This has been a great journey. So many interesting people and so many useful things that we have looked into. The topics have been well chosen and prepared with good speakers and interesting reading materials. At first, I thought that twelve weeks would be a far too long period for the course, but it was actually rather perfect. You had time to get to know your group members and share your knowledge with each other. It felt a bit sad when the course ended, but we can of course keep in touch anyway.

ONL has taught me that the kick off of a course is very essential. How to get everyone on board so that they feel they know what it’s all about and what is expected of them. I think this applies to any meeting, project or event as well. There should always be an agenda, preferably sent out in advance, so that participants come prepared. This also indicates that you should respect everyone’s so valuable time.

Another thing I’ll take with me is the structure of the fish document. It is an excellent way to tackle a given task. It can of course be adapted to other platforms, that fit the needs at that time.

We discussed group sizes quite a lot and I think we concluded that groups should be rather small, especially when going to break out rooms. This way everyone will be heard. The time in break out rooms should also be long enough, so that the less talkative people get a chance to give their thoughts as well.

On the other hand, I think that in ONL it was important that the groups were big enough, so that the workload could be varied according to the busyness in everyone’s calendars. In my group, we were only five, which meant that we had to be moderators two or even three times. This can become a bit heavy, as there is still the “normal job” to be done.

As for tools, we used Padlet, Miro and Canva quite a lot. Some of them were new to me and I found them very useful. I will probably use them also in the future. The ONL course was an excellent way to get acquainted to new tools, also the ones used in other groups.

Listening to Kay Oddone on her videos on PLN, I think this is very much something we have done during our ONL course. She’s saying: “Personal learning network is a social space that is supported and extended through social software. People can connect with others and interact and access a wide range of information. They can develop strong connections which offer support and validation, connect with people from diverse backgrounds, who they may not know as well but who might contribute new exiting ideas and perspectives.”

All in all, I’m happy I attended this ONL course and will recommend it further within Arcada UAS.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8mJX5n3IEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqSBTr9DPH8