When OL101 officially opened and launched, I was preoccupied with completing a paper for presentation at a conference, and then attending said conference and presenting the paper (yesterday!). Therefore I was feeling a little behind getting started on the course, and decided to jump in wholeheartedly today. I've spent most of my office time today reading and annotating the Module 1 resources, contributing to the "Getting to know each other" fora, and helping my group (go Monkees!) begin to get organized for the group project. Having given all that attention to the course today, it seems like a good time to post here, to debrief the experience a bit before turning my focus elsewhere for the evening.
When I started looking at the resources for Module 1, I noticed that there were many different texts, and many of them of more or less the same type (short articles posted to Magna Publications' Faculty Focus and similar outlets). I didn't want to fall into skimming them, so I decided to take a tactile approach, making reading notes on paper for each of the articles/resources. This turned out to be a good way of slowing down my reading and paying attention. It also gave me something to do with my hands besides just brushing the trackpad to scroll down the article!
I've heard many colleagues say that taking OL101, aside from preparing them to teach in the online environment, provided them new ways of thinking about (and new resources for) their in-person courses as well. That's been true so far for me. One thing I heard coming through in several of the readings was the need to shift the balance and focus of attention before and during the course: since online course needs to be authored ahead of time, the professor's focus during the course is less on preparing material and more on attending to the students' progress. This matches part of my own desire to develop my own teaching practices for in-person courses: I have never been the sort of professor to plan out the details of an entire course before the term, but I have been moving somewhat in that direction for the past couple of semesters, and my heavier teaching and writing schedule in coming semesters would benefit from even more of this. I'm hopeful that the practices and approaches I learn in OL101 will help me as I look ahead to my fall-semester in-person courses.
While most of what I found in the resources was mutually reinforcing, I did notice some points of difference, and at least one possible point of contradiction between two of the resources. In "10 principles of effective online teaching," #8 ("safe and secure") strongly encourages online instructors to channel all of their communication with students through the LMS-embedded tools. But in "9 tips for creating a sense of community," #3 ("connect to students in multiple ways") implies that professors may do well to observe where students already hang out online and to follow them there. I'm inclined to follow the former advice rather than the latter, especially given my own policy for social-media use with students (they may connect to me, for example "friend" me on Facebook, but I do not initiate such connections). I'll be interested to hear what others think about this.
Aron, you're right about the need to prepare differently for an online course than for a f2f one. I just completed an adult studies online course which seemed to take a very large part of my time in the last few weeks. I feel that I need to give lots of feedback and allow students to improve their work more so in an online course than in a f2f.
ReplyDeleteI can see both sides to the debate about keeping courses all within the LMS or not. If you do, you will have a nice tidy record of everything that transpires, which could come in handy if students every challenged something. On the other hand, I don't like being tied to an LMS. I have found too many useful and creative tools that may not integrate into Moodle, and I would also want my students to be allowed to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
Aron, I can understand what you mean about being prepared ahead of time and then just being part of the course. I like to be prepared, and falling behind makes me feel very nervous! I'm hoping this course will give us the push we need to stay on top of our game and always be ready!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how practical this approach may be, but a way to stay on the safe side of professor-student interaction might be to have students submit their preferred method(s) of communication at the beginning of the course. This policy would allow students to share the forms of communication with which they're comfortable and would also give you the freedom to connect to students in multiple ways (of which they approve).
ReplyDeleteAnother interpretation for "connecting to students in multiple ways" may be through various media: articles, videos, blogs, audio files, slides etc. I can see how using certain tools to communicate with students could cause them to view the instructor as more impersonal than others (e.g. giving pdfs of lecture notes can seem more detached than a video of the instructor presenting the same information). So perhaps a way to resolve the contradiction may be to "connect with students via multiple technological methods."
Aron, having taken a course or two with you over the years, I have appreciated your approach to experiencing the course with students and allowing the class to guide the syllabus where it ought to go next... even though it was challenging for a type A student like myself. :-) It has significantly colored my experience working and teaching (and grading) in a program that works significantly out of experiential ed, however, and I especially appreciate your observation on how online learning seems to strike a balance between the two - experiencing the course in the dialogue with the students, while also doing a large portion of the "planning" upfront. Thanks for your perspective on this!
ReplyDeleteAron, having taken a course or two with you over the years, I have appreciated your approach to experiencing the course with students and allowing the class to guide the syllabus where it ought to go next... even though it was challenging for a type A student like myself. :-) It has significantly colored my experience working and teaching (and grading) in a program that works significantly out of experiential ed, however, and I especially appreciate your observation on how online learning seems to strike a balance between the two - experiencing the course in the dialogue with the students, while also doing a large portion of the "planning" upfront. Thanks for your perspective on this!
ReplyDelete