Week 3 & Some More Reflections on The BlendIt Course by The Consultants-E

BlendIt Course, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLE, VLEs 1comments

A home-grown orchid in Costa Rica - Photo by Jonathan Acuña

Week 3 & Some More Reflections on The BlendIt Course by The Consultants-E

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Post 323

No doubt that experiencing the role of the online student helps the eModerator to have other kind of realizations for his/her own eTeaching. This third week has been a blast on several issues that were not exactly overtly addressed, but that sparked my interest to explore now that I am teaching synchronously on a virtual classroom. And after being asked what I had learned along this third week of the BlendIt course with Prof. Janet Bianchini, I have to admit that more than learning I must talk about realizations on how to use my expertise in online education in different ways to have learners profit from their online language learning.

For this task course participants had to come up with an alternative way to submit three things we had learned along the week. The various activities, including the ones we had ever since the course started, are here presented to you on a PowerPoint presentation shared with peers through SlideSHare.

The right blend from jonacuso

I am sure that we can continue to develop this presentation beyond this point onward to come up with a more sensible collection of activities for online language teaching. I hope this can help anyone interested in the topic to touch some ground in the virtual learning environment that education is experiencing nowadays and that will become the norm for many a year ahead of us.

Journal Entry 06 BlendIt Course

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Troublesome Students in Forum Discussions: What to do in this case

BlendIt Course, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Museo Botero, Bogotá, Colombia- Photo by Jonathan Acuña-Solano

Troublesome Students in Forum Discussions:

What to do in this case

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Post 322

During the 2^nd week of the BlendIt course with Prof. Janet Bianchini, participants were confronted with various situations that can take place along an online course. One of these situations was the following:

As requested, the search for causes, consequences and ways of dealing with situations like this is necessary. And we were provided with these questions.

1) What are the possible CAUSES for this situation?

2) What are the possible CONSEQUENCES on an online course if this situation isn’t addressed?

3) What can the online teacher do to DEAL with the situation?

What would you do in this situation? Depending on the language used in the forum post (the possibility of the absence of netiquette or use of foul language), the post has to be removed or hidden. In this particular scenario, emailing the student for some clarification is necessary. This communication must include the re-explanation of the forum netiquette and what the appropriate way to complain about course content or the instructor is. One needs to politely answer -via email- and try to provide sensible arguments depending on the “issues” pointed out by the student.

If there is not foul language, the student can be courteously answered to try to provide a response to his complaints regarding the course and tutor. Still it is a good idea to make the forum post invisible for the rest of the class to avoid other students giving opinions. For instance, if the learner complains about:

*Tutor’s availability*	Remind him/her about of the time one is available and present in forums, other tasks, and the provision of feedback, which is normally provided up to 48 hrs. after submissions but weekends.

*Student’s expectations regarding course content*	Tell him or her that if s/he is requesting or complaining about an element of the course, or its absence, it is necessary to review the course outline/course learning path to avoid “false” expectations.

*Types of “not that appealing or lengthy” tasks*	Redirect our troublesome student to the course description/learning path shared with all course participants to remind him/her of their responsibilities and commitments.
	Pair work: If s/he complains about this because of the way they were paired up with someone “irresponsible,” offer to become a mediator. Group work: If s/he complains about group members’ conflicting schedules to meet, e.g., synchronously, prompt him/her to gap the differences or suggest the use of collaboration tools to work asynchronously. Deadlines: If the complaint is about this because it is impossible to be met by this person, see if some flexibility is applicable. Let’s keep in mind that a course is meant to help train learners, not to punish them.

Lack of explanations and/or guidance	Also redirect them to the guidelines for tasks provided within the platform. And if necessary (and you have some spare time), offer come extra coaching via a virtual meeting

There’s always a solution to most problems in an online course. We have to be proactive and assertive to deal with students like this. Also, be mindful and don’t take it personal; your personal well-being is much more important than a situation like this, which is just hot air in the end. And finally, it is necessary to identify the kind of leadership needed to help learners despite all their complaints and dissatisfaction.

PS For a list of leadership styles and how one uses them in the classroom, go to http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/2016/11/what-kind-of-leader-am-i.html

Journal Entry 05 BlendIt Course

Sunday, May 20, 2018

2nd Week of the BlendIt Course: Some of my module reflections

BlendIt Course, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Centro Comercial La Gran Estación, Bogotá, Colombia- Photo by Jonathan Acuña-Solano

2^nd Week of the BlendIt Course:

Some of my module reflections

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Post 321

There is no doubt that after having gotten my Hybrid, Blended, and Online Education certificate some four years ago left some long-lasting imprint on my professional profile. Now that I am back in the virtual classroom with Prof. Janet Bianchini from the Consultants-E, I see that I am still current on the area I was working last year with faculty members from many universities through online courses. And now that I am venturing into the teaching of English through VCs (virtual classrooms), I am not out of date.

Through the second Module of the BlendIt course facilitated by Prof. Bianchini, several tasks needed to be performed, and here I have some of my ideas/reflections in black and white to see what is going on in my mind.

The eModeration Terminology Quiz	One of our first tasks was to take a quiz on eModeration terminology used in online education. Taking this self-assessment prepared at this point of the course allowed me to verify how much I keep myself current with my usual Feedly page, which has been a great addition to my professional learning network. And based on this, it is my idea that all online instructors, or any other teaching professional interested in being up to date, must keep themselves updated with new ideas or trends in online education or any other area one is interested. And if one is not able to attend conferences or courses or to participate in webinars, Feedly can help us a lot. One has to take advantage of these opportunities to continue growing professionally in one’s field.

Online Quizzes for One’s Class	Online quizzes as an effective resource for our teaching was also ventilated on this second module of the BlendIt course. From my very personal point of view, even though a teacher may not be necessarily teaching online, it is advisable to run some online quizzes even for a F2F class. Why do I state this? Well, it is simple: We all need to start “updating” our assessment approaches when it comes to grade/evaluate learners and what they have grasped in our classes and how they are using the newly-acquired knowledge. As a personal anecdote, after using several quizzes with my learners at the university, they have become more curious about their mistakes or wrong answers, and this practice has made them become aware of what they are not doing correctly and why. The amount of discussion among peers due to reports generated by the system I have used is gratifying in terms of how much they can advance in their learning autonomously.

Becoming an eModerator	Becoming a tutor does require eModerator skills that are not developed overnight, and I bet Prof. Janet Bianchini would agree with me on this statement. Being a successful eModerator is a process that takes time when one thinks of the skills that are needed for this job. It is not just about common sense or to have an instructor “preach” for us on what the wrongdoings of online education are and how our sinful acts on a VC can be amended. Mindfulness becomes an element that helps us discover the kind of leader one needs to be for learners to scaffold them through their knowledge construction process. The creation of a social/human bond with students is transcendentally important for the success of a course. And these are just a few of the things needed to eModerate a group of learners online.

I hope that many teaching professionals interested in online education can find good opportunities to grow professionally. With several MOOCs available on the web, I highly recommend that anyone wanting to further comprehend the process(es) involved in online education register one of these courses. These courses are not about one getting a diploma but getting knowledge to be ready to teach beyond the F2F classroom.

Journal Entry 04 BlendIt Course

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Videoconferencing in Online Teaching: Practical Tasks

BlendIt Course, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Puerto Salvador Allende, Managua, Nicaragua - Photo by Jonathan Acuña-Solano

Videoconferencing in Online Teaching:

Practical Tasks

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Post 320

I cannot say that working on videoconferencing rooms is a new task for me, which -in my particular teaching scenario- has become a routine in the last year or so. However, participating in an online course through the Consultants-E with Prof. Janet Bianchini has become an eye opener in several different directions and the videoconferencing room is one of these paths I must clarify for myself. Knowing the features of a videoconferencing platform is not enough to host a successful learning session with students; it does require practical tasks that can bring students together and that can help build a real community of learning.

Conducting a live session with learners is a challenging task, but finding the suitable components to make it meaningful and memorable is much more demanding. Prof. Bianchini proposed a very practical way of using the polls as part of one’s teaching in class. However, depending on the system one is using, this feature can be available or not in different ways.

Polls in the videoconferencing room
Possible uses	· Schema activation activity to set the mood for the topic to be studied
	· As an exercise to find out what students know about to direct one’s attention to areas where they need more coaching or just some review
	· A survey to know what new piece of knowledge learners are living the session with

If the systems have this built-in feature, it has to be used by the instructor to profit from it in terms of re-directing his/her teaching to foster a smooth learning process.

Screen sharing is another practical feature most videoconferencing platform have for online tutors. This characteristic allows the instructor to think creatively and personalized tasks that can become interesting, meaningful, and thus memorable for all participants. So, what can be shared through screen sharing? Basically, anything one can think of is shareable.

Screen sharing in the videoconferencing room
Possible tasks	· Sharing photos attached to memorable moments in the life of a person to have them speak about the experiences encased in those pictures
	· Sharing texts written by former students to work on editing and sensitize them to identify mistakes or errors in writing tasks and to find suitable corrections
	· Projecting reading passages or videos to generate the sharing of ides or to debate positions regarding the content of both types of media

And these are just three basic ideas to deal with speaking, writing, and reading. What else can be added here to cope with listening tasks? I bet it all depends on the creativity of the instructor to use the platform’s features.

Breakout rooms is one of the most versatile features a virtual classroom can have. These pair/group work-oriented videoconferencing rooms can be used manifold and dependent of the ideas the instructor has to practice the content for the class.

Breakout rooms in videoconferencing
Activities	· Pair or group discussions: Students can be taken out of the main room to deal with a topic or set of questions and then bring their points of view to the rest of the class.
	· Role plays and skits: Learners can be provided with some set of roles for a conversation and let them build it based on a grammar component or thematic unit that is being covered in the course.
	· Interviews: Students can be moved across rooms to discuss questions with different individuals for them to report to the class later on, like in the “find someone who” speaking task.

One of the best things about the breakout rooms is that they allow pupils to socialize and create the human bond we all expect to materialize in the F2F classroom.

To sum up, videoconferencing in the online teaching of EFL/ESL/ELF can be highly beneficial for participants and for the instructor. Here it is listed just a handful of basic ideas that can be expanded way beyond with the aid of one’s creativity. In the end, it is the teacher who needs to get into some pensive mood and find ways of using his/her favorite language production activities in a virtual classroom and its features. Tasks can become meaningful and memorable and can be conducive to the creation of the ideal atmosphere for a community of learning in ELT.

Journal Entry 03 BlendIt Course

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Videoconferencing in Online Teaching: The case of ELT

BlendIt Course, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Granada’s Art School, Granada, Nicaragua - Photo by Jonathan Acuña-Solano

Videoconferencing in Online Teaching:

The case of ELT

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Post 319

After taking part of an online session with Prof. Janet Bianchini from the Consultants-E in which we were discussing the questions below, she sparked my interest for deepening myself into trying to put in words what I think about different areas of online teaching in English Language Teaching (ELT). And now that I am involved in piloting a synchronous language course fully online with a flipped learning approach, I feel the need to see, in black and white, what I am thinking of all this project at this moment.

The areas that I want to explore through my writing are the following, as the one suggested by my instructor on our synchronous session:

a) Videoconferencing chat and why to use it,

b) Benefits and challenges for learners,

c) Benefits and challenges for instructors, and

d) Any other thought that can pop up in my mind.

Let us explore together then a bit each of these areas based on my current experience and gained expertise.

1	*Why would you decide to use videoconferencing chat in an online language course?*

Now that I am piloting this flipped-learning English program and teaching one its courses, many ideas gallop into my neurons making lot of noise trying to climb to the surface when videoconferencing in online course is named. In this course that I instructionally designed and continue to develop even today, videoconferencing plays an important role in student oral production. To start with, my students, e. g., have to work on the course platform and must cover certain amount of content before they show up to our virtual classroom to practice it. The LMS we are currently using allows my learners to review vocabulary, watch short videos with grammar explanations, get lots of controlled exercises to practice the new content, and are exposed to reading exercises based on a thematic unit. And as their instructor, I can see their progression and achievements inside the platform.

But what about oral production? Having a system where a virtual classroom can be created to have a “regular, live” session with my language trainees is the place to work with them and to have them produce. Depending on the system that it is being used, breakout rooms can or cannot be part of one’s session. Its presence or absence will guide how you will organize the session to have even participation, to set up a take-turning technique for speaking in class, the use of tools provided by the platform to work collaboratively, and so on. In my situation, I have the chance to create breakout rooms to pair up pupils, to have them work in small groups, and to coach them individually or as part of a small segment of the whole cohort of students in my class. Videoconferencing is a great addition because it allows me to work with students despite their location and time zone.

2	*What are some of the benefits and challenges for learners in videoconferencing chats?*

Bearing in mind the flipped learning model I currently use with my online ELLs, there are different benefits I can easily identify. As an instructor, who expects learners to have covered the content they have been requested based on the course chronogram, I can work with students in various areas; to start with I have the freedom to help them with new vocabulary in terms of its pronunciation and right use in a conversational context. The new structures they are studying autonomously are also practiced with semi-controlled and free-production activities/tasks during the videoconferencing sessions. Students can also take part in conversations where I can monitor the use of new lexical items linked to the thematic unit being studied, intonation why formulating questions or providing answers, and intelligibility while communicating in conversational tasks. Learners profit from these videoconferencing chats because they can be coached to improve their production since they can be scaffolded from the beginning to the end or our virtual sessions.

Though our first impression can be that videoconferencing with partners can be tough for an online learner, this can actually be handled without much trouble or anxiety. As the old dictum states, “humans are animals of habit,” and like in any other routine activity in life, the use of a videoconferencing platform can be mastered with a few sessions. My language trainees, for instance, now ask me to activate the virtual room’s whiteboard tools to write, to draw, to include a smiley, or to upload a document or presentation for the class. And how did we get to this point? We all arrived up to this point since part of my working sessions with them allows pupils to grow more confident in the use of the virtual classroom features and functionalities. That is, if they use it once, twice, three times, they then know what to do the next time they are asked to do something on the whiteboard. Though there are technical challenges for students, they can be fixed with patience and with some good troubleshooting training carried out by the instructor.

3	*What are some of the benefits and challenges for the online teacher in videoconferencing chats?*

When I help in the training of new teachers where I work for the online program, there are two things I never get tired in repeating over and over again that can be capitalized as benefits or can turn into challenges. Both of these things were well learned by me as a webinar presenter time ago and as an online instructor. 1) Whatever you plan for a videoconference with students may be “too much” to be covered in a single session. As suggested by my many current and former online instructors, an agenda needs to be planned to have good timing for the transition from one activity to the next one. Time flies, but it flies faster when you are working with students online. The dynamics is not exactly the same compared to when you are in a F2F class; adjustments need to be made in one’s pacing. Therefore, the advantage of having this session agenda (or lesson plan, if you prefer this term) is an advantage towards organizing videoconferencing chats to be fruitful for both language trainees and their instructor.

2) Do keep a notepad with you! Why? Well, it all depends on the number of participants you have in your virtual classroom and how the system displays them for you, the instructor. The challenge any instructor is going to face is the assurance of even participation in a videoconferencing chat. Google Hangouts, Zoom, Blackboard, GoToMeeting, Wiz IQ, Skype, etc. have a different way of allowing the teacher to see people in the classroom. You will soon discover that something needs to be done to assure some kind of even participation in the virtual classroom. Regardless of the way these videoconferencing systems do it, the notepad can help you monitor yourself and your language trainees by ticking the number of times students participate in class. If you are the one asking the questions, then the notepad can help you see who you are asking the most and who you are forgetting in a corner of your virtual classroom.

4	*Any other comments, thoughts or questions on using videoconferencing with language learners.*

The videoconferencing chatroom is a safe place for both pupils and instructor. If it is well-managed by the instructor (who we suppose has been well-trained to face technical difficulties), nothing strange has to happen. As a concluding anecdote to what I have lived as an online facilitator, I remember I was about to start class and my permanent virtual classroom disappeared from the system. I had to find a quick solution to begin my class, so I generated a new room, uploaded the instructional material for the class, and went into my email to contact each and every student. And, of course, I asked the first people to arrive to get in touch with their peers to let them know of the new link for our video conference.

How would you have reacted towards this situation? Another of our teachers had the same kind of problem the other day but could not react in the same way. He contacted his supervisor, who in turn reached me to ask for help. In the end, as I had discovered about my “tough” situation was linked to the “cookies” and browsing history in my laptop, something that can be easily fixed if proper training is provided to teachers. It is for reasons like this that the instructor has to be ready to face unexpected situations before or during a live session.

Journal Entry 02 BlendIt Course

Saturday, May 12, 2018

What I Feel I Have Learned about Working Online

BlendIt Course, Online Instruction, online learning, Online Teaching Practices, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Valle del Zamorano, Honduras - Photo by Fernando Carranza

What I Feel I Have Learned about Working Online

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Post 318

I’ve been working online for about four years already, and each time I start a new course with a group of learners, I start with an open mind towards what I am about to face and experience with a new cohort of learners. All groups of students are different in terms of attitudes, skills, disposition to work collaboratively, and so on; I cannot say that I have had the same kind of experiences with all of groups I have had all these years as an online instructor. However, despite all challenges one can bump into while teaching online, the fact is that working online has helped me develop skills and competences I never thought I could have when I started “my” life first as an online student and then as an online instructor.

What kind of skills have I developed in these four fruitful years as an instructor? Among them I must highlight the importance the instructor has to put on the written word detached from any other visual or auditory cues such as gestures and tone of voice. Writing cannot be felt coercive by learners but needs to be perceived as if prompting them to be proactive for their own learning. It is also transcendental to comprehend the significance of student praise and formative feedback to help learners develop their own skills with the “manipulation” of new content and knowledge, which is gained through good instructionally-designed learning tasks. Student encouragement is also essential in online courses, and it is vital for the support and motivation that pupils in class need from us. The weight that course expectations has in course results is another learned lesson working online. Not defining for learners what they can wait from me as an instructor, and not letting them know what it is expected from them as students can drive us into a dead-on street full of frustration. Dealing with frustration in one’s job as an educator is not new for any of us; why don’t we try to minimize the impact that frustration can have in our teaching lives?

And what about “learning agendas” for a week’s work? Isn’t this another lesson learned while working online? At least for me, this was one of those other pieces of learning I have acquired while working in virtual learning environments (VLEs). An agenda needs to be very well-defined for students so they know what they have to do anytime, anywhere within a given time period and specific deadlines. Believe me, learners are learners no matter what kind of medium is being used; in a F2F or in a virtual course our students behave in the same way, if you understand what I mean. And like any other pupil of yours or of mine, they can undergo difficult or tough moments, so one needs to be compassionate and flexible depending of the circumstances. All of us have those moments in life when a helping hand in needed especially since the purpose of instruction is learning and not just providing pupils with a numerical grade. Providing learners with some human bond and some time-management tips to cope with online work can come handy for many of them especially when they have never been part of an online course.

For sure, one can conclude that online teaching expertise is only gained when you have been on both sides of the VLE equation. One cannot start being an online instructor overnight; one needs some good coaching to transition from the regular F2F teaching one is accustomed to having to a virtual “reality” where other skills, beyond the technological ones, are needed to deal with class interaction, socialization, tutor presence, praise, and so on. Being a student in an online course is another part of the transition one needs to undergo to help us abandon the old education paradigm that learning takes place only when we have students sitting down in front of us within four walls.

Journal Entry 01 - BlendIt Course

Thursday, May 10, 2018