Have I told you how much I am enjoying this course… and how much I hate it…

I have only been a teacher for approx. 6 years, before that I was doing clinical work and research. Teaching is not something that comes naturally to everyone. It is hard work and something you learn often through trial and error. What has surprised me the most has been how you can teach the same course several times to different groups and each course turns out completely different. Is the course material different, no… is the teacher different, no… but the student group is and the world is… and this results in a different course each time.

The fourth topic ‘Design for online and blended learning’ that we have discussed in our group made me reflect both on courses I am doing at the moment and courses that I have done previously… and I had one of those ‘AHA’ moments… like a light bulb going off in my head…

There are certain stages you need to go through when designing a course no matter if it’s digital, blended or plain old fashioned in house teaching. What works face to face doesn’t however always work in a blended learning course or in an online course. The five stage model by Salmon (2013) was discussed in our group as an interesting way of approaching digital teaching/learning and we decided to create a Prezi presentation to show how we investigated the different stages.

https://prezi.com/view/c1jz5MO7mxS7kD2DXmRx/

We also read Wrights (2015) article that compared e-tivities, e-moderation, and the 5 stage model to the community of inquiry model for online learning design. What I took away from this article is that an educational experience is very individual… social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence all make for a kaleidoscope experience and need to be addressed and contemplated on when planning all stages of an online course.

 

 

Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. [Homepage] http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html

Wright, P. (2015). Comparing e-tivities, e-moderation and the five stage model to the community of inquiry model for online learning design. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning, 3(2), 17–30.