Goal 7.2 Experience, Andvantages, Disadvantages and Suggestions regarding the Online course

 Experience

The experience lived throughout online courses is variable from person to person, and also from one course to another. Personally, my average practice in the online context has not been the best. I believe that the negative feeling I have acquired towards these courses in general has been because many teachers are not ready to confront the reality of delivering when they are not face to face and think a previously designed platform will do all the work for them. For instance, I have had teachers who do not reply to either e-mails or leave any feedback regarding the activities done during the course, even less set objectives, or care about who the students are.

Fortunately, the three distance classes I had this semester in particular were all much better than the once I had experienced in the past. I believe now that the reason why previous subjects appeared meaningless was precisely because of the lack of feedback; I often felt lost and believed I would never manage to do any better (or bluntly satisfy my “teacher”) so on, my efforts went down. Now I know “feedback can also be provided to the learners on how they can improve learning” (Dooley, 2003) and that this being not received was affecting my development, and this experience has led me – and I hope more people- to try and not be like these so called teachers. Being there for the student even when classes are not face to face is one of the features that will lead to an adequate online course.

Advantages

One of the main advantages and perhaps the reason why many people prefer to study online is because of the accessibility the schedules offer. “Online learners tend to work at least one job, have family responsibilities, and take one or more online courses at a time, their time is limited” (Porter, 2004) but when taking distance classes, they do not even have a need to assist to a physical place and can organize their learning according to their needs and availability.

Secondly, some people can be shy when they are in public. The online course offers these kind of students the opportunity to participate by writing down their opinion about the topic they are seen, making them feel comfortable and not exposed as in a face to face class. Here, they also receive individual feedback from the teacher, which they most likely would have not experienced within a classroom.

Additionally, by making this course individualized, each student can focus on improving their own work instead of dealing with the struggles of their group was a whole, where their language improvement can be made aside for a while and focus only on their actual learning regarding the subject they are studying.

Disadvantages

            Of course, no class is perfect, and online subjects have their faulty side as well. Deadlines become the first struggle for the students, especially when they are not well-organized. While there are teachers who have a structured set of deadlines, there are those who do not. Sometimes there will be no work, and in some other occasions, work must be done from one day to the other due to the lack of structure. It must be remembered that the reason why most of these students take the course online is because of the accessible schedules and the opportunity they have to work on their own time, and not having a well-developed deadline system will result in aggravation towards these people because all control they believed they could have becomes reduced to practically none.

            Added to the organization mentioned, although this has not been our case, online courses can occur locally, nationally, or internationally. This phenomenon is affected directly by the different time zones, where the difference in time can vary from one hour to a whole set of eight ours or perhaps more, which can result in an inadequate set of opportunities of success throughout the course for each student.

            Also, a note to take into account is the fact not all students have access to a personal computer as they please. Many students will not possess a device at hand either because they do not have one at all or because they share it with one or more people, and this is the reason why the they must be given time to schedule their plans when it comes to their assignments. In the same way, sometimes the system itself can go down, all the way from the platform to the internet service of one particular area, so here the accessibility of the teacher will play its part; the instructor must be aware that sometimes the learner cannot control some of the circumstances around him.

Suggestions

To improve the online courses that were not good so far I would encourage the teachers to take a class in how to develop through an online platform. The fact the learners must be autonomous in their learning does not mean the teacher has no job to be done. In this way, if they do not wish or cannot be available at any time the students require them, they could and should set a schedule and the days they are willing to receive the learners’ e-mails as well as an approximate if days it will take them to reply.

In the same way, deadlines must be organized, and according to Porter, 2004, if a deadline is established, that date must be respected. Students should be able to organize the way in which they work according to their needs. Here is also the place where worldwide communication takes place: if students’ live in different areas, a deadline should be set for each place according to the moment in which the assignment was submitted, and this, of course, can be calculated by the platform itself, this to give every student the same time and opportunities to develop their work.

Bibliografía

Dooley, L. D. (2003). Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and practices for educators, administrators and learners. Texas: INFOSCI.

Porter. (2004). Developing an Online Curriculum. London: Information science publishing.

Goal 6.1: Assessment in the online course

Assessment

Evaluation is a process that develops throughout a course as a whole. Part of this final evaluation consists in smaller and specific chunks of revision known as assessment. When taking a course, we are always assessed in different ways: speaking, writing, listening, reading, speaking and grammar are the most common features of a language that  are assessed during the language course, and each one of them can be broken down into even smaller parts to deliver detailed feedback to the student. The reason why sometimes this is not clear to the student is because “assessment is instructor directed. It depends on the knowledge and professional experience of the instructor to determine who and what needs to be assessed” (Dooley, 2003) Therefore, only the teacher has overall control over this.

 The duty of assessing and developing the assessment tools as well as criteria depends on the person in charge of the class been given. Nevertheless, the result of this evaluation, on the other hand, is of use to both this person and the student since “feedback can also be provided to the learners on how they can improve learning” (Dooley, 2003) and this feedback is a tool that tells the student his flaws and virtues in the topic regarded. Added to this, “assessment builds on existing best practices by making it more systematic and more effective” (Dooley, 2003) this is seen the picture in a less ambiguous way, being able to organize and give a value to a series of items presented within each topic. Of course, this “assessment must be tailored to meet the needs of the learners” (Dooley, 2003) and not what the teacher expects. The assessment tools must be developed for each course individually because the context varies from one moment to the other. If it is expected for the assessment frame of one semester to work in another, we would most likely also find that the class is having difficulties with the way they are been graded.

Difficulties to assess an online course

Assessing a course where there is little to no face to face interaction is complicated. Knowing the teacher or the students results almost impossible because there is no time to have a friendly conversation with the classmates or instructor.  Therefore, with whichever resources available, the online course must be developed under a regimen of strict organization. Commonly, the best known feature of an online course are its deadlines, perhaps not always liked, but effective. One thing to remember as an instructor is “if you set a deadline for an assignment, make sure you respect that deadline” (Porter, 2004) Not allowing the last suggestion to become naturalized in the students will result in the class not turning in assignments in due time, which will lead to other circumstances: delayed assessment, and therefore, delayed feedback and delayed improvement in future tasks.

The main goal of assessing the online course is to “provide feedback and post grades within the time frame (…) established” (Porter, 2004) The student must feel the instructor of such class is also engaged with the learning process. Often, students saying the teacher is never there, or that he grades as he pleases regardless of their effort is commonly heard in the school isles, and such fame makes the online course undesirable. Therefore “you should post your grading criteria, preferably in the syllabus or course description” [sic] (Porter, 2004) This way both teacher an learner have relay on at the moment feedback is given/received.

Another thing is that “no matter what type of assignment, comment on the overall effectiveness of the learner’s performance, highlight the most successful areas, and guide the learner toward improving weak areas” [sic] (Porter, 2004) To some students, even the tiniest task can be significant. It all depends on each person’s capabilities. If the teacher is absent, the student can feel his effort is meaningless.

Added to this, “because more online learners tend to work at least one job, have family responsibilities, and take one or more online courses at a time, their time is limited” (Porter, 2004) and this is where some flexibility in the system can take place. The online course cannot be assessed blind-folded to the students’ reality, which sometimes does happen. Regardless of the learners coming from, some instructors believe in an “all or nothing” philosophy, becoming poorly accessible. Beyond the personal problems this may cause, the final evaluation will also be unreliable because it did not suffice the students’ needs.

Suggestion to assess an online course

            I believe that to develop an assessment-friendly environment both teacher and students must be engaged with the class, and of course, show that engagement. Like mentioned before, the syllabus and assessment guidelines must be presented from the beginning of the course, and not only that, but also be discussed between learners and instructor to reach an agreement about the evaluation process. Additionally, this assessment tool, preferably a rubric, must be detailed. It should not only display something like the following:

Essay 1: 20%

Essay 2: 20%

Essay 3: 20%

Essay 4: 20%

Reflection: 20%

            This kind of rubric is far too ambiguous and meaningless. If the student is not comfortable with his grade, this kind of “rubric” will be useless. In its place, a chart containing specifics to each essay should be placed. For example:

Essay 1: 20%

            Grammar: 2.5%

            Coherence: 2.5%

            Cohesion: 2.5%

            Format: 2.5%

Focus on topic: 5%

Development of personal ideas: 5%

Handing out a detailed assessment tool says a lot about the teacher because this tool must be consistent with the feedback given, this is each item presented above should have its individual grade and feedback. Perhaps this is the reason why many instructors prefer to give a tool like the first one instead; they avoid having to grade in a detailed way for each student, and this is something that should be avoided.

Overall, the online instructor should be someone who likes to work on a platform and is willing to fulfill their role. Deadlines and assessment tools should be respected, and through communication, there should be flexibility if any problems occur during the course.

Bibliografía

Dooley, L. D. (2003). Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and practices for educators, administrators and learners. Texas: INFOSCI.

Porter. (2004). Developing an Online Curriculum. London: Information science publishing.

Goal 5.2

It is time to do a simple exercise to test your ability when using verbs in the present progressive tense.
The link below will take you to such activity.
If you have any doubts on this topic, leave a comment in the comment section provided  or send your questions to nunezt@uabc.edu.mx

Present Progressive Activity

Goal 4.1

Presentación P2PU

Above is the presentation exposing the features of the online learning website P2PU.

Goal 3.2- Who is the student and The 3 steps of meaningful feedback- Give, receive, change

When approaching an online course, the system often had a previous expectancy of who the learner will be. As expected, this person is expected to be autonomous, but rather than believing “learners need to know that they must learn what the teacher teaches if they want to pass and get promoted” (Dooley, 2003) they also must be aware of their learning because “learners are ultimately responsible for the decisions they make regarding what they will learn” (Dooley, 2003) When talking about distance courses, there is a problem that exists from the bare beginning of such method, and that is that  sometimes the student enrolled does not fulfill the requirements to be an online student. Regardless of this, “they will use their life experiences and common sense to facilitate learning” (Dooley, 2003)  because this is a common instinct in the process to acquire meaningful learning. The theory seen in class must always down on a practical situation since “learners learn best when the educational process occurs in the context of real life-situations” (Dooley, 2003) Taking these features into consideration, the online student is an independent being who is only guided by the teacher. Although “they are motivated by internal motivators” (Dooley, 2003) this does not mean the instructor of such course does not have any responsibility or direct relationship with the student.

The first thing the teacher can do to improve the learners’ experience is providing feedback. “Feedback on the distance learning programme takes a number of forms” (Howard, 1995)  but here the topic being regarded is not the grades themselves, but giving the students an opinion of how their worked has tuned out according to what they were asked for. This can help them know if the course is respecting the syllabus provided to them or not. There are occasions where the teacher does not have a rubric to follow, and so on, leaves ambiguous feedback to the student, lacking structure, and most importantly, meaningless. Through this feedback, the learner can now if the instructor is someone who can be trusted or not.

 Second, students must be allowed to leave early feedback about the course itself for the teacher to create a bond with them. In the same way a teacher judges the students’ development, students can provide the teacher feedback, as well. Sometimes the learners’ opinion is not taken into consideration and it is often expected for them to understand and respond to a class because it was made to suffice some standard needs. However, this is not the case. Each person is different, and each one of these learners has a way of learning. With this said, it can be concluded that a standard system of how a class would be developed is only a guide that organized the content that will be seen during classes, but this does not establish how they will be approached.

For this, student responses are expected, and are collected by three means:

·         Standard evaluation forms;

·         Unstructured reviews;

·         Detailed written feedback on selected extracts

(Howard, 1995)

Each one of these forms sends some kind of specific information about what the student thinks about the class. All of this feedback, although controlled, gives the learner an opportunity to express his feelings towards a course before it is too late to change anything.

Finally, after both teacher and students have evaluated each other, comes moment of change. Feedback means nothing if it is not used as the main tool to improve a course. If the feedback from both sides was accurate, the bond between the instructor and the class will be there. If not, this union must be fostered through the cooperation of each one of the parts involved. It is the moment to take any negative comments and adapt to the way a class in specific is developing to make it better for both the students and the teacher.

Works Cited

Dooley, L. D. (2003). Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and practices for educators, administrators and learners. Texas: INFOSCI.

Howard, M. (1995). Distance Education for Language Teachers: A UK Perspective. Edinburg: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Goal 3.1 ¿Por qué necesita ayuda el alumno en un curso a distancia?

Notes:
Mainly, the student needs to acquire habits that will help him become autonomous. It is all a matter of teamwork and the teacher cannot expect the student to do everything on his own, and even less to know everything. That is the reason why the student is taking a course: He is learning. So on, the teacher must provide course-long assistance and be a permanent guide. With this help, the learner can develop his competencies furthermore instead of only staying with the same information or abilities he already has.


Overall, we can see it is a 50/50 situation. Both teacher and students have to do their part. As many of us will be able to recall, we indeed have had courses were the teacher has played a terrible 5% leaving practically all the work to us -- and this person was not even able to grade us back in time. Let's all agree that we do not want to be this kind of teacher in the future. We must do our job and be the facilitator that will guide the student to improve in all that he is and he does.
Everyone is different, and so, we all have different  ways of thinking, which will result in people perhaps misunderstanding instructions, assignments, or in some occasions needing more time to complete a task. Therefore, the teacher must be present to help each student -- if possible-- according to their needs.

Goal 2.2 Presentation

 As teachers, we must make an effort to promote autonomous learning. Most of the time, this will be done implicitly by the way we approach our students and how we present the course to them.
We must be aware that being autonomous is not something spontanous the learners will acquire out of nowhere. The teacher is the main promoter of this behaviour, however, sometimes  how to help the student aquire this is not clear.
Here are some suggestions that can help the teacher with this task.


Presentación EAD 2.2

Goal 2.2 : Promoting autonomous learning

Virtual education has to be student friendly to promote autonomous learning.  The content that will be seen during the course must be structured and easy to follow as well as contain clear instructions. The whole environment of an online class is conformed by the teacher, the activities, the deadlines and the learners. Here, the teacher is a facilitator that must show constant a meaningful support to the student. In the same way, this facilitator should not expect the learners to work with little or no support at all. Such behavior will result in stressed people who feel forced to work simply to obtain a grade regardless of their learning.

However, the teacher is not responsible for everything. The student must also possess some abilities for this system to work as a whole. He must know he is expected to be autonomous and keep track of his own learning.  He should be able to find resources to complement his knowledge throughout the course and have contact with the rest of the class in case something is not clear.

With each part working, almost like a big clockwork, it will be easier for the learner to organize.

Goal 2.1 Multiple Intelligences and their impact in learning

For students, knowing their learning styles and what intelligence they have more developed is a tool that can aid them in their studies.  Personally, I do know my thing is music. Added to this, I learn better by listening than by watching something. For me to work better, I must listen to music, and I prefer places with lots of white noise (like people talking in a cafeteria, listening to fans, air conditioners, etc.) to work in. Now, taking this into account, I believe distance education can allow us to create our own learning environment, something traditional learning lacks and strictly forbids. On the other hand, like in my case, instructions can be difficult to understand. I prefer to listen to a teacher saying the specifications for an assignment rather than reading them because the second option consumes more of my time than it should (I am no good at retaining written information). With these limitations, yes, sometimes I have felt alone while learning through an online platform because it involves lots of visual interaction. The fact the facilitator is away can result in poor motivation.

Although I am good organizing my deadlines through a calendar, I know not everyone can do this and even prefer to do things at the last moment, which I do not. My emotions also play an important part, whereas if I am not feeling happy or are actually all the way down to depression, I DO leave the assignment for last. I think that to be successful in a distance course the student must be well-organized and interested in the course, so on that is the reason why I like to take my time with each assignment, so I can actually develop it the best way possible.

Solutions

1. I think the online facilitator should provide the student with the most options possible to be in touch during the course. Instructions could be presented in more than one form to fit different students’ needs. If this does not happen, the learner should create his own learning environment to make the tasks more enjoyable or at least less stressful. For example, if musical, listen to music that helps him concentrate and work.
2. Another thing is the student should keep track of his assignments with help of a calendar or agenda he can carry with him all the time or have easy access to it. He should place some alarms as reminders and try to work in the assignment one at least one day before it is due or early during day-time. If the assignment is done a few minutes before or even a few hours, it will result in poor quality and no meaningful learning.

Distance and Open education: Their reality

Distance and open education share similar features. Perhaps the main difference is distance education is a lot alike traditional, where they have a teacher, even if far away, as a guide, however, the students do not attend a classroom to be able to take their lessons. In open education, the learners only have a system to follow.

Just like in about everything, these systems have their good and their bad side. On the pros, it is known that distance and open education are a great option for those who have something else to do besides attending classes. Activities such as working and taking care of a family become priorities, many times making studies aside. However, with these two options, education becomes, once more, available for these people to learn and improve their academic life. This availability also allows the student to organize himself according to his needs and schedule; he can work at his own pace and by his personal learning style. Inclusively, when a student enrolls to these classes, he can develop the skills he needs to be an online learner if he is yet not ready when within the program. Another advantage is that, thanks to the freedom the student has, he can dedicate the time he can to his work.

On the negative aspects, we can see some students are not ready for this kind of learning and do not reach the maturity needed for such programs. Not everyone is autonomous and can go into an open or distance education  system believing a teacher will be on his back telling him how and when to do assignments, which is not so. This could also lead the student to feel lost or lose track of his learning, resulting in poor motivation and even a drop out.  

Systems are not perfect either. Online platforms are best known for not connecting to the server when needed than for doing it. System black outs will always be a great disadvantage for online learners because the student, even when a good planner, is not able to foresee situations of this kind. More than once, people will have to restart their work from scratch, which affects the student’s organization directly.

Added to the before mentioned, the access to a computer is not always for granted even if schools now offer technology and internet. As open and distance education offer more freedom, that is a feature the student looks forward to, and being limited by a physical object is not an option. Many also believe having access to technology can be enough, but a learner in Computer Science and a learner in Communication, to mention two poles, will have different needs. Sometimes learners do not only need a computer, they need a good quality computer which is most likely unaffordable considering monetary issues are the main cause for people to enroll in these courses.

In addition, socially speaking, as every kind of online relationship, open and distance education are underestimated and not considered real. The concept of school being a building filled with classrooms, teachers and students is persistent till this day in people’s head such as the concept of s psychologist in a room with a patient laying down in from of him telling them their problems, which is traditional, yes, but not particularly correct.  Nonetheless, there are schools that have successfully implemented these education systems, such as the Universidad Autónoma de México and the Instituto Tecnológico de Aguas Calientes, proving that open and distance education are now official and produce graduates like traditional education does.

On a personal note, I think that, although the student is the focus of these two systems, the teacher in distance education plays an important role for this experience to be good. As a teacher, I would like my students to feel we are in contact even when we do not see each other in real life. Here, the facilitator does not cease being the guide. Whenever the student has a doubt, there should be a person available to aid him and solve any problems presented throughout the course. After all, they may be enrolling to pay less, but that does not mean they study for free. So on, the system must engage with the student and let him know he is not alone. 

Finally, I think open and distance education do not mean to take traditionalist’s place, they rather complement each other and suffice different needs. These three systems are the first of perhaps many more options to come, allowing each time more people to rise in their academic competences. As future teacher, we must be prepared for these changes. School’s change their ways often, and what we are taught today may not be of much use tomorrow, however, if we carry the basis of education with us, we will be able to overcome the gaps that exist between the traditional teacher and technology.