From digital literacy to collaborative learning and more – the ONL211 course has been an eye-opening experience. It’s a course with participants from various disciplines working in small and large groups and learning from each other. Many exotic ingredients and previously unknown spices blended into a refreshing smoothie that – once finished – invites back to check the recipe.

I have to admit that contrary to what I expected, the course has given me many concrete skills and new perspectives that I will take for my future teaching. Most profoundly, I have updates my knowhow in the digital learning toolbox as already discussed in my previous blog post. The learning has stemmed from various directions. For example, I will certainly continue to use the small group discussions that we used during the course as effective activation method during my courses.

The use of all the digital technologies does not of course replace good teacher-student interactions, but it may help enable it – at least in the online learning context. On the other hand, during the course I occasionally felt overwhelmed by all the tools and platforms, and to be honest, enjoyed most the discussions with peers and listening to the experts. I feel that the energy and dedication to education that the ONL211 community shares goes a great length in inspiring me to continue improving my game as a teacher.

To sum up, my involvement in ONL211 will have a certain impact on my teaching but also learning and collaboration. Much of the theory and practice gained during the course will be handy in online work whether it is grant writing or educational projects. For example, it is likely that I will be more equipped to use various platforms for securing efficient communication and collaboration, while the output from our PBL group assignments will serve as handy “cheat sheets” for revisiting the core concepts. Teaching in chemistry and materials science has been quite conservative in my own experience from both as a teacher and a student.

I believe one of the greatest challenges has been reaching a classroom in which all feel secure and that encourages discussion and engagement. The online teaching has distanced the teacher and students and it is ever more important to overcome activation barriers with respect to the above-mentioned learning environment.

If I need to mention something that I will definitely take from the ONL211 course to my own teaching in materials chemistry, then it will be problem-based learning on case studies that will allow students to circulate roles as “project manager”, “communicator”, and “note keeper” among others. I will also implement pre-course inquiries for learning about my students’ motivation and objectives prior to taking the course. Visiting the (anonymized) results will make a nice start to the first learning session. To sum up, I eagerly look forwards to testing these and many other techniques that I learned from my more experienced colleagues during the past weeks and months of the ONL211 course.