Online Teaching and Learning

Category: Triggering Event (page 1 of 1)

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 / 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.