#ocTEL Teaching Development

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Activity 0.1: Big and little questions

Please reflect on your work experience and ambitions for developing your teaching.

  • I am about to teach online for the first time. I want to know what the possibilities and pitfalls are.  I have just completed a MOOC on online course design, and on online teaching, and I am learning different things from each of them about the roles of participants, and the effectiveness of different learning activities and formats. I want to fill my toolbox and learn the relevant skills by practising them under the guidance of more and less experienced workers.

The tip I picked up today from the Week 0 webinar is the idea of making a Learning Participation Plan.  I think my plan is to play it by ear – as they say in the Disclaimer to #ocTEL2014 –

Large scale online discussions are an example of ‘complex adaptive systems’, which means no one can predict how they are going to turn out. It’s unlikely that things will turn out quite how we planned them.

OcTELly yours,

Charlotte

4 thoughts on “#ocTEL Teaching Development”

  1. Hi Charlotte,

    I just picked up your post from the ocTEL course reader. Good luck with your forthcoming online teaching! I was wondering if you’ve come across Gilly Salmon’s ‘E-tivities’ and ‘E-moderating’ books. I’m sure you have, and I bet the MOOC that you did in online course development also included many principles of good dialogue-based online teaching and learning. I always like to mention the books and the ‘Five Stage Model’ because i’ve found them so useful for my own online courses.

    Anyway, do let us know how your course goes!

    Best wishes,
    Mark.

    Reply

    • Hi Mark

      That is really thoughtful of you!

      I just completed Gilly’s MOOC on online course design Carpe Diem Carpe Diem MOOC | Swinburne University
      http://www.swinburne.edu.au/hed/cdmooc/

      and also Oxford Brookes’ Teaching Online Open Courses (TOOC2014)Teaching Online Open Course #TOOC14 Joining Instructions.
      vle.openbrookes.net/mod/book/view.php?id=636

      and a more reflective, reading-based MOOC, Globalizing Higher Education and Research for the Knowledge Economy growing onion
      https://www.coursera.org/course/globalhighered

      So when I was unexpectedly offered the opportunity to teach an online course in my area of expertise for only 20 students, I leapt at it, feeling well-prepared to go in with my eyes open!

      I may also be teaching some students how to tutor online in a program we call PASS PASS @ UOW
      http://www.uow.edu.au/student/services/pass/(The Americans call it SI Supplemental Instruction – do you have an equivalent in Britain?).

      So many of the resources for Week 0 overlap with those from these 2 courses, and its great to be able to delve deeper – I am firmly of the belief that learning is like an onion growing, developing further levels of understanding with each layer.

      What is your favourite book on teaching? Mine is Stephen Brookfield, Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher – Stephen Brookfield
      http://www.stephenbrookfield.com/Dr…Brookfield/…/BCRT_Wkshp_Pkt.pdf.

      Thanks for commenting, I feel welcomed to the course and to the community – so now I will pass on the favour by connecting with another participant!

      Reply

      • Hi Charlotte,

        Wow, it sounds like you’ve got some really good training and experience under your belt. How wonderful that you actually did Gilly Salmon’s MOOC! I missed it unfortunately, but I’ll be front of the queue when she does the next one.

        I like your analogy of an onion growing, each new layer forming as deeper insights are gained and experience accrues.

        My favourite book on teaching (at the moment at least) is Biggs & Tang ‘Teaching for Quality Learning at University’. It has been around for years in various editions, of course, but I’m still getting a lot out of the latest edition. The Brookfield one sounds good, I’ll have to check it out. 🙂

        Enjoy the rest of your day!

        Mark.

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