Online Teaching and Learning

Category: Exploration (page 1 of 2)

May 8, 2021 / 0 Comments

TRU – TEACH OTL 301 POST 4

I’ve had long conversations with various colleagues this pandemic year about online teaching.

One of my primary questions for more experienced faculty has been how they promote community and connection in the class. I had colleagues tell me to put together a Student Cafe online forum for students to socialize, a Course Q&A for students to ask each other questions about the course, and a Wellness Check forum to periodically ask how students are doing. I’ve found, however, that students prefer to connect over their own social media, using discord or even Instagram. My colleagues and I have typically encouraged this social contact outside of the classroom as a way of creating community cohesion. Within the class itself, I have sometimes found that students enjoy posting funny gifs to the wellness forum rather than a serious post which at least allows students to feel as if they are going through the course together.

I have also asked colleagues how they create back and forth around class content. Some have told me that they put together an online forum where they ask students to periodically post either 1) 2-3 major takeaways from the unit; 2) 1-2 confusions from the unit. This allows the instructor to then address and clarify these issues within the forum for the benefit of all the students working their way through the course. This also helps to create a sense of belonging to a community of inquiry, especially when students comment on each other’s posts and help one another come to conclusions about course content.

Finally, colleagues have told me that students come into these courses with varying degrees of experience with online learning. Having a forum where we can discuss and establish course norms is helpful to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to online learning. Since each course is designed differently, we need to also help the students navigate through the course design.

February 11, 2021 / 0 Comments

TRU Teach – OTL301 Post 2

The effective practice that I identified in my last blog post shows the characteristics of teaching presence through facilitating student-to-student discourse. I am very invested in learning how to be a better facilitator for students, as I feel this is one of the hardest tasks for me as a teacher. The reading laid out the idea that development occurs with cognitive conflict or when students encounter an idea that challenges their assumptions or preconceptions. This is of course true, but it is not always evident to me when this is happening in my classes as my students often do not disagree with one another. I find that these conversations instead happen after class or in my office hours. Sometimes I have students come to me troubled by a statement another student has made in class because it has forced them to confront an issue they had never reflected upon before. My challenge is how to have students feel comfortable adding this to the discussion so that we can address these conflicts during the space of the classroom in order to have everyone benefit.

My view on the effective practice I identified would help with this challenge, but I think could be further modified. Perhaps I could first have students take 3-4 minutes to write down a personal response and then discuss this response in their small group discussions. When they come back as a whole class I could ask them whether their perspective had shifted between their personal self-reflections and the small group discussion. This might allow us to address assumptions student bring into the classroom while allowing them not to feel personally under attack.

 

 

 

February 11, 2021 / 0 Comments

TRU Teach – OTL301 Post 1

I took an online Zoom workshop a couple months ago where the facilitator had developed exercises where we first had a moment of self-reflection followed by breakout room group activities and finally a larger group discussion. I liked having a moment to reflect on my own before checking in with the group. I found that I had more confidence engaging with the larger group discussions because I had a moment to gather my own thoughts. This compares to my recent experiences with question and answer periods for academic Zoom talks. I think there is less engagement because the connection between the audience and the speaker can be lost due to the lack of embodied connection. Moving forward, I will try to build varied self-reflection and group exercises into my class discussions before breaking into large class discussions.

December 7, 2020 / 0 Comments

TRU Engage – otl201 Post 5

  • What are the 2-3 most important concepts that have impacted your thoughts on student engagement and retention during this course?

I am interested in the model of learning presented by the course based on interactions that include student/self, peer/peer, and teacher/self. I am particularly interested in how I as the instructor can open up opportunities for introductions and social interaction that will facilitate this model of learning.

  • Discuss your rationale for implementing 1 or 2 course facilitation strategies to increase student retention and engagement.

As I am teaching asynchronous classes where students can drop in at any time and are therefore at different stages of progression I unfortunately do not have many opportunities to facilitate student to student interactions. However, I will try to facilitate interaction by creating an introduction video and by using the online forums.

  • Identify 2-3 specific goals that you would like to achieve in light of what you have learned about social presence and creating effective educational media;
    • make sure that your goals are SMART,
    • identify strategies you intend to use in order to meet your goals.

As I discussed in my learning activity portfolio, I am interested in making use of the online forums in my courses. This may include an introduction post, a forum for posting current events, and a forum to develop a toolkit for online learning.

  • Think about some questions you still have with respect to student engagement and retention. Post these questions and also a strategy for finding the answers.

I’m curious to see how effective these goals will be as I currently only have 2 students active in one course and one lonely student in my second course. I really have questions about how to engage students in this situation where it really is primarily student-directed and motivated.

November 25, 2020 / 0 Comments

TRU Engage – otl 201 Learning Activities Portfolio – Activity 2

As I think about how to create social presence in my classes, one thing I’m considering is to create a forum for events/blogs/articles/etc related to the class. Since I’m unable to modify the course content, this would be a way for me to help my students develop a sense of shared purpose. Here’s an example:

Welcome to the Current Events Forum! Here’s the place for all of us to post events, newspaper articles, blog posts, or YouTube videos related to our course. This could be content related to issues such as Indigenous legal systems, police brutality or  incarceration in Canada. Let’s start a discussion! How do these current events relate to and extend the conversations we’re already having in our class?

November 25, 2020 / 0 Comments

TRU Engage otl 201 Learning Activities Portfolio – Activity 1

Activity 1 – Introduction Post

Students can enter my TRU classes at any point in the year, so unfortunately this makes it difficult to engage them as a community. However, I’m thinking that creating a forum for introduction posts — where I’ve posted one as well — would be a good way for me to attempt some community for the small number of students in these classes. Here’s a possibility:

Welcome to the course! The Moodle class discussion forum is one of the community spaces we will be building in this class. If you have not yet done so, please upload a profile picture for your Moodle account and indicate your pronouns.

Then, for your first ever post:

1. Introduce yourself and, if you like, post another photo of yourself

2.  Say why you signed up for this class and/or what social justice means to you

3. Tell us something about the land where you currently live or post a photo

4. Tell us something that has recently made you laugh

OR … do none of the above and instead write your own creative post to introduce yourself!

November 25, 2020 / 1 Comment

TRU Engage – otl201 Post 2

  • describe the ways in which your introductory post should have enhanced social presence in a course that you teach

In my introductory post I was attempting to link course content to current events to show how it is relevant for students today. I was also trying to give a sense of my own interests through a visual photo.

  • identify at least one improvement that you might make in light of what you know about social presence since completing your first post
  • describe how your thinking about social presence has changed since your first post.

I appreciated learning how social presence is not necessarily about creating social interactions, but rather creating a shared sense of purpose. I’m reflecting on a course that I’m teaching where students are so motivated, enthusiastic, and lively in the online classroom. I didn’t understand why, but now I’m thinking about how I’ve managed to create a shared sense of purpose and goals for this particular class. I will think about this more purposefully moving forward. I think it’s important to set this tone from the very beginning of the class. At TRU, since my courses are primarily online and text-based, the introduction post becomes quite important. I’ll rethink how to create an introduction post that clearly states the learning objectives by tying them to current contemporary issues and concerns that will engage students and to give a sense of my own investments in the topic.

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