Week 3 -What I learnt

Week 3

This week was comparatively lighter. I liked the idea presented in Lecture3 , “Today's course providers are only limited by their imaginations and their own and their students' access to appropriate software and hardware .”  One can make course as much as interactive as one wants to. I read in an article that, the more time you input in the course design, the more you save while teaching it. It is very true! A carefully and well-designed online course can create a shared understanding of concepts important to the learning culture and provided opportunities to reinforce them also the instructor has less burden. In such case the goal of designing the course is fulfilled.

I liked the ideas presented by Justin in Forum: 3:5 Reflections about Participation. He had a very good idea of having a chat once in a week so as to clarify the concerns and issues of the students. This idea is very important for learners who are of ages below 20 perhaps. The learners of this age tend to have apprehensions and issues. Learners who are older might have achieved the maturity level, they might be working and have family responsibly so they know how to deal with issues, stress and workload. They kind of organize their time and other matters in the life. But it ’does not’ that learners above 20 don’t have issues. They need instructor’s attention and help as well.

The reading on accessibility issue was very good. It had all the details of the issues along with the solutions. The solutions seem very much practical and to the point. The article ‘ Be successful in online learning’ evoked the question - what  are the  characteristics of an online learner. After reading this article I found that I need to develop the organizational skills in terms of planning my daily routine. Sometimes, it becomes hard to write even one line with my little boy, who has endless questions. If I am trying to write something or a good idea or phrase has come in my mind and I’m about to put it on paper, he would come and say something or urges to go out, I tend to forget what was going on in my mind.  I am trying to work on his daily sleep routine so that I can find sometime for myself.

Working in groups can bring the sense of heightened teamwork and camaraderie. I felt  the same working on the Mini project2. The Brain synch  team has 4 experienced people and I can learn a lot from them. I liked the ideas presented by Linda, Brian and Chinyere. The editing work done by Gary was outstanding. The final draft looked like perfect piece to me and I didn’t see any kind of changes I would make. I did all the research in the beginning and assembled the ideas with references. Linda, as a synthesizer organized them well. A little input and a few changes here and there further improved the draft. The editor’s polish made it to the final submission. All the team members were very helpful and co-operative. No issue like conflict in deciding the core issue and division of work came up in the team. Overall it was a nice experience working with the team members.