I joined the Open Networked Learning Course because I wanted to hone my digital skills. Beforehand, I would always use Skype which caused so many problems that I would always choose meeting someone in person if possible. I heard about, but never used Padlet or other digital tools that would support collaborative/cooperative work online.

Now, after several weeks of the course, it has changed. I learnt that synchronous meetings online do not have to be painful or awkward, and that there are more digital tools out there than I would have ever imagined. Getting adjusted to and comfortable with the online meetings is perhaps increasingly important nowadays, as we aim at avoiding flights for the sake of the environment. It also saves time which we would normally spend travelling, and which we can spend on work or leisure instead of being stuck in between. I believe that the digital tools for online collaboration also serve the same purpose. The whiteboard that we would normally write on in the classroom, can be now on screens all over the world, as long as there is the network connection. The person that would need to write minutes from a meeting and put them together in a presentation is no longer on her own – all participants of the meeting can work on this presentation together, either in Canva or in Prezi, or can just gather and share own notes in a common Padlet.

Before the course, I was very enthusiastic about blended learning and the idea of, for instance, recording my lectures beforehand, uploading them to a digital platform, and only discussing them in the classroom. But I was not entirely sure how to engage the students in working together, in commenting on the lectures, asking questions and, in general, being active and present on the digital platform. I think that applying the tools that I learnt about and used in the ONL course could facilitate and support the students’ involvement in the online part of a blended learning course.

In my future practice, I will also use the FISh scheme (Focus-Investigate-Share), but only for case studies that end with a specific question which should be, in one way or another, answered by the group. I lacked a clear sense of direction in the ONL course, and although I know that the students in PBL group were responsible for selecting the focus, it did not work well for me and, over time, led to a decrease in motivation of filling in the FISh document. I see, however, the benefits of the problem-solving approach and it should work very well as long as the problem is clear for everyone involved in solving it.

It seems to me that the formula of the ONL course could be applied to other course designs, especially the ones that include too few meetings in the classroom to create a sense of community between the participants. I think that in such cases, it could be helpful to hold these meetings online. More frequent meetings online, especially while working on a problem together, are perhaps better for developing a sense of community than fewer meetings in the classroom.