Sunday, October 31, 2010

Reflections on elearning and the final project

I love elearning.

I just do.

The meeting of a variety of folks, comfortably from my home. Better than sliced bread.

Learning in this environment has been fascinating, this is my fourth online course that I have taken. Two have been synchronous, and two asynchronous.

What I like about learning in the synchronous classroom: having a live feed with the instructor, visiting other websites with the class, meeting in the breakout rooms, talking to each other, sharing ideas.

What I like about learning in the asynchronous: having the class be self-paced and signing on when I want, as often as I want, when I can. Viewing videos. Love the freedom. Love the discussion boards, and joining the conversation when I want, as often as I want, when I can.

Teaching in the synchronous environment is fun for me. As a teacher, I like talking, sharing, encouraging others to reflect out loud. Chris is a great teacher too, we met in the online teaching course last semester and I am looking forward to our presentation.

Collaborating on the final project will be interesting, our greatest challenge will be to keep it short!!! I can see how easy it is too want to include too much content in the synchronous classroom. You need to balance content with interactivity, so the material makes sense. Otherwise the class material does not sink in, and not enough content gets absorbed. The interactive elements help in the absorption of material. Engagement leads to memory, which makes for a more memorable session as a whole.

A fine balance is needed in the synchronous classroom, and a deep sense of knowing which learning objectives can be taught in what amount of time.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Rhonda,

    No surprise that you love it- I'll bet that you're an amazing online teacher! I think your focus on the learning objectives makes a ton of sense. Without some goal that you're working towards, you would be overwhelmed with the options of different things to include.

    Best,
    Hallie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great thoughts Rhonda, I'm excited to see how it all turns out tonight!

    Best,
    Kiki

    ReplyDelete