How do we go about keeping students engaged? This to me is the biggest conundrum. Throughout this course I was challenged and inspired by this question. One thing I have to say is evident is that a new approach is important innovation and creative thinking will pave the way to better engagement with students.
Looking at the Community of learning model. To me the tree presences are all equally important but achieving this through my engagement with students seems a task I still have to fully conquer. It was not revelation that these are all important but rather the reiteration thereof.
Figure : Community of Inquiry
All the factors influence the reluctance of students to participate as well as the success of the course in the end. The most challenging to me seems to be to create an enviroment where students want to open up and want to participate.
Through our group work we had a look at the Gilly Salmon Five stages of online learning .This also addressed the issue of a safe environment. Although in my personal life I am a very people orientated individual I sometimes tend to be more task orientated when it gets to work and this was such an eye opener to once again see the importance of creating a secure environment and making sure that people are at home with each other and the tools before going forward into theoretical concepts. This will definitely influence the way in which I go about preparing for the new academic year. I have definitely not placed as much emphasis on online or face to face socialization. The ONL course started of with a section dedicated to this and I can see the benefit of this. My planning for the 2019 academic year will include a beter overview of the tools we use ie Blackboard as well as group work introductions and making sure students know each other. This will increase the openness and it will lead to more effective learning environment.
In the duration of this course we also implemented a FISH model that is a very good example of the third stage of the Gilly Salmons model Information exchange . This was used very effectively and I enjoyed using this model. The exchange of ideas and information is key to understanding and thus also uncovering concepts and learning. Ultimately this would then lead to knowledge construction an then development that will enrich an individual and increase effectiveness.
The graph below illustrates the stages.
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