Topic 5 – Lessons learnt – future practice

The Open Network Course (ONL202) has come to an end. New knowledge and experience have been gained during the course. I will start with commenting my first test post in the blog and thoughts regarding the blogging. This relates also to Topic 1 – Experience from online education, social media and knowledge development. In the end of the course I discussed the purpose of the blog in my Problem Based Learning (PBL) group, because I don’t understand the purpose. A short summary, the blog should be seen as a personal reflection on the topic that is shared public online. Comments could be seen as formative feedback and the blog shared knowledge with others. Well, for me this activity has not provided any new ideas and I’m still more on the resident side (when it comes to openness). If the main purpose is to share reflections and receive feedback, this doesn’t suite my personality and way of learning or reflecting. I’m still allergic to social media and the blog is a big filter for sharing deep thoughts. For others this might work but not for me. The blog was a new experience and an activity that I can tick of my bucket list of things to do. The blog will soon be history since I’m not interested in blogs and this is not a part of my personality or way of learning. I have documented my deep thoughts and reflections for each topic, but they will never be public.

The main learning outcome from this ONL course is that interaction and collaboration is possible online (Blog post: Learning in communities). I would say that interaction and collaboration are key factors for learning. During topic 4 the group analyzed the ONL course from a Community of Inquiry perspective (Social, Emotional, Cognitive, Teaching perspective). Interaction and collaboration are the words used most in the final slide in the group presentation. This ONL course have a unique course design with facilitators etc. The topics given are big and the scenarios can be solved in many different ways. The main challenge is to create this degree of interaction and collaboration in my own course. Some parts in the ONL course design and the amount of asynchronous and synchronous work is something I take with me. Others are:

• Short personal introduction in the beginning of the course. – Create a community, connection and social presence
• All material in the course will be digital (reading, lectures (15min), etc.) – Degree of asynchronous and synchronous work
• Schedule support time 1hour/week for discussion, help etc. This opportunity will not be mandatory. – PBL and Community of Inquiry
• Use quizzes for formative feedback and evaluation. – Formative feedback
• Set of rules at online seminars and group work. – Expectations, setting up norm
• Project (Group work): Maybe a scenario and PBL groups. Need to reflect how this can be designed.

During the ONL course I have identified a number of digital tools that need to be evaluated when it comes to how to use and implement in online education. As mentioned above, the topics in this course are big and you only have time to scratch on the surface. In my case without pedagogic background the terminology takes time to understand and I will for sure need to go back to course material again when needed.

The ONL course have been a great experience and I will miss my PBL group. My PBL group have been amazing and still are. Everybody in the group (group members and facilitators) share their thoughts, experience, and are good listeners. I have also experienced the opposite in this course. During topic introductions (webinars) with all ONL participants and in breakout rooms the discussions have been the totally opposite. In some cases, there have been more of a monolog and I love my voice attitude. Then I lose interest and engagement. It would be interesting to know how all PBL groups have worked in this course when it comes to share own thoughts, collaboration and be good listeners. This question relates to my final reflection in the previous post. Finally, I would like to say thanks to the facilitators Anna & Gregor. You did a great job, thanks again.

/Alwood

Topic 4: Design for online and blended learning

This topic was from the beginning quite challenging to grasp, but the book Guide to BLENDED LEARNING written by Martha Cleveland-Innes and Dan Wilton helped to understand the topic. The three models of blended learning discussed in the book are interesting and I believe that model 3 is the one that suits best in these Covid-19 days. Blended learning in model 3 is described as fully online, with a combination of:

• short lecture podcasts with online resources and learning activities

• online tutorials (synchronous)

• interaction via online collaboration, discussion forums and/or group work

This is actually the model used in this Open Network Learning (ONL) course. Also, five benefits with blended learning is described. I have one big bad experience when it comes to teaching online and that is interaction. The students are as quiet as mice’s and they don’t turn the camera on when being asked to. Often the questions are sent through the chat. Simply there is no interaction. This is something I have reflected upon the reason why and this ONL course have helped to better understand this phenomenon.

The funny thing is that in our Problem Based Learning (PBL) group the degree of interaction is high. I was actually reflecting on that from the very beginning of the course. The ONL course is designed in strange way if you are not used to the approach or methodology used in this course. It has been difficult to pinpoint the reasons to way the interaction, collaboration and learning have worked smoothly. Base on the discussion in my PBL group, I guess that my group members have the same feeling. We decided to analyze the ONL course from a student perspective by using a Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. Have a look at or final result and thoughts. When we discussed and combined the material it became obvious that there are several of factors affecting the interaction, collaboration and learning. Many of these small details will I take with me as a teacher to the coming course, e.g. set of rules, the amount of synchronous and asynchronous activities, etc. The group sizes in this ONL course is maximized to eight participants plus two facilitators. This is really luxurious, and this affects definitely the interaction, collaboration and learning. Based on the experience from this course this course design works but for me the interaction problem will still remain to some extent. There are too many students taking my course and I don’t have the number of resources needed for the facilitator part. A group sizes of eight students is good number and I would need around 24 facilitators. Another question is if the groups should be static or dynamic. In this ONL course the groups are static. In a way this is good, it takes time to build trust and a casual positive atmosphere in a group. I like the idea and my group. However, if I had been in another group, what had I learned then since there is no structure how to solve the problem in the groups. Each group approach the problem as they like, and I assume that the learning outcome will be different. That was only a final reflection.

/Alwood

Learning in communities

What I take away from this topic is the discussions around Personal Learning Networks as well as the differences between a “network and community”. During this topic it was the first time that I actually reflected upon the meaning and differences between the two words. A network is for example, organic, changing, weak ties, flexible, while a community have shared goals or interests with strong ties between the participants in the community. In the Open Network Learning (ONL) course I see the participants outside my Problem Based Learning (PBL) group as a network while my group as a community. Another way of seeing this is as a network of communities since we all have the same assignments, but we collaborate and solve them different.

Based on the discussion I find that collaborative learning works best in a community like in my PBL group. Collaborative learning has much in common with knowledge integration theory. I see knowledge integration as the combination of specialized, differentiated, but complementary knowledge, and the knowledge integration process involves the actions of group members by which they share their individual knowledge within the group and combine it to create new knowledge. The outcome from knowledge integration processes works best in well-established groups when the participants know each other. Factors like trust and transparence are important ingrediencies to make it happen. The fascinating part is that my PBL group with eight participants started to collaborate almost immediately, like we had known each other for a long time. I have never before experienced that the group dynamic was there from the beginning. Often this takes time to build-up and it can be problematic to make a full group to collaborate with many wills. Two aspects that affects are group size and the role of the facilitators. However, I can’t put my finger on the main reason(s), but I find it interesting. The question is how to design this type of collaborative learning exercises for program students.

/Alwood

Is it possible to go or be open in online education?

Openness and sharing are two important factors for online education and the first question that always should be the addressed is the “why” question. Why shall we go online? Why shall we be open and share? With this a starting point there are several aspects to reflect upon. Since I don’t have an academic/teaching background I run into many new terms and concepts. Some of these new terms are Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). I have tried to develop my understanding around these concepts, but it becomes extremely confusing and complex quite fast. What is the difference between OER and MOOC, are there any differences?

According to UNESCO, the term “Open Educational Resources” (OER) was first coined at UNESCO’s Forum (Year 2002) on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries. OER can been defined as teaching and learning resources in any medium, digital or otherwise, that permit no-cost access, use, reuse and repurposing by others with no or limited restrictions. Pat Bowden wrote at CLASS CENTRAL that MOOCs are courses delivered online and accessible to all for free.

When summarizing the characteristics for OER and MOOC, the main parts are, open, online, free or no-cost, and accessibility. In order to understand these topics better I read the book Open at the Margins. Now the confusion and complexity accelerate. The book applies a critical perspective on online education and the authors addresses many critical perspectives on different areas. At page 14 the meaning of the word “open/openness” is discussed. My conclusions are that open/openness can be interpreted differently depending of the context and what is being discussed.

Two important areas in online education are legal and ethical aspects. Also, legal and ethical aspects can be viewed from many different perspectives. Legal aspects are often discussed from a sharing perspective and copyright issues. Ethical aspects cover often who can apply to online education and exclusion. Legal and ethical aspects could be discussed for a long time and they are big questions.  

One of the characteristics for OER and MOOC is free or no-cost. Pat Bowden wrote at CLASS CENTRAL that, “if you finish a MOOC with a passing grade, you may earn a certificate of completion. Sometimes, the certificate is free. But more often, you have to pay for it”. This description makes me wonder if we ever can be open since at the bottom-line it is all about money.

From my perspective there is a close link between research, education and society. The problem starts already at research level when it comes to openness and accessibility. In my research area, state-of-the-art publications are stored in databases. As a researcher you are expected to publish in journals and when your work is accepted you need to agree to sell out your copyright to the journal. Sometimes people need to pay to get access to the publication and a minimum requirement is access to databases. This is problem number one. Problem number two concern invitation as a reviewer for a journal. If you would like to gain merits in the academic world at a higher-level you will be invited as reviewer. You review for the journal who invited you and you do it for free. You do it on your spare time. Another aspect to reflect upon is that, often your work has external financing, but your work is locked in to some database.

From my perspective, there will always about money. The question is who is the winner and who is the loser?

 /Alwood

Experience from online education, social media and knowledge development

Digitalization is an ongoing process in our society and David Withe discuss usage of digital and social media from a generation perspective as well as from a Visitors and Residents perspective. In my case, I belong to the Visitors side, which means that I’m not use social media and don’t’ want to leave digital traces on the web. However, these two different perspectives are from my perspective not static, rather context dependent. I develop my knowledge on a daily basis in this area (digital tools and platforms, social media, etc.), but the problem is the fast advancement in several areas.

As a part of the Open Network Learning course I’m forced to blog. Is it dangerous to blog, NO. For me two important aspects for not using social media are privacy and data usage. Whom will earn money from my writing (data) and how will my text be used now and in the future. These two arguments are typical for a Visitor and this Youtube clip highlight the negative effect of social media that I agree with.

Are social media and digital tools important to master or be aware of? As I started this post, digitalization is an ongoing process and in order to be a part of the society everybody need to understand and adapt to the trends in this area. For example, when the pandemic started early 2020 this had consequences for everybody and in my case for the education. I was new at the university, responsible for designing a new course, no academic/teaching experience, and I had to convert the course to online. The ironic thing was that the course that I developed covered Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and digital technologies. The main problem was that I didn’t know what type of digital tools that could be used for online education. My toolbox with digital tools was almost empty when I started the course and I had to identify and try new (for me) digital tools during lectures.

In order to learn and find out more about digital tools for online education I applied for the Open Network Learning (ONL) course. The ONL is an online course divided in three levels, 1) ONL community (all participants), 2) Group level, and 3) Individual level. My group (Level 2) is a perfect composition of individuals supporting knowledge development through knowledge integration. One of my research areas is knowledge development or organizational learning during high uncertainty. My model for knowledge development (Capturing, Joint learning, Absorb learning) seems to be valid in this context as well. For the reader interested in this model can read this journal paper:

AHLSKOG, M., BRUCH, J. & JACKSON, M. 2017. Knowledge integration in manufacturing technology development. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 28, 1035-1054.

The start of the ONL course have been super confusing. Why? Important information is spread all over the webpage. Often questions or meeting invitations are addressed in posts at some digital whiteboard. To stay updated you need to read every post. This becomes very time consuming and in today’s digital society other problems are information overflow and communication channels. The number of information channels have increased the last years which implies that everybody need to filter all information more rapidly since our available time is limited.

Stay tuned!

/Alwood

Hello world! A new ONL blogger is born.

Today something happened that I couldn’t imagine could happen. I have created a blog, and this is my first post. How could this happen since I’m allergic to everything concerning social media? Well, it’s because of the Open Network Learning course that is given this fall (ONL202). Creating and writing a blog is mandatory in this course. At the end of the course I will evaluate what this blogging has given me, I might be surprised. Hopefully, I have received some useful feedback or thoughts on my topics. /Alwood