sabato 11 agosto 2018

MMVC18 Keep your online Participants engaged

Sunday 5th  August
The SPEAKER   : Natasa Bozic Grojic
"Keep your online  participants engaged "

The event took place last Sunday  but  I was not online. I watched the recording today since I was not able to watch it live.
I must confess that I wanted to watch it as I have met the speaker many times, virtually, and I have appreciated her way of working. The first time was two years ago when she was working in an EVO session.
You can access her profile and get more  information by accessing  this link   https://about.me/natasabozicgrojic  and by reading her eportfolio https://www.netvibes.com/lunas994#General


Natasa based her reflections on what she had learnt in this year’s EVO Session working online  on Moodle and thinking about her experience online  as a learner while doing  some Moocs some years ago.  In particular she shared with me  an experience as a teacher  by using Moodle, which I did  last year and which she did this  year. You can find more information  in her blog post  http://lunas994.blogspot.com/2018/03/keep-your-online-learners-motivated.html

She explained that it is important to plan well and to work on the layout of your course as you will have to get all the learners  engaged.  It is important to design the first week well and to provide help , support and  also tips by using  chats, forums and also videotutorials online. Online learners may have different  backgrounds and Learning experiences online ; some might be less or more tech savvy, as a result the tutor online  plays an important role.
Engagement is the key word to success. By helping  the learners and by supporting  them and  also badges and simple  tasks  might be appropriate to help them continuing learning. Icebreakers and good introductions are important, teachers need to be flexible sometimes and be ready to encourage also the  less able  learners.
She suggested these  tips to begin with
  • A view out my window
  • 3-2-1 introduction
  • Two truths and one lie
  • Post a picture of your classroom
  • Where on our website can you…?
  • Or you can adapt your favourite icebreaker for online use.

In order to get a sense of progress she suggested these tasks and final rewards :
  • blogs
  • artifacts
  • badges and certificates

As I have started some courses in a blended learning way  I can easily understand what she meant. The teacher must be patient, onbserve what's happening online and work on bettering the activities.
What questions came up as you watched the event?
I thought that  to begin with you need to try to work online. At the beginning it might be  difficult. You need a lot of training and learning by doing.
How did the content relate to you as a teacher?
It is something I am now learning about as  I am using Weschool for my classes in Italy.  But I think that Moodle is a great learning  managing  system.
What were some thoughts  that came through your mind?
It is important to share ideas and learn  from the others.
How did you feel as you watched the event?
I felt that  today teachers need to be able to work also online. In most universities in Italy  people teach by using  Moodle while in secondary schools we are starting and some of us are using different  LMS.
So far I have  watched  six webinars and I have  particularly enjoyed this one, the one  by Judy Wong and the one by Susan Brodar but I will watch the others  in the next  weeks as they are available online and on Youtube..
What would you like to do in the future?
I will start using  Google Classroom and this is my next step in CPD but I will continue  doing some online learning  regarding  Moodle which I feel is great but in my school we are going to choose another  LMS.
What a question that you would like to research
I would like to learn more about some  other ways of working online as so far I have used Moodle, Weschool and  Schoology.  

Here is the screenshot of a course she did online where Natasa found a good guide for the learners who were getting into the course. I cannot but agree with her: it is the layout of the course that makes the difference.

Engagement is a priority if you do not want to  fail!!




Here is the recording of my reflections on this webinar :


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