Small group for distance learning

[SarlaGandhi]

Hello

I’d like to join this group – I work in a School of Health, specifically post qualification nursing, and am changing the delivery for some of the modules that I lead to fully online.

Sarla

[BillAnderson]

Hi Megan, all

I’d love to join in as well. While my background and online teaching are both in the Education area, my current role sees me involved quite a lot with people working in the Health Sciences.

Cheers

bill

[Tom Buckley]

I wouldn’t worry about fitting. There are a lot of very niche or very specific groups being formed in the fora. We can all learn from each others experiences and we might suppose when the teaching element starts this group may disband and reform.

Can I ask a question, it seems a lot of people are framing there experiences of doign TEL or e-Learnign as and instructor or as an insititution. Has anyone actually done a module or course completely online? Or very heavily online?

[GraphDesProject]

Hello, I too would like to join this group even tho I am already in the small group for art and design. I tutor HE f2f graphic design (but with WordPress as an element)  and online (private, all ages, using WordPress). I have also had experience of being a learner on a recent blended learning module on Technology in the Academic Environment, which had a large portion conducted over several months through a discussion group online – we learners also had to take turns in tutoring, or providing resources and getting discussions started and moderated. I was not overly keen on this and found it using technology for the sake of it – tho I learned about my own anxieties. We then moved on to research topics and I undertook a study of design students using blogs – which tho “finished” I am still researching. I have also recently done a MOOC (OLDS MOOC) on course design. However, I was ill and dropped out, which was fairly typical of MOOCS, I believe (I have heard, tho it may be gossip that there is a massive drop out rate). Nevertheless, the materials are all still there so I could go back and finish. Years ago I did my degree with the Open University in the days of books and tapes! I thoroughly enjoyed it; so I have some distance learning to compare TEL to.

Looking forward to the discussions,

Sancha (@GraphDesProject)

[trish_oc]

Hi Megan

this is an area that really interests me as I am just starting to develop a module in Object Oriented Design for the ITOnline Masters program in NUI Galway (Ireland)

Could I join this group too please?

Thanx

Trish

[WatsonJulie]

Hi Tom

I did a wholly online  course in e-moderating back in 2004, run by the University of Ulster and following Gilly Salmon’s model.  The participants were nearly all teachers and if I remember correctly,  I learnt as much about what doesn’t work as what does.  I now make my own online courses  (see my post earlier) but use a rather different model.

best, Julie

[James Kerr]

Hello,

I’d like to throw my hat in for this group as well.  I work on a regional campus of a larger University system, and work with distance-delivered content and support online programs.

Cheers,

Jim

[timggoodchild]

Hi,

I would also be interested in joining this forum. Have done some work with the OU, and have some recent experience in modules (mostly health background) here at UCS. Keen to hear what others are doing to engage – seems everywhere is pushing into the online space with great vigour.

Tim

 

[cookie20]

I’d like to join too. I’ve just started delivering an online course this year on Biology to mature students. Would like to get opinions on how better to get people engaging and also to determine how they are really doing with the course.

I’ve been using https://www.anymeeting.com/ to deliver my course. I find it the best of the lot out there. What do you all use?

Gordon

 

 

[KimLesley]

I would like to join this group.  Though I’m doing this course as part of my FE job I also work for the OU tutoring on three courses via online tutorials (Elluminate and soon to be Collaborate), forums, email, and some f2f.

Kim

[Megan Kime]

I’d definitely agree with that characterisation – I’ve not seen anyone yet proclaim themselves an expert, even though some are clearly very experienced in the field.

[Megan Kime]

Thisthesis is the firscourse I’be taken (and will hopefully complete) online. I’m finding the experience of being a student, despite it being a very different model to our online course, really helpful – it’s brough home to me the importance of clear instructions for example.

[Megan Kime]

To everyone asking to join – the quick answer is ‘yes of course!’ And the slightly longer answer is I don’t think you need permission – just join in! It’s really interesting to read people people working with online distance learning programmes and modules.

From a very brief skim just now, I notice that quite a few people are working on courses that are  broadly speaking access/skills/foundation level – is this because online learning is particularly suited to these kind of courses or just coincidence?

 

[Kari Rasmussen]

What can we tell about the range of experiences and preferences among ocTEL participants?

I think the variety of both experience and preference is very telling in and of itself – In this type of environment I would be most cautious if anyone claimed to be “an expert” unless they then sliced of a small chunk of this world – for example – “an expert in CoPs” is plausible. 

What challenges does this present for the course?

It is hard to design someting for everyone covering everything – it usually doesn’t work to be honest – perhaps the small group discussions may create samll CoPs that will provide meangingful learning paths for the participants, if this is the case great – otherwise it will be a few weeks of a lot of white noise 🙂 

In what ways is a MOOC well or poorly suited to these challenges?

The first hurdle I believe is the use of a suite of web applications – for those who are not comfortable and/or familiar with these it was quite the learning curve just to get in and start running. The second, which I have both in this and in my doctoral studies is that I live a half world away and with the difference in time means I often and on here at odd hours for most and by the time I get back it has been another full day of posts and thoughts!  I just calculated and for me to watch the video live tomorrow it is 4:00ish in the morning for me so the recording it is! 

Just a few thoughts …

[LauraMcLoughlin]

Hi everybody,

So interesting to read through everybody’s experience. I did the same e-moderator course as Julie Watson, about 4 or or 5 years ago. In my case too participants were all lecturers, from the same institution but different backgrounds. I enjoyed it.

In my blended learning course this year, I used anymeetings too, like Gordon. Both the e-tutors and the students found it really easy to use. We didn’t have a “blackboard” feature where students could write collaboratively on the screen (at least not in the free version), but I did try the collaborative board once and it turned out to be very messy.

This was a beginner module in Italian, but I don’t think online learning is suited to beginner/access level more than other levels. Incidentally, our module is perhaps uncharacteristically long for an online course. It spans over 4 semesters (2 academic years of 24 weeks each) and takes students to an intermediate level of fluency.  I wonder if anybody else has experience of long online courses.

Laura

[Author]

Posts