MASTERING ONLINE PEDAGOGY: Introduction to This Portfolio

MASTERING ONLINE PEDAGOGY: Introduction to this portfolio

TEACHING ONLINE

‘Mastering online pedagogy’ portfolio

Introduction to the ‘Mastering online pedagogy’ portfolio

Welcome to the ‘Mastering online pedagogy’ portfolio. This document accompanies the course entitled ‘Mastering online pedagogy’ in the Teaching Online programme.

What is the portfolio?

This portfolio is intended to supplement and enhance your learning as you progress through this Teaching Online course in the following ways:

The portfolio draws together all of the documents and supplementary materials available to download throughout the main course, so that they are easily accessible from a single location.

Throughout the main course, you will be invited to undertake various reflective and supplementary activities (called ‘Portfolio activities’). These are accompanied by the portfolio icon, above. The portfolio provides a space for you to record your thoughts for each of these activities. You may like to return to these notes and extend or refine them as you progress through the programme.

Your portfolio should continue to prove an invaluable tool once you have completed the course, with summary sheets, templates, and your own notes and reflections providing a useful reference manual for your online teaching.

Your portfolio: How to use this document

How do I use my portfolio?

Save a copy of this document on your computer.
Keep the portfolio open as you work through this Teaching Online course.
Each time you undertake a ‘Portfolio activity’, or are asked to keep a note of the results of an in-course activity, you will find a corresponding page in this document for you to complete. (See ‘How do I navigate my portfolio?’ below for more details.)
Refer to, or complete, each portfolio document as instructed in the corresponding section of the main course.

How do I navigate my portfolio?

To navigate your portfolio easily, ensure that you have the ‘Document Map’ or ‘Navigation Pane’ feature in Microsoft Word enabled. To do this, go to ‘View’ and tick ‘Document Map’.
The titles in the ‘Document Map’ (to the left of your screen) correspond with the course screen titles to enable you to easily locate the desired document. The course and unit are also displayed at the top of each portfolio document for ease of use.
Click on a document name to jump to that section of the portfolio.
Where a section in the main course has more than one portfolio document associated with it, the documents are numbered in brackets in order of appearance in the corresponding section of the main course.

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Constructivism

The social construction of knowledge

Having considered the ideas expressed in the interviews, think about how you can design your own course. What can you do to encourage social interaction, collaboration and the social construction of knowledge?

Use the space below to record your thoughts.

Estimated duration: 30 minutes

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Constructivist learning environments

Creating constructivist learning environments in my course

Consider how you can make your online courses more learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred and community-centred.

You may wish to make a note of your thoughts in the table below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

Learner-centred
Knowledge-centred
Assessment-centred
Community-centred

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Making online courses learner-centred and knowledge-centred

Which activities can I use?

Create a list of learner-centred and knowledge-centred activities to use in your online course.

You may wish to record your ideas in the tables below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

Learner-centred activities / Details
Knowledge-centred activities / Details

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Making online courses assessment-centred and community-centred

Which activities can I use?

Create a list of assessment-centred and community-centred activities to use in your online course.

You may wish to record your ideas in the tables below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

Assessment-centred activities / Details
Community-centred activities / Details

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Changing paradigms – from teaching to learning

Barr and Tagg’s analysis

What are your reflections on Barr and Tagg's analysis?
Answer the following questions with specific reference to your own experience:

Estimated duration: 15 minutes

Do you agree with Barr and Tagg’s analysis?

2. Where does your current approach to learning reside?

3. Are you more in the instruction paradigm or the learning paradigm?

4. What about your institution?

5. If you wanted to become more grounded in learning do you think it would be possible?

6. Do you think putting courses online provides an opportunity to transition to the learning paradigm?

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Pedagogical perspectives for the online environment

Presentation, intelligent tutoring and social constructivism

How do presentation, intelligent tutoring, and social constructivism fit into your own online teaching plans?
Reflect on the following points and make a note of your thoughts.

Think about how you can apply each perspective listed in the table below to your own teaching style, materials and conception of learning.
Is there a perspective which is most compatible with your teaching style? If so, why?

Estimated duration: 30 minutes

Perspective / How can this be integrated into your teaching plan?
Presentation
Intelligent tutoring
Social constructivism

You may wish to make further notes here:

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Transformation, not duplication…structuring the online environment

Creating structure and feedback

Consider the orientation sections, content and teaching goals for your own online courses, and answer the following questions:

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

1. Which of the ten orientation sections will you use? Choose from:

Welcome section
Contact information
Course overview
Course learning objectives
Reading and other course materials
My expectations
Overview of course learning activities
How you will be assessed
Course schedule and assignment calendar
Your next steps

2. Are there any you would add?

3. What learning activities and what kinds of feedback will you use to get the most from your students?

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The online learner: Changing learner characteristics

Online teacher profile

Create your own online teacher profile below, thinking about what information you want to share with your students, and how that information will help build a sense of interdependence and trust.

Estimated duration: 30 minutes

Photograph:

Reason for taking an online course:

Goals for this course:

Occupation:

Interests/hobbies:

Family info:

Pets:

Other:

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Pedagogy for adults

My course expectations

Create a‘course expectations’ document for your own online course, using the questions below.

Estimated duration: 20 minutes

General level of performance expected:

Number of hours students can expect to spend working on course assignments:

General standards for academic language (e.g. avoidance of slang, informal usage, etc. as appropriate to your course and discipline area):

Expectations about the delay between the submission of work and your feedback appropriate to the assignment type:

Expectations about netiquette – appropriate forms of online interaction:

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The adult online student

Learning activities

Reflect on how you can give your own students choice when it comes to learning activities in an online course. Record three ideas for learning activities, including your plans on how best to implement each one.

You may want to record your ideas in the template below.

Estimated duration: 15 minutes

Learning activities / How will you implement this activity?
1.
2.
3.

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Direct instruction

Write a mini-lecture

Write your own mini-lecture using either simple text or a brief PowerPoint presentation (other presentation software is fine too!).
If you are using presentational software, remember that presentations that you have created for live delivery may not work for online delivery without additional information. You (and your voice) will not be there to provide the narration that is the main vehicle for conveying information. Unless you record your narration, the slides themselves may not be of much use. So think carefully about how you will proceed.
Think about the course goals and content you have for your students. Your mini-lecture can be a good way to highlight the most important elements of that content. Take a look at some of the materials you are currently using – a book chapter, an article, a video – and ensure that your mini-lecture includes the important aspects, as well asyour own insights or opinions.
Your mini-lecture should comprise a brief two to four paragraphs of text or seven to ten screens of presentation.
You may wish to make a note of your ideas in the space below.

Estimated duration: 60 minutes

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Supporting student self-regulation: Learning presence

The components of learning presence

The following table provides a more detailed explanation of the stages of the learning presence cycle.
As you read through the table, think about the kinds of group activities that you might design that will call upon students to engage in such collaborative learning. How will you best support their efforts to work together to achieve the goals of collaborative/joint knowledge building? How can you best support self- and co-regulated online learning, i.e. learning presence?

Categories / Indicator / Description / Example
Forethought/planning / Goal setting / Deciding upon specific actions and outcomes. /

‘At the end of next week, as a team, we have to submit a summary of our discussion points.’

Planning / Deciding on methods/strategies appropriate for the task. /

‘Why don't we list (all of us) what we perceive to be the cons of outsourcing?’

Coordinating, delegating or assigning tasks to self and others / Distributing, sequencing tasks and sub-tasks to others/self for future completion. /

‘Are you picking this [task] up next?’

‘I will take care of the intro and the summary. I have to work all night tonight. I will submit it for the group tomorrow evening sometime.’

Monitoring and strategy use (performance) / Checking for understanding / Seeking verification of understanding of tasks, events or processes. /

‘…Are we sure that everything has been cited correctly?’

‘I submitted my proposal a couple of different ways but don't know if it is viewable to the class. I don't see anybody else's either. Is there something I am missing?’

‘If we paraphrase…I am pretty sure the in-text citations are not required. You can check:

Identifying problems or issues / Identifying difficulties related to materials, technologies, understanding (e.g. confusion) etc. that interfere with completion of tasks, performance, products or other outcomes. /

‘I believe the assignment is 500 words or less so we may need to skimp down a bit.’

‘...then I realise that it has scrambled my idea of what I thought I knew.’

Noting completion of tasks / Comments which indicate that certain tasks or activities have been finished to support the attainment of a goal. /

‘I did some research and then typed up the employer section.’

Observing or monitoring during performance and taking corrective action / Statements that monitor individual or group performance that result in corrective action based on feedback or reflection. /

‘I think we need a solid intro and conclusion. As the paper stands now, we have none.’

Appraising personal interest, engagement or reaction / Comments about self or others' engagement, interest, commitment or participation. Also includes personal ‘reactions’ to tasks, materials and activities. /

‘As I travel extensively for my job, my interaction is a bit sporadic.’

‘I found that information [in the chapter] all new and a little scary.’

Recognising learning behaviours of self or group (i.e. metacognitive knowledge) / Statements about individual or group's preferences, strengths or weaknesses as learners. /

‘I am more of a hands-on learner.’

‘I am one…who likes to explore new programmes and put together an object without reading directions.’

Advocating effort or focus / Encouraging others to contribute or focus on tasks, materials and activities. /

‘Has everyone contributed their pieces?’

‘I'd encourage my classmates not be intimidated by the boring title of "ethics”.’

Noting use of strategies / Statements which illustrate that students are mindful and aware of the strategies that they are using. /

‘I was almost hyperventilating, so I decided to stop and think what I would do next in order to make my endeavour to read more productive.’

‘I decided to extract concepts from the graphic organiser on page 26 and Google each word to try and make sense of how the concepts tie together.’

Seeking, offering or providing help / Requesting, offering, or providing assistance related to learning materials, tasks, processes or products. /

‘If you need any assistance, please let me know what I can do to help you out.’

Reviewing / Comments noting the need to review or the completion of reviewing content related to the course. /

‘I would need to refer to this chapter in order to review the principles of this philosophy.’

Noting outcome expectations / Statements in which students acknowledge the relevance of current tasks or processes to a future outcome. /

‘At present, all I know is that grasping the epistemology of inquiry will help me read research in a more informed and holistic way.’

‘As I grow in the doctoral programme I fully expect to read…with more foresight.’

Seeking/offering additional information / Looking beyond course content and materials to locate additional information to deepen understanding. /

‘The answer to my question was provided by The “Research Methods Knowledge Base” (Trochim 2005.)’

‘I went to AERA's website and it looks like the Foreword has been updated since the book was published.’

Reflection and re-thinking / Change in thinking / Statements that indicate a change in thinking as a result of process, product or outcome. /

‘I can now understand some of their points and I feel the biggest misconception I had was that outsourcing does not necessarily entail taking jobs out of the country.’

‘This issue is not as simplistic as I once thought…’

‘It was a huge eye-opener for me when I viewed interactions through this new lens.’

Causal attribution of results to personal or group performance / Statements in which students credit their results to their performance (i.e. use of forethought/planning, monitoring, strategies). /

‘I think this was because I was now able to make associations with time periods.’

Course summary (1)

Essential points

Here is a brief summary of some of the key points from this course, to stick on your wall or keep to hand for easy reference.

Effective pedagogy reflects a shift from teaching to learning
Effective pedagogy acknowledges the social dimensions of learning
Effective pedagogy acknowledges that learners actively build knowledge rather than passively receive it
Social perspectives on learning promote collaborative models that foster such knowledge building
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework articulates specific forms of ‘presence’ that are needed for effective onlinepedagogy
The role of the online teacher reflects the shift from teaching to learning and includes learning design as well as direction and leadership
Understanding the changing needs of online learners is crucial for effective online pedagogy. Support for active online collaborative learning includes understanding online learners’ awareness, strategies, and skills in self-regulated learning and metacognition.

Course summary (2)

Mini personal statement

Write a short personal statement outlining three or more key points you have learned from this course and three immediate changes or plans you intend to implement as a result.

Estimated duration: 30 minutes