Quite frankly, I did not really know what to expect when I enrolled for ONL202. It was a recommended course within my university’s pedagogical program for teachers and it seemed the perfect time to learn more about online and networked learning. So I just went for it. And maybe having no distinct expectations allowed me to approach the course with an open mind.

Anyway, as the course was introduced to us, I felt slightly insecure: Do I have enough knowledge on this subject to handle the upcoming topics? Will I have enough time for studying the topics collaboratively with peers? Will my teaching benefit from the learning outcomes? Of course, now that I look back, I know that there was no reason to be concerned. ONL202 was extremely well planned, structured and executed and turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. The course offered a lot of material to gain knowledge on both fundamentals of and tools for collaborative learning in an online environment. The design of the course allows to study as much or as little as one can manage. And unfortunately, I was not able to study all the material that was offered. But I still finish with the feeling to have acquired new knowledge and skills.

Another aspect of this course was that I got a better picture of myself and where I am located in this multi-dimensional space of online literacy, community learning, digital teaching tools, etc. Thus, I could identify my weak points that I should develop in the future.

So how to move forward? How to turn the lessons learnt into practice? Foremost the course itself was a formidable example of how to create an environment that enables and nurtures collaborative learning despite or because of a large number of students with very different backgrounds. Mentioned already a bit earlier: planning and structure are key. I do not expect that by 2021 I will be able to launch such a high-level online course myself. But I am more confident now that I can develop an online course over the coming years, improving it step-by-step each year that I will be teaching it.

A good practical starting point that stuck with me is a statement that Brian, another course participant of ONL202, shared with us during one of the PBL topics: “…if I were to emphasise one thing that I would like to remember from this article, it would be that the teacher needs to choose tasks that are best performed by a group, instead of creating tasks and then asking students to do them in groups.” Thank you everyone involved in ONL202. It was a pleasure!