The most important lesson I have gathered through this course has been the reminder that the role of facilitator is central to the work we do as Instructors in Open learning and that students sometimes need support and feedback to complete assignments and fulfill the course requirements. This is actually the most satisfying aspects of the work. The most noticeable change in my thinking actually came from my conversation with my OLFM colleague regarding suggesting to students use the Student Café platform to encourage that social space for technical or institutional questions. I don’t think I would suggest using blogging as an activity, but I often do make use of discussion forums, as part of my ‘blended’ teaching for semester courses.
The most surprising aspect of the course for me however is the student feedback to the course materials was actually not addressed in the course as a topic of effective planning in relation to learning outcomes and assessment. The role of reflection is significant but so too is act of receiving insightful feedback. I will continue to look for ways for students to interact, but also continue to interact or direct their insights at the conclusion of the course. As it stands now students are to create reflective posts as per their assignments, but then have no control on that content, once the course is complete or even how long these posts are open to other students to review. These are the ethical considerations I also consider when using open platforms for my own posting and reflection, and certainly have raised interest questions for my teaching methods and planning moving forward.
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