Online Teaching and Learning

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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.

July 28, 2020 / 0 Comments

Post 5 – Integration

I appreciated the opportunity to think about how to give feedback in Post 4. Although I have taken teacher training before, I have never been asked to break down what feedback actually is! This post helped me relate my own experiences, often negative, with feedback and to reflect on how to improve this experience for my own students.

Here are the major ideas that I have taken from the training so far:

  • Learning happens through communication by relating information
  • Focus on lining up learning activities, assessments, and learning outcomes
  • Focus on “activating” students vs. the transmission of information
  • Focus on task-related feedback that allows students to bridge the gap between performance and goals

Questions that I have:

  • Within what is often a highly competitive environment oriented towards grades, how can I help students feel comfortable making mistakes in order to truly engage with class material? I am not sure there is an easy answer here, but I think focusing on the progress taken towards measurable goals instead of right or wrong answers will help.
  • How can I learn to better tailor feedback to different students with different needs in order to bridge the gap between performance and goals? I think this may come from having as much sustained engagement as possible with students in order to learn their individual needs.

Goals in my own teaching:

  • To cover all three of Hattie’s questions (Where am I going? How am I going? Where to next?) when I deliver feedback
  • To remove self-directed feedback to focus instead on task-related feedback
July 28, 2020 / 0 Comments

Post 4 – Feedback

As an undergraduate student I remember my own feelings of dread when my professor handed back assignments. Over the years I have tried – not without difficulty – to replace this dread with curiosity. Curiosity in response to feedback allows for growth. There’s a sense of exercising choice and creativity in deciding what pathways to take moving forward. This is in sharp contrast to feedback that exacerbates self-judgment or comparison with peers.

I would like to create an environment for my students to allow them to feel curious about feedback. I appreciate how Hattie breaks down feedback into three questions for teachers to consider: Where am I going? (creating manageable goals) How am I going? (the steps/process to get there) Where to next? (actions to be taken to move through these steps). Reflecting on these questions I’ve realized that I often only cover one or two of these questions. This list helps me consider how to give well-rounded feedback that covers all of them.

There are two issues that especially stood out for me in this reading:

  • Providing feedback oriented towards the task, not the self. Hattie points out that couching critique in positive self-directed feedback actually lower the engagement of students. In the future I will attempt to work only with task-oriented feedback.
  • Providing an environment in which students can take the risk of being wrong. This is not easy to do. In the classroom, I think this can be especially difficult in terms of feedback from peers. For written comments, focusing on how students can move along a pathway towards a learning goal may be helpful. Still, I hope this question will be covered further in this training.
July 21, 2020 / 0 Comments

Post 3 – Constructive Alignment

I appreciated the focus in these readings and videos on the active knowledge construction of students, or what students do. I also appreciated the statement that learning occurs by associating new with old information or building new information onto older information. In other words, learning is relational.

I am currently teaching A Cultural History of Crime and Justice. The learning outcomes include:

  • Apply the notion of legal culture(s) to reflect on and then articulate a range of possible factors influencing popular conceptions of the criminal justice system and its place in historic British North America and contemporary Canada;
  • Describe the English origins of the post-Conquest British North American criminal justice system with an emphasis on the 19th to 21st centuries;
  • Examine and explain the evolution of British North American adaptations of English criminal law institutions centered on definitions of reformation of crime, policing, and punishment;
  • Examine and describe First Nations laws within a broader context of legal pluralism in British North America and Canada;
  • Examine the jurisdictional challenges created by the British North America Act (1867) and explain how its division of power affected the administration of criminal justice and punishment/reformation;
  • Examine and explain how constructed identities of class, gender, and ethnicity have shaped the application of criminal sanctions and punishment;
  • Distinguish between internal legal history and external legal history and demonstrate the advantages and shortcomings of each approach;
  • Examine the nature of historical mindednessand how it shapes the distinctive approach and mentalité of those who adhere to its principles in practicing the historical enquiry.

There is a mix of low-level and high-level learning outcomes, although the latter is emphasized. Because this is a history course students need to be able to describe and explain the basic historical context. This is the ground on which they can then apply and examine larger concepts relating to crime and justice in different historical periods.

Students are assessed through three types of assignments:

  • Four block summaries that compare and contrast readings across lessons
  • One secondary article analysis
  • One primary document analysis

The learning outcomes align with assessments. With the block summaries, students concisely summarize the arguments of scholars and then analyze the readings in relation to one another. The secondary article analysis asks students to extend what they have learned by writing block summaries through an in-depth analysis of two scholarly readings. The primary document analysis then asks students to further extend their analysis by now examining themes relating to crime and justice within a particular historical context.

The learning outcomes and assessments ask students to relate readings, concepts or time periods to one another, and so they are already at the relational or extended abstract levels of the SOLO taxonomy.

July 18, 2020 / 0 Comments

Post 2 – Cognitive Presence

Cognitive presence is the idea that learning takes place by constructing meaning through communication, be it student to student, student to content or student to teacher. I was struck by the idea that asynchronous text-based learning can be more inclusive because it gives a larger number of students time to think and participate in a community of inquiry. When leading in-person discussion sections I have noticed that certain students can dominate discussions. I am excited by the idea that online teaching opens up new opportunities to accommodate students who are more comfortable communicating in different ways.

I also appreciate the idea of a triggering event as what sparks learning. As someone who teaches in the humanities I have noticed that students are sometimes resistant to following up on their own sense of being bothered or puzzled. Many are instead looking for the “right” answer in order to get a good grade. This opens up a question for me as a teacher: how can I help students feel comfortable being uncomfortable? This is the crucial first step before I can guide them through the exploration, integration, and resolution phases of critical thinking.

July 16, 2020 / 0 Comments

Post 1 Introductions

I’m a new OLFM in History at Thompson Rivers University. I just took my first trip to the Sunshine Coast on the traditional territories of the Tla’amin, Klahoose, shíshaálh, and Skwxwú7mesh nations. What a beautiful mossy rainforest.

As an OLFM I look forward to strengthening my ability to teach effectively online. This is especially important at a time when online communication has become a crucial form of support for all of us. I think an online learning environment should strike a balance between encouraging students to think and work independently while providing a network for support. As an in-person instructor I have learned that switching up classroom activities from small groups to writing assignments to debates is so important for student engagement. This has allowed me to cater to different learning styles and offer different entry points into the class material. Key questions for me are: How can I as an online instructor engage with students who have different learning styles? In asynchronous self-paced courses, how can I create a sense of community and support for students?

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