With current corona virus situation around the world, teaching and learning in higher education has quickly moved from the traditional classrooms at campus to online learning. Online learning was quickly implemented and both teachers and students have been faced with a lot of challenges to overcome. According to previous research, there is a risk of students feeling isolated in online learning courses with solely e-tivities (Yapici, & Akbayin (2012) and Uğur, Akkoyunlu, Kurbanoğlu, (2011)). When regulations and recommendations again allow face-to-face learning, a blended learning course would be my personal favourite choice of course design. Also, according to early research (Yapici & Akbayin, 2012), learners favoured blended learning courses compared to courses held in traditional classrooms.  For teachers when designing a blended course, the challenges lay in how to mix the perfect “blend” of face-to-face and online learning activities. What course activities should be blended? Also, how can teachers motivate learners to take responsibility of their own learning? After reading Vaughan et al., (2013), I was encouraged to think of learning in terms of an “inquiry process”. Motivate and support learners to create their own scheme for their own learning process during a course. By presenting the learning outcomes of a course combined with a set of available learning activities, the learners could create their own scheme of learning with support of the course management. This could make learners more prone to actively take part in their own learning. In the future, I will aim for designing a blended course that gives the learners “tools” from a pre-designed learners-activities-box that they can schedule for their own learning process.  

Salmon (2013) suggested that teachers can support their learners in online courses by using the “5 step model”.  This, with purpose to motivate learners to take part in their own learning, contribute, being active, create own knowledge, exchange knowledge with other learners.  An e-moderator, defined as a “host” should preferably guide learners through predesigned “e-tivities” within the technology and online learning environment. Salmon (2013) also pointed at the importance of “metacognition”, being a learning activity about learning learners on how they learn. According to Salmon (2013) , this was an important step towards becoming an “independent learner”. My reflection is that learning offline or online generally have the same goals for learning in higher education. However, I perceive that online learning is specifically in need for a specific pre-designed e-framework/e-structure, e-moderator/s and predesigned e-tivities to motivate and support students to reach their learning outcomes. Otherwise, I think learners risk to more easily get off trac, loose motivation and drop off the course (in comparison to traditional classroom courses).  Tools suggested by Dalsgaard, 2006 to support online learning should include ”learning management systems (LMS)”. This would not only support students learning but also teachers and course managemnent in their daily work. After reading litterature mentioned above, I personally and further reflect up on the specific needs in online learning for learners to emotionally feel like they are part of a learners-group sharing the same learning goals, teacher´s presence and the academic institutions responsibility to actively encourage discourse, critical reflection and deeper knowledge.  As technology becomes more present in higher education, academic institutions need to constantly adapt and be innovative to empower students learning process.

By Ellinor Östensson

References:

Dalsgaard, C. (2006). Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 9(2).

Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. [Homepage] http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html

Uğur, B., Akkoyunlu, B., & Kurbanoğlu, S. (2011). Students’ opinions on blended learning and its implementation in terms of their learning styles.  Education and Information Technologies, 16(1), 5-23.

Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton: AU Press. Chapter 1 “The Community of Inquiry Conceptual framework”.

Yapici, I. U., & Akbayin, H. (2012). High school students’ views on blended learning. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 13(4).