Documentation:Creating the Online Learning Environment/Examples in Practice

Examples in Practice

Setting the Context

What does this look like in real practice?

Often, new online learners are nervous about being the ‘first to post’. You can break the ice by posting the first message. You might ask a few ‘leading questions’ related to current materials, and express interest in hearing learner’s ideas. Enthusiasm helps to set the tone!

“Hello everyone, I’m glad to see you have all made it online, and I’m keen to get started on this week’s really important ideas. What do you think about Garrison & Archer’s model? Does the facilitator really carry all of the responsibility for the social context of an online course? I look forward to hearing from you!”

Your style and approach (Friendly? Formal? Questioning? Personal? Supportive? Critical?) will powerfully influence the way new learners respond to you and to each other.

You also play an important role in ‘reminding’ people about course norms, but remember this can be done discreetly and positively:

“It’s very helpful if you can post your first thoughts by Wednesday, so that we can begin to reflect on our various responses to this model. Remember that you are allowed (expected, even) to be critical! If you don’t like this model, tell us why not!” “In weeks four and five we will examine ‘critical issues in online learning’ in more depth, and it will be interesting to revisit your scenario from that perspective.”

Your early responses also shape the online discourse patterns of your course: it is important to craft messages carefully, to encourage further thinking and reading:

“Thanks, Joe, for your very thoughtful response to question 1 of this week’s discussion assignment. I’m fascinated to hear about your experiences in Singapore. Can you elaborate further on the online course you were teaching? Who were the learners? Did their expectations shape how you taught?” “Brian, did you notice that Nula described a very similar online experience, but interpreted it very differently? Why do you think you each reached different conclusions about ‘what happened’?” “Have any of you read Terry Anderson’s online book “Theory and Practice of Online Learning”. It’s a great resource – you can find it here: http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/index.html”

Monitoring

What does this look like in real practice?

‘Feedback’ is acknowledged as one of the simplest but most powerful tools for learning, whether online or offline. In his widely respected book, “How People Learn”, Bransford and colleagues (1999) explain:

In order for learners to gain insight into their learning and their understanding, frequent feedback is critical: students need to monitor their learning and actively evaluate their strategies and their current levels of understanding.

In the online context, learners typically receive feedback from you is from direct written responses to their writing or messages (or, in some cases, from receipt of a grade). Indeed, research has shown that learners whose messages frequently go unacknowledged report feeling demotivated and unsupported in their learning. While you need not (and probably cannot) respond to every single message a learner posts, it is important to plan to respond strategically at points where they accurately express key ideas, or where they clearly fail to meet expectations or misunderstand concepts. Again, this need not be done harshly:

“Thanks, Xiao Wei, for your beautiful summary of the key points in Xin & Feenberg’s model. I especially enjoyed the examples you offered to illustrate some of the terminology.” “Noorin, I can see that you’ve really wrestled with some of the concepts here. Your commentary on the contextualizing roles of an online facilitator are spot on. But I’m worried that you may be misunderstanding the use of the word ‘moderator’ in this paper. Did you notice the definition offered in the module?” “Shona, you’ve done some great work, here. To complete the work for this module, I simply need to see you connect the Xin & Feenberg model to your own practice. Will you have time to work on this before the weekend?”

In a similar way, in an online course, your learners are invisible unless they ‘appear’ in online discussions or other course-based communications. Part of your ‘prompting’ and ‘assessing’ role may also be to contact ‘missing’ learners privately to encourage participation, note deadlines, and add reminders about course expectations.

Management

What does this look like in real practice?

As in a face-to-face meeting or classroom, the facilitator plays a key role in helping the group reach a clear shared understanding. Again, your comments play an important ‘feedback role. They need not be extensive (in fact, sometimes brief comments are more effective) but help to gently guide group discussion:

“Ian, I’m interested in the online course you describe, but it sounds as though your students already knew each other. Can you explain?” “Dmitri, remember that it’s much easier to read messages that are broken up into paragraphs. Sometimes it can even help to break down your writing into multiple messages, where each one focusses on a different key point” “Anne and Deneka, your comments on the importance of feedback are extremely important in this context. Do you have references in the literature on this topic that you could share?”

Different facilitators play their ‘weaving’ role in different ways. Some prefer to post a ‘closing’ message at the end of each topic or unit of work. Others highlight important messages posted by participants during the preceding discussion. This is another area where you can use your skill and creativity to best meet the learning needs of the group without having to post redundant summary material.

Open Learning Environments

Here are some examples of courses taught in open environments, using tools and platforms other than the university supported learning/course management systems:

At UBC

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Murder Madness and Mayhem
• David Vogt and David Porter's : Ventures in Learning Technology - ETEC 522

Other Examples

• George Siemens and Stephen Downes' Connectivism and Connective Knowledge
• Alec Couros' Social Media and Open Education