With one day left of 2020 and the ONL202 course completed, in this post I look back to summarize and critically reflect on my learning and development thanks to the course. In a nutshell, it could be described in a few words – modelling practice, nudging, rewarding, fun, confidence, reflection.

The most important experience from the course is two-folded for me. First, the course is modelling how we as teachers can stimulate and support learning in an online environment. A key part of this modelling, according to me, was the fact that the setup in the course was nudging us as participants to establish a community of inquiry with our PBL groups. Being a member of this ONL community, was an extremely rewarding and fun experience. It allowed us to combine our knowledge and expertise when undertaking the activities in the course. All activities and tasks felt much easier and not so time-consuming when all of us contributed. Additionally, when we discussed how to approach the assignment we could lift-up and explore different perspectives, which we might have missed out if working on our own. It also felt good to realize that we are sitting in the same boat with very similar challenges no matter which subject and where we are teaching. So, the ONL community gave me the sense that I was not alone. More importantly, it also allowed us to create a complete “puzzle” of how we could approach the challenges of online and blended learning by combining our ideas and experiences. Not to mention that, we became friends and possibly identified opportunities to collaborate in the future!

Second, the course pushed me to overcome my uncertainty of using new technological applications. The biggest step for me was to start my own website and start blogging my reflections on the learning within the course. I never thought that I would do that. I have previously felt that it is too high of investment of time in comparison with the value it would give. Looking back now, I realize that, no matter how sophisticated the blogs turned to be, the most important outcome from this activity was the confidence that I gained. I could create a decent webpage and blog plus by reading other blogs, I could learn lots!

The most important things that I have learnt through my engagement in the ONL course are the strategies and tools that we went through as well as the space that the course provided for reflection over my own teaching practice. One aspect that I have never thought about before was the digital well-being and how to be cautions about it. This felt as an aspect easily overlooked. I also think the idea about the community of inquiry is a very important one. Especially, the fact that it consists of three interactive parts – social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence. In my teaching practice so far, I have actively worked with cognitive and teaching presence, and did not think at all about the social presence. The ONL course and the interaction within the PBL group gave me several ideas how I could work with providing social presence. I have also tested some of those ideas on a small scale in the courses I though during the second half of the fall semester.

The ONL course filled in my toolbox with strategies and tools for enhancing learning and teaching in my own practice. Technology is very useful to enhance teaching and learning and provides opportunity to have fun on the way. However, it shall be used cautiously to ensure digital wellbeing. Two things I would actively work with, as a result of the ONL course, are digital wellbeing and social presence. More concretely, I would reserve time in each course so students can get each other as well as me better. I would also have activities that support the process of establishing social presence. On a higher level, I would create a forum where I can discuss with my colleagues the pros and cons of different technological solutions, so we can sensemake together and decide on which tools and how we can use them in our teaching and learning activities in the best way. This kind of forum and discussion is largely missing now.

Overall, it feels that the ONL course has been the start of an exciting and full of opportunities for life-long learning journey! Thank you for a great course!