My blogging days have come to an end. In this final blog post I will share some of the things I have learned through my engagement in the ONL course.

I’ll start off with my nemesis – blogging. No, we have not bonded, and we will not stroll off into the sunset holding hands. But… I get it. Making us write a reflective blog is such a clever way to ensure that we engage with the course content and make it our own. That fact that you need to publish your thoughts for anyone to read, encourages (or perhaps forces) you to put more effort in than you would if your reflection was for your and your teacher’s eyes only. A lot of thought has gone into designing the ONL course and there is a clear alignment between what we learn studying the recommended resources and how the course is designed. Hat off to ONL.

I have also learned that PBL is hard. For it to work properly certain conditions need to be met. For one it helps if the learners have partaken in PBL learning before and know how it works and what they are supposed to do. Even just one learner with PBL experience could have set a good example and guided the rest of us as to how PBL is supposed to work. I also think it is easy to get stuck in a vicious cycle where someone not putting in a lot of effort has a demoralizing effect on the other group members and the next task at hand. PBL only really works when the majority takes responsibility and contribute to the best of their abilities. As there is a clear connection between how much effort you put in and how much you get out of the course, it is a shame when it does not work as well as the course designer intended.

Finally, in what ways will ONL influence my practice? For one, I will make use of Flipgrid on my intensive course in January. I like the fact that the students can use their phones to record short videos and upload them in an easy way. I also like that I can restrict the length of the film, making giving feedback more manageable, and that the students can watch and comment on each other’s recordings. Another way in which ONL will influence my practice directly is that I will from now on, incorporate activities designed solely to welcome students and help them familiarize themselves with the course set-up, the tools and the platform in my distance courses. I have been struggling with achieving a sense of community among the participants. Despite trying in different ways to encourage students to be more active, the learning platform has not been exuberating with activity. A few students are active, but many are hardly visible in the course room. In ONL’s learning platform it is a different story. People post, comment and encourage each other non-stop. And I believe one reason for that is that we had a chance to get to know each other and familiarize ourselves with course environment and set-up, before we had to “perform”. Second hat off to ONL.