- I learned a lot from the theoretical part of creating an e-learning course as well as got a good experience of managing a group - although there were minor setbacks, everything turned out pretty well in the end. As far as committing yourself to the role is concerned, I sometimes did too much, and should have loaded more responsibility to the other members.
- Secondary school practice went as predicted, and I managed to post more information about the tasks in order to make them clear for the lessons I was absent.
- I think I even got a good load of experience of time planning, since I managed to do most of the weeks in time, but since I joined later, I had to do some of the tasks later as well. I did not have to create a to-do-list, but managed to remember how to do the tasks needed.
- What changed was the collaboration tool from pbwiki to google docs, and also our prototype environment appeared into weebly. Other sources were used as predicted.
Showing posts with label IFI7139. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IFI7139. Show all posts
17.5.10
Week 11. Individual reflection and assessment
I took out my learning contract and started revising it. According to my contract I managed to fulfill most of the parts:
9.5.10
Week 10. Prototype Evaluation, and other stuff.
You can find our group's thoughts from the prototype's blog post.
New things about groupwork were the ones that there were no new things, we did our job, and those who were busy managed to add their opinions as well. Thus we created a common understanding of our course and posted it to our prototype's blog, since it was the most suitable place to put it in.
As for my personal contract, I understood that it is not utterly possible to make people to do their job unless they are available. And this way groupwork had to be re-organized. Those who care put more effort in working and those who have other priorities put less of an effort, but all in all we worked together well as a group. I think it is really about priorities and likes of the tasks.
I think I am still motivated to doing such things in later future, because I love learning by reflecting to yourself and the facilitator.
I think my learning contract has worked within the course, but I would reflect it more deeply the next week.
New things about groupwork were the ones that there were no new things, we did our job, and those who were busy managed to add their opinions as well. Thus we created a common understanding of our course and posted it to our prototype's blog, since it was the most suitable place to put it in.
As for my personal contract, I understood that it is not utterly possible to make people to do their job unless they are available. And this way groupwork had to be re-organized. Those who care put more effort in working and those who have other priorities put less of an effort, but all in all we worked together well as a group. I think it is really about priorities and likes of the tasks.
I think I am still motivated to doing such things in later future, because I love learning by reflecting to yourself and the facilitator.
I think my learning contract has worked within the course, but I would reflect it more deeply the next week.
3.5.10
Week 9. Reflection
Since we have done pretty much until now, this week's tasks were quite simple. This week we tried to smooth the consistency of our e-learning course, and added some extras to the course (e.g. team members, and timeline). I felt that my course companions were very supportive this week and made me realize that it is not always necessary to take the lead and that group members are capable of working on their own as well. It felt relaxing.
I found out that in our group there is a very nice division: some are active and some inactive, but still we managed to do the necessary work. I think that without having all members present, it is still possible to finish the work in order to get a good e-course result.
What I have noticed is that I get a great leading experience, how to act as a leader, how to make people work, etc. Also a good skill :)
PS. The timeline can be found in our weebly course environment from team page.
Oh, and it's so good to acknowledge that creating an e-course is much more than learning about e-courses. Alice is a great example of a good learner - she has learned about social networks and different collaboration- and web platforms as well. I feel thrilled!
The same about Chiara and me - I think we both are learning from international group work. This is the first time I am working with such a varied group of people, and I am grateful for new experiences. To tell you the truth, I am waiting for comments on my posts and reflection, because this course is unique for its reflection "bonus". And, well, who doesn't like positive feedback (and constructive critical feedback as well).
I found out that in our group there is a very nice division: some are active and some inactive, but still we managed to do the necessary work. I think that without having all members present, it is still possible to finish the work in order to get a good e-course result.
What I have noticed is that I get a great leading experience, how to act as a leader, how to make people work, etc. Also a good skill :)
PS. The timeline can be found in our weebly course environment from team page.
Oh, and it's so good to acknowledge that creating an e-course is much more than learning about e-courses. Alice is a great example of a good learner - she has learned about social networks and different collaboration- and web platforms as well. I feel thrilled!
The same about Chiara and me - I think we both are learning from international group work. This is the first time I am working with such a varied group of people, and I am grateful for new experiences. To tell you the truth, I am waiting for comments on my posts and reflection, because this course is unique for its reflection "bonus". And, well, who doesn't like positive feedback (and constructive critical feedback as well).
22.4.10
E-Learning Week 8 - Reflection
I had some thoughts concerning Ketlin's post of week 7.
She said she did not have a clear image of a decent e-course in mind before she started this subject, but she has learned a lot now. I must admit, that I have learned something as well, but it is fairly simple for me to surf around in the e-learning environment. I am feeling pretty good now that I have passed one bad e-course example, I even decided to give the lecturer course feedback so that she could improve her courses. After learning some basics and browsing through materials I feel pretty secure in open learning environments. I am also proud that I have participated on an e-course of the lecturer who got a quality mark from EITSA (Estonian Information Technology Foundation), so I have a few courses to compare.
I just hope that all of our group's materials of our course will be posted before evaluation, because group work matters 25%, not your own effort in the group, as far as I understand.
Explain, which type of learning environment is best suitable for your e-learning course prototype?
Our group has decided to adapt an open personal learning environment, because it is easier to follow and there are no extra passwords to remember. The other point would be that social media applications require a lot of mobility and time to get acquainted with the whole concept, thus a weekly space is left for the student to learn the things and reflect on them. We have put our materials in the web, namely a weebly-based page, which gives the objectives, main information, tasks, and the facilitator's blog (the name is made up thus there is no need to contact the person who is the "facilitator" there). Tools for learners would be a few social networking tools and also a blog for reflection. Since there is no groupwork, only minor skype chats may occur, but it is not clear yet, whether the learners would be keen on it. Some tasks are made in twitter, thus there will be an agregator for twitter feeds as well.
Why did we choose Weebly?
I still learned that it is possible to do group work so that not everyone is present, but through collaboration with some and then the others it is possible to manage with group tasks very easily. There has to be a keen person who "fuels" the conversation, and participants who do work in time. I had quite a lot of fun setting up the weebly course and inventing facilitator's blog posts and comments. I love creative work!
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?)
According to my observations this week has been productive, we have been online and decided things together, and there was no need to schedule time, we were all online and had a spontaneous meeting. This made our task division even more effective. Well, since everybody agreed that PBworks is not the best environment for course presentation, we decided that we would change it. As we had at least 2 weebly users, we decided to use this environment. We have had several talk sessions with the group and that is assuring, everyone took part nicely.
Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
I love my organization :) but group environment changed in the sense that there appeared a new web page for the course prototype.
She said she did not have a clear image of a decent e-course in mind before she started this subject, but she has learned a lot now. I must admit, that I have learned something as well, but it is fairly simple for me to surf around in the e-learning environment. I am feeling pretty good now that I have passed one bad e-course example, I even decided to give the lecturer course feedback so that she could improve her courses. After learning some basics and browsing through materials I feel pretty secure in open learning environments. I am also proud that I have participated on an e-course of the lecturer who got a quality mark from EITSA (Estonian Information Technology Foundation), so I have a few courses to compare.
I just hope that all of our group's materials of our course will be posted before evaluation, because group work matters 25%, not your own effort in the group, as far as I understand.
Explain, which type of learning environment is best suitable for your e-learning course prototype?
Our group has decided to adapt an open personal learning environment, because it is easier to follow and there are no extra passwords to remember. The other point would be that social media applications require a lot of mobility and time to get acquainted with the whole concept, thus a weekly space is left for the student to learn the things and reflect on them. We have put our materials in the web, namely a weebly-based page, which gives the objectives, main information, tasks, and the facilitator's blog (the name is made up thus there is no need to contact the person who is the "facilitator" there). Tools for learners would be a few social networking tools and also a blog for reflection. Since there is no groupwork, only minor skype chats may occur, but it is not clear yet, whether the learners would be keen on it. Some tasks are made in twitter, thus there will be an agregator for twitter feeds as well.
Why did we choose Weebly?
- easy to navigate, just a few clicks
- simple to create, and manage, just a few drag-and-drop items + text, embeddable code, etc.
- forum/feedback/blog option
- simple interface
I still learned that it is possible to do group work so that not everyone is present, but through collaboration with some and then the others it is possible to manage with group tasks very easily. There has to be a keen person who "fuels" the conversation, and participants who do work in time. I had quite a lot of fun setting up the weebly course and inventing facilitator's blog posts and comments. I love creative work!
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?)
According to my observations this week has been productive, we have been online and decided things together, and there was no need to schedule time, we were all online and had a spontaneous meeting. This made our task division even more effective. Well, since everybody agreed that PBworks is not the best environment for course presentation, we decided that we would change it. As we had at least 2 weebly users, we decided to use this environment. We have had several talk sessions with the group and that is assuring, everyone took part nicely.
Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
I love my organization :) but group environment changed in the sense that there appeared a new web page for the course prototype.
18.4.10
E-Learning Week 7 - Reflection
What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?
I will take Chiara's example and talk about the conference I attended, E-learning conference 2010. I got a lot of inspiration through that and when the materials are put up, I hope there is a possibility to look at them. In the conference I had this e-learning course in mind several times. But I will not talk about the conference, since there are more important issues to be discussed. I learned that there is a possibility that without the group leader things get done as well. Chiara was so kind this time as to lead the forces, thus I was happy that other people take the lead as well!
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?)
Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
Concerning group work I will reflect on Chiara's post, that the communication was not all that terrible, since she got hold of the groupwork to her hands and pushed us into working. I think we would have done it anyway, but work and school and other down-to-earth activities kept the team busy on the given times (one-two people were present, still). As far as the tasks are divided, I think people do not have to be online at the same time, everyone can improve/add something to the discussion later. I remember that everyone had their excuses, thus there should be other communication options/means to collaborate. The contract did not fulfill its purposes from the leadership point of view, but I think that everything is still on track.
We have not changed our environment yet, but I think that we should place the final product somewhere else than Pbworks (but I am growing to like the environment for this course a bit).
My personal learning environment is the same, I think. I still use a blog, which is a kind of portfolio for my learning experience. I use Skype for chats and task division, and E-Learning course for task monitoring.
I will take Chiara's example and talk about the conference I attended, E-learning conference 2010. I got a lot of inspiration through that and when the materials are put up, I hope there is a possibility to look at them. In the conference I had this e-learning course in mind several times. But I will not talk about the conference, since there are more important issues to be discussed. I learned that there is a possibility that without the group leader things get done as well. Chiara was so kind this time as to lead the forces, thus I was happy that other people take the lead as well!
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?)
Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
Concerning group work I will reflect on Chiara's post, that the communication was not all that terrible, since she got hold of the groupwork to her hands and pushed us into working. I think we would have done it anyway, but work and school and other down-to-earth activities kept the team busy on the given times (one-two people were present, still). As far as the tasks are divided, I think people do not have to be online at the same time, everyone can improve/add something to the discussion later. I remember that everyone had their excuses, thus there should be other communication options/means to collaborate. The contract did not fulfill its purposes from the leadership point of view, but I think that everything is still on track.
We have not changed our environment yet, but I think that we should place the final product somewhere else than Pbworks (but I am growing to like the environment for this course a bit).
My personal learning environment is the same, I think. I still use a blog, which is a kind of portfolio for my learning experience. I use Skype for chats and task division, and E-Learning course for task monitoring.
11.4.10
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.
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.
6.4.10
Reply to the Facilitator's Questions of Week 3
Should every group member be responsible for all the points you have made? For instance, who should make sure that everyone has the information that is necessary for the next tasks. Is it a task for every group member to check or is it a group leader's task to take care of?Actually every group member took part in the creation of the points, I just formulated the final "product". The following steps will be agreed upon with the whole group, and I think we will collectively distribute tasks needed for future. I believe each group member will get familiar with the necessary information, this is not definitely my task, but as a group we support each other. I also allowed access to write into our space, so you can comment there now, I believe.
I had a look at your group environment in pbwiki about the criteria for a good online course. As I don't have access to that environment and I am not allowed to leave comments I present them here:
1. "Practical = sufficient length of the course" - a strange combination :). I found the following claim also very subjective: "The course should take up time as much as it would not disturb one's private life". I would argue that our private lives are very different and how one can quarantee that it doesn't disturb participants' private lives?
Another claim: "There is a need for the course and the need persists because of its good quality." A course can be good, but the need for that course might change due to different reasons, one of them can be out-to-date knowledge and skills it provides and encourages...
2. I so much agree with you that a course should be free, but somebody should pay for the costs at some point. Currently we have a list of courses in our wikiversity, which are for free, but certificate is given only to those who have either paid for this or enrolled to a formal program. Of course it is not the best solution, but at least it is a step further to open up the education for everybody.
3. Your claim: "The course has to be inspiring, and provide with lots of interesting ideas and new thoughts." It used to be that way that a course should be already designed in a way that it provides lots of interesting ideas and new thoughts. Now we encourage participants to say their opinions, share their experiences, discuss and argue. And I believe that all the participants can contribute to this. Of course another problem is the level of engagement from the participants... So a good course should provide opportunities for participants to provide their ideas and thoughts...
But in general, these are really good and relevant points a course designer should consider.Thanks for the time spent on looking through our work I totally agree that there were some personal subjective thoughts, but this was the reflection of our group on the ideal course design. Since there are 5 people, everyone contributed their preferences and we had this great mash-up of thoughts. I know that there is no one clear solution for a course, and the facilitator has to make amendments on some points, but every course designer gives his/her best to create the best course.
I think that if a course wants to be up-to-date, the facilitator has to renew the course components and constantly keep the information and different applications updated - it takes up a lot of time and ideas, but I think it is possible for some time at least.
As for free courses Wikiversity is a really great environment to continue life-long learning without getting the certificate (for those who do not care about certificates).
4.4.10
E-Learning Week 5 - Reflection
Tasks:
Revise your personal learning contract if needed, considering what you have learned so far, what is going differently from your initial plans, how the environment has changed. Please start a new blog post for revision and keep the first version of the contract. Refer to the first version.
Since I created my learning contract based on some knowledge already, I think it would be unfair to change anything there. After week 6 I can add if my experience with the e-learning tasks of my pupils went well or if I did anything wrong (not to encourage my pupils' motivation).
Revise your personal learning contract if needed, considering what you have learned so far, what is going differently from your initial plans, how the environment has changed. Please start a new blog post for revision and keep the first version of the contract. Refer to the first version.
Since I created my learning contract based on some knowledge already, I think it would be unfair to change anything there. After week 6 I can add if my experience with the e-learning tasks of my pupils went well or if I did anything wrong (not to encourage my pupils' motivation).
29.3.10
E-Learning Week 4 - Tasks and Reflection
Tasks:
Find at least one good and one bad example case of course design and reflect your opinions of these courses in your personal Weblog. Visit the blogs of your groupmates, read their reflections of course designs and add your opinions as comments about these courses.
I can easily draw a comparison between four e-courses, which I have participated in or am currently participating in:
The first course is very orderly. First it gives the backbone of the course and in the backbone there is a possibility to move on to the course topics. In each topic you have the hometask as well as extra materials. In addition the lecturer provided us with a forum and a weekly skype discussion opportunity (to gain points and to get feedback on different topics). He also invited guests to our skype sessions. These weekly sessions were good for communication between different people, and also groupwork was pretty good among our participants. Each group member had to contribute to the paper we made and thus noone could miss their part. We created the course work environment in a wiki as well. What was missing from the course was the introduction to the topic (as in "today we are going to learn... etc.), but that was really a minor error. Individually we read papers and filled in our blogs.
The second course are very well designed with tasks given in correct order, topics and extra materials under the introduction, leading to separate pages. As I got used to the backbone of the previous course, the index before the topics seems a good solution, but after the index there is scrollable content (too much scrollable content is not good). This course seems not too "scrollable", satisfactory in that sense. The facilitator introduces the topics and provides with good reading materials which give additional academic knowledge to the initial knowledge base, which is great. Students have to reflect on different tasks (given on Wikiversity page) in their blogs and groupwork has to be done on a separate page. A good thing is that the facilitator gives feedback on the course in each participant's blog, and also provides us with a web conferencing option. The facilitator also keeps the students updated through her blog.
The third course is divided into two environments, having the backbone with a similar index as the second course has, and the Wikiversity page is more used as the introduction to weekly topics and tasks. Tasks are given in a separate blog, which may be a bit confusing to the first-time users, but this is well-adaptable to a technology-prone person. The facilitator uses an extra pageflakes page to collect all students' blog links into one blogroll visible to all participants at once, which is a good idea to have a look at the others' blogs as well. The blog option is used for weekly materials.
I found this kind of learning more amusing, but also more confusing. The learners in that course were intrinsically motivated and quite communicative, thus making the course more enjoyable. Sadly I had to leave because of lack of time (enormous workload).
The three previous examples were examples of good e-learning course designs, but the last one should be a bit worse example.
The fourth Wikiversity-based course's layout is quite stretched, so you have to scroll it down, and the table of contents (what I previously called "index") appeared only recently. This is a very inconvenient way to navigate on the page. The facilitator provides with the introduction of each page, but when you start looking closer at the topics, the content seems pretty much copy-paste from the original sources (which does not seem very academic). There is a separate closed environment (iCampus) for participation and you have to upload your documents there. She provides the students with sources and topics on iCampus, but she has not defined the marking scale, nor the criteria for passing the course. This course seems a bit disturbing, because I feel more like blogging instead of scribbling documents and uploading them. Also I do not like scrolling and would prefer clicking on the topic and moving on to a separate page.
As a group define what are the criteria for a good online course and reflect it in your group space (whatever you choose this to be), but make this group space visible to other groups by posting a link on E-learning/Participants page under your group.
The page created is tallinnuniversityprojects.pbworks.com, and our group task is here.
Reading and reflection
1. Structure - in which order and how to place content. What kind of information to provide, what kind of links, etc.
2. Material - presented in a structured format, so that the learner can understand the topics. Chosen material does not differ from classroom material.
3. Motivation and feedback - Due to effective feedback provided by the facilitator, the learner feels motivated.
4. Interaction - a) programs that enable activity, b)open questions, games, tools and calculators stimulate good activity, c) engage the mind!
5. Involvement - Learner-controlled involvement through several activities.
2. What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?
The most important thing that I learned this week was that group collaboration needs strong peer support and encouragement, as well as changes in chosen web-based applications. It may turn out that in fact the chosen solution may not be the best for this particular group.
3. What is your evaluation of this week's groupwork? (What went well and what did not? How did groupwork influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)
I was very pleased with this week's groupwork in terms of collaboration and input. After reminding ourselves that PbWorks does not allow multiple changes for one page, we agreed on using a Google Document in order to collaborate on a draft version of our task 1, and this also went quite well, everybody started participating right away. Alice had to make an account in Google and she managed to fix her thoughts in the document as well.
I think I had good feedback on my questions and I hope I could support my team members as well as I could as well. I hope to get feedback on our groupwork from the facilitator as well, since this was the first task ever done by our group in such way. I felt we could have done more there, but maybe I am just overthinking.
Overall, my management skills proved to be excellent in getting the group together as well as allowing them all to collaborate in their own pace. I am satisfied with myself, thus I should make a green tick somewhere in order to mark my coping with the task in the contract.
4. Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
What changed in our group learning environment was that a separate document for online and simultaneous collaboration was needed. Creating a Google Document was not a difficult job. I think our group is going to use this kind of collaboration more, and maybe new means of collaboration will arise as well. Final results that our group got, were still put in PbWiki space.
Find at least one good and one bad example case of course design and reflect your opinions of these courses in your personal Weblog. Visit the blogs of your groupmates, read their reflections of course designs and add your opinions as comments about these courses.
I can easily draw a comparison between four e-courses, which I have participated in or am currently participating in:
- Ethics and Law in New Media
- E-Learning
- Avatud õppematerjalide koostamine ja kasutamine
- Value Chains and New Media
The first course is very orderly. First it gives the backbone of the course and in the backbone there is a possibility to move on to the course topics. In each topic you have the hometask as well as extra materials. In addition the lecturer provided us with a forum and a weekly skype discussion opportunity (to gain points and to get feedback on different topics). He also invited guests to our skype sessions. These weekly sessions were good for communication between different people, and also groupwork was pretty good among our participants. Each group member had to contribute to the paper we made and thus noone could miss their part. We created the course work environment in a wiki as well. What was missing from the course was the introduction to the topic (as in "today we are going to learn... etc.), but that was really a minor error. Individually we read papers and filled in our blogs.
The second course are very well designed with tasks given in correct order, topics and extra materials under the introduction, leading to separate pages. As I got used to the backbone of the previous course, the index before the topics seems a good solution, but after the index there is scrollable content (too much scrollable content is not good). This course seems not too "scrollable", satisfactory in that sense. The facilitator introduces the topics and provides with good reading materials which give additional academic knowledge to the initial knowledge base, which is great. Students have to reflect on different tasks (given on Wikiversity page) in their blogs and groupwork has to be done on a separate page. A good thing is that the facilitator gives feedback on the course in each participant's blog, and also provides us with a web conferencing option. The facilitator also keeps the students updated through her blog.
The third course is divided into two environments, having the backbone with a similar index as the second course has, and the Wikiversity page is more used as the introduction to weekly topics and tasks. Tasks are given in a separate blog, which may be a bit confusing to the first-time users, but this is well-adaptable to a technology-prone person. The facilitator uses an extra pageflakes page to collect all students' blog links into one blogroll visible to all participants at once, which is a good idea to have a look at the others' blogs as well. The blog option is used for weekly materials.
I found this kind of learning more amusing, but also more confusing. The learners in that course were intrinsically motivated and quite communicative, thus making the course more enjoyable. Sadly I had to leave because of lack of time (enormous workload).
The three previous examples were examples of good e-learning course designs, but the last one should be a bit worse example.
The fourth Wikiversity-based course's layout is quite stretched, so you have to scroll it down, and the table of contents (what I previously called "index") appeared only recently. This is a very inconvenient way to navigate on the page. The facilitator provides with the introduction of each page, but when you start looking closer at the topics, the content seems pretty much copy-paste from the original sources (which does not seem very academic). There is a separate closed environment (iCampus) for participation and you have to upload your documents there. She provides the students with sources and topics on iCampus, but she has not defined the marking scale, nor the criteria for passing the course. This course seems a bit disturbing, because I feel more like blogging instead of scribbling documents and uploading them. Also I do not like scrolling and would prefer clicking on the topic and moving on to a separate page.
As a group define what are the criteria for a good online course and reflect it in your group space (whatever you choose this to be), but make this group space visible to other groups by posting a link on E-learning/Participants page under your group.
The page created is tallinnuniversityprojects.pbworks.com, and our group task is here.
Reading and reflection
- Make a selection of reading material for the fourth week
- Reflect on your learning experiences in your personal Weblog following the reflection template:
1. Structure - in which order and how to place content. What kind of information to provide, what kind of links, etc.
2. Material - presented in a structured format, so that the learner can understand the topics. Chosen material does not differ from classroom material.
3. Motivation and feedback - Due to effective feedback provided by the facilitator, the learner feels motivated.
4. Interaction - a) programs that enable activity, b)open questions, games, tools and calculators stimulate good activity, c) engage the mind!
5. Involvement - Learner-controlled involvement through several activities.
2. What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?
The most important thing that I learned this week was that group collaboration needs strong peer support and encouragement, as well as changes in chosen web-based applications. It may turn out that in fact the chosen solution may not be the best for this particular group.
3. What is your evaluation of this week's groupwork? (What went well and what did not? How did groupwork influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)
I was very pleased with this week's groupwork in terms of collaboration and input. After reminding ourselves that PbWorks does not allow multiple changes for one page, we agreed on using a Google Document in order to collaborate on a draft version of our task 1, and this also went quite well, everybody started participating right away. Alice had to make an account in Google and she managed to fix her thoughts in the document as well.
I expected our wiki-collaboration to make more progress. I certainly expect the group members to add or change my posts in our wiki as well.
Overall, my management skills proved to be excellent in getting the group together as well as allowing them all to collaborate in their own pace. I am satisfied with myself, thus I should make a green tick somewhere in order to mark my coping with the task in the contract.
4. Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
What changed in our group learning environment was that a separate document for online and simultaneous collaboration was needed. Creating a Google Document was not a difficult job. I think our group is going to use this kind of collaboration more, and maybe new means of collaboration will arise as well. Final results that our group got, were still put in PbWiki space.
23.3.10
E-Learning Week 3 - Tasks and Reflection
The first task was to create a group environment for our study group.
First, I managed to gather the group in Skype for a conversation, and I also created a group environment in PBWorks.
For the first task we created a group conversation in Skype, after which we moved to Google Docs for some collaborative effort. This collaborative effort was fixed into a nice task 1. This task would need some feedback in order to see if it is done correctly or is there something more that needs to be added. [This point was already written on week 4]
The second task was to read and reflect on the following:
1. Which principles of groupwork, communities of practice and collaborative learning should a distributed group consider, when planning the design of an e-learning course?
Concerning groupwork, one should consider the following points (according to the reading material):
- Distribute roles, and shift them if necessary.
- Meet the deadlines and make sure everyone has done their jobs in the group.
- Make sure everyone has the information that is necessary for the next tasks.
- Encourage peer collaboration and ask others to remind of the work to be done.
- Encourage and give peer feedback in order to feel good about the job that has been done and give courage for the next steps.
- Use a collaborative environment in order to participate fully in groupwork.
- Use an agregator in order to follow others' posts and try to make the most out of the information you get from there.
Concerning groupwork, the experience was great. I was able to gather a group and make them participate as well. Everyone was very willing to join and had their spirits up, which was a good sign. To be honest, I considered that the group would be more passive, but I was positively surprised that I worked with such a great team. Even Alice, who joined the group later, was very positive and got her hands on the project.
3. What is your evaluation of this week's groupwork? (What went well and what did not? How did groupwork influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)
I would evaluate our groupwork the following way:
First I managed to add every member to my Skype account and start an individual conversation with them, then we managed to fix (using Doodle) a common time when we should meet all together. I was very positive with the
4. Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
My personal learning environment consists of the usual means, because this is a kind of system I have used during the whole IMKE learning period. On week 3 nothing changed in our group learning environment yet. A PbWiki environment was created in order to collaborate with the groupwork tasks. I created an introduction of all members as well as put some vital information to the environment.
22.3.10
E-Learning Week 2 - Tasks and Reflection
Personal Learning Contract
My objectives: From this course I wish to learn the processes and theories concerning creation of an e-learning course and everything that is connected with it. I would like to use my knowledge with creating online courses for secondary school learners, and do it properly. Also I would like to test my management skills how well I can do with groupwork organizing and maintaining group spirits high during the course. I think I will take the responsibility of maintaining groupwork in order, and in other group-related management things. One more thing that I would like to add is that as a learner I would like to gain more experience in self-directed learning or time planning.
My objectives: From this course I wish to learn the processes and theories concerning creation of an e-learning course and everything that is connected with it. I would like to use my knowledge with creating online courses for secondary school learners, and do it properly. Also I would like to test my management skills how well I can do with groupwork organizing and maintaining group spirits high during the course. I think I will take the responsibility of maintaining groupwork in order, and in other group-related management things. One more thing that I would like to add is that as a learner I would like to gain more experience in self-directed learning or time planning.
E-Learning Week 1 - Reflection
1. What are the trends in e-learning and how do they influence online course design?
Main trends in e-learning are:
New trends have made course design open and easily accessible. Courses are provided requirements, as well as pre-requirements if necessary; also grading system and materials are visible to all participants as well as outsiders.
Open courses let the students choose their own environments where they broadcast their procession of thoughts as well as get feedback from the facilitator and coursemates or strangers following their blogs. I also think that this is even better than just getting feedback from the closed group (which means smaller number of) students and lecturers. Groupwork is also provided in most of the courses in order to let the students collaborate and interact in order not to feel lonely or without peer feedback. Different means of collaboration are given by Web 2.0 devices which are mainly open source and freely available.
The learner is given a choice of technical means he or she decides to use for individual and group communication. And if those means are not provided, I believe that the student is wise enough to choose among his/her own means. Also lots of materials are accessible from the web, this means that a student has the choice of e-books versus paperback books.
In Estonia there are still some facilitators who do not approve of open learning systems, thus they keep their materials hidden, and accessible through one environment. I think that this kind of courses are aversive in essence, because all kinds of passwords and "locks" drive people away from the content.
I think current course and different Wikiversity courses follow almost the same trend of course design with some courses preferring "locked" environments with log in function. My experience has had both types of e-courses, but I prefer following the "open" ones.
2. What was the most important thing that you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?
I think the most important thing I learned was that there are theories behind this concept of e-learning (people tend to forget about theories when they are so involved in learning the subject). But as I got acquainted with these theories, the topic seemed familiar to me, since I have got the theory part from Tallinn Pedagogical University. I think I got some ideas for my own initiative in e-learning facilitator's role (while studying, I carry out e-lessons for French lessons, because there is no replacement for me at that time) and I plan on using them in my blog.
I also enjoy writing, and what does a person enjoy writing more than about him/herself, thus I was happy that there is another course that enables writing and blogging.
Main trends in e-learning are:
- Un-structured learning environment (no strict learning environment system).
- Web 2.0 usage in all aspects of e-learning (meaning weaving a social network of learners not keeping the content inside the iron walls of learning systems).
- Online participation either alone or groupwise, worldwide collaboration and teaching/learning.
- Virtual learning (Second Life), game-centered learning.
- Mobile learning (M-learning).
- The possibility to filter and disseminate information, not only to find it.
- The possibility to give and get feedback from peers as well as facilitators.
New trends have made course design open and easily accessible. Courses are provided requirements, as well as pre-requirements if necessary; also grading system and materials are visible to all participants as well as outsiders.
Open courses let the students choose their own environments where they broadcast their procession of thoughts as well as get feedback from the facilitator and coursemates or strangers following their blogs. I also think that this is even better than just getting feedback from the closed group (which means smaller number of) students and lecturers. Groupwork is also provided in most of the courses in order to let the students collaborate and interact in order not to feel lonely or without peer feedback. Different means of collaboration are given by Web 2.0 devices which are mainly open source and freely available.
The learner is given a choice of technical means he or she decides to use for individual and group communication. And if those means are not provided, I believe that the student is wise enough to choose among his/her own means. Also lots of materials are accessible from the web, this means that a student has the choice of e-books versus paperback books.
In Estonia there are still some facilitators who do not approve of open learning systems, thus they keep their materials hidden, and accessible through one environment. I think that this kind of courses are aversive in essence, because all kinds of passwords and "locks" drive people away from the content.
I think current course and different Wikiversity courses follow almost the same trend of course design with some courses preferring "locked" environments with log in function. My experience has had both types of e-courses, but I prefer following the "open" ones.
2. What was the most important thing that you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?
I think the most important thing I learned was that there are theories behind this concept of e-learning (people tend to forget about theories when they are so involved in learning the subject). But as I got acquainted with these theories, the topic seemed familiar to me, since I have got the theory part from Tallinn Pedagogical University. I think I got some ideas for my own initiative in e-learning facilitator's role (while studying, I carry out e-lessons for French lessons, because there is no replacement for me at that time) and I plan on using them in my blog.
I also enjoy writing, and what does a person enjoy writing more than about him/herself, thus I was happy that there is another course that enables writing and blogging.
E-Learning Initial Task - Introduction
I will re-introduce myself for the e-learning course. My previous introduction is HERE
About me:
My name is Maibritt Kuuskmäe. I am an outgoing person from Pärnu, Estonia, where I raise my five-year-old son and go to work. I teach children aged 8-19 English and French in Pärnu Coeducational Gymnasium. I studied English and French in Tallinn University of Educational Sciences 8 years ago, and it feels nice to study again (I feel a lot smarter than straight after secondary school). Currently, as my schedule is very packed, I am not able to go singing in the choir, which I have done for a little while. I have "enslaved" myself with studying in Tallinn University. I am undergoing Master studies in Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments. I am very interested in e-learning as I implement online solutions in my lessons whenever possible. I have not used specific e-learning environments in my everyday work, but I have got acquainted with them through different courses, for example Digitiiger for school teachers.
About me:
My name is Maibritt Kuuskmäe. I am an outgoing person from Pärnu, Estonia, where I raise my five-year-old son and go to work. I teach children aged 8-19 English and French in Pärnu Coeducational Gymnasium. I studied English and French in Tallinn University of Educational Sciences 8 years ago, and it feels nice to study again (I feel a lot smarter than straight after secondary school). Currently, as my schedule is very packed, I am not able to go singing in the choir, which I have done for a little while. I have "enslaved" myself with studying in Tallinn University. I am undergoing Master studies in Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments. I am very interested in e-learning as I implement online solutions in my lessons whenever possible. I have not used specific e-learning environments in my everyday work, but I have got acquainted with them through different courses, for example Digitiiger for school teachers.
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