Summary

In this session you have learned about this course, its learning outcomes and the types of award you will receive when you complete it successfully. You have also learned about how to navigate the course, complete the activities and quizzes, manage your online study and contribute to the course community of practice Facebook group.

In the following activity you will meet Rita, our animated colleague who will be working her way through this course alongside you. In the video, Rita introduces herself and outlines what she hopes to get from the course.

Activity 1.4 Reflecting on progress

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Watch the video or read the transcript. In it, Rita reflects on her experience of online education and outlines some of her study goals. Take some time for your own reflections and make notes on the following questions:

  1. How does what you have learned in this section relate to your own role?
  2. Has taking on the role of an online learner changed your understanding of how learning and teaching take place online? If so, how?
  3. What changes, if any, could you make to your practice or to the wider practice at your university as a result of the activities in Session 1?
Copy this transcript to the clipboard
Print this transcript
Show transcript|Hide transcript

Transcript

RITA:
Hi, I’m Rita. I have been a teacher for some years now. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I teach, but I have never really explored how to use technology to help me teach in different ways. Recently, this has become more important to my work.
I would like to be able to introduce some online elements into my teaching. I have heard about some of the key concepts like ‘flipped learning’ and ‘Open Educational Resources’, but I would like to learn a lot more about them and be able to consider how I might apply them to my own practice.
I am fairly confident in terms of using basic online resources in the classroom. For example, I incorporate graphics or images from the web into my slideshows, and I stay in touch with colleagues I have met at events. I do have a Facebook page, but it is only for catching up with friends and I don’t use my real name in case my learners discover me on there. I have had a dip into some other tools like Twitter, but I could not really get to grips with how to get anything useful out of it, and I love YouTube but I have not really come up with useful ways of getting YouTube videos into my lessons.
It is a long-term objective of mine to maybe do some online teaching at some point, and free myself from the restrictions of the classroom. I am hoping this course will help me get started on that path, give me some concrete ideas for how I can use online teaching techniques in my regular work, as well as sparking some ideas for what I might do in the future.
So, here goes – I will be returning every week to see how you are getting on. Best of luck to everyone. Let’s get started!
End transcript
 
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

You can now go to Session 2.

4 This session’s quiz

References