I am currently in my third year of University and only this year have I been exploring more open and distributed ways of learning and gaining more knowledge within my educational career. As someone who appreciates flexibility, as well as the ability not to have to sit through a structured lecture multiple times a week, I enjoyed online classes as a way of learning. I have now taken a variety of online courses at UVic, ranging from HLTH 300/301 to various EDCI courses as well. It is interesting how having the knowledge and information gained from EDCI 339 this semester to have the opportunity to look back on these courses and reflect on them with a more informed mindset and opinion. 

Although these classes are entirely offered online, and there is no face to face interactions among participants, one thing I found that all of my professors did a fabulous job with was building a personal relationship with their students. I have never met most of my online professors in person; Still, I commend them for doing such a fantastic job at building rapport with myself and other students in the class despite never actually meeting before. Rehn, N., Maor, D., & McConney, A. (2016) mentions that building positive relationships between the students and instructors is crucial to ensure a positive and healthy learning environment. There is an added challenge when instructing an online course when it comes to this, so I believe that it is essential that both the students and the instructors work a little harder to foster these relationships to ensure that there is a mutual success for all participants. Rehn et al. also suggest the importance that should be put on “presence” in synchronous online communications, since this is how an online community can foster an interpersonal relationship between one another. I think that the concept of being present, whether it be in person or online, is an essential takeaway, as it ensures that learning and education are both engaging for the student and the instructor.

I have also found that through online classes, it is a little easier to look at the instructors as more of a colleague, and less of a superior figure. It might sound a little funny, but so many times instructors are extremely intimidating and asking them to meet with you to answer questions or discuss course content is next to impossible because of this. Having the ability to look at instructors as a colleague is probably due to never partaking in a classroom situation where the instructor is lecturing at you. I have enjoyed the online classes that I have taken since all of the assignments, forums and discussions felt more like a conversation with an academic rather than someone attempting to drown you with information while you are sitting in a classroom for fifty minutes. I believe that the instructors that I have had for my online classes have done an excellent job of doing this. Song (2016) highlights the importance of disclosure among instructors and students and ensuring there is an open line of communication. When instructors acknowledge their frustrations or make a note of their own mistakes, it makes students feel comfortable doing the same, which in turn fosters a healthy and open learning environment for everyone involved. Aside from instructors, I also feel like it is so much easier to engage in class discussions and debates when it comes to online learning. I believe there is a lot less pressure on students, and you have the ability to formulate a reply on a forum post, back it up with academic sources and edit it before anyone ever sees it. I’m sure that this is something that would appeal to students with anxiety about speaking in front of the class. Online courses would give them the opportunity to engage in discussions and ensure that their opinions could be heard without ever having to express them in a public and high-pressure situation.

Unfortunately, online learning options are not perfect and come with their own sets of challenges. As someone who enjoys learning more independently, group projects have always been something that I have despised. I recall always having to pick up on my group’s slack, as well as never being satisfied with the quality of work that the rest of the team members were producing when comparing it to my own. Group or partner work is something that is challenging to achieve success through face to face courses, and even more so when it comes to online courses. I remember one of my online courses at UVic, where we were assigned to work on a group project. One of my group members took a lot longer to complete their portion of the assignment since they underestimated the amount of time it would take and as a result, we were nearly late handing it in. Mortensen & Hinds (2001) found that conflict is more likely to arise when participants were involved in online group projects rather than in-person ones. Although I commend instructors for attempting to include group work in their online courses, as some numerous benefits and skills can be gained and improved upon during the group work process, sometimes group work can turn into more harm than good. 

 

There are numerous ways to learn effectively, and sometimes one method may work better for one person than it does for another. I know a lot of my peers have difficult times working on online classes, as their discipline for getting work and assignments done in a timely fashion is something that they struggle with. My peers have difficulties setting aside time in their days to sit down and learn the content, similar to what someone would be doing anyways with a scheduled class. I find that I do not have a difficult time with this, and online courses are something that works well for me because of this. I also thoroughly enjoy the level of flexibility that online classes can provide for me, especially as I like to do most of my school work and studying remotely and off-campus. With these challenging and trying time that has presented through the last few weeks with the COVID-19 pandemic, I am feeling fortunate and blessed that I have some experience and knowledge regarding online classes. This experience has made the transition to all of my courses turning online that much more comfortable and a little less anxiety-inducing. I believe that online courses are the way of the future. So much of our learning opportunities have already been moved to online platforms and has been made accessible and distributed openly that becoming familiar and comfortable with online classes and courses is something that everyone should begin to become more comfortable with over the next few years. Even just looking back on my academic career over the last fifteen years, I would never have imagined being able to gain a University degree by taking classes online! 

As a final thought for this course, I am extremely thankful that I had the opportunity to participate in a course where open and distributed learning was highlighted so much (especially now with the pandemic occurring!). I believe that this course has exposed me to a various number of skills that I now have been working on for the semester to ensure that I am learning online to the best of my ability. These are skills that I hope to continue to use and grow upon for the rest of my academic career.

 

References:

Mortensen, M., & Hinds, P. (2001). Conflict and shared identity in geographically distributed teams. International Journal of Conflict Management, 12(3), 212-238. 

Rehn, N., Maor, D., & McConney, A. (2016). Investigating teacher presence in courses using synchronous videoconferencing. Distance Education, 37(3), 302–316.

Song, J. (2016). Emotions and Language Teacher Identity: Conflicts, Vulnerability, and Transformation. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 631–654.

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