So long, and thanks for all the fish…

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goodbyeSix weeks has just flown by and I received the final notice from the UNSW MOOC – Learning to Teach Online on Sunday, August 16th ! Although I wasn’t able to be as involved as I had hoped, I gathered some great ideas, contributed some good resources back, and participated (lightly) in the online forums.

The primary “nuggets” I’ll take away from this MOOC are:

  • dealing with students questions by having them post in a forum and vote on which questions were of most interest – then the instructors responded to the top questions in short discussion-based videos emailed out to registered participants each week (very helpful);
  • well-organized and structured course (never felt lost – could always find forums, assignments, videos quickly);
  • collaborative Googledoc to accumulate suggested resources to support the weekly topics (easy way to involve participants!);
  • criterion (and explanatory videos) to support peer-grading of optional assignment (interesting to listen to why and how); and, finally,
  • the friendly, open supportive instructor presence established by Simon McIntyre and Dr. Negin Mirriahi!

Learning to teach online MOOCI enjoyed the flexible design of this MOOC and, although I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to complete activities and participate in the peer-feedback cycle, I found the process interesting to observe. I would think that the resulting feedback would have been very helpful but can’t be sure. I’ve been reading more about the efforts at improving the quality of peer assessments or self-evaluation in MOOCs and in the UK (Re-engineering Assessment Practices in Higher Education). I’d be curious to hear how the participants in the process felt about any improvement in their ability to assess and share?

During the final week of LTTO, Simon and Negin shared some of the demographic stats they’d collected. This MOOC (2nd one) was much more successful than the first; more participants who stayed involved (7,000) and a broader range of countries. There were:

  • 11,727 participants from 167 different countries
  • 36% were from emerging economics
  • top five countries – USA, Australia, India, United Kingdom, Russian Federation
  • most (90%) participants had at least a bachelor’s degree
They anticipate publishing future journal articles once they’ve had a chance to analyze the data they’ve collected. And it sounds as though they plan to offer the MOOC again so keep an eye on their Twitter feed UNSW ltto – (probably same time next year?)

If you haven’t already found UNSW’s COFA Learning to Teach Online project site – see http://online.cofa.unsw.edu.au/learning-to-teach-online/about-the-project  or their Youtube channel – https://youtu.be/SIgK2cHwD_g

 

 

Two weeks is 2 short…

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overflowing cupOr, to look at it another way, maybe thinking about motivation, asking questions to guide planning, selecting a type of learning activity (and potential tools) and developing a plan and a prototype is too much to deal with 4 two weeks? Some might have found that they felt like their "cup was overflowing"?

I've thought about different ways I could have approached the seminar and wondered if it would have been better to do two separate seminars; the first seminar to introduce and discuss ideas around engaging students in online learning and exploring different types of learning activities (examples). Then, the follow-up seminar could have been a real JAM and we'd have started off with ideas about selecting tools (for delivery or student response) and focused on sharing our own draft ideas for feedback. I've added a brief survey in the open seminar to collect ideas about ways to improve the experience another time.

So….today is the final day of the open, online SCoPE seminar "Creating Engaging Online Learning Activities JAM". You're still welcome to post a draft plan or prototype and get feedback. And the resources and conversation will always (as long as SCoPE continues) be available to revisit and reuse.

I facilitated a final synchronous BlackBoard Collaborate session, Friday, Aug 14th, to allow us to share our plans and/or prototypes. Although we only looked at three plans (including mine!), it was an interesting and informative discussion. Some of the highlights from my perspective:

  • Leonne B. explained how she blends her journaling activity (which includes a success-building rubric the students complete each week) and some computer-skills, applied in their BlackBoard LMS, to develop self-motivated, self-reflective learners with skills to help them in future learning.
  • Viviana C. explained her yet-to-be-tested learning activity that utilizes a focused conversation model to help students explore different science-related quotations from an evidence-based, critical perspective. Her activity provides flexibility and autonomy (two motivational elements) in how students can respond and share their reflections privately with the instructor. The activity is creative and relevant to engage learners.
  • I presented my still evolving learning activity as part of a blended workshop approach to encourage instructors (higher education) to explore different approaches to online learning from a critical perspective. The online component of the blended delivery would be 4 or 5 interactive videos (created in H5P's interactive video tool) that would feature "new" approaches to online learning including at least one that focuses on MOOCs and online learning design.

Note:  The three draft online learning activities can be found in the First Steps: Planning Your OLA forum thread.

Various questions and suggestions helped the presenters think about making minor changes or finding ways to encourage further student-to-student interactions. It will be interesting to hear about the future delivery of these engaging OLAs.

Additional notes:

  • We briefly discussed finding ways to use the SCoPE online learning community and platform to connect researchers or instructional designers wanting to test new teaching/learning activities with teachers who want to try new approaches but who don't have the time to fully develop them or support them during a busy teaching semester.
  • We talked about the upcoming research by Leonne Beebe (University of the Fraser Value) and Sylvia Currie (BCcampus/SCoPE) into the Facilitating Learning Online workshop's self-assessment of participation rubric.
  • We found out about the November 13 BCCampus-sponsored symposium Scholarly Inquiry into Teaching & Learning Practice – registration opens August 31st – they're accepting proposals until September 20th.
  • And a final contribution from SueH – a new MOOC platform launched in Europe – EMMA (European Multiple MOOC Aggregator) – something to check out and blog about in the future!

It's been a great two weeks – what an immersive learning experience for me. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to explore an idea or teaching practice. Just contact Sylvia Currie who hosts the SCoPE professional learning community.

 

 


 

Let the games (learning) begin…

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Full House Playing Dice - rebel t2iSCoPE open seminar\

Creating Engaging Online Learning Activities JAM
August 1-15, 2015

We're off to a great start (despite inadvertently starting on a B.C. holiday weekend with perfect weather) with a growing group of educators with diverse (and extensive) backgrounds and a shared interest in developing more engaging online learning activities. Thanks to SylviaC for encouraging me (gently nagging me 😉 to dive in and commit to facilitating my first open online SCoPE seminar "Creating Engaging Online Learning Activities JAM". We began August 1st and we'll continue until August 15th. And I'm ridiculously optimistic that people will be willing to plan a future return to SCoPE to  share their experiences and learnings when they actually use their draft OLA.

I'm going to blog about the experience, from two levels: 

1.  As the facilitator of an open online seminar in Moodle (and outside)

2.  As a learner, exploring a new approach to developing an online learning activity.

My facilitator voice will be in the default font here (who knows what it really is – it looks to be a sans serif so I'm guessing Arial). I may try to find a cute hat icon but can't promise.

My learner voice will be in Comic Sans (which may not be a designer's choice but it might be appropriate).

As a facilitator, I'm trying to remember to practice what I preach – don't overcomplicate things – don't dump everything you've collected or thought about the subject on participants all at once – find ways to help them organize the information but leave lots of room for alternative approaches – encourage them to share and feel comfortable doing so – help them by "pre-digesting" the lengthier articles or videos so they can quickly identify what may be most relevant and useful.

There's more but you get my drift. So far I tried to start out with a focus (and discussion) about what motivates people in general and learners (online mostly) in particular. Some great questions so far; we have some very thoughtful and experienced educators in the group.

If you're interested in developing an online learning activity in a community of supportive peers (and for FREE!) in a little less than two weeks, join us in SCoPE. You'll only need to sign up if you want to participate (and I hope you will).

Sylvia