This week was all about Distributed Learning – something of great importance in this day and age. Learning can happen anywhere so long as we have open and creative minds (and internet access for the most part). We started by talking about online learning, including what we considered the best parts, the worst parts, and what the pandemic has shown us about online learning. Here are my thoughts on those prompts:

  • The best part of online learning was the commute. I didn’t have to worry about traffic, the bus running late, or having to get up an hour earlier to be at class on time. This also meant that I actually ate a good breakfast every day instead of just grabbing something quick as I ran out the door or just skipping it altogether because I’m terrible with time management.
  • The worst part of online learning was the difficult delivery of content. A lot of our courses weren’t meant to be taught online as some classes are, so the delivery didn’t always come across as well. This is a challenge for the instructors, as they aren’t used to online delivery, but it was also a bit frustrating to feel like I didn’t learn a lot in the first two weeks of our semester due to technology issues or just not being used to teaching through the computer.
  • This leads into what the pandemic has shown us about online learning. It is not without its challenges, but it is possible. It can be both more and less accessible, depending on the individual’s situation and access to technology, but we are capable of working it out in many cases.

I thought a lot about my online learning experience as I have now taken both synchronous and asynchronous courses. Here is a great definition and some pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous learning. For me, the asynchronous online courses I have taken (self-paced with discussions occurring as we finish each lesson individually and contribute to a discussion board) were much easier than synchronous for online learning as I have time to process what I learned on my own before responding. I liked the freedom of being able to learn at different hours than my work schedule and was kind of forced to work on my time management as a result (not a bad outcome!). While I very much appreciate learning alongside others in-person, the synchronous courses I have taken have been out of necessity so the information unfortunately didn’t always transfer over as well in these situations. I understand how they can be beneficial when they are supposed to be online the whole time so that students can connect from anywhere in the world, but the hybrid was a challenge. I can’t say I have the answer, and while I do think many instructors did their best throughout the pandemic, we all have high hopes that online learning will remain an option, not a necessity.

One of my favourite topics we briefly covered was ownership in classes. Ownership is the idea of who is leading what component of a class and in what way. My drawing is an example of what the concept looks like in our class and is a great picture to keep in mind for planning lessons. How do I want my students to learn? When is it important for me to have more control or for them to have more control? We noticed that there are aspects that are more student-controlled; however, as in the case of the reflection blog, there are some conditions so it is not fully in our control. The free inquiry, while still tied to a few conditions in the rubric, is more open.

This week had a lot going on, but I appreciated having time to look at distributed learning and how my experiences influenced my opinion of each option. It changed how I will look at my own technology use in terms of hybrid teaching, especially during the pandemic, but also into the future to make sure no student loses out on education for any reason. I want students to feel that they are receiving the instruction they need from me, but to also have some creative control over their learning so that it really fits with who they are and how they learn. There is so much to know and think about, but this has been incredibly helpful! I hope it helps you too!