Thoughts from BlueJeans meeting (Dec 17):
- Classmate mentioned how the article, Pedagogical Models for E-Learning: A Theory-Based Design Framework, seems to suggest pedagogy for online education that are techniques which teachers at brick-and-mortar schools use in their regular class. While I agree this may seem redundant, as responsible educators would include checks and balances of student learning in online course much like the traditional face-to-face classroom, it should not be taken for granted. At the post-secondary level, the course designer and lecturer may be different individuals which would cause the latter to have minimal control over course design; preventing them from adding or editing tasks to provide synchronous meetings or asynchronous discussions. Furthermore, post-secondary lecturers are generally specialists in their field and have not been exposed to teacher training programs to have the background in any pedagogy. Therefore articles such as Dabbagh (2005) helps provide some of these tips and tricks used by every day teachers.
- It was also mentioned how online and face-to-face teaching are not that different if we can simply adapt in-person pedagogy into the online platform. As an online and blended teacher, I would have to disagree with this idea for a multitude of reasons:
- The most imperative difference is that online teacher has very limited options to prove who is doing the work. While there is always a mandated in-person assessment, they are far and few in-between. Evidence of learning is a simply an assignment submission with a name on it. I find quizzes are the worst indicators of learning (as a quick self-assessment & feedback) since students can guess their way through, or receive outside help as they’re doing it (speaking from experience as a tutor with 5+ years of experience).
- It’s difficult to build a class relations between students-students and student-teacher. Synchronous meetings often works at the post-secondary given the population is self-motivated and is shouldering the cost of education. However, the same cannot be applied to high school or elementary. Often times online students will be cross enrolled or have scheduling conflicts which prevent synchronous meetings, or ignore these opportunities given their lack of motivation and inability to see it’s immediate benefits. With this lack of connection, dialogue between students or with the teacher becomes artificial, and usually devolves into simple completion task.
- Some activities are highly difficult to replicate virtually, ie. Labs. While virtual labs are fairly prevalent and the majority are free, their design often follows a pre-determined sequence where students can succeed as long as they follow each step. There is no chance of failure, reflection on sources of error, or at times, consideration of the concept at work in this lab. Another important aspect is the lack of core competencies such as collaboration, personal responsibility (in group work), or social awareness that would be present in a traditional lab activity.
- Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) becomes trickier navigate, in addition to course settings such as progression roadblocks. The student may not have access for support (or perhaps too much, see #1), or the course isn’t user-friendly to those who need scribes or readers. Then there’s the challenge of providing opportunities for (re)assessment when students repeatedly do not show up at arranged times due to health or other reasons. We also have no control over learning environments (or breaks) outside of school that would help improve students learning when they’re studying.
- I find myself quite humbled by the amount of behind-the-scenes work and planning that online/blended teachers need to do in order to have a “successful” course. Even having gone through PDP and learning about different pedagogy and learning theories, much of it is inapplicable (ie. class management) or difficult to effectively transfer into an online setting (formative assessment). An instructor who is inexperienced with teaching or has only seen (poor) examples of online courses would certainly benefit from articles like Dabbagh (2005).