I just finished reading this week's lecture, an it reminded me of something I would like to share with you. After graduating from college and finally getting my Bachelor's in Computer Science, I started to work at the Center for Distance Learning at The University of Texas Pan American as a Multimedia Specialist. Since my job was researching and testing new media technologies that could be beneficial if implemented in the curriculum, I enrolled in an online course (my first online learning experience) from the Walden Institute (now called Walden University) to learn more about online learning and teaching. The course was called "Certified Online Instructor".
At first I was surprised and a bit disappointed about, what I thought then, the little interaction I had with the course instructor. All I had was some documents posted on the course web portal, along with some activities and/or reading assignments. As the course progressed, I followed along and did the required reading and assignments. Yet, I was still waiting for the instructor to play his traditional role as the "Director" or "Expert". As the course continued to move along, I realized that the activities, and the course overall, were driving me to interact with my peers and dig out information that was becoming substantive and relevant to me as I discovered it.
After successfully completing the course, I realized a couple of things. First, I learned a lot about teaching online, and I did not gain all the knowledge from the course instructor as I originally expected. Instead, I gained knowledge from the course content, the interaction with other class peers an the guidance and facilitation of the instructor.
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2 comments:
Those are great observations, Edgar. I, too, share a similar experience as you with my first online course. It wasn’t until 3/4 of the way through the course that I caught on that I was responsible for my own learning! I kept waiting for the instructor to *do something!* I can laugh about it now, but it brings up the issue of communication between facilitator and learner. The courses I’ve taken online at GWU have always made a huge point of mentioning the expectations of the learner, and have given plenty of “warnings” that the onus is on me to develop and learn, but that the instructor is there to help and guide when/if needed. I believe that communication effort is possibly the most important issue when introducing an online course to students – that they’re responsible for their learning experience.
I can't agree more with both of your posts...and from my end of the line, string (whatever the cliche is) - I can add that I try to let students know they're in the driver's seat, and also aim to structure my classes (well, most) that give students more choices and opportunities for collaboration, facilitating (one reason why I like students to facilitate discussion), and discussing...however, I wonder if I do enough sometimes. There are some restrictions with Blackboard, but if you have any suggestions for how I/we might do a better job in ETL - pls let me know!
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