In this blog post I will summarise what I think are the most important things that I have learnt during the course and also touch upon how my learning will influence my professional practice.
Rhythm
Every course, whether it is online or not, has a rhythm. In this course the rhythm has been the pace and relationship between topic launch, webinars, tweet chats, PBL group meetings, course readings, asynchronous collaborative working, blog posts and group presentations. One take home message I have learnt is that it is important to reveal and clarify the rhythm of a course. I think this is important in order for participants to plan their work and get the most out of each activity in the course.
Flexibility
To study online (compared with studying offline) offers greater flexibility in geographical aspects. This opens up for participation from several countries in different time zones and I think this is a fruitful example of internationalisation at home (IaH). But at the same time this also affects (reduces) flexibility in course design. You have to take into consideration that late changes can be difficult to handle by the students/peers. I will take this into consideration when designing courses where several time zones are involved.
Activity
The ONL course has given me a blueprint of how to work and study online with modern technology, both synchronously and asynchronously. I especially like the triad of Zoom, Mentimeter and Padlet in order to flip the online classroom. Another triad for asynchronous work is Google docs, blogs and the WordPress-Google-community-space.
Summing up – how ONL will influence my professional future
To start with, I will definitively try and be more open with the learning resources I am creating. I will try and use Creative Commons on my productions. Secondly, I would like to deepen my readings of Gilly Salmon’s books E-moderating and E-tivities and also complement these with texts regarding blended learning, that my colleagues in the PBL group have provided during the discussions we have had. Thirdly, I will investigate if it is possible for our unit to buy a few licenses of Mentimeter, since I have found that the tool is a good way of activating students in synchronous online sessions. Last but not least – thank you to all of you who have participated in this round of the ONL course, it has been a challenging and fun journey!
bollden 