Since I started the Open Networked Learning (ONL) course a lot has happened. First, however, I must tell the history of how I became an ONL student. Learning has always been fun to me and, as I have learned, sharing any accumulated knowledge with others seemed not only exciting but also fair. I saw the rise of massive open online courses (MOOC) as truly transforming and asked, primarily myself, many questions about the nature of education in the future. I also started teaching medical and pharmacy students and soon realized that I was in urgent need of pedagogical training. I therefore applied for all available pedagogical courses at Karolinska Institutet and was eventually accepted for the ONL 192 course off the waitlist which made me feel very happy indeed.

At the beginning of the course, I felt both confused and a little anxious as I never took part in such a course before. I did complete several MOOCs but my participation in those was largely silent—I viewed the lectures, worked on the assignments, never missed a deadline, and received a course certificate without leaving any trace of me being there to be noticed by other course participants. The ONL 192 is different though and I still have not completely figured out what it is which makes the learning here so much more exciting and engaging.

When the course moved to the problem based learning (PBL) group work I was genuinely surprised by how safe and comfortable I felt in the PBL group I was assigned to—the actual experience of being part of this was positively different from my anxious expectations. Everything was new to me: the PBL itself, the subjects explored in the course, and the software we use (e.g. Zoom and Padlet). However, the collaborative and accountable community that our facilitated PBL group built has enabled me to learn the necessary skills fast and gain confidence that I can acquire the competencies needed for successful learning in the evolving digital world.

In the coming weeks I look forward to all PBL group meetings we have scheduled that are remarkably collaborative and fun. Over my professional career teleconferencing with colleagues and clients from all over the world (I used to work for a global consultancy) was a routine that in principle is not that different from what we do together in Zoom in ONL 192. The experience from our PBL group work however helped me see such online meetings in a completely new way—with the slight shift in perspective these became an extremely enjoyable activity. I realize that the only way to learn this for me is to actually have experienced it. 

During the on-campus meeting at the very beginning of the course I asked the course leaders how they would define success in this course and from the comprehensive response given to my question one word resonated the most: change. I believe that change can be experienced differently but nonetheless it is impossible to miss it happening. I feel the change and I am grateful for it.

The Change