Blog on Innovating Learning and Teaching

Reference list Borg, M.E. et al. (2021). Investigating the impacts of personality on the use and perceptions of online collaborative platforms in higher education. SN Social Sciences , 1 (1). Available from https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-020-00053-x. Connaway, L.S. et al. (2017). The Many Faces of Digital Visitors & Residents: Facets of Online Engagement . OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Available from https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2017/oclcresearch-many-faces-digital-vandr.pdf [Accessed 15 April 2022]. Juhary, J. (2014). Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use of the Learning Management System as a Learning Tool. International Education Studies , 7 (8). Available from https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v7n8p23 [Accessed 15 April 2022]. Molenda, M. (2017). Programmed Instruction. Pressbooks.com . Available from https://lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com/chapter/programmed-instruction/ [Accessed 16 April 2022]. Moore, J. (2011). Behaviorism. The Psychological R...

I would like to make my final official post, about my reflection on the module of Innovative Learning and Teaching.  I came into the module expecting to learn new methods of teaching in traditional classroom, but I left the module learning much more - a whole new world of how teaching and learning can occur, with a concept that I quote to this day (the concept that stood out to me the most): connectivism.  When we started the module with theories, I really enjoyed the theories that built upon what we had previously covered in other modules. We discussed programmed instruction, which was an interesting backstory behind teaching and learning. I was shocked and inspired that theories from several decades ago are still something that we have to consider and develop today.  However, the most interesting and colorful discussion, was about connectivism. For me, it is more than just focusing on online tools being an integral part of learning, but also a whole new approach to teac...

I would like to start with the activities, what my thoughts on them are and what I felt when developing them.  WordWalls Starting with the activities of WordWall, which are mainly used for an introduction and smooth transition towards using a LMS. Although the activities on the WordWall are not challenging and would be quite low on the engagement scale, since it focuses on assessing knowledge that was obtained, programmed instruction (Molenda, 2017), which seems as a good place to start.  This start will allow the students to start with the lowest level of Higher Order Thinking, and establishing a place to start from. This place is what is familiar and relatively simple, while still being cognitively engaging in sense of having an activity that makes students think about the knowledge they have obtained.  On the other hand, the WordWall may seem to be reluctantly accepted by students. There are students that are more than familiar with the use of WordWall and tools simila...

We have made significant progress on the course, and finalized the material. We had a lot discussions with my partner, about what types of activities we can include and why they are better than others. I would like to dedicate this post to the review of the materials and the reasoning why supported by some literature.  To start, I would like to show the material we have developed. I would like to mention that we stayed close to the plan, that I mentioned in the previous post.  As you can see in the picture above, we divided the material into half, to ensure somewhat equal load for each partner. My partner made the first 5 lessons and I made the other 5. This way, we will have equal distribution and allow for more diversity in terms of the materials and activities. Interesting how it goes along with the quote: "One head is good, but two is better".  Let us go through each lesson, and review what has been done. To help students understand the usage and make a small introduc...

Now that we have established the plan and structure, alongside preliminary theories that we want to include in the course, it is time to incorporate all the elements.  To start, I would like to highlight that we have already created an orientation course on the BlackBoard, but there are a few limitations that we had to address and overcome. Firstly, the BlackBoard is limited to in scope of materials that can be included and activities that can be run in it.  As it can be seen in the picture above, there are only videos and reading material, and in terms of the activity, there are only quizzes. This strongly limits the amount of activities that can be done, but links could also be attached to mitigate this. However, since we wanted to contain the Orientation course within the BlackBoard, external links were not included.  One aspect that is beneficial in the BlackBoard, is the "lock" system. As seen in the screenshot above, the lessons are locked until the previous lesson ...

After the past few posts, I realize I have everything established in terms of what I want to do and whom it is aimed towards. I would like to make a summary to have it in black and white, what I want to do.  Who are my students : My students are freshmen to WIUT, over 1000 students who have just entered the university, graduated from a high school or lyceum.  Their experience with LMS : I have to go from what I have heard from my students. I taught foundation level students for the past three years, where the last two were years that had exposure to online/remote learning. From my small research I have done, purely by asking, I know that most of the students have little to no experience with LMSs. They are familiar with certain platforms, such as Google Classrooms or the use of Telegram and other social media. However, only a few students talked about using any form of LMS prior to entering the university.  My LMS of choice : I have picked Edmodo for a few reasons that I ...