It´s been a great experience to collaborate with my PBL group 10 on various missions throughout the course. With current corona situation around the world, teaching and learning in higher education has quickly moved from traditional classrooms on campus to online learning. Institutions rapidly implemented online learning and both teachers and students have been faced with both good experiences and a lot of challenges to overcome. This course has showen me how to overcome some of these challenges. From my personal gained experience throughout the ONL201 course, I hereby summarize my most important learning experiences.
The first part of the course introduced me to online participation, modes of engagement and the concept of digital literacies (DL´s). By investigating White´s Visitor and Residents model, I learnt about the importance of academic institutions having an highly active mode of online engagement and openly share knowledgeto achieve credibility among it´s learners and the general public.
In the second part of the course, I investigated Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – open learning environments in higher education. However, the massive amount of participants is heavily resource demanding to keep up the high level of engagement and credibility. By using automatic evaluation systems, MOOCs can cope with the massive learning activities, content and simultaneously produce feedback to students. I will further investigate my institutions automatic evaluation systems and how they can be used in my online learning environment.
For the third part of the course I learns about the concept of Personal Learning Network (PLN). I reflected on my own PLN-map and connected various online tools within my learning areas.
-I do online information search and share what I find or own content.
-I network with different people that I know well and with people I know about through shared interests.
-I collaborate when I´m invited by others and when self-initiated.
-I create information content and packages for my work.
-Openly, I critically reflect and discuss my own thoughts with others by shared online tools.
-I lack various online tools (podcast, infographic and blog´s) to reach other´s in a wider network of people sharing similar learning areas worldwide.
The fourth part of the course introduced me tothe concept of blended learning. When regulations allow face-to-face learning again in higher education in Sweden, my personal favourite choice of course design would be the “blended learning”. Previous research by Yapici & Akbayin (2012) showed that students chose blended learning in favor to traditional classroom held courses. Blended learning offers a flexibility of both face-to-face and online learning and possibilities to create individual or personalised learning (Toshalis & Nakkula, 2012). Creating the best blend of learning activities in different format will be a learning process for me as course designer. After this last part I was encourage to view learning as an inquiry process (Vaughan 2013) and motivate students to take responsibility of their own learning process and create their own scheme based on a set of learning activities that I offer within the course. For online courses Salmon, G (2013) suggested that teachers use the 5 step model to support learners in the online environment including e-moderator(s) guiding students through predesigned e-tivities that leads the learning process of becoming an independent learner.
This course has been an eye opener! All I learnt in this course , I can apply in my own teaching and learning areas. The course has given me a deeper understanding about online learning environments, the importance of openly sharing, online networks and collaboration, tools and pedagogical methods of which all can empower student learning. In my own context I believe I can practice most teaching and learning activities online. However, I favor a blended course design and my continuous work will be to create a blended course design aiming for a perfect blend of ingredients to support students learning process.
By Ellinor Östensson
References:
Videos
Dough Belshaw, The essential elements of digital literacies (accessed 2020-05-11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8yQPoTcZ78
David White, Visitors and Residents (accessed 2020-05-11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI&feature=youtu.be
David White, Visitors and Residents: Open Practice (accessed 2020-05-11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X0g2OvSdWc
David White, “Visitors and Residents: Credibility (accessed 2020-05-11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO569eknM6U
PLNs Theory and Practice by Kay Oddone, part 1.
PLNs Theory and Practice by Kay Oddone, part 2.
Articles
Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. [Homepage] http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html
Toshalis, E., & Nakkula, M. J. (2012). Motivation, engagement, and student voice. Education Digest, 78(1), 29-35.
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).
