The most memorable online learning experience that I have had would be this semester in another online course that I am taking. This course focuses on interactive multimedia and consists of creating tools to help people learn something. For example, one of the projects we had to complete was creating a comic strip that taught a targeted audience something. Whatever the topic was about, it needed to be something that my partner and I had already mastered. This can be related to the Learning and Teaching as Communicative Actions (LTCA) theory, specifically the dramaturgical communicative actions. Dramaturgical communicative actions are those that allow the learner to reflect and create something based on the knowledge they now possess (Crosslin, 2018). I have found the projects within that particular class really engaging because I not only get to explain things that I have already mastered, but I get to “teach” it in a new way. Until that class I had never thought that a comic strip could be used to teach someone a concept. However, after creating my own and then getting the chance to review other students’ work, it became clear to me that comics can indeed be a very useful learning tool. Going back to the idea of dramaturgical communication actions, it was interesting to be actively learning and showing mastery at the same time. On one hand I was learning how to use the software in which you create the comic strip, but on the other I was showing mastery of the topic my comic was about.
Another memorable thing from that online class was learning how rich media can be for learning. Another project we had was making a screencast video teaching viewers how to do something on a computer. Bates (2019) says that video media is always richer than a textbook simply because it has more than one thing going on. Video often has audio and visuals, which can enhance someone’s learning more than just an audio or visual. Making the screencast video was an interesting process, and I learned that there was more going on at once than I originally thought. For example, I had to make sure that I was explaining things properly and being clear, but also making sure that what I was doing on the screen was matching what I was saying. I know that having the audio and visual in sync was important, and it was definitely more difficult that expected. Here is the screencast video myself and my partner made!
Speaking of synchronicity, the last thing I would like to discuss is the semi-synchronous structure of this online course. This course was asynchronous in a way because we were able to conduct the projects whenever we wanted, as all the information we needed was accessible from day one. However, there was some synchronicity in that there were still hard deadlines for the projects. This meant that students could do the projects whenever they wanted, but still had to hand them in on a certain day. I found this to be useful because I could get ahead if I wanted to, but also had some structure to guide myself.
Further Reflections…
In light of recent events pertaining to the COVID-19 outbreak, I felt as though this reflection was the most relevant one to add to. When UVic made the decision to cancel all face-to-face lectures on campus and switch to online based learning, I was very interested to see what my professors were going to do. Would they set up video lectures still meeting at the same time? Would they post all their power points and notes to CourseSpaces and leave it up to the students? Or would they simply say it’s over and your current grade becomes the final one? Although this had little impact on my semester as most of my classes were online anyways, I am aware that this meant less than ideal circumstances for other students. This situation is certainly making me reflect more on my experiences with online learning and how everyone’s experiences will differ.
Something that would be advisable to help students succeed at online learning, especially in these circumstances is to humanize online learning as much as possible. What this means is to find ways to facilitate connection between students and their professor even though they are not face-to-face (Crosslin, 2018). Certainly, in the midst of a global pandemic where almost everybody is self-quarantining there is already a lack of connection and feeling of isolation. By creating a space where connection and socialization can still occur, I think this would positively impact students who are new to online learning.
Bates, T. (2019). Understanding technology in education. https://via.hypothes.is/https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadi gitalagev2/part/chapter-8-understanding-technology/
Crosslin, M. (2018). Effective Practices in Distributed and Open Learning. https://via.hypothes.is/https://uta.pressbooks.pub/onlinelearning/cha pter/chapter-5-effective-practices/