The final topic 5 of #ONL202 is lessons learnt during the course. I have found the course extremely valuable:

• It was very interesting to try out the PBL learning activities as a student
• The course was very rich in information on online teaching pedagogy, particularly for me that have been out of teaching for 7-8 years
•  I got a lot of hands-on experience in using internet tools

I thus overall feel that my confidence as a teacher in an online environment has been really boosted; I feel comfortable during zoom-meetings, I know that I will (eventually) master tools available on the internet that make my teaching more varied and more student-centered, and I know what the challenges are in digital teaching and I have ideas on how to overcome them.

More asynchronous and synchronous oral communication

One of the more practical issues that I will have to deal with in my teaching in online distance courses is the current focus on asynchronous text-based communication. There are important benefits with asynchronous text messages, such as allowing time for reflection before the actual communication, but the very important drawback is the decreased student engagement coming from the lack of social and cognitive presence (see the Community of Inquiry model) and maybe even more important, the lack of emotions and an affective learning climate in text-based communication (Boelens et al, 2017). I will try to find ways of introducing more asynchronous  oral communication, maybe by asking students to post films where they ask questions or comment on other students’ work, and I will try to introduce at least one synchronous digital meeting with the students during each distance course. Emotions and other social interactions are important for student active participation and for creating a sense of community that allows students to become confident learners. The importance of synchronous oral communication for learning and collaboration became obvious in the PBL-meetings during the course -thank you #PBL-group 10!

More diversified learning activities

My boosted confidence in using internet tools to foster student active participation has already changed my lecturing practice, as I have been using polls and padlets during lectures (via zoom) this autumn. For the distance courses where I lecture, I will continue to develop filmed lectures and exercises, and I will construct automated-assessed quizzes in the learning management system. I also plan to try to take advantage of the huge amount of data available on the internet to set up calculation and reporting tasks, if possible with an automated feedback. Online courses can offer students flexibility not only in time and space, but also in the pace of studies and the paths to the learning objectives (Boelens et al, 2017). I will try to find ways of increasing student autonomy by offering diverse and varied learning activities, so that they can choose the activities that interest them and fit their circumstances. This could be viewed as “a la carte” teaching, which is often recommended against, but I believe student autonomy and student control of their learning situation is important for their learning and also in future work situation.

References

Athabasca university homepage. CoI framework. Accessed 2020-11-09 at https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model

Boelens R, De Wever B, Voet M. Four key challenges to the design of blended learning: A systematic literature review. Educational Research Review 2017; 22: 1-18.