OTL301 – Online Teaching and Learning

May 8, 2021 / 0 Comments

TRU Teach – OTL301 Post 6

Overall, I really appreciate the idea of a community of inquiry. When I first started teaching this year I was anxious when I interacted with students because I was operating under the idea that I had to present myself as the authority who imparts knowledge to students. The idea that my role as an instructor is to foster a community for learning with my students has shifted my point of view on teaching. It has also made it a lot more fun!

The practical inquiry model that moves from a triggering event to exploration, integration, and resolution is important for me to keep in mind as I design and teach my courses. Again, this helps me to think about moving away from imparting knowledge to triggering curiosity and excitement in the classroom so that students go through the process of learning within our community. This has so many implications for how I deliver and design class content which I am already exploring with my students.

Throughout this first year of teaching I have found myself often saying to colleagues that “I’m learning so much from my students.” Now I see that this must be the case if we follow a community of inquiry model for teaching. While the instructor provides the overall design and guidance for the course students must feel empowered to contribute to the learning environment that all of us are creating together.

May 8, 2021 / 0 Comments

TRU TEach – OTL301 Post 5

Throughout this course I engaged in each of the phases of the critical inquiry process. I noticed that the courses were well designed to include a triggering event that then led to my own exploration, integration, and resolution. Rather than resolving dilemmas, this course has revealed issues that I had not yet identified as issues when I first began teaching online.

In my future courses, I will prioritize creating a community of inquiry to help students work through the entire learning process. My plan is to incorporate more student-led reflections, discussions, and summaries into my classes to supplement and depart from the lecture style of teaching. I will also aim to include more assessments – especially self- and peer-assessments – throughout the term that are not high-stakes to help students feel in control of their own learning. I like the idea of a portfolio assignment that acknowledges learning as a process, so I may try this as well.

I think that there are some valuable aspects to learning online in an open platform like WordPress. It has provided me with a place to work through thoughts in writing and to see how other new faculty members are addressing these same issues.

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.

May 8, 2021 / 0 Comments

TRU – Teach OTL 301 Post 3

Learning Objectives:

Define neoliberalism in the context of the construction of a self-governing neoliberal subject

Discuss how the concept of neoliberalism impacts feminist thinking about choice and agency

Learning Activities:

Read Eva Chen’s article

In your small discussion groups: 1) define the concept of a self-governing neoliberal subject; 2) discuss how this concept impacts feminist thinking about choice and agency; 3) discuss how contemporary debates about whether women can “have it all” relate to this discussion.

Write a personal reflection where you: 1) summarize the major points raised by your group; 2) discuss how you are personally implicated within neoliberal ideas about freedom and choice.

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.