Category: Integration

301 Post 6

skarsten Leave a comment

Learning Summary

What are the most important lessons you gathered from the course?

-It was useful to reflect on the various reasons students engage in online courses (and in post-secondary generally), and to think through ways in which to boost engagement for those entering on a superficial level.

-Thinking through various elements of, and approaches to, learning and teaching through the community of inquiry framework provided an important meta-context, and an emphasis on dynamism and exchange.

-The use of video and media serves as one way to enhance relevance, interaction and ‘humanistic’ engagement. The course’s facilitation of learning in relation to media production tools was beneficial.

-Various facilitation strategies presented in the course point to an instructor’s role in animating the social context. These were useful to contemplate as mechanisms of learning engagement.

How has your thinking changed as a result of completing the course?

-Recognizing the unique potentials and limitations embedded within online learning contexts is, it seems, important. Rather than attempt to replicate an in-person classroom experience in an online environment, I was challenged to engaged with the media tools presented in ‘this’ context, and to make them work to the benefit of students and their learning outcomes.

-I am now more conscious of framing the learning journey in relation to the ultimate learning objectives. In developing course content, and in providing feedback to students, it seems important to point to the end-goals.

In what ways did the platform (WordPress) influence your interaction with the content and other people and what you learned?

-It was useful to run through some of the technical tips on animating a blog, including designing the look and feel, categorization of entries, etc. It was also useful to look at ways in which other academic blogs have functioned, and to glean ideas.

In addition to reflecting on your work, please include 2-3 ideas that you would like to implement in your own practice and how you might go about doing so.

-One of the key practices I look forward to implementing is the frequent use of video as a way to ‘frame’ and give context, or relevance, to the course content.

-I also look forward to engaging in a continuous assessment of learning outcomes in relation to course content and learning strategy.

-Finally, I look forward to embracing a strong facilitation agenda – creating a dynamic learning environment in which students are systemically and individually encouraged to interact as a way to achieve deep engagement with the content and learning objectives.

 

 

301 Post 3

skarsten Leave a comment

Designing Aligned Learning Experiences

Create 2-3 intended learning outcomes for an area of knowledge or skill within your area of expertise or training. Then create a learning activity (or two) aligned to one or more of those intended learning outcomes.

Learners in this course will:

  1. Develop an appreciation of the multi-faceted ways in which interpersonal communication is used in personal and professional contexts;
  2. Develop an understanding of key interpersonal communication approaches – recognizing the importance of context and connection.
  3. Become empowered to seek out areas of personal growth and change agency within interpersonal communication endeavours.

The first activity asks students to describe three different scenarios in their own lives (with names/ identifiers removed for confidentiality purposes) in which interpersonal communication was seen as highly effective – related to work, personal or family relationships, etc. They will reflect on these scenarios in writing, grappling with the following question: What components of the interaction made this communication effective? Students will be then asked to do the same exercise, but to describe instead scenarios in which interpersonal communication was seen as lacking. What elements were seen as lacking, and how could the communication have been improved?

The next part of the activity involves an introduction to the ‘four factors of interpersonal communication’ described as follows by Joe Ricker. With these tools in-hand, students will be asked to break down, in a written statement, one of their above-mentioned ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ interpersonal communication scenarios, reflecting upon these within the context of the four factors – cultural, situational, developmental, physical.

Students will then report out on their reflections, and will be invited to engage with each others’ scenarios through facilitated group dialogue. Through this process, students become aware of a multitude of factors that impact upon interpersonal communications. While not all factors can be controlled, students will be invited to look at those factors over which they as individual agents have control, and to consider ways in which they might extend influence over these.

Through this activity, learners gain an appreciation for how diverse and multi-faceted interpersonal communication is, and of the many factors that influence it. They also begin to grapple with their own interpersonal communication approaches, and to become empowered in their own communicative agency.

301 Post 1

skarsten Leave a comment

Think about an example of an effective practice you have experienced with regard to online learning, either as a learner or a facilitator. Describe the story of your experience.

In my role as facilitator of an online Documentary Communications course, I was responsible to take students through a research process centred on corporate power. Students were tasked with exploring the business practices of major multi-national media conglomerates such as Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, etc. This assignment was eye-opening, as students were asked to do real-world sleuthing, based on the publically-available info provided by the company (ie: financial statements, board lists, annual reports, etc.), and info uncovered through news media, online forums, etc. The experience brought home the extent of the interconnections between the conglomerates, the extent of the profit gleaned through their international activities, various of their ethically-suspect activities, etc. The real-world understandings developed through the course brought the critical media theory at the core of the CMNS program to life.

This experience highlights the importance of applicability. When students see direct connections through the assignments they undertake to real-world events and dilemmas, their engagement in a given course becomes meaningful on multiple fronts.

In thinking through this experience, I believe the course could have achieved an even greater depth of student engagement had each assignment been contextualized through a video intro. To receive a personal ‘heads-up’ on the significance of the insights to be gleaned through each assignment would, in my view, increase student engagement and allow the findings to be contextualized on an emotional as well as intellectual level.

201 Post 2

skarsten Leave a comment

Describe the ways in which your introductory post should have enhanced social presence in a course that you teach,

Identify at least one improvement that you might make in light of what you know about social presence since completing your first post, and

Describe how your thinking about social presence has changed since your first post.

Understanding social interaction as a key constitutive element of learning brings urgency to the task of ‘humanizing’ one’s self as an instructor. Through humor, vulnerability, etc., students benefit from a process of meaning making that allows learning to become deeply rooted and dialogic – part of one’s identity.

Moving forward, I see the need to make additional efforts, especially when welcoming new students to a course (but also throughout), to cultivate a socially safe environment rooted in humanistic expressions of connection and communication.

 

101 Post 4

skarsten Leave a comment

Questions 1 and 2: ‘Are there any gaps between your practice of offering feedback tos students and what Hattie recommends?’… and ‘In what ways can you improve the effectiveness of the feedback…”

A key lesson I took from Hattie’s piece relates to the importance of contextualizing feedback. By relating feedback to a student’s current and past relationship to course learning goals/objectives, and by outlining clear steps required by the student in order to close the gap between his/her/their current state of knowledge, understanding and/or action and that required within the course, a pathway is articulated by which a student’s success can be achieved. By focusing on this principle, I believe my feedback to students will gain contextual relevance.

101 Post 3

skarsten Leave a comment

Learning Objectives & Intention

I selected a syllabus for a similar interpersonal communication course to the one I will be teaching through TRU – this one through Bellevue College. The course I chose is called ‘Interpersonal Communication.’ The learning outcomes include low-level objectives, such as: ‘define the process of communication’, ‘describe the specific qualities found in interpersonal relationships’; ‘explain the relationship between perception, self-concept, and communication’; ‘describe the characteristics of a competent communicator and the methods of improving language, nonverbal communication, and listening skills’. Assessment occurs through quizzes, a paper, participation and communication assessment.

Within the syllabus, it was interesting to note the weight (approximately 40% of the full grade) accorded to participation and communication assessment – pieces that evaluate the ‘practice’ of communication. This weight contrasts, it seems, with the course objectives, which are centred around information retention.
Given the opportunity to revise the syllabus, I would include high-level learning objectives, such as: ‘practice a range of communication forms’, ‘develop an understanding of the power and potential of particular forms within particular contexts’; and ‘develop knowledge and skills that enable an effective reading of communication contexts, and the formulation of effective responses’. A revised assessment matrix would place increased emphasis on the practice of communication, through the inclusion of performance-based responses to particular communications challenges. In an online learning context, this might occur through video submissions and/or written pieces in which students analyze and assess a particular communication challenge and present various possible responses and their potential associate outcomes.