Day: July 29, 2016

otl201 – Post 6

Herein, I would like share with you an updated version of my Learning Activities Portfolio:

It is essential to set the climate from the beginning of a course. In online courses, I would like to provide engaging opportunities for students to introduce themselves to me and their classmates. My suggestions include:

  1. A discussion forum where each student makes an introductory post and reply.
  2. A collaborative Google slide presentation where each student takes a slide to introduce themselves with text, images and/or video.

I believe maintaining regular communication with learners is key. Emailing my students on a weekly-basis provides connections, offers tips/suggestions, point to exemplary student work, and encourage students to interact. Communication is a two-way street. Thus, as a teacher, I should also encourage students to maintain a conversation that supports learning process. Students will find that increasing their participation level also increases their motivation, which is likely to contribute to success in the course. My other suggestions in the content of learning activities which promote engagement and motivation include:

  1. Providing opportunities for collaboration, such as group projects and team discussions that ask students to explore the world around them.
  2. Encouraging students to use the course discussion forums and/or blogs to communicate with classmates and teacher.
  3. Asking students to read all course communication thoroughly so they don’t miss out on important announcements/information.
  4. Another interesting option, in my opinion, is providing an opportunity for students to find out if any of their classmates live in their area. This way students can voluntarily meet up in certain occasions. This opportunity would support effective student-student interactions if students are properly guided and encouraged to do certain group projects.

otl201 – Post 5

I believe the content of the course otl201 is by far the most important of all the topics discussed so far in these series of lessons.  In an online course, applying the principles of social presence helps participants establish a community of learning by projecting their personal characteristics into the discussion. As discussed in the lesson, the goal is to further different types of interaction including student-student, teacher-student and student-content.

Firstly, during this lesson, I realized that effective communication is key in distance education. Welcoming students to the course helps to establish an online persona, add to belongingness, and helps to build a social presence in the community and is also beneficial for introducing the students to the setup of the course. In the light of what I have learned in this lesson, I am going to send a one-minute video message to my new students and welcome them to my virtual classrooms. I think this will be much more effective than just a text-based message.

Secondly, this lesson helped me understand that implementation of videos, audio files and podcasts are also useful methods of addressing diverse learning styles in the online and distance education. Additionally, audio and video files can also be a way of capturing course content that would otherwise be difficult to explain in a textual format. During this lesson, I researched several methods and software including screen streaming and audio/video capturing software for making and editing digital contents.

Thirdly, a community (I am so obsessed with this word since I heard it in this context!) works well when there are a variety of activities and experiences. Online courses can be more enjoyable and effective when students have the opportunity to brainstorm and work through concepts and assignments with either one or two or more fellow students. Based on my experience so far, this is an area in which there is still room for improvement. We, as educator should better encourage our students to work with their peers. I agree with the fact that some students work and learn best on their own. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the educators to provide options and opportunities for students to both work together and individually.

Finally, I believe for many educators, student engagement is the key factor in creating, designing and implementing interesting course material. The growth of technology and e-learning options has further strengthened engagement. In our technologically enhanced world, educators can use a diverse range of technologies and innovative solutions for engaging students. We are so lucky that we live in this era!