One more surprise during the ONL course, because “design” only partially means what comes to mind when we think about design. Obviously, a properly designed interface and tool is very important, but this is just one aspect of designing (for and of) online and blended learning.
I am strongly inspired by the film and the webinar of Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes, Professor and Chair of Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University (Canada), specializing in online education. There are some quotes she mentioned and some reflections of her, I would like to make a comment on. I supposed that here there is also the possibility to find more about: Guide to Blended Learning.
As quoted by Dr. Cleveland-Innes, “neither the purpose, the methods, nor the population for whom education is intended today bear any resemblance to those on which formal education is historically based” (Pond, 2002). World is changing so fast, especially during las few decades. We, teachers, are challenged to prepare students to work and to live in the world of the present and of the future. So we are suppose to prepare them to something we had not been prepare to ourselves by the education system.
Another point is that “the expanding role of teacher for faculty in higher education can be managed by sharing some pieces of the role with instructional learning designers, web-analysts and learning technology experts”, which seems to be ideal situation. But it implies the awareness of such a need at the level of various departments, from IT to the highest structures of the university (rector, deans). There is now much to be done in this regard, even on such a basic level as awareness of that need by university decision makers.
Community of Inquiry is characterized as a framework with three types of presences: the social, the cognitive and the teaching one. I found it interesting that they are very similar, actually corresponding, to three types of learning outcomes in syllabuses in the form of knowledge, skills and social competences. And I really like the tips related to those types of presences, like to dedicate few minutes at the beginning of the class to make an informal conversation (“it is ok to be personal, but not private”) with the purpose to strengthen the feeling of belonging to a community. Or to let the students clear instructions about our presence’s hours in the online environment, just to avoid the pression of being available 24/7. A small thing, but it can change a lot.
I realised that my job as teacher is also to learn and even to become an expert in as previously abstract issue, as collaborative learning. And, just to conclude, Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes again: “if better I’m prepared, the better student will be prepared”. I understand this very broadly and by attending this ONL course, I feel that I am in the preparation process.
