My big takeaway from completing the first OTL course is that the theory that was presented didn’t come from research from online learning environments. This gives me confidence that all I know and have learned about teaching and learning is transferable to an online context – good teaching is good teaching!
The most important ideas that I can take away are:
- The importance of establishing cognitive presence in an online course is a given, but how I’m going to do this is still a bit of a mystery;
- The importance of feedback in both summative and formative modes. Again, I wonder how I’m going to be able to achieve effective formative feedback when I don’t have the familiar F2F environment.
I will be meeting with an experienced OLFM tomorrow, and I look forward to learning some strategies and tools for navigating the online environment effectively. I know that there is additional support for OLFMs, so as soon as I can figure out exactly what I don’t know, I’ll be utilizing all of the resources available. I would also like to do some reading on best practices for online learning in cohort-based courses.
A few goals that I will set for myself for this term…
- Read at least 2 articles on effective online learning for cohort-based courses;
- Give timely and specific formative & summative feedback to all students during the course;
- Maintain a consistent daily schedule for responding and participating in discussions in order to facilitate the development of cognitive presence of all students.
- Take a few hours to read and comment on the blog posts of others (I’m still a bit tentative about engaging in this way)
In conclusion, I have had many of my theories about teaching and learning confirmed through the material in the course, and as I mentioned in my first post (“I don’t know what I don’t know”), I have been able to identify some of my knowledge gaps when it comes to creating and facilitating effectively in an online environment.