The Importance of Online Teaching: My Personal Journey
Why is Online Teaching Important to me? and What are the benefits?
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano
Friday, July 10, 2015
Twitter: @jonacuso
Post 182
When
confronted with the question, “Why is online teaching important to me?,” I must
admit that the answer is linked to the summative assessment used at the
university where I currently work. Rigid evaluation is one of those things that
my teaching experience tells me that it is wrong, especially when in the
equation surface and deep learning are involved. The hybrid courses that I
currently have at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica have helped me better
visualize the importance online or blended learning has for me to assist pupils
in the construction of their knowledge and for them to evidence the fact that
learning can be deep and long-lasting.
Back
in the first quarter of 2010 and after being a student for the Webskills course
through the Distant Learning program held by the University of Oregon, I started
toying with the idea of virtualizing some of the courses I was teaching at
Universidad Latina at that time, something I managed to do empirically. My
empiricism gave me some first-hand knowledge and foundation to begin with some
sort of blended learning with my language performers. Not only did I start
using blogs to take my whole teaching online, something that took me a couple
of years, but also I ended up creating an LMS for my reading skills students,
where we were able to share and publish their projects and reading accomplishments.
Later on, in 2013 I got the chance to
participate in the Laureate Faculty Development where I was given the
opportunity to get enrolled in an associate degree in Hybrid, Online and
Blended Learning. It was until that time that my online teaching empiricism
became the ground foundations for my studies with online practices through
Laureate International Universities, the international consortium that owns the
university where I teach ELT and owners of the Laureate Faculty Development.
The training I was provided, my former empirical knowledge, and the projects
that were needed and carried out in real virtual classrooms allowed me to
transition from the F2F classroom to the online classroom in platforms such as
Moodle and Blackboard.
During
the 7 modules I went through along 2013 and 2014, I was able to put the pieces
together to start some real blended learning experiences for my students at
that time at Universidad Latina and, consequently, move away from the rigid assessment
used in my F2F courses. I was then trained how to more effectively use the LMS,
which should be called a CMS instead, that the university uses, Moodle. But I
was also provided with training in Blackboard to round up my understanding of
LMSs. Learner engagement and feedback were part of another module that allowed
me to keep up with the work my language trainees had to do in Moodle. Instructional
design was also a must in the program to be able to convert F2F activities into
blended or fully online ones that students could do at their own pace. The
online practicum was a nice way to try out everything one has been trained on
and see how one’s learners reacted to our guidance, social presence, and their
cognitive interaction with the subject-matter to be studied. It was a blast!
Though
I had started my online teaching journey with a sole intention to use that
knowledge with my university courses, I found myself accepting a different
position in the curricular development unit for the binational center where I
also work and launching an EFL blended program. This was my chance to get to
practice my ideas regarding online learning and the knowledge I had constructed
along my 7-module training in hybrid, online and blended learning. The EFL program
has proven to be successful so far, and in my home country, we have the only
true blended language program across Costa Rica.
Though
the binational center’s blended EFL program is on its way, my online teaching
nowadays does not end there. Laureate Faculty Development hired me as an online
instructor for their platform associate degree programs. I know deal a lot with
hybrid online learning and higher education practices that can also be
transferred to the VLE scene. Having students across the globe is now giving me
a real sense of what is to “increase flexibility of time” to study at one’s
pace, “increase flexibility of location” since my students and colleagues can
be in any continent, “the sharing of information” to unify faculty teaching
practices across the Laureate Universities network, and “the fostering of
digital information literacy” to integrate faculty members teaching various
subjects in different fields.
Understanding our 21st century students, we
teaching professional have numerous digital learners sitting in class. It is
our duty as faculty members to cope with their learning needs and their need to
get and have access to information in no time. For these 21st
century students, communication and collaboration are key elements in their way
of building skills that will eventually become competencies for their current
or future jobs. “Reasons for moving into online education differ amongst
teachers. Some regard it as a natural progression to their current teaching
practice, some are reluctant to change and feel pressured into it by their
institution, while others are interested in online education but don’t know how
to get started” (UNSW, n.d.). Anyway, reasons must help us identify our guiding
star to find our niche in the 21st Century education global scene
and to provide learners with true deep-learning experiences to help them
develop competencies for their current or future jobs.
UNSW.
(n.d.). Why is online teaching important? Learning to Teach Online. Retrieved
on 2015, Thursday 9 from https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/ltto/pdf/LTTO_M1_Importance.pdf
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