End of Online Teaching and Learning course blog

End of Course Reflection Essay:
Date: December 2008
Course: Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning

This half of the course has been informative and worthwhile to me for 4 main reasons:
1. Learning about and applying different learning theories as they relate to the online environment.
2. Applying learning theory to the learning opportunities and objects used in the online teaching environment.
3. Differentiating between student centered and teacher centered environments and relating this to the online learning environment.
4. Learning about and producing an e-portfolio; experimenting with a wiki; perusing websites and investigating the use of different media (static and dynamic) in those websites.

Learning about and applying different learning theories as they relate to the online environment.

Reading about online learning theories and ideas makes one aware that this is not a new medium for tertiary education in the USA. I found the seven principles particularly useful to frame what we seek in university classes and courses and then applying this to the online environment sent the message home. One of the great benefits of the online medium is that it does cater to different knowledge levels in students. By layering available resources and including functions such as ‘going deeper’ one can accommodate many levels of knowledge. Since one never knows what a students tipping point, or where their learning edge is, I do wonder when and if students are bored and unchallenged by material that I present. In future I can improve courses by adding these extra layers.

2. Applying learning theory to the learning opportunities and objects used in the online teaching environment.

There are so many different static and dynamic learning objects available as a results of programs and software, that I fail to imagine a student who could not find something to be motivated about in an online environment. I like podcasts for audio learners and also just to provide variation in information presentation. I like powerpoint (either captivated or PDF) for presentation of ‘static knowledge’ that is knowledge that does not alter to much year to year (neuroanatomy/definition of therapeutic techniques). I like media video files for showing what is meant and providing a full example about a situation to the students and I use videos of children in my cerebral palsy course to send the message home. I like different types of programs for different types of student communication: wiki for collaborating; twitter for quick crucial communications (maybe clinicals); blogs for students tracking, integration, and reflection of learning.

3. Differentiating between student centered and teacher centered environments and relating this to the online learning environment.

The challenges of providing information that must be mastered so that the student reaches a certain level of competency and student centered teaching where the students knowledge level and perspective drives their learning needs is a difficult one to navigate. I guess that it will depend on the subject as too what is done by the teacher. I do need to have basic competencies set in lots of courses. I can deliver material in a student centered way, but their achievements need to reach a certain level. When you have a large class of students, it is very difficult to be student centered if students deviate from the typical expectation. Students fail in these circumstances. There are numerous resources for teachers to become more student centered and constructivist in their course design.

4. Learning about and producing an e-portfolio; experimenting with a wiki; perusing websites and investigating the use of different media (static and dynamic) in those websites.
I’d have to say, besides the actual material that I mention above and interacting and reading the posts of other students, the most enjoyable part of this course was putting together and looking at e-portfolios. I am not sure how much my synthasite website will hold in terms of the digital imaging that we will learn. I hope that it will cater to my learning needs. E-portfolios and blogs cater to the integration and reflective parts of Blooms Taxonomy and are a really great learning tool. The e-portfolio is a good place to feature and display skills. Mine are basic, but we’ll see how they change over the next 3 courses. Some good websites that we located as exemplary examples were an Alzheimer’s site; a parenting site; and a children’s mathematic site.