Today was the first webinar to get connected with the larger group if participants. I have participated in webinars most frequently as a silent participant meaning I never had to speak. More recently I tried to use Adobe Connect to host a webinar and I was fortunate as it was an extremely small group as we had many technical difficulties. Not that it was good that we also had some technical difficulties today, but it gave me some reassurance that I wasn't the only one facing these challenges when trying to connect online!
While there are so many benefits to meeting online, there needs to be the proper support in place. I think Alastair did a great job being in the room 15 minutes in advance to help as many of us individually as he could. With Adobe Connect I did my audio check and everything was working, but shortly after when my participants were online, things broke down. A quick hello and reminders of how the functions all work was really useful.
This was the first time I engaged in a webinar of such a big size - I think 58 participants in total. After this session, I am definitely getting a bit more brave to try to deliver with larger groups as now I have seen that it does work - maybe not perfectly but it all comes together at one point or another. I also look forward to trying the breakout rooms the next time I lead a session!
The past two weeks we explored the topic of designing online and blended courses. Our group revisited the COI framework but also focused heavily on constructive alignment and how this can guide our planning and design. For me I moved into thinking more about the facilitation (perhaps because we had great facilitators this week who I really learned from in terms of online facilitation), but the idea of phases of an online course also relates to planning. Boettcher and Conrad (2016) describe every course as a planned sequence of learning experiences that has four phases. These phases are summarized as follows: 1. Course Beginnings : Focus on presence, community, and clear expectations. In our discussions, our PBL group has focused on setting expectations for learners and communicating them right from the start. The beginning is also the phase where the COI model should be implemented to assure a coherence between teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. 2. Earl...
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