Online socialisation: Stage two of the five stage model

Stage two is when students are beginning to engage with the materials, the tutor (or are we to refer to the tutor as the e-moderator?), and with other students.

One of my first attempts to begin bringing students 'into' the course on the Intro to Positive Psychology distance learning module has been to direct students to the discussion forum on Bb and write a post to 'say hello!' to show they made it there, knew how to post a comment, and to say a little about themselves and what brought them to this course. I feel now this was a little one-dimensional and could have been just one of some more in-depth attempts to begin interactivity between students. The attendance version of this module has students introduce themselves to the group and this can be quite an uplifting exercise as students begin to quickly share information about themselves. This is harder to support and encourage online when students feel more distant (literally and figuratively) from each other.

However, mindful of Salmon's (2000) five stage model, I will consider ways in which I can give greater emphasis to this important element of online socialisation for students. For example, I can encourage students to say more about their background, their interest in positive psychology, what has brought them to the course, and what they hope to gain from the course. The next time this module runs it will likely form part of a fully 'distance' MAPP and so the module will be part of a longer programme. That said, there will still be some students who are on the module as a stand-alone short course.

Reference
Salmon, G. (2000). E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page. 

Access and motivation: Stage one of the five stage model

Salmon (2000) outlined a five stage model for e-learning that has become an established model
around which online courses are developed. This model is a central theme throughout the Certificate Stage of the MSc t-eL. The intention is that this will be the first of five blog posts to relate to each of the five stages of Salmon's model.

Stage one relates to access and motivation, and emphasises that learners at this early stage will be focused on the practical tasks of accessing materials, getting online, negotiating usernames and passwords, and so on. At this early stage they are likely to be motivated though this motivation may be fragile if technology, course structure, and tutor support do not make then entry to the course as welcoming, easy, and stress-free as possible!

The distance learning module I am running this semester is now 4-5 weeks in, and this is probably something I may have taken somewhat for granted! I did try to consider the likely issues facing learners such as usernames, IT induction, access to Blackboard, and so on. I realise now this is especially important and something I want to pay even more attention to the next time we run the module (by which time it may be part of a fully distance MAPP programme!).

Reference
Salmon, G. (2000). E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page.

CO711: (week 1 notes) Designing Effective Resources in t-eL

Beginning of the second module (!)

Demo of j2e.com. A fairly new VLE that is mainly aimed at schools. Not something I am likely to use, though it did illustrate the fact that there are new VLE platforms being developed and made available all the time and much cheaper than many of the existing mainstream platforms. For example, I now realise how much we as a University pay for the use of Blackboard (Bb) when there may be cheaper, more suitable, alternatives.

The context

Still finding it a challenge to make the time needed to read and write as much as I feel is needed for the course. That is not to say that reflection is not taking place!

The context for my taking this MSc is that I have just begun (since early October 2014) delivering for the first time a fully distance learning module, Introduction to Positive Psychology, that forms part of the MSc Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) at Bucks New University. The module runs from October - January, and has recruited 7 students. Not many, though this was without any advertising. I am pleased we have at least some students on the course, and it is a small group to begin with as we find our feet with it! The module is also offered as a stand alone short course, and is part of our attempt to develop a distance learning delivery for the full MAPP. This would be alongside the existing delivery in which students attend one weekend per month. 

As we have a number of students travelling internationally each month, and more enquiring about the possibility of distance learning we feel that there is a need to have this form of delivery. Further development of online materials and support via Blackboard will also further support our existing students. Over the next year, we will seek to validate a distance learning MAPP in time for September 2015. 

Thus the plan is to develop my understanding of t-eL and I see the MSc t-eL as a way of supporting my work on the Intro to PP now as well as the planning for the distance learning MAPP.

UPDATE 1: A later blog-post including reflections on the Intro to PP distance module can be found here!

UPDATE 2 [12 May 2015]: The MAPP 'distance', or MAPP-FDL as it became... is validated!

Learning to learn: E-tivities

I asked the question 'how will I learn?' in a previous blog post and this may well become a theme to explore, as it helps me to reflect on ways others may learn especially when much of the learning activity is online.

The idea of 'e-tivities' relates to this. The term was apparently coined by Salmon (2002), and refers to online tasks for learners to engage in. These would typically be discrete tasks that a student might be asked to complete such as posting on a discussion form, commenting on another student's post, etc. One might say this blog is effectively an extended e-tivity for this course?

Pettenati and Cigognini (2009) present a helpful discussion of how one might design effective e-tivities to promote students' abilities to learn, or learning competencies. In fact they make reference to the term 'Personal Knowledge Management' or PKM that cover seven main competencies:

"retrieving information, evaluating information, organizing information, analyzing information, presenting information, securing information, collaborating around information" (Pettenati & Cigognini, 2009, p. 2-3).

I can see these are all key transferable skills that are inherent in any form of academic learning, and especially so in the learning context I am applying this to at present and in the foreseeable future. They go on to unpack these PKM stills a little further by distinguishing between 'personal knowledge and learning' and 'management of learning' and also between 'basic' PKM skills and 'higher order' PKM skills. The 'basic' skills reflect more relatively straightforward 'know-how' skills (p. 3), whereas the 'higher order' skills reflect a more sophisticated set of reflective and experiential skills that they refer to as 'know to be'. Whilst the basic skills are of course important and needed, it is the higher-order skills that are ones we are keen to develop and support on the MAPP and the MAPP-DL.


References
Pettenati, M. C., & Cigognini, M. E. (2009). Designing e-tivities to increase learning-to-learn abilities. eLearning Papers, No. 12. www.elearningpapers.eu

Salmon, G. (2002). E-tivities: The key to active only learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.