My most memorable online learning experience is within an online course and joining a social learning community called Reddit for Crochet knitters. My online course was in my first year called Effective Learning Strategies for Academic Success. The course provides information and guidance on the developing study habits and strategies that lead to success in college. I was able to identify my academic and personal goals, develop time management, reading, and note-taking strategies. Throughout the course, I was able to complete college-level research, write reflective and academic papers.
One concept that I found useful that the course was able to incorporate was humanizing online learning. Initially, before beginning the course, I was a little apprehensive about how I would be able to connect with the material as well as the other learners in my classroom that I would collaborate with. First time experiences are always nerve wracking and being in college for the first time is as scary stepping into an entirely new world. I knew that the Academic Success introductory course would provide me with the future skills and knowledge needed to succeed in my academic career. The mode of this online course made it flexible enough for me to complete assignments whenever I was readily available at my convenience.
One of the readings discusses humanizing online learning so that the learner does not feel the isolation and/or distance that may be felt from learning through an online course. Humanizing an online course is the process of “creating ways to connect learners with each other and the instructors across the distance of online learning” (Crosslin, n.d.). The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework focuses on increasing teaching, social, and cognitive presence to help learners. The Academic Success class was able to keep me engaged and participative with the weekly required discussions and assignments. The Instructor always sent weekly announcements as well as progress reports that were timely and informative including what improvements could be made in future assignments to succeed within the course.
Through participating in weekly required discussion boards, the social presence and cognitive presence were apparent. Social presence focuses on the learners in the course and the ability to actively and safely participate in the course as an individual. The cognitive presence was visible through the responses written on the week’s discussion board. Chapter Five’s reading includes blogging as an example to “encourage learners to take ownership of their learning, building in reflection activities, and creating avenues for learners to share and interact with those reflections” (Crosslin, n.d.).
Joining a social learning platform like Reddit allows users to join and discuss within groups and its members allowing users to post discussion threads on topics of their interest. Chapter seven of the reading includes understanding technology and the foundations of educational media. The chapter recognizes the use of media in education, the six building blocks of media are face to face teaching, text, (still) graphics, audio, video, and computing. Reddit allows its users to connect and interact via text, graphics, audio, and video. I joined a group of fellow Crochet knitters, a group with a total of 142,000 members. Posts are uploaded every day encouraging crochet ideas, tips, and tools. The group is informational because it includes members from varying skill levels of Beginner to Professional Expert. Photos, as well as videos, are uploaded and recommended. I remember when I first began crocheting, I was confused on how to start and end my crochet loop for a simple scarf. Through Reddit, I was able to connect with multiple members who were helpful enough to send tutorial videos and images providing step by step illustrations.
References
Crosslin, M. Chapter 5: Effective Practices. Retrieved 1 March 2020, from https://uta.pressbooks.pub/onlinelearning/chapter/chapter-5-effective-practices/
Crosslin, M. Chapter 8: Understanding Technology. Retrieved 1 March 2020, from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/part/chapter-8-understanding-technology/