Reflections on Topic 4: Design for online and blended learning

Hi guys,

OK so about this topic I have chosen to reflect on “Are there opportunities for further development in this area that you have identified as a result of your own experience as a learner in the ONL course and of your engagement in this topic?” from the suggested themes by the ONL team.

And the answer to that question is a resounding “Yes!”.

I was struck with the video by Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes (only one of them worked, just sayin’). She pointed out that the Community of Inquiry-model that consists of social, cognitive and teaching presence may also have a 4^th presence, namely emotion.

It was obvious that a lot of people in the ONL course also thought so, almost all the input in the padlet concerned emotional presence. In a slide Cleveland-Innes spoke on desirable traits for a teacher to project, specifically:

·        Relaxed confidence, conviction

·        Enthusiasm, excitement, passion, a sense of drama, curiosity, sincerity, concern, honesty

·        Openness, warmth, goodwill, caring, a sense of humour

These attributes are pretty handy in any social interaction obviously. And so I will try to be more aware of my emotional presence in teaching but also in general life and thereby hopefully become a better person.

However, a “Brasklapp” – which is a Swedish word for reservation (that has a great story to it) – is that it’s easy to project relaxed confidence and conviction when you teach on a topic that you're actually good at. Sometimes though, you have to teach on subjects that you are less familiar with. In that situation only a fool would appear relaxed and confident 😁

Further, the really great hands-on model by Gilly “The Fish” Salmon in which she described a five stage model for online learning to be successful was an eye-opener for me and also, I gather, the rest of ONL 09. We in fact built our scenario on this model.

I liked that the model brought forward components of an online course not often thought of or discussed; Eg. setting it up correctly when it comes to technical aspects. Further, making sure that the students’ computers meet the technical requirements and that they get access to all the information and different tools necessary for the best learning experience possible is also crucial.

It does not matter if the teacher is welcoming and encouraging if he/she can’t solve or are not aware of technical issues that hinders the students’ access to the course (or lead to problems with uploading assignments and things like that) thus dampening their motivation.

Come to think of it: Although I loved this course, it did not start well with quite a bit of technical issues that were pretty off-putting to me. 

References

Cleveland-Innes, M. (2019). Emotion and learning – emotional presence in the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI)? Introductory video on the Padlet

Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. [Homepage] http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html