Reflections after week one in EDUC 761 - Collaborating Communities

My opportunities to grow as an educator are continuing at UofW Stout in the Graduate Certificate Program in E Learning and Online Teaching as I get to "kick it up a notch" in EDUC 761 Collaborative Communities. This is the 4th class in the 5 class sequence, last fall I completed Introduction to E Learning and Instructional Design. Three weeks ago I began EDUC 763 Online Assessment and, so far the excellent material in EDUC 761 is very complimentary to what I have previous completed and what I am concurrently studying.

The first week reinforced to me that I need to be aware of my tendency to embrace engagement and neglect detail. The co instructors for EDUC 761 constructed a module zero to give all participants an opportunity to learn about communication "rules" and other suggested approaches for the course. I flew through this and, found that as I began our first module, I needed to reflect back on a number of approaches for engagement and discussion.

After 2 days of splattering the discussion board, I went back to module 0, reviewed the "rules" for discussion board use and the returned to the online discussion board in a manner that was more in line with course expectations in terms of both content and form.

I had the opportunity to have a number of off line discussions via e mail with both co instructors and several classmates and was impressed with the kindness and tolerance reflected in those discussions.

The reading for the week was an excellent primer for beginning to think about online learning communities. The author of How to be a Great Online Teacher and my co instructor made a point about humor in communities that I completely agree with. However, my agreement with the use of humor needs to be tempered by moderation. Just like in EDUC 760 with Den O Connor, EDUC 763 with Susan Manning and currently in EDUC 762 with Datta Kaur, my humor was . . . . not well considered. I guess what may "work" in person, needs to be filtered in the online world. Thankfully, my community in this class is kind, tolerant and forgiving.

The readings for this class were a great reinforcement of both why I aspire to become an improved online facilitator and the assumptions and practices necessary to achieve this goal.