I must admit that among the five topics covered in our ONL course, this is the topic I struggled with the most. To be honest, it was taken up during our exam week and so I was only able to devote a minimum amount of time for this topic. Fortunately, all our discussions were recorded and we had FISH documents that could be consulted.

Our discussion centered on how to design an online course, what are the necessary ways to encourage students in an online set-up, and what helps to facilitate collaborative activities.

Our group discussed the Five Stage Model (Salmon, 2013), and found that successful online learning must be coupled with a structured framework with technological support such as a stable system or platform, messaging applications where participants and facilitators can send and receive information, and the use of synchronous and asynchronous conferencing. We also discussed the role of teaching in facilitating and the importance of giving feedback in the learning journey of participants.

The book “Get Inspired! A guide to successful teaching (Hemminki, M., et. al. 2013)” gives a summary of the stages in planning a course. This gives detailed information on what should be done in planning an online course.

To finalise our discussion, the group talked about ideas on how teachers can help support the development of students’ study skills. This was broken down to time management, persistence, self-regulations and asking for help. Recommendations were given on each topic, covering things to avoid, suggestions on what course design or ideas to use, and finally, individualized examples.

This topic has been a bit difficult to fully grasp for me, but I think it will be easier to understand when I try to put the concepts into practice. I am looking forward to applying what we discussed in our group to my own teaching.

Reference: Salmon, G (2013). The Five Stage Model. https://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html

Hemminki, M, Leppanen, M and Valovirta T. (2013). Get inspired! A guide to successful teaching. https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/11990/isbn9789526054865.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y