I started my career as a lecturer 2009 with only in class courses. In 2015 I started recording a few of my lectures. I wasn’t used to it, and my students weren’t used to it either. Slowly I added more and more online. In 2017 90% of my classes were online and of course with covid 2020 came 100% online. I still have the same exams, and the students are actually doing better now than they did with more in classroom teaching.
Cleveland-Innes (2021) talked about the discrepancy between student and faculty preferences when it comes to both face-to-face as well as online activities. In class students prefer lectures and discussions, while faculty put discussion and collaboration on top. Online the students want quizzes and homework and faculty’s two top choices are quizzes and discussions. I guess discussions in class and quizzes online are something everyone agrees on. My own students often ask for more quizzes.
Four key challenges are highlighted by Boelens’ et al. review article (2017). These are incorporating flexibility, stimulating interaction (usually done by face-to-face introductory meeting), facilitating students’ learning processes (commonly through online instructional activities) and fostering an affective learning climate. According to Boelens’ et al little attention is paid to foster affective learning climate. I feel that in higher education also the students themselves are responsible for the learning climate, not only the faculty. Be nice to each other and help each other out if needed. That should go without saying, not only for courses, but in general. Unfortunately, even one or two students can ruin the climate for everyone. It is even more difficult for faculty to control the climate in MOOC courses where there are so many students in one course.
The world is changing fast and has been. Therefore we need to tech students different things now, compared to what they had to be thought ten or twenty years ago in order to prepare students, graduate, work, live, survive and thrive in a digital society (Cleveland-Innes 2020). It is important that we teach our students where to find information and what information to rely on, after all critical thinking is considered the hallmark of higher education (Vaugan et al 2013), but even more so it is important for the students to learn how to be compassionate and kind and how to interact with one another.
How to make other people feel good and realizing that when you are caring, considerate and affectionate you will feel better yourself as well. This is something I personally feel is forgotten, the skill of being human to one another. Even though we study and work a lot online, the human mind and human feelings are not digital nor computerized (yet). A community of inquiry in higher education is booth a collaborative and an individually constructivist learning experience (Vaugan et al. 2013). Lipman (2003) is emphasizing that students listen to each other with respect, build on the ideas exchanged within the group, challenge each other and offer reasons to opinions that are unsupported, the students should also help each other with drawing conclusions from what has been discussed and identified by the students reasonings.
I realized once again when reading Vaugan et al. (2013) that the term face-to-face is often used as the opposite to online learning. I don’t agree with that in this day and age. I do face-to-face online as well. It is even more face-to-face since you’re so close on zoom, teams, collaborate, FaceTime or whatever program you’re using. Personally I call it in classroom/on campus vs online learning.
Vaugan et al. (2013) say the goal of blended learning is to bring the synchronous in class communication together with the text-based online asynchronous communication and to academically challenge students in ways that aren’t possible through only one or the other. But why is the book (Vaugan et al 2013) insinuating that the verbal communication needs to take place in the physical classroom, why not face-to-face online?
Whatever we call it face-to-face / in classroom and online learning they both have their pros and cons. Since I am teaching very theoretical subjects, I feel online teaching and learning is very suitable and the students seem to like the flexibility that the online courses give them. But with more practical classes, I do see it can be a challenge to do everything online. I think everyone agrees, that a mix of both are usually good and I am looking forward to the time when this pandemic has come to a halt and I can meet my students on campus again, even if it only is for 10% of my classes.
References:
Boelens, R., De Wever, B., & Voet, M. (2017). Four key challenges to the design of blended learning: A systematic literature review. Educational Research Review, 22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.06.001
Cleveland-Innes M. (2021, April 22). ONL211 topic 4 – Intro video Marti Cleveland-Innes. [Video] Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlIbs3EFnIM
Cleveland-Innes M. (2020, Nov). Roles, Learning Design, and Community of Inquiry. [Video] https://athabascau.adobeconnect.com/p9d6l6c332hb/
Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in education (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton: AU Press.
