E-Learning Week 6 - Tasks and Reflection

What do you consider as important elements in an e-learning course?

1) A well-educated course facilitator - the facilitator's role is the most crucial as he or she has to build up a course for people who might not even meet the facilitator and coursemates. The facilitator has to know the basics of building an e-learning course as well as have a good grasp of the material.
2) A nice introduction - to define the outcome and goals of the course.
3) Good materials - by materials I mean videos, texts, notes, etc., which draw the learners' attention in such a way that they memorize things very easily. The materials to my mind should be concise and very striking, especially for younger people.
4) Evaluation - understandable criteria for passing the course. Those should be not too harsh and not too simple, because with too tight schedule a learner could never do well in a course with harsh requirements, and with too broad criteria the result might not come out as well, too, because then they just forget about the requirements and think there is time enough to pass.
5) Feedback - this is an important part, since every person needs reflection for how he or she has advanced. It can be a mark or a comment.

What was the most important thing you learned this week? 

I think I realised that groupwork is tricky work since there is no ideal time when you can meet, there is no ideal pattern that the group co-operates on, because the people in the group are so different. Yet you manage to do all things well and on time, which is a relief.


What is your evaluation of this week's groupwork? (What did go well and what did not? How did groupwork influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)

Groupwork went well, because we met online and discussed which parts should be done and which tasks should be divided. I think that according to personal learning contract I can regard myself as successful, because the group managed to do well. I was a bit puzzled, though, that there is a kind of dependence on the group leader. Puzzled, because I think that grown-up people are able to think on their own as well. But all in all we managed well and all parties did their job on time.

Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?

Nothing has really changed in these learning environments. I have taken my blog as a learning blog or portfolio and for group work we are still using Pbworks. Maybe we will switch to another one, but currently all of it is as it was before.