The ONL201 has come to an end after a 4 very interesting big thematic (topics) with lot of very interesting discussion in our PBL group and many interesting webinars. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience with a lot of new things to be learnt. Also, had the opportunity to be a member of an excellent PBL group with two very helpful facilitators!

Being part of an online course was a new experience for me and especially being part of a group that we haven’t met fact-to-face and had to work together on group assignments. The whole experience taught me that ‘group forming’ in a digital world does not differ so much with a ‘real’ world and despite not having physical contact, you can still create strong bonds in the team and becoming also friends. Of course, there are certain challenges when meeting people and forming a group only via a digital platform due to the lack of a face-to-face contact that you can see physical and facial reactions to better understand what the other person thinks. My experience, however, throughout the course proved that this can also be done through a digital platform and most of the times it does not really differ lot from physical meetings.

The discussion in the PBL, as mentioned above, were very rewarding. It was very interesting to listen to others opinions especially because most of us came from different backgrounds and are working in different universities and countries. At the beginning we were mostly a bit hesitant and not expressing too much, but soon everyone felt very comfortable in the group and start opening-up. It was very interesting to notice the progress of the team development! We also get the opportunity to use several new tools that, personally, I wasn’t aware of before, such as mindmaps and pictograms. I do not often use such tools to express ideas and this was really interesting to me. Such tool consist a more visual approach to deliver and communicate ideas and are definitely very attractive and easy to deliver a point to the readers. I will definitely use many of these tools in the future. Apart from these tools, we had a lot of discussion and sharing of experiences in other digital tools and exchanged ideas on what we find helpful and easy to use in our teaching.

As for the topics we went through, some were familiar topics and some not so much.. There was a very nice flow on the progress of the topics, starting from discussing on online participation and digital literacies, then moved to open learning and sharing and openness, then to learning in communities (networked collaborative learning) and finishing with design for online and blended learning. Each topic built on the previous and took you a step ahead. I learnt  lot of new interesting aspects on learning and how learning in communities and groups that share the same goals and is based upon openness, can be very beneficial. This goes beyond the traditional idea of learning, in which a learner attends lectures and then studies by themselves. The idea of learning in groups is not new, but the last years it gains attention due to the significant benefits for the learners. And here we shouldn’t forget the openness and sharing aspects which consist significant cornerstones for the progress of societies and to promote acceptance and understanding. So, what is better from  building learning on these two significant values?

As mentioned above, during the course lot of new lessons learnt! Nowadays it is becoming apparent that use of digital tools in learning is very important. The current COVID-19 crisis has pointing out the important to be able to offer on-line courses. Despite this however, incorporating digital tools has many other benefits. One important thing is that it gives the students the necessary digital literacies, which are very crucial for the independent professional of the future. I learnt about several available tools and I am sure I will keep learning of new constantly. I would like in the future to incorporate more of such tools in my teaching and give the students the opportunity to gain such digital skills. I also realized in a better way the important of group work. Group work, gives you significant soft skills as you learn to communicate and collaborate. Forming a properly functional group is however not always easy. Although I was using group work in my teaching, I would like from now on to do this in a more proper way and facilitate the formation of groups by using ‘techniques’ and tools that we discussed during our PBL group discussions. I am confident that this will improve students learning and most importantly facilitate them to become independent actors, which a core of LTU Pedagogical Idea. Finally, I will use the approach of the blended learning in a more systematic way and incorporate more digital tools that will be blended with other activities. Most importantly, I learnt the importance of flexibility and tailoring the learning activities to meet the needs of specific individuals and that is something a blended learning can offer. For example in process engineering course, I can set different process in a digital environment so the students can train and get familiar with different processes. And lets not forget the problem-based learning theory. Especially for technical courses like engineering, problem-based learning can be proven as an excellent tool for students to develop their critical thinking and the capability to apply their knowledge. This is something that I will use more in my teaching and especially set some small problem-based assignment in which students will work as groups.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my PBL group and our two facilitators that made this journey very pleasant. A very important gain of the ONL was to meet these people and get to know them. We have decided to keep contact and keep supporting each other in our teaching, as well as exchange idea and potential workshops or seminars that we would like to attend. It felt that we became friends at the end and that is a nice and unexpected outcome of the whole ONL experience.

Topic 5: My journey in ONL201