This week’s readings opened my eyes to the critical thinking required to set up open and distributed learning. I particularly engaged with the readings in understanding how courses are structured and categorized. I was also able to relate this content to my university experience.
The reading discussed the many umbrella terms used to describe learning facilitated through the internet, including online learning, E-learning, web-based teaching e.t.c. It also discussed some course-structure elements, including enrollment, timing, amount, platform, and pathway (Major, 2015).
Like enrollment, I believe that amount, timing, platform, and pathway are relevant to the concept of open learning. Regarding amount, online learning can be facilitated completely offline, completely online, or blended. With timing, most open learning typically occurs asynchronously with little to no synchronous components. I’m of the opinion that open learning would fall under the classification of a distributed pathway because of its openness and learners’ freedom to engage with content and each other in their own way. Understanding where open learning stood regarding the concept of platform was a bit tricky. I initially believed that open learning typically happened outside the realm of some specific software like an LMS. I have then discovered that there are open platforms like Canvas and Moodle that offer more freedom in comparison to traditional LMSes (Major, 2015). That considered, open learning typically involves a bevy of different learning resources including articles, and social media.
Over the years, I’ve had experience with a number of courses whose structures fall into different categories. For example, most of the online classes I’ve taken at UVic fall under a range of element categories, including:
- Fully online, and blended (amount)
- Asynchronous and synchronous (timing)
- Utilization of an LMS like Brightspace which has been predominant since the pandemic started (platform)
- Centralized pathway with a focus on all students engaging with content the same way and decentralized pathway (pathway)
- Enrollment has typically been strictly by registration (enrollment)
It is my opinion that even informal learning facilitated through youtube falls on the extreme ends of the spectrum for each of the 5-course structure elements. It is offered completely online, completely asynchronously, makes no use of any LMS but makes use of youtube’s platform, it could fall under a decentralized or distributed pathway but typically favours the latter, and enrollment is mostly free and open although there is premium content offered by Youtube content creators.
Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)
aydenweber August 11, 2021
Hi Samuel,
I also enjoyed reading Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. I found reading through all the different course descriptions very interesting.
I agree that it takes a lot of critical thinking to establish open and distributed learning classes that run smoothly and efficiently. It seems like all of these classes were very deliberate in their organization and took a lot of time and planning. Like you mentioned, each aspect of online courses like amount, timing, platform, and pathway are crucial to the course structure. I really enjoyed the way you laid out all of the categories in your post and then explained what features would be included in each category. It was a great visual to better understand the categories of online learning.
Jordyn August 12, 2021
Hi Samuel, I really liked the structure of your post and the way you clearly stated the different aspects of your online UVIC courses as bullet points, it made it very clear and easy to read.
I would be curious to know you or others personal stance on how you have liked the online courses at UVIC? How has BrightSpace helped or hurt your learning? Claire and I have discussed this in our posts, and I think it is interesting to see others perspectives on how they feel different online components work/don’t work for them!
It is interesting that you mentioned Youtube as a concept for online learning, and it made me think of personal experiences I have had with Youtube during my academic years. When the pandemic first happened and all classes at UVIC were quickly moved online, I was taking a statistics course. Even though my course wasn’t facilitated directly through Youtube, for the remainder of my stats course I relied heavily on Youtube channels to teach me concepts that were blurry and unclear. It would be interesting to know what category of online learning this would fall under, if any?
tsokwa August 12, 2021 — Post author
Certainly! I definitely like the comfort that Brightspace offers. It’s all about the ease of getting feedback, grades, and writing quizzes without having to leave my room. As a computer science major, youtube has constituted a huge chunk of my overall university learning experience.
madelineosgarby August 12, 2021
Hi Sam,
I enjoyed reading your post. I too decided to compare my own online coursework at Uvic to the 5 variables from the Major(2015) reading. Based on what you shared, it looks like our online coursework typically followed similar structures despite being in different faculties.
I like what you added about informal learning on Youtube. I would agree that Youtube’s platform follows a distributed pathway since users have the opportunity to pursue their own interests and investigate any questions of inquiry. What is great about Youtube is it’s virtually impossible to not find a video that discusses your topic of interest.
During my most recent teaching practicum, I used Youtube every day. The best way to get my class to settle in their seats, sit quietly, and start to think critically in the classroom, was to show them a video at the beginning of my lessons that would complement what I was going to be teaching.
My favourite channels to use in the classroom are Mystery Doug, Crash Course/Crash Course Kids, Mark Rober, SmarterEveryDay, The Backyard Scientist, and Science Bob.
One more thing to add, I think that if teachers are going to be allowing students to do their own research using YouTube, we need to teach them the essential skills to evaluate the videos they watch. Like how we teach students to think critically and evaluate the validity and accuracy of what they read online, we need to do the same with what they watch.
claireyu August 12, 2021
Hi Samuel,
It was nice being able to get a clear definition of the umbrella terms we’ve been using this past year. I realized that I have been using some interchangeably. I was also unsure about what fell under the category of “open learning,”. Initially, I thought it simply meant a public platform where anyone could access it and learn the material, but I discovered it was a bit more nuanced than that. I think you made a great defense against why YouTube falls under a distributed pathway, and it was interesting to learn how many separate categories there were. All of your points were organized and well written!