Week 8: Online Community

While I have not taken many “true” online courses (that offer collaboration), I have some thoughts about community with those that I have taken thus far. Like others in the class, my experiences are extremely different in each class. I have been in classes where the instructor just posts the entire semester’s assignments and discussions and then depends on the students to do the rest. And others where the instructor is just as involved in the discussion and topics and the students.

I think learner collaboration is essential to the learning process in an online course environment. It is the instructor’s job to foster and direct student collaboration. I have found that I almost learn more from the learners than from the instructor. I don’t think this is a problem though; this is one of the greatest benefits of distance learning. Rather than having one instructor tell you everything he/she knows about the course topics, there is a collaboration of all learners through their thoughts and everyone’s experiences.

The instructor is extremely valuable in contributing to the sense of community of online classes. Establishing assignments that “force” collaboration in the beginning of the course is critical to build the trust among the learners. As an instructor, you cannot assume that the learners know one another from other course and will feel comfortable getting to know them without some assistance. In addition to building the assignments to work together, the instructor participating in the discussions is also helpful to the community. Learners traditionally want validation from their peers but also the instructor. By contributing in the discussions, the instructor adds the validation learners need to trust the online community and feel they can interact in a safe environment.

The nature of the online learner is a busy individual. I think this characteristic is the factor that most hurts the community. As the course progresses, there seems to be a drop of collaboration among the learners. I am not sure if that is because everyone gets busy, but it seems like the instructor really needs to watch their design of assignments so he/she can pull the community together again. I think the trust is already established but a gentle push to re-engage the learners is necessary. The instructor that looses interest in the discussion or appears to because he/she is not responding shows the learners it is acceptable to stop the discussions.

All in all, I believe online courses offer as much as, if not more, than the face to face interaction, if the course is designed right. People who are quiet are more likely to contribute to the discussions and their experience is just as valuable as the ones that always talk during the f2f classes.

Week 2: The Impact of Technology

Technology is something that excites, scares, concerns, and daunts me. I love the idea of all this information at our finger tips, but am concerned a bit by the impact of it on society. I believe the young generation is learning a great skill in technology but fear that the standard "old school" of learning has shifted. Several young people have lost the simple skills of mathematics, geography, history, and even the English language. Wow, reading that back I sound like an older generation!

With that said, I find technology an exciting challenge in designing training for the corporate setting. Technology and online learning is here to stay and I have been working extremely hard to change my current companies way of thinking to save money and invest in online training. It is far too expensive to send people across the country to a central location for f2f instruction when there are great alternatives - online instruction. One challenge that faces me is the misconception that online instruction is the typical f2f manual presented online. This is a huge hurdle to overcome because of the initial online courses created. They were good for the timing, but they have also tainted the learners view on this media.

The next generation wants only what they want, when they want it, and as fast as you can give it them. This is the way the world is moving and online education has to catch up. I agree with Mohamed Ally's argument that there is no one school of thought for online design. I believe you have to consider all the learners, learning styles, society, and your message. All of this takes development time and resources. In a perfect world, you will have the time to develop the best course possible because of the wonderful design and strategy, though I have found those ideals get compromised with deadlines and the misconception that online training is just a PowerPoint.

While there a lots of technology constraints and functionality in designing online course, I believe the larger constraints are changing the mentality of the others around you, namely the powers in charge. Technology can and will enhance the online education system, but the people's beliefs is where the greatest impact and/or impasse of the online education is.

What made you want to take this course?
I wanted to take this course because designing online courses has always interested me. As an Instructional Designer for the last eight years, I have designed ILT courses, virtual classroom courses and online courses. I find the online courses the most interesting and sometimes the most challenging. I am completely self-taught in Instructional Design; I have learned through reading, exploration and others. Therefore, I am very interested in some formal instruction, as well as some new ideas because what has worked for the last eight years in online courses is not working anymore. There is more advanced technology plus more creative ways to create and take online courses. It is exciting to move past the page-turner world of online training!

What are three things that anyone knows you knows about you?
1. I am an artist with very little creativity. I can draw/paint anything but struggle to create the image in my head first.
2. My children are my life, almost to a fault. Hence, doing something for myself - taking graduate classes and hopefully applying them to a degree in instructional design.
3. I am very motherly, even though I am usually the youngest person on my teams at work, I am always the one they call "mom".