Things from this course to use in the nearby future

Reflection over topic 5

I want to say thank You all for this very nice course ONL181. I need to go back in to the material again and the different blogs and all the groups different presentations. There are so much to learn here. There are one parts that have been an eye-opener and it is the socializing part. It is a fundamental thing for engaging and I believe that my PBL-group 11 has taken this on-line learning part to a higher level. To have a group to learn so much from and with has been a very important element in this course. When to design my distance courses I want to include PBL-groups. Although I realize that it is hard to find the time and money for facilitators needed for the groups. 

During this course we have used Zoom and it has worked really well in the group work. So, I feel more secure using Zoom now after this course. It is really good to be a student some time. There is much technology to use and I feel I need to improve more before feeling comfortable using them in my own context. In one of my ongoing courses on campus I have tried the menti.com that we tried during some of the webinars on ONL181. My students have both competed in some quiz’s and they have also made up questions to use in a quiz. They liked it really much. Both I and them found it to be fun and they also did pay more attention to the lectures when they knew they should compete afterwards. 

I have found free open textbooks to use in my area and I will use one of them now in a course for the nurses I teach both for campus and distance. I have also found some really good free lectures in The Khan Academy about for instance kidney physiology that are really useful in an ongoing physiology course that I teach in. Furthermore, I will try for me a new collaboration tool that we have used during this course. So, I have already implemented several things that I have learned during this course. I also need to work more on how to implement the PBL-group work that I myself have found to be so valuable for my own learning. We also found out the importance of facilitators in our PBL-group. We could not have made this work without them so when implementing this kind of group-work in my on-line courses in the future it needs some reflection on how to do it. A facilitator is probably crucial for this to work. And I want it to work. I think that our on-line students also could get a lot out from formal PBL-groups!

To meet online and socialize

Reflections on Topic 4
Design for online and blended learning.

I can, at this moment, after struggling with how to design for online and blended learning, really appreciate this topic. This is exactly what I have been looking for! Gilly Salmons Five Stage Model (1). There is someone that has presented a way to work that seems to function really well and that also is tested. With the online courses that I have given over time there has been somethings missing. The first step that includes to get to know the platform and how connect to the lectures is the easy part for many of the students, of course not for all of them. But without this kind of literacy they probably not even try to take an on-line course. That is also a thing that we put effort on otherwise nothing works. But in stage two, the socializing part, I think I have missed how important that is. It seems to be a fundamental part for learning to take place both in campus courses as well as in online courses and it is also a very natural part when you study on a campus. I have spent some time thinking on why students in online courses more easily drop out than campus students. One part that I have thought of is the commitment and engagement that follows when you meet with people face to face as when going to campus and meet the other students and study together. I have really thought that it is much harder to achieve this online. And it is more difficult but it can work with the right kind of activities or e-tivities. In the ONL181 I have learned that it is possible to socialize, to feel commitment and to be engaged and that is probably due to several things. First the introducing lecture, or in my case a meeting with one of the course leaders, that presented this course and showed how to navigate, what to expect and how to start a blog. To make me feel comfortable with what to do. After that we had to present us in the PBL-group and really socialize and at the same time trying to use a new tool. The challenge when developing an online course is to give time to the socializing part without feeling that the time was wasted. New tools were one part of this ONL181 course. To find a good subject to socialize around is also something to think carefully about.  

So, the role as an online facilitator is more widespread than just a presenter of different things to learn and in the end to correct examinations. The Social role that includes to foster a friendly and social environment seems very important (2). There is also an excellent checklist for the on-line facilitator that seems very useful when planning and doing a course (2). There are also so many things that I have done but not have had the “words” for. That also feels good! But this can improve! A lot!          

References

1.    Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html

2.    City University London. (2016). Online Facilitation Techniques. Web resource.

Group work and collaboration

CC BY  by LUMAXART

Reflections on topic 3

Students and distance learning and collaboration is really a challenging task. My experience is that it is harder to get the on-line student to take part in a group and to collaborate than the students on campus. There are some students that like to study and learn in the “group-community” but most of them seems to choose not to take part. I am not familiar with all the reasons of not taking part, but one of them are that on-line learning seems to be that you can learn everything whenever you want to. See the lectures when you want. Do the tasks when you want and if there are groups and group work that are planned you can’t participate because you never have the time. It is more common that the campus students take part and maybe that is because the teacher and student relation stand for some other kind of commitment when having the personal, face-to-face, meetings.    

There is, of course, possible to make a group session obligatory but with the obligatory they have to be separately examined and the administration effort will increase. I wish I had some ideas about how to do these more attractive. The students that use the opportunity to work in a group are often the ones that are highly motivated and who wants a high degree on the examination. To form study groups that works well are difficult. According to Brindley et al.on-line learners avoid groups that they have not chosen themselves (1). Collaboration in a way that build the students’ knowledge more than working alone is preferable. It should also be good to be able to have a direct way to measure increased knowledge due to good collaboration. I think that the term “positive interdependence”, described in the review by Capdeferro and Romero, when creating a course, is something that you want to reach but it is not so easy to know how to do it.  When campus PBL-groups work really well the members first have had the time to get to know each other. The group have also had a forgiving atmosphere and friendship and commitment has developed. To try to create this in an online environment seems more difficult. My students don’t often want to take part with their camera, and that also tends to give a feeling of stranger ship. In our PBL-group 11 we have talked about frustration when group members don’t do what they are expected to do. That seems to be a common problem in groups online also described by Capdeferro and Romero (2). It is a problem in all types of group work I think. Free riders that don’t care so much, don’t want so much or whatever it depends on.  

References
1) Brindley, J., Blaschke, L. M. & Walti, C. (2009). Creating effective collaborative learning groups in an online environment. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3) Available here

2) Capdeferro, N. & Romero, M. (2012). Are online learners frustrated with collaborative learning experiences?. The International review of research in open and distance learning, 13(2), 26-44 Available here

Open? Closed? Or both?

CC BY

Reflections on topic 2, ONL 181

Open educational resources - fantastic opportunities
Why don’t the students sometimes use any of the textbooks that are obligatory textbooks in my courses? A question often discussed in the coffee-room. Is it possible to take a course without its recommended textbooks? Of course, it is. It sometimes causes problem when I refer to the course text book and they don’t have it. Maybe they use other textbooks? Textbooks for free? 

I have just found – after reading a free and a very nice handbook with the title Teaching in a Digital Age, chapter 10 (1) – a fantastic book in anatomy and physiology that is for free. Open and free! And then I become suspicious and feel that it has to be some hidden agenda here? Or is it really for free? For me and for everyone? I would like to present to you an open Stax resource in - yes:  Anatomy and Physiology (2). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, which means that you can distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors. Information of Creative Common you can find in one of the films in topic 2 in ONL181 (3).

Open or closed courses or both?

I love to give lectures and to have my students in front of me. I also like the interaction when meeting them alive and when I follow them in different learning situations. They become individuals to me. I have only closed courses in the platform called Mymoodle were all the material is produced by me or the other teachers on the course. Here I need to learn a new role. The courses given are both campuses based where I meet my students often and in real life and online based where they meet me, the teacher much more often than I, the teacher meet them. At least it feels that way.

There is an interesting movie presented in ONL181 topic 2, about two different learning environments – the first one being learning management system where Mymoodle are placed (4). Some of the advantages with this type of management system are presented in this movie. For instance, the students work is safe in a protected environment.  Also, the teacher’s communication to the students are protected. That is safe and feels secure even though I have found some presentations and materials over the years that have “gone public” without my knowledge. So, the feeling of secureness is maybe false?

And then there is the second free open access environment where Flickr, Tweet, You Tube amongst other places are included. Advantages and disadvantages with this are also presented (4).  To introduce somethings that can “go open” in the courses and still keep most of it closed, is definitely a way to start. The limits of going open is probably also a matter of not knowing how and where. And the question remains: who is going to pay for it?

It is not only the openness but also the online part that sometimes troubles me. The online courses with recorded lectures and meetings in the computer have changed the teachers work totally. If the work as a teacher ends up with only examining different parts and not being a part during the way to the examinations, then this work is maybe not as attractive as it has been. Or I need to change my way to look at this. And to find new opportunities to interact with the students, as a teacher. 

1) Bates, T. (2015). Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Teaching and Learning. 

2OpenStax College. (2018). Anatomy and Physiology, October 3, 2018. https://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11496/1.12/.

3) Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.(2012).Creative Commons guide. 

4) Watson, K. (2014) Learning management system or the open web?, Learning to teach online UNSW.

The digital world and I?

CCo Public domain

Topic 1: Online participation & digital literacies

Where am I in the digital world? An immigrant or a native? I feel like an immigrant. We can also use the terms visitor or resident (1). Then I am definitely a visitor that really tries to develop. Trying to deal with Digital Literacies to improve my life in the digital world, how to learn and how to work within it. In this context there are the seven elements model presented (2). I am familiar with my computer and have a lot of technical support and that is the basis for my computer life. In my work as a teacher I can relate to some of the different literacies when leading courses online. Like being familiar with different tools to use to present lectures and to record lectures and also to make this lectures public – at least for the students on the platform used for the specific course. It is not comfortable for me to publish anything outside the student groups. Making the records completely open. To leave that kind of footprint is really scary. If I switch to the students’ point of view I always let them be just visitors. Leaving no footprints at all. Everything happens in the closed group. Maybe due to my own fear. It could be interesting to make projects leading them to publish something that could be used by other students in their learning processes. I hope that ONL181 gives me the tools and courage to do so. 

I read from another blogger, Marcus in this course, that when an online course starts you can maybe give the new participants a short course about online learning. Interesting thought really. You can find it here. One step making the students feel more secure.

What to do with my fears about the digital world? How to deal with different students fears? There are many types of students with different fears.  How to create an environment to feel comfortable for most of them? 

In our PBL-group we focused on different fears across generation of learners.  We are afraid of doing things wrong. So we need to create a learning environment that feels safe that also allow mistakes. Take small steps on the thin ice and learning by doing. This will for the moment be good enough. And taking this course is a good start.

Referenslista

1. White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9). 

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171/3049

2.   JISC (2014) guide. Developing digital literacies. http://web.archive.org/web/20141011143516/http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/digital-literacies/

Amazing

Here I am.
Blogging and it is a completely new experience. A bit scary. And amazing.
My grandmother just passed 105 years. That's amazing. And also when she a couple of years ago were so fascinated by my daughters skyping with a friend in her computer. What is this? Are you talking to that thing - she said. She was really amazed.
From 1912 when my grandmother was born to 2010 when this happened and up to now a lot of new opportunities to meet in new ways, to learn how to, to live our lives with just turning on the computer and connect. That's amazing.
I am thrilled and want to learn how to interact with you all and how to teach my students in my classes with physiology and pharmacology at Linnaeus University in Kalmar where I work as a lecturer with students becoming e. g.  nurses or farmaceuts. To learn how to teach to learn in a net based environment. Problem based as well. For me you should know: This is Amazing!

All the best to you!
Anna