Lesson Learnt and Future Practice

Reflection on this topic marks the end of my ONL191 journey. In my reflection there are three key issues which I want to share with my readers; these will include lesson learnt from the course, challenges encountered and my comments for future practice.

Lesson learn from ONL191

It is a cause of no doubt that before starting this trip I had a minimal experience on the application of online networked learning environment and practices in academia. Along the way I was able to conquer a lot of skills, knowledge and wider attributes such as the effective deployment of various online collaborative tools such as Padlet, Zoom, Coggle, Prezi, Pictochart, Twilda, Socrative among others in learning and teaching.  But what do I mean by online collaboration tools?

“It is basically referred to web-based tools that allow students and teachers to perform various tasks, share and access the resources, discuss, perform online activities and many more” (Hargis and Wilcox, 2008).  

Thus, online collaboration tools deserve a special attention for e Learning professional.

Other lessons learnt include:

• Collaborative learning 
• How to access open education source 
• Use of new online collaboration tools 
• Effective engagement of students in a learning process 
• Effective design and implementation of online and blended course 
• Values of open course to the students, teachers and society at large and strategies for its implementation 
• Well coverage of topic one to five

Challenges encountered

The expedition for ONL191 was so interesting and joyful to large extent. It was characterized by worldwide participants with brilliant experience in the course and topics. However there were some impediments towards the succession of the course, these challenges can be summarized in few areas including: technical reliance, adaptability struggle, time management, self motivation among the participants and lack of attendance during some meetings due to competing responsibilities

Recommendation for future practice

Basing on the above challenges pointed out in relation to ONL191 learning voyage, there should be good strategies to undertake for its perfection. Therefore my good recommendations for the course future practice can be as follows:  

For the effective future practice the focus should be on proper setting of student’s needs and goals, clarity of the course design, effective technical support to the learners, comprehensive information to prospective learners, the learning platform should be user friendly, the course goals and objectives should be clearly communicated from the beginning of the course, effective monitoring of group activities and finally conducting a course completion survey.

On another side, prospective student/learner  should be concerned with good time management, clearly set the personal goals for the course, effective participation for all meeting sessions and collaborative assignments, be committed to the course with open mind set and build up a better rapport with each other during the group sessions.

Learn without Limit

References

Hargis, J. and Wilcox, S. M. (2008) ‘Ubiquitous, free, and efficient online collaboration tools for teaching and learning’, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 9(4), pp. 9–17.