Ready to engage with TEL? Answer: NO.

[ElizabethECharl]

I discussed the ‘readiness’ questionnaire themes as previously identified  with a colleague who has not participated in any TEL courses.

Ready to engage with TEL?   Answer: NO.

* Motivation: Easier to give up when it becomes really difficult because there isn’t personal contact and easy to ignore communications by emails

* Learning styles: Having to wade through all of the various blogs and forums would be off-putting even though this in some ways replicates interaction in the classroom as well as active participation in others learning

* Time management: Although good at time management felt sure the estimated amount of time required would need to be trebled to be more realistic

* IT skills & experience of using forums, emails etc.: Didn’t have much confidence as seemed too much to wade through in the various forums and Google+, etc., very overwhelming. Wasn’t keen to participate in TEL course before this but even less so having seen what it actually entails. One was asked about whether you used email but the use of various social media and different applications went far beyond normal emailing.

* It was good that the questionnaire was used but it in no way prepared you for what would actually be needed/involved

Expectations and concerns?

* Expected courses to be more structured and study areas in ONE place (like VLE possibly)

* Expectation of TEL was low but seeing the lack of structure and flexibility of routes that can be employed even lower as it would be completely overwhelming for a first timer

* Main concern would be the amount of learning required to use the various social media BEFORE starting the course and to use them whilst studying the materials on the course

Resonate with my experience?

Some of these concerns are ones I had when I did my first MOOC, EDCMOOC and thankfully have not been replicated on this course, but I can understand how daunting it must be.  If my colleague already had experience of using a wide range of social media, multi-channel and multi-tasking I feel sure that the majority of concerns would not have arisen.

Only two elements resonates:  (1) the number of social media that one has had to start using and (2) the amount of time I spend on this course far exceeds the stated 5hours per week.  If I had a larger number of other projects on the go I would not be able to cope.  On the other hand the advice given to focus on the big question and do only what you can has helped me to manage my expectations and how much I put into this course and that is key to successfully completing this course.

What were your findings on this activity, similar or very different?

[SueFolley]

Hi Elizabeth – I haven’t done this activity yet but it is interesting seeing your results. I do think there is a barrier for people if they have not used any of the social media tools before, as there is a learning curve with some of them. I think Twitter in particular takes a bit of time to fully get. You have to not only add lots of people but start making useful connections and engaging with them before you really see the benefit, which can take weeks or months. I often liken it to being on Facebook without any (or with very few) friends on there – you just can’t see the point at first. If you have to overcome a lot of these barriers before even starting with grappling with course content, you can see how time-consuming this would be. Having said all that – I usually advise people just to dive in and try and engage. You can learn a lot by observing how others use the tools and interact with one another.

[ElizabethECharl]

Hi Sue,

You are right about the lead up time being required to get familiar with said tools and to use them confidently. The jumping in and engaging is a great approach, however when dealing with some mature learners who are pressed for time they tend to make value judgement as to what is worth spending their time on. It could also be the final deciding factor if a learner has already taken the readiness questionnarie and found that they are not as prepared as they thought they were being faced with not enough time before the course starts. Ideally some time possibly two weeks or more should be given over to self- assessment and then steps to address any gaps. I might even suggest that one way of engaging quickly would be to use gamification – where the skills are acquired whilst the focus is on a more engaging superficial level hmm… I wonder if any existing OER could go some way to addressing this? I don’t have much experience in that area but it would enable the learner to bridge that gap.

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