Topic 4

The topic that we have been working with the past two weeks was very interesting. I truly find it absolutely necessary for succeeding with a good course to be able to provide a nice design for it, especially so in a digital setting as the Online milieu. A further interesting element was to start thinking about course design coupled with blended learning.

As most other topics during this course has this topic also provided me with completely new types of insights into what it means to design for learning and how learning and designing are related in an intricate way.

I also thought that the two scenarios were quite interesting and I can recognize myself in them, though mostly from a student’s perspective since I have never myself held any Online course, only participated in distance courses as a student.

The literature for these weeks was ok and helped me understand the topic further. It was especially Salmon’s Five stage model that I liked the most since it felt very intuitive and helpful while also easy to understand at the same time. The article by Ameijde et al. was also very comprehensible, especially with the different list of criteria’s that which was easy to follow.

The tools that we have been working with during these weeks have also been new to me. To be honest, I have a hard time seeing myself using these tools after this course. The reasons for this is that I just don’t find the results produced within them all that aesthetic or appealing to the eye. Power point seals the deal for me! When I mean aesthetic I am mostly thinking about all the blurry arrows going here and there and circles etc. which always gives me the first impression “oh my goodness”. Anyhow, there are probably some use for the tools (and need for them) otherwise they would not have been used.

The group work during these weeks has worked ok. There have been some absentees in the group and more so over the weeks. We have managed to work it out anyways. But if it were more serious tasks to carry out I don’t know if it would have been feasible. Some of the group members have done lots of work (unfortunately I cannot honestly count myself to that part of the group even though I have participated in almost all of the different meetings) and they have carried much of the work!

All the best,

Anders

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

van Ameijde, J., Weller, M. and Cross, S. (2018). Learning Design for Student Retention. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, Vol 6 | Issue 2 | pp.41-50.