Author Archives: momoe

Assignment 4: Reflection and future plans

I always find it interesting to look back at my goals from the beginning of the course and reflect on what I have accomplished during these last 13 weeks. I had many goals this course and they were:

  • learn about LMS in general
  • Develop my own expectations for what I want in an ideal LMS
  • Create a course/module in a LMS
  • Use the skills I learned and apply them to my current environment
  • Learn skills and obtain tools that will help incorporate more creativity into my lessons
  • Model digital age works and learning for my students
  • Take away as much as I can from my peers

I believe I have accomplished many of these goals through this course. I certainly learned about LMS and specifically I learned how to use Moodle. Learning how to use Moodle through making a mock course was very effective, as learning was situated in the environment in which it was meant to be used (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). Not only did this help to learn how to use Moodle, but it was also instrumental in my development as an educator. It helped me think about how I wanted to structure the course and how I wanted to assess what was learned in the course. It made me reflect on my pedagogical beliefs, and how I would incorporate that into an online environment, restricted by the affordances of Moodle.

Working within Moodle helped me to develop my ideas of what I would want in an ideal LMS. For example, from a course editing perspective, I found the chart function not as user friendly as other programs such as Microsoft Word. I also found importing of images to be slightly cumbersome and would ideally like less steps each time I import images. I would also like to make the process of linking pages easier (through hyperlink). Perhaps it was my inexperience with the program which caused my inefficiency but once I hyperlinked one page, and gave it a title, it would be nice if linking it again would be an easier process. I found I had to cut and paste the link each time which was time consuming. I wish moving around module was an easier process, such as a drag and drop. In this version, I had to make my own graphic interface but I wish there was an easier method to do this. I think my expectations for LMS could be further developed if I had the opportunity to be a student using Moodle. I had a chance to look at courses developed by my peers using Moodle, but experiencing a whole course would give me a whole different perspective.

However, I was able to experience Connect and UBC blog as a student, and this also gave me some ideas. For example, I really liked the way the discussion forum was laid out in Connect compared to the blog site. I feel this had a direct impact on my motivation to read each post. I found it easy to look at discussions and reply in Connect whereas the blog made it more cumbersome. Once I read a discssuion thred in the blog site, I found it more difficult to get back to the posted page to look at another post. I also liked the video collaborate session, though my audio/video kept cutting out. I`m not sure if it was a connection problem on my end or an issue with the LMS. I liked the alyout of the blog site over Connect. I found it easy to move from one module to the next and the badge system was an added bonus and motivator. I also really liked getting RSS and mobile access with the blog. Based on my experience, I would like an LMS that has the following:

  • user friendly chart function (especially sizing and outlining of the chart)
  • More drag and drop
  • Easy to import and use images (perhaps with citing images built in so it’s entered once and will appear on the website)
  • Easy to hyperlink existing course pages
  • Easy to make GUI
  • Well laid out discussion forum
  • Video/audio collaborative session activity function
  • Visually appealing interface that’s easy to navigate
  • Mobile compatible
  • RSS feed feature
  • Plus all features already built into Moodle

From a course development perspective, I gained an appreciation for the importance of assessments. Given that student learning is most influenced by assessments, I will place a lot more effort on this aspect of my teaching (Gibbs & Simpson, 2005). This includes the incorporation of frequent, useful feedback as well as group based projects.

Bates` SECTIONS criteria was also a valuable tool I learned and used during this course, which I will surely use during my academic career (2014). The act of reflection and use of this tool during this course has critical in proving its usefulness and practicality.

I am a commited life long learner, both in medicine and education. I will continue my education in Ed Tech by  engaging in my remaining ETEC courses and by learning from my peers. As mentioned by many students in this course, I have found very useful information on Ed Tech through social media. I plan to continue to read these feeds to further my education in this field. Furthermore, as I have taken on a bigger role at our medical school as a course coordinator, I will participate both at a local level and national level in medical education planning. This in turn will lead to  will continued learning in Ed Tech that is specific to my field of interest.

I believe that simulation will be a large component in medical education in the upcoming years. Therefore, I plan to further my knowledge in this area as well. I am conisdering a course out of McMaster University for this purpose. Of course, I think I will wait until I complete my MET courses first. Other technologies I am interested in are differnt forms of digital media. This course, including experiences of my classmate, has opened my eyes to the pedagogical possibilities of differnt forms of media and I hope to become familiar with them by using them and incorporating them into my classes. I think using them for my projects and classroom activities is the best way to learn to use these varied resources.

As mentiond earlier, I am now a course coordinator for our undergraduate medical program. Our course has much to improve upon as it is rated quite poorly compared to other courses. I am hoping to use what I learned from this course to make improvements. Specifically, I would like to include more team-based learning activities, frequent formative assessments and feedback, and incorporate differnt forms of digital media. I believe this will lead to a greater level of engagement, and help with student learning. I plan to make substantial changes to the current form of assessment, which is single best answer multiple choice examination. I do not think this form of assessment achieves the learning outcomes I am looking for, which is higher order thinking skills specific to our field. None of our patients come to see us with a list of possible diagnoses of which we choose the best one, so why should our students be assessed in this manner? I will be making these changes this summer and starting the course in October of this year. I am exctied that I have an opportunity to apply what I have learned. I am aware that this will be an evolving process, in which my course will change from year to year as I gain more experience and recieve feedback from the students. I am hopeful that the changes I make will be in the positive direction and will help my students become competent physicians.

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone in this course. I have learned immensly from their experiences and discussions. I find that my learning is takne to another level because they share their experiences with me through the course discussion forum. Finally, I find the level of engagement by Natasha to be another aspect of the course that I apprecite greatly and feel that it deserves mention. I have found that in some of my other ETEC courses, my instructors did not have the teaching presence that Natasha gave us and this added greatly to my learning experience.

 

References

 

Assginment 3 reflection and digital story

Reflections on assignment 3

Looking back on assignment 3, I experienced many challenges. Some were due to my unfamiliarity with Moodle, some due to technical difficulties and others due to my inexperience in developing a course/curriculum. Overall, I felt that assignment 3 was labor intensive but definitely worthwhile. I learned a lot about Moodle, but it also helped to develop my ideas of what is important in a course, layout, activities and my overall pedagogical approach.

I chose Moodle as my LMS because Univeristy of Alberta, where I work, uses Moodle as it’s LMS for online courses. I thought that perhaps my experience might become useful if parts of the medical curriculum move to this platform, though there is no plan for this in the near future. On reflection,I would have ideally liked to do more research into the two programs and chosen the best one based on Bate’s SECTIONS criteria (2014). This would have been a more logical approach as I would have chosen one that is easy to use, fits with my pedagogical approach and curriculum. However, at the time, I hadn’t considered all aspects of my course, such as assessment, learning activities, layout of my course, ease of use, accessibility, etc. Also I did not know enough about each LMS and did not have the time to make all of the above pedagogical considerations prior to making my choice thus made it based on practicality. Despite this, I found that I was able to work within the affordances of Moodle to create my module and the skeleton of my course.

The readings around assessment really struck me during this course and helped to shape my Moodle course. As stated by Gibbs & Simpson, the greatest influence on student learning is assessment (2005). Keeping this in mind, I designed my course to incorparate frequent assignments which would be graded. Additionally, I made many of these assignments team-based, ue to this reading, I structured many of the learning activities to be group based. This is based on the observation that students are more engaged in group projects and it generates discussion, reflection, and confrontation of ideas (Gibbs & Simpson, 2005) . These are all important aspects of the learning process.

I certainly ran into some technical difficulties which hindered my progress in creating my module in Moodle. I found a work around, but to this moment, I’m not sure why I was unable to save my book chapter. However, I found I was able to persevere and find a solution (after a good night’s sleep). This shows flexibility, adaptability and perseverance, which are all qualities I wanted to work on.

For my digital story, I used Adobe Slate. This program was mentioned by Natasha during the first half of our course. At that moment, not knowing much about the digital story assignment, I decided to play around with Adobe Slate. This was very valuable, as I was able to see sample projects and play around with it. I found it very easy to use and intuitive. I’ve always enjoyed reading and love graphic novels. My own preferences may have played a role in choosing Adobe slate for my project. I had previously used iMovie, PowToons, and PowerPoint so I am fairly familiar with their affordances. I have been interested in trying Videoscribe, but had not come across an opportunity to use it. Considering my digital story, which was a patient perspective story on a difficult diagnosis, I thought Adobe Slate was my best choice based on Bate’s ideas about selecting media.　He states that there are three elements that need to be considered; content, content structure and skills (2014).

Considering the content I wanted to deliver, which was the patient perspective of a difficult diagnosis, I felt tht text would be optimal. Video would also be a great digital medium, however given limitations in my time and skill, I did not feel that I could evoke the type of emotions I intended with video.

Considering the content structure of text, I felt that Adobe Slate was also the optimal choice. Text enables linear sequencing, and in the telling of this story, this structured format was important (Bates, 2004). The ability to display pictures with text also adds richness to the readers experience. These images represent the same emotions and situations in a differnt way from text, giving students further exploration into the story. I also think that it leaves the students with a deeper understanding and lasting impression of the story because the situation is represented in both text and images. Adobe Slate also gives students the ability to move at their own pace which is important for reflection.

Bates also mentions that text is useful for developing higher learning outcomes such as analysis, critical thinking and evaluation (2014). In terms of this digital story, I wanted to achieve reflection and critical thinking so Adobe Slate also succeeds in achieving this end.

In addtion, Adobe Slate was easy to use, can be embedded into webpages, shared, free, compatible with differnt operating systems, mobile friendly and secure (or at least as secure as most other available programs).

Once again, I feel that this was a valuable assignment from which I have learned a significant amount. I am positive that it will help with my academic goals during my career.

References

 

My digital story – Intersex

I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize I was supposed to post my digital story here too. Here it is.

Intersex

I mentioned it in my video but I used Adobe Slate to make it. I found it really useful because:

  • it’s free!!!
  • it’s really easy to use
  • it fit well with my idea for a digital story

Hope you enjoy!

Future of Med Ed

This week’s readings and reflection has made me realize that a lot of the topics and trends that were discussed by Alexander (2014) as well as Johnson, Adams-Becker, Estrada & Freeman (2015) are already sprouting in medical education, even at my institution. What “wow’d” me was my lack of seeing these thing even though they are right in front of me.

Alexander (2014) describes a blended institution, in which F2F classrooms are integrated with online material and resources. Though integration is still in its infancy, I am seeing small signs of it in our undergraduate medical program. Flipped classrooms are slowly emerging in some of the subject areas. Social media is increasingly used. Many of the resources are online. Finally, there has been a significant reduction in the number of tenured staff.

Another area that has seen a significant change is in assessment. In our medical school, there is now a dedicated tech team for evaluation and assessment. This is a new development since I was a medical student, which is less than a decade ago. A great emphasis is being placed on formative assessment and measurements of learning. This parellels the trends highlighted by Johnson et al (2015). In addition, our entire medical community is heading towards competency based medical education, a large component of this being evaluation and assessment. This is a big undertaking, and as such, collaboration between universities is widely seen in order to facilitate implementation. This collaboration is in hopes to make the process efficient, uniform, and effective (Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, 2014).

One of the focuses of competency based medical education is personalization. I’m not aware of the logistics, but students and residents will be assessed for competency and learning will be personalized such that they move on to the next learning activity/skill if they are deemed competent but continue to work on the same acitivity/skill if they are not.

A focus on team based learning has also led to changes in classrooms. While there is still a large lecture theatre, there are many more small group rooms to facilitate group learning activities in the new Katz group learning centre, which was built in 2009.

As this reflection demonstrates, there are many trends that are already incorporated into medical education. All of these areas will continue to develop. One area that I think will be heavily focused on is redesigning of the learning space. I think simulation, both high and low fidelity, will play a central role in medical education, especially with our competency based focus and concerns for patient safety. This will require our learning spaces to undergo further changes and potentially a disappearance of the traditional lecture hall, as anything that could be taught in a lecture hall could easily be done online.

As for my role, I see a greater proportion of my time spent developing online materials for students and facilitating more group work than I do currently. Group work may also move to a more online formate, especially if our school becomes more distributed (with campuses in rural Alberta, such as Fort McMurry and Grande Prarie).  This may become a reality if Alenxander’s “Health Nation” is realized (2014).

 

References

  • Alexander, B. (2014). Higher education in 2024: Glimpsing into the future. Educause Review, 4(5). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/higher-education-2024-glimpsing-future?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email+marketing&utm_campaign=EDUCAUSE
  • Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., & Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: New Media Consortium. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf
  • Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. (2014). Competence By Design. Retrieved from http://www.royalcollege.ca/portal/page/portal/rc/resources/cbme

Digital footprints . . . we definitely need to work on this.

The digital footprint has huge implications for medical professionals. There are many instances where a students/residents/staff have posted things on social media sites that clearly demonstrated unprofessional behaviour and have been reprimanded for it. Below are just two examples I know of:

http://globalnews.ca/news/2471465/miami-doctor-suspended-after-being-caught-on-camera-abusing-uber-driver/

http://globalnews.ca/news/1755000/dalhousie-to-make-statement-about-response-to-offensive-facebook-comments/

The above examples are an important reminder that anything we post on the internet, even though it’s “private, or invitation-only” can become public down the road. As professionals in this digital era, we need to maintain professionalism digitally and personally.

Apparently, some medical schools are looking at digital footprints as part of the admissions process. Although this is still quite controversial.

On the flip side, our footprints can have a huge influence on health literacy and dissemination of health information to the public. For example, for the conditions that I deal with such as urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, many people don’t seek help because they attribute these conditions to “natural aging” and because they are too embarrassed to seek help. It may also be attributed to the lack of knowledge regarding treatment options. But effective use of social media can help us reach patients and given them reliable information.

As far as I know, our medical school does not teach on digital literacy, digital professionalism or topics surrounding digital footprints. I think these are vital topics that I am currently learning “on the fly”. We are definitely NOT doing enough for our students regarding this topic. I hope that we can implement these topics to teach our students to use social media and digital information correctly, responsibly and professionally. I guess I better go make a meeting with our curriculum committee!

Social media in O&G?

I wasn’t entirely sure how to engage with this questions. The teaching I do is a little different. I don’t have a set class that I teach over a long period of time, at least not yet. My teaching comes in spurts. A lecture here, a small group session there, some bedside teaching, and in the operating room (OR). If I have to choose something that I do the most, it would be teaching in the OR. So, could I use social media to develop new learning outcomes in this setting? First thing I have to consider is the patient and issues surrounding confidentiality. And then I would need to consider the learning outcomes for my resident/fellow. The learning objective in the OR would be:

  • to understand the risks and pathophysiology that led to the condition for which we are operating
  • to understand the indications for this operation, as well as the alternatives
  • to understand the anatomy of the pelvis
  • to know the potential complications of this operation
  • to know the precautions needed to avoid potential complications
  • to know how to handle the complications should it arise
  • the steps of the operation and the reasons or function of the steps
  • routine postoperative care
  • any special considerations for the patient and their specific set of circumstances

I’m sure there’s more but I can’t think of them right now. So now the question is can social media help develop any of these learning outcomes? Are there any outcomes that would be better learned through social media than through the means we currently use (one on one teaching/Q&A)?

According to Bates, the affordances of social media are (2014):
  • connectivity and social rapport
  • collaborative information discovery and sharing
  • content creation
  • knowledge and information aggregation and content modification
Based on the above, I can think of a few areas that can be aided by social media, but not specific to the OR. The first is to gain patient perspective. There’s an interesting article I read that demonstrates a positive correlation between physician empathy and patient outcome; the greater the level of empathy, the better the patient outcome (Hojat et al., 2011). Based on these finding, building empathy by understanding the patient perspective is an important learning outcome, though I failed to mention it above. Social media is a great way to connect to people with similar conditions and gain their perspective. Unfortunately, time in clinic is short as are the moments leading up to an operation. These moments may not afford enough time to establish a rapport and gain their perspective. Time and place is not an issue for social media, making it advantageous in this instance.

Through connectivity, not only can you gain the patient perspectives but also communicate with experts in the field that were beyond our reach previously. Every residency program has a journal club where a paper from an academic journal is chosen, read, and critically appraised. I have heard of some places where they get the actual authors involved through Skype or twitter to ask them about the paper, clarifications, and justifications for their decisions during their research. This makes for greater, in-depth understanding of the paper, and a great learning experience. Webinars are another area that could be a useful learning tool for the resident. By participating, they have the opportunity to engage with experts beyond our institution.

But as Bates acknowledges, students need structured support (2011). I think my job as an educator is to facilitate these connections, and provide the residents with these opportunities, give them learning objectives, and set aside time for them to complete these objectives.

References

  • Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/
  • Hojat, M., Louis, D. Z., Markham, F. W., Wender, R., Rabinowitz, C., Gonnella, J. S. (2011). Physicians’ empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients.  Academic Medicine Journal, 86, 359-364.

Assignment 2 – Reflection

Assignment 2 involved initial steps in creating a course on either Moodle or Blackboard. I chose Moodle because that is the LMS that University of Alberta uses, and thought that become familiar with using it could prove to be useful in my future career.

This assignment came at a very interesting time in my life. As an assistant professor of the department, my main educational activities involved small group teaching and some large classroom lectures as well as bedside teaching in my clinic, ward and operating room. Then suddenly a position was posted for a course coordinator for the reproductive medicine and urology block, a 7 week course taught to second year medical students. They were looking for someone who has a Masters in Education and had experience with and interest in educational technologies. Though I don’t quite qualify, I decided to apply. I have yet to complete the interview, but suddenly this made Assignment 2 more realistic for me. I began to think about what I would do to make the course more relevant and effective for medical students.

One of the challenges is communication. Talking to the most recent course coordinator, she states that students expected her constant presence. Because our assignment was to create an online course, how can I make students feel I am constantly present, without feeling overwhelmed by constant messages coming from all directions as Trinh did in our case study? According to Anderson, Rourke, Garrison and Archer (2001), this is the concept of teaching presence, and in an online environment it’s composed of three categories:
  • design and organization
  • facilitating discourse
  • direct instruction

In designing this course, I wanted to make sure that it was well laid out in a logical, orderly manner. This would make it easy to follow and less likely to generate concern from students. In addition, to make it easier to go from one section to the next section, I provided hyperlinks wherever it was appropriate. But some students may not like the linear layout because it makes the page very long; a disadvantage of this method.

With Trinh’s case study, many of us suggested having clear guidelines for students on methods of communication. I attempted to do this in my introduction section. I provided students with three methods to contact me:
  • Through the questions and concerns forum
  • direct email for questions that were personal
  • and through chat during specified office hours
After contemplating the pros and cons of synchronous versus asynchronous communication, I thought that having both would be optimal for student-instructor communication. I am also hoping to incorporate synchronous and asynchronous communication for student-student interactions during group assignments as both methods have their strengths and weaknesses.
When considering assessment, the idea that it can influence what the student studies, how much the student studies and the quality of engagement (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004) was at the forefront of my mind. It took me back to thinking about the goals of my course, which are:
  • promote self-directed learning
  • collaboration
  • effective communication
  • achieve a solid foundation of knowledge in gynaecology
The other aspect that I found fascinating was the notion that peer-assessment of unmarked assignments resulted in higher quality of student engagement with these learning tasks, which also resulted in increased exam marks (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004). This lead me to incorporate peer-assessment of group learning assignments into my course. I am hoping that this leads to greater engagement with learning materials and self-directed learning and thus a greater, in depth understanding of the material.

For the content itself, I plan to use quizzes and a final examination. I would like to modify questions so they are context rich, which require more complex cognitive processes that are characteristic of clinical practice (Epstein, 2007). In addition, as Epstein (2007) recommends, I plan to use more open ended questions that require short answers or a short essay to minimize cueing and require more complex cognitive processes. This will assess their degree of understanding of clinical problems in gynaecology.

Another important aspect to consider is feedback. According to Gibbs and Simpson (2004), feedback influences learning, but it should be provided often and in enough detail. With this in mind, I decided to administer quizzes with each module and design them such that detailed feedback can be given for every question. Each question was dissected and answers were provided with adequate explanations so students will be able to compare their answers to the correct one, create cognitive conflicts if there is a contradiction, and lead to higher forms of reasoning through resolution of conflict (Piaget, 1928).

Finally I am planning to use the discussion forum to assess communication skills. By requiring participation in the discussion forum, both for the initial post and response to other’s post, it allows me to observe their communication skills and assess their level of understanding and analytical skills. Unfortunately, this is going to be a lot work given the number of students that are enrolled in a typical medical school class. I am hoping that I can enlist the help of teaching assistants, in which case inter-rater reliability will become a problem. This can be overcome with proper training and guidelines, which I am yet to develop.

Overall I have found this assignment very rewarding and seeing the shell of my course gives me a sense of achievement. But I found it to be very time consuming. This is likely due to my inexperience in course development and unfamiliarity with Moodle. I feel that this is definitely a work-in-progress and I look forward to working on the content for assignment 3. I am hoping that I will be able to modify this course and use components of it if I am selected to become the course coordinator for the reproductive medicine and urology block. This has been a very good experience for me and I believe the learning I have achieved in this course will be helpful in my near future.

References

Andreson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence      in a computer conferencing context. Journal of asynchronous learning networks, 5(2), 1-       17. Retrieved from                      onlinelearningconsortium.org/sites/default/files/v5n2_anderson_1.pdf

Epstein, R. M. (2007). Assessment in medical education. N Engl J Med, 356, 387-396.

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports student’s         learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved                      from  http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

Piaget, J. (1928). Judgment and reasoning in the child. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.

Assessment challenges in Med Ed

Medical education has changed significantly in the last several years. Emphasis used to be placed on content, where exams would test on minutiae, which would be forgotten as quickly as it was memorized. Medical education today aims to teach communication, collaboration, self-directed learning, compassion, patient-centred care, leadership, health advocacy, and professionalism. Even in terms of content, the aim is to learn the “big-picture”, be able to take a situation and critically analyze it, develop a plan and execute. Given this change assessment methods must also change.

Traditionally, multiple choice examinations were the assessment method of choice. It can be administered to a large group of students at once and scoring can be performed electronically. Unfortunately, this method may not accurately test the student’s level of understanding, does not provide effective feedback and it would be difficult to assess attributes such as communication, collaboration, leadership etc. Herein lies the challenge. How do you assess all of these attributes, in over 100 students, and provide formative feedback that will inspire and motivate medical students to further their education? Can technology assist in this endeavor?

I think that some of these challenges can be addressed through technology. Testing higher level cognitive processes can be done by changing multiple choice questions to ones that are context rich. Making them short answer questions that can be marked electronically is also feasible. Feedback for these questions can also be provided through the use of technology. I understand that there are some programs that are able to score essays, which would not only assess knowledge and higher order thinking skills but also communication. Discussion forums are another way to assess communication and analytical skills. Online simulations would also be useful in these domains, but these would have to created, which requires more skills than I possess. And I’m sure there’s a lot of applications out there that I’m not aware of that could useful in assessment of medical students. I look forward to learning more about these as I progress in my career/education.

Attributes of learning in MET

The MET program has been my only online learning experience to date. According the Bransford, Brown and Cocking (1999), effective learning environments are framed within the convergence of learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred, and community-centred lenses. Anderson states that assessing student precondition and cultural prerequisites, a necessity to be learner-centred, is challenging in online learning environments (2008a). One method offered to overcome this challenge is a virtual icebreaker. I found that each course I have attended in MET has included this at the beginning. I found that some were better at assessing my prerequisite knowledge than others. But on further reflection I wonder if it was actually my willingness to divulge information that was the true limitation. As I progress in this program, I am finding that I am more forthcoming and vulnerable in this online environment. Certainly, in a F2F situation, I would be even more reserved, thus as a teacher, more information about my prerequisite knowledge and cultural context would be acquired online compared to a large class room. In this scenario, I believe the online environment has a advantage over a F2F class.

Knowledge-centred learning requires not only content but epistemology, language and context that is relevant to the discipline (Anderson, 2008a). I think the MET courses do a very good job of providing this through readings, reflection and discussions. I found that some courses were better at providing “big-picture” scaffolding compared to others. I also found that scaffolding came in different forms, such as objectives, discussion questions, content or module introduction.

As for assessment centred learning, the MET courses provided both formative and summative assessment through assignment feedback, peer assessments on assignments, peer comments during discussions, and final grades. I found the assessments to be motivating and informative. I have not experience any online virtual labs or simulation exercises with automated assessments but it is definitely something that I would be interested in experiencing as a student and using as a educator. Has anyone else had experience with these?

One thing that the MET programs has really excelled over traditional classroom is the community centred aspect of learning. The group work, as well as online discussions and forums have significantly augmented my learning and I find it to be a valuable component. I feel that I am a member of a learning community, and this is reinforced with each course. I find that at the beginning of the course, I feel more independent, but as the course progresses and our interactions increase, the sense of community also increases. Though Anderson notes that learner-centred aspect of online learning may interfere or make the community-centred aspect challenging, I have not found this to be the case for myself (2008a). I find that my autonomy as a learner is not hindered by being apart of a community of learners. 

Currently I am working with the Moodle platform to create my course. Within Moodle, there are various methods for students to interact with each other, content and the teacher. I hope to utilize these to create an effective learning environment. I am particularly interested in using wiki’s, chats and forums to achieve interactions between students, student-teacher and student-content.I plan to use both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods. I think reflection is a great way for students to interact with content and organize their thoughts and I would like to incorporate this into my course as well. . . .but all the while, keeping my course organized so students don’t get confused about what to do when.  I would love to develop interactive content that responds to student responses/behavior but I have not seen this within Moodle and it is beyond my capabilities to build such content. BUT if anyone has discovered a fairly easy way to do this, I am all EARS!

I am sure that as I read responses of others in this class, I will find other things I would like to include in my course to make it an effective learning environment. The other thing I need to keep in perspective is that a course always evolves, and what I develop now will continue to change as I use it in real-life, receive feedback, and revise content and activities. 

References

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind experience and school. Washington, DC: National Research Council. Retrieved February 17, 2016, from http://www.colorado.edu/MCDB/LearningBiology/readings/How-people-learn.pdf

Some ideas for Trinh

I think there are a few things Trinh can do in her situation. The first thing I can suggest is that she make a forum on Blackboard where questions can be asked publicly, such as seen in our course. This way, if other students have the same question, they can refer to the relevant forum discussion. This will decrease some of the duplicated emails. Also I think she should be clear how she wants students to communicate with her so she does not have to check in so many places. She could encourage her students to use the forum unless its something they don’t want publicly posted, in which case she should give them ONE personal way of contacting her, such as her university email.

My second suggestion would be to use a live chat at the end of each guest lecture live-stream. I have participated in some live stream lectures with chat capability, which I found useful to clarify material or ask a question. This way the guest can answer some questions, taking some of the workload off of Trinh.

My third suggestion is to hold office hours where students ask questions via chat. Kind of like our Collaborate session over the weekend. She could also do it by video or audio but that might get a little crowded. She can then post the chat content so others can also look at it for reference. If students know there are office hours and it is convenient for them to ask questions during this time, it might decrease the number of emails she will receive.