Reflections on the Online Environment-Part 2

How People Learn

I never considered that there are scientific theories that measure how people learn but when one actually considers it, it makes sense. People are different and how they tackle assignments and absorb information would be different as well, at least in theory. Having said that, because people learn in different ways, instructors have to be sensitive to that to meet their learning needs.

The difficulty can come in as far as deciding which learning theory to use for specific assignments but the answer may be to incorporate several different pedagogies throughout the course. There is no one-size-fits all approach. Also, it does not matter if the teaching is in the classroom or in an online environment. This forms the basis of a student-centered approach and, hopefully, a more well-rounded learning experience for students.

During this session, I learned that there are seven principles centered around effective teaching and learning online (listed below) and most of them I have attempted to foster in the traditional classroom environment. The online environment presents a challenge as far as the modality used to achieve these objectives.

Seven Principles

• Encouraging contact between students and faculty [where communication is enhanced];
• Developing cooperation among students [by incorporating team building exercises and fostering group work cohesiveness];
• Encouraging active learning where students by [building in challenging real-life scenarios where students have to conduct their own research];
• Providing prompt feedback [to provide guidance and recommendations on completing assignments];
• Emphasizing time on task [which encourages building time management skills];
• Communicate expectations [to ensure students know what is expected];
• Respect diverse talents and ways of learning [by encouraging students to respect each other’s opinions, be mindful of netiquette].

 Instructional Strategies

There are a few strategies I would weave into an online teaching environment. One would be project work where I provide a means for students to gain experience they can apply that is interesting and challenging. This strategy also houses others such as role playing, case studies, and collaboration and in this sense, the students get a well-rounded exposure to many of them.

The other instructional strategy I would choose to weave into an online course would be that of case studies. Case studies provide real information of issues that actually occurred and examines the approach and response that was utilized to resolve the issue. I am a firm believer that instructors have to teach the theoretical and conceptual but they also have to link those to reality-based applications and case studies provide that link. In essence, students are prepared intellectually and through practical application and simulation.

Technology

Technology is a huge part of designing online courses and there are many to choose from; some are expensive and others are free. The challenge for the instructor is deciding which one will be best to utilize (i.e., multimedia, static text/images, wikis, video clips, conferencing, etc). In my disciplines, I think multimedia technologies are best because they can be interactive which makes the learning experience more interesting. As a group project, we were commissioned to research Internet sites that would work well in an online environment and link them to a rubric to determine how effective they would be. We provided a rubric and annotated bibliographies of websites that fit that met that criteria. The link can be accessed at:

http://annotatedbibliographygrp1.wetpaint.com

Reflection

Overall, this course has been very challenging in terms of course concepts use of technology and time management, however I do feel that online teaching is a good fit for me. There is still much to learn but hopefully I will become more familiar with online teaching as a concept over time. My only concerns are about managing time and communication better and learning about digital content used in actual course design as this is new to me. I am up to the challenge though and am looking forward to exploring new horizons.  It is challenging, probably harder than traditional classes but it also has its rewards.