Assignment 4: Moving Forward with Online Quality

Presented by
Dreana Marshall-Stuart

to
Dr. Charmaine Mckenzie

for the course

The Essentials of Online Facilitation 2022

 Palloff and Pratt (1999) tell us that “without the support and participation of a
learning community, there is no online course”. As part of my reflection, I had to step
back for a moment and ask, what are the major best practices for creating, maintain and
sustaining an online environment? Boettcher and Conrad (2004) advise that “it must be
developed and nurtured through diligent planning by the faculty”. The importance of my
role in ensuring that the online student is a successful one by recognizing the various
learning styles and multiple intelligences among my students cannot be over-stated.
Understanding this is an essential component in the grasping how I can get my students
to learn and develop cognitively.

It is necessary that as a facilitator that I choose activities that are more likely to
facilitate achieving the learning objectives or outcomes. Frequently, I can be seen in a
discussion forum making an initial post as a guide to the type of responses I expect
from my students. As a facilitator, I can lean more towards being student centered. It
must be noted that although I do not want to see as being the center of attention, it is
very important for me to interact with my students. In a student-centered classroom, if
expert knowledge is overused, this can intimidate the less experienced students.

It is essential to consider the ways in which each student learns and also their
emotional skills because self-exploration can lead to growth. What I enjoyed most about
completing the discussion forums is that one of the most important criteria that
appeared to have been considered when creating online these activities is to observe
the knowledge and skills of each learner towards the end of the course. Such an
instructional strategy keeps the students with prior knowledge interested and provides
those without or with limited knowledge, with as much time as possible to practice and
learn the content and material presented.

One of the most important criteria for creating online activities is to consider what
knowledge and skill you want the learner to have at the end of the course. It is indeed
important to arrange all the activities at the start and during the course, in a logical order
so that when the closing activities are introduced, they would bring closure to the course
(Dalgarno,1998). It will also make the other activities seem more worthwhile to
complete. I have done a course where the final activity had absolutely nothing to do with
the other activities and this was very disconcerting for me. I need to know everything I
have done during the course was meaningful.

Every individual has a unique learning style, the personal qualities that influence
the ability to acquire information, to interact with peers . . . and to otherwise participate
in learning experiences”. Some people learn actively and interactively, others focus on
facts, some prefer visual forms of information, and some learn from written and spoken
explanations. In my student-centered classroom, I will have students with various
learning styles, backgrounds, and levels of preparedness which will influence their
engagements with learning environments. It is essential to consider the ways in which each
student learns and also their emotional skills because self-exploration can lead to growth. The
students can become aware of reasons why they may not learn well in certain situations. They
can discover deeper reasons why they behave in a particular way, and they can uncover
patterns. The student may be less likely to be hard on them self and more willing to continue
actively striving for improvement when they have a clear idea of their strengths and
weaknesses.

For the students who likes to have lots of friends, talk to people and join groups, it is critical
that group work be promoted. As well, it will be necessary to have discussions and
chats which will allow this particular type of student to become involve in sharing,
comparing, relating, cooperating, and interviewing among each other. I will also design
lessons that include group work and by cooperative learning activities. I will also
promote the use of synchronous learning and collaboration with tools, such as audio
and video conferencing, live chat, and shared whiteboard. However, I believed that
greater collaboration would take place if the students were given the opportunities to
use wikis or blogs for group interaction.

Since all work cannot all be group related, individual projects will then cater for
students who like to work alone and pursue own interests. It will then become
necessary for me to provide individualized projects and self-paced instruction in some
instances. As well, I will assign reflective activities, such as journaling which will appeal
to this type of student. The use of asynchronous learning methods uses the time-
delayed capabilities of the Internet will benefit these students more. Tools to be used
include e-mail, threaded discussion, newsgroups, and bulletin boards. Discussion
forums are used for promotion group work and student collaboration. A significant
portion my facilitating occurs via the learning forum where activities will include
moderating the discussion forum and other unit activities that are designed to facilitate
the exchange of ideas and views among the students.

As a facilitator, I plan to use the best practices I learned in these modules to

create effective icebreakers that will elicit information which will provide each student
with an idea of the person they are and also give the other students the opportunity to
have a deeper insight into the people they are in class with. Assignments should
increase in complexity as the course progresses – this will allow the students to adjust
to their roles and responsibilities as online learners. Boettcher and Conrad (2004)
suggest that online activities should be balanced with more learner-learner and learner-
content activities taking place as the course progress.

I am encouraged by unit activities that are designed to facilitate the exchange of

ideas and views among the members of the group on a specific area of the material
covered in the Unit. My role as facilitator is to guide students on the content of their
discussions and submissions, clarify any misconceptions and provide support and
general guidance in other areas of the course as required. Factors that will influence
learning will call for instruction that will occur in realistic settings and by presenting tasks
that are relevant to the learner’s context. As much as possible, I encourage learning will
occur through experimentation, exploration, and discovery – especially in those
instances where it is not a dominant part of the course.

Group size is an important consideration in the implementation of activities.

Although smaller groups are considered as more manageable as part as the community
building process large classes sizes and groups may be unavoidable. I tend to group
heterogeneously as my goal is to create and sustain a high level of collaboration
between high-achieved and low-achieved students. This places cooperative learning as
the instructional use of small groups so that the student work together to maximize their
own and each other’s learning. This strategy will produce the greatest opportunity for
peer tutoring and support.
 As a facilitator in the online environment, it is important for me to provide a
support mechanism that to sustain the group and encourage their full participation. In
terms of collaboration strategies, I usually provide learning experiences that require the
learners to interact with each. I encourage small group activities as a means to
encourage communication and collaboration between me and the learners. By
understanding this, as a facilitator, the following are ways that I can promote a learning
environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning,
and self-motivation.

One of my greatest challenges in completing applications for these courses was

in understanding what factors influence best practices for an online teaching which
embraces cultural diversity. As a facilitator in a student-centered classroom, I would
want to encourage my students by providing environment which recognizes and
emphasizes the learner as a joint participant in the educational process. The opportunity
has now arisen for me to look more critically at the ways that I can use technology to
improve the effectiveness of courses for various students. Of course, this will mean
becoming responsible for integrating student-centered teaching and learning strategies
into my teaching style. However, in order to close the gap where I am able to be guided
by these differences, I need to be able to discriminate between knowledge and my
personal beliefs. I also need to move to the point where I will be in a position to decide
what best to do with the information I discover.

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and
practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and
resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2011). “Launching the Online Learning Experience”. Retrieved
from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/