One of the most difficult things to do in an online environment is to create and maintain student engagement. In a previous post I talked about humanizing the environment. This post reinforces that idea that we need to build online communities in order to promote learning in the online environment. Christopher Pappas in his blog talks about 10 activities that can be employed to build stronger online communities. I don't agree with all his suggestions, particularly in our context but it makes for a good discussion so take a read and let me know your thoughts on the suggestions.
http://elearningindustry.com/top-10-elearning-activities-can-employ-build-strong-online-learning-communities
Hi Dianne,
ReplyDeleteI, like you, would not prescribe to a few of these. I’ll share my thoughts on the effectiveness of some cases on me as a student.
“Let’s Get To Know Each Other” & “Ice Breaking” – can be effective before class as described but I think the majority of students would be anticipating instruction at the first class session and may miss the get to know each other online session all together. This may lead to those students feeling left out.
Online Discussions Via Skype – This may not work for me as I have limited internet access at home. The instructor / programme should never expect that the student has available high speed internet access at all times. I do not use Skype.
eLearning Games that promote team building – may not be effective as there are some students who are not interested in collaboration for a blended / online course. Team building should be a learning outcome if it is implemented for the course.
“Reply To All” Emails – effective for me as it is my primary form of engagement online.
“Follow Up” Online Meetings – may be excessive.
Transferring Discussions On Social Media – like Skype, students should not be forced onto a technology. I am not on Facebook, twitter or any of the other social media platforms and should not be forced to for class.
Regards, Akash.
I agree that some of the methods may not be as effective in some courses, but for different reasons than Akash.
ReplyDeleteIn my program, it is like primary school, everyone goes together, so by the time I first teach them, they already know each other (Years 2, 3, and 5 mostly). If anything, I'm the one who has to introduce and break the ice. I don't think students are necessarily anticipating instruction in the first class session, mine certainly aren't. They are expecting the intro of me and the course, and perhaps a review of previous material.
I do agree that it is important to know the audience. I like the online discussions my team has for the 5207 course, and we use Skype, but it is not a class-wide thing and we coordinate the times to best suit us. As to the high-speed internet, I did have classes as undergraduate that required it, but they also had computer labs available for those courses.
I think eLearning games could work, but the issue would be finding or designing one that fits our courses. Building or designing one from scratch is time consuming (just like quizzes), at least the first time it is done.
I dislike "reply to all emails" unless for specific work situations or already small groups (like my mentees), in part because sometimes the discussion gets back and forth between two people and everyone is privy to a conversation that perhaps should be private. Also, in the case of students, they don't check their emails, I have to remind them of that sometimes.
As to social media, I have a policy of little contact through social media with students until they graduate. That said, I know the students use Facebook groups and Dropbox to collaborate in projects and other courses like problem based learning. And I tell them, in those courses, that online collaboration is important.
I think part of the problem in my programme is that it is difficult to create a more blended learning environment in one course, when the majority is more "traditional". The students would feel overworked and overwhelmed. I think there can be more integration of technology, but this also has to work in the concept of integration of courses and integration of faculty, for example a course that I lecture that has numerous collaborators.
Apologies Dianne, I thought I had added my name. Sincerely,
ReplyDeleteKarelma
Karelma and Akash the take away from both your comments is that we need to look at strategies in our context. We go back to the principles of course design and I am seeing from what you are saying that we always need to consider several factors before we choose strategies-these factors include our students and their preferences and skills and access issues, our skills and preferences and access issues and the outcomes of the course.
Deletesorry - last part of what I wrote has do some typos - corrected here....
ReplyDeleteThe ten pointers in the article endeavour to establish some form of prescriptive protocol and in certain ways may be appropriate. It is important to be systematic but we must also experiment and feel free and empowered to apply and deploy technology. It is perplexing sometimes as one is confronted by the challenge of the new knowing that formerly this was not necessarily required to exhibit mastery. So the goalposts have moved and we need to strategies what the new rules of the game now are. This is about selection and also to an extent intuition…. not guessing…. but informed and intuitive responses....
Mark