as a team.  I find the experience of going through the ONL course as a student refreshing. I can empathize my students better now. For example, it takes time for a group of strangers with different backgrounds and cultures to get to know each other, lest to say to work together. Teachers expect their students to collaborate and work in teams, but teachers themselves do face challenges working in teams. We also had to handle emotions (disappointment, in particular) when value team members drop out because of time commitment.

What must I learn? New tools to facilitate online learning and creating community to promote open, collaborative and blended learning. I appreciate first-hand on discussion topics related to opening learning, online teaching and learning, and blended learning pedagogies.

The ONL curriculum is divided into 4 segments, each with clear lesson objectives, a few readings references, a hypothetical scenario problem and 1-hour webinar by an expert on the topic (usually prefaced by a short video introducing the topic). Each session is connected and builds on the previous one.

What must I do? Two ways in which I can apply what I learn.

1. Use technology to migrate to blended learning, while maintaining what have worked in traditional teaching pedagogy. I hope to apply this by creating a MOOC for NUS on Real Estate Development this year.

2. Apply the ONL platform to create a virtual community to connect PhD students and early career researchers in real estate across the world. I am currently serving as the President of the International Real Estate Society (IRES), which was established in 1993 to promote real estate research and education at the international level. IRES is a federation of six regional societies: namely, American Real Estate Society, European Real Estate Society, Pacific Rim Real Estate Society, Asian Real Estate Society, African Real Estate Society and Latin American Real Estate Society.