Is this the end?

My view on ONL192


During the past twelve weeks, I have been taking an online course, ONL 192 [1] “Online Networked Learning, a course, a community, an approach”. The reason for taking this course was to get a deeper understanding of online teaching and learning. It was an intense and fascinating journey, that made me dive into tools for online cooperation, openness and content sharing, networked collaborative learning and methods and strategies to design online courses.

I reached the end of the course and what have I learned?

Well, twelve weeks ago, I was rather reticent and reserved about online courses. I thought they were only an option for motivated students that were interested in self-learning new subjects that would be otherwise not available in face to face environments. I also used to think that online teachers had a more passive role than classroom teachers.

Twelve weeks later, my expectations for this course were totally met and my perspective towards online learning changed dramatically. What I learned from this course cannot be fitted in a 400-words blog, so I summarized my most important learning outcomes below.

Fig 1: Outcomes from my ONL experience, embrace and adapt to changes in the education system [2], responsibilities of an online teacher [3] and online group cooperation [4]


  • Despite the uncertainty of some teachers/students and society towards online learning, the students’ interest for online courses is growing [5] and so is the number of online courses on offer [6]. I understand the concerns of education institution towards this change in terms of e.g. having their work plagiarized or getting no reward or acknowledgement for their work. There are however ways to protect such issues (e.g. Creative commons licenses [7]) and teachers can opt to change their mindset by feeling flattered when seeing their material being shared as opposed to feeling reluctant and scared of sharing. I learned that teachers will always be an important pillar in the education system and I should therefore embrace and adapt to changes.

  • I learned that online teachers have an equally active role and perhaps even a higher level of responsibility than classroom teachers as they need to overcome the distance factor by using digital tools and pedagogic methods that mimic face-to-face teaching.

  • The group work participation was one of the best parts of this course as I had the chance to experience first-hand the challenges and opportunities of online cooperation and collaborative learning. What I learnt through my group meetings, could have never been taught through books. It was an enriching and very valuable experience that allowed me to get a better understanding on group dynamics. Thank you PBL Group 8 for sharing your experiences, for the great team work and valuable interactions!


Fig. 2: A new perspective, a new beginning... [8]



As this course is ending, my path as a teacher is just about to begin and I cannot wait to apply this knowledge to motivate, engage and “touch” students in the digital world.



References:

[1] ONL 192, Open Networked Learning, A course, a community, an approach. 2019 Available at: https://www.opennetworkedlearning.se/ Accessed on: 2019.12.07

[2] Figure available at: http://www.empoweredwomeninbusiness.com/excited-embrace-changes-ahead-not-much/ Accessed on 09.12.2019

[3] ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/Z_WEI Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/02/13/assessing-faculty-role-online-learning-public-comprehensive Accessed on 09.12.2019

[4] Benedictine University Available at: https://online.ben.edu/programs/mba/resources/benefits-of-group-work-in-online-graduate-program Accessed on 09.12.2019

[5] Doug Lederman 2108 Online education ascends. Inside Digital Learning. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/11/07/new-data-online-enrollments-grow-and-share-overall-enrollment Accessed on 09.12.2019 Accessed on: 09.12.2019

[6] Palvia, S., Aeron, P., Gupta, P., Mahapatra, D., Parida, R., Rosner, R.; Sindhi, S. 2018 Online education: worldwide status, challenges, trends and implications. Journal of global information technology management vol 21/4, 233-241 Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1097198X.2018.1542262 Accessed on: 09.12.2019

[7] Process Arts 2000 Creative Commons licenses explained. New Zealand Available at: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Creative+Commons+guide Accessed on 09.12.2019

[8] Matt G. 2015 A new perspective outside he lines. UnwastedMind Available at: http://www.unwastedmind.com/a-new-perspective-away-from-home/ Accessed on 09.12.2019










Comments

  1. Lotta FröjdfeldtDecember 12, 2019 at 5:09 AM

    Hi Lara,

    You describe your learning journey throughout the course. At the start you saw online learning as more individual and online teaching as more passive. You now describe ONL as “…a course, a community, an approach”. You say that your view of online learning has changed dramatically.

    You summarize you learning in three important steps: (1) Online learning will grow, and teachers will always be important, so please embrace the change, (2) Online teaching is an important and demanding task, (3) The enrichment of learning from others.

    In the end you say that you can’t wait to apply your knowledge into your teaching. And I can’t wait to hear more about it, and please keep on reflecting! THANK YOU! 😉

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 15, 2019 at 12:02 AM

    Hi Lara,
    I´m with you. It is not the end of the course, our way as a teacher in the digital world is at the beginning. We have to start to apply our course experiences into our online course with students - the next big challenge. I´m looking forward to it, with all positive and negative experiences.

    Many greets,
    Dirk

    ReplyDelete

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