My past experiences with online/blended learning as a student overall has been rewarding. I especially enjoy working on assignments on my own time at my own pace. I also like being involved in student discussions. With online, I like having the luxury to have extra time to think about what I want to say before posting it.
These experiences mentioned above will impact my goals as an online facilitator. I would like to be as organized as possible which could be the biggest challenge especially since I’ve never ran an online course before. But being organized, like having a checklist that works and sticking to it would make the online experience for my students (and myself) a lot more pleasant and less stressful. It would provide my students the information ahead of time so they can pace themselves, and manage their class work around their personal life.
Another goal would be to provide my students assignments that are current, interactive, visual, and entertaining to peak their interests for discussions. This is not always easy to do every time, but doing this will engage and enhance student online learning.
Another goal would be to make sure to respond to student postings in order to continue class discussions and/or deepen the discussions. After reading about wrapping and weaving, I realized this will prove to be a challenge for me. I would need to practice wrapping and weaving, and with more practice I hope that overtime I would be effective in facilitating discussions.
The biggest challenge with online learning would be student group projects. The online platform isn’t the most convenient way for students to collaborate on projects together at least for my past experiences as an online student. I am sure though that there’s more online tools and programs that support collaborative work amongst students now. My next step would be to learn what these tools are and how my future students can utilize them.
KatsWorld 