Learning Summary (OTL Post 6)

Posted on by Raja

This was a very rigorous course that will go a long way to improve my online teaching experience. I will hereby share some most important lessons you gathered from the course. It was a big learning curve for my remote teaching and will help me configure students’ expectations and anxieties. All of the learning strategies seem to be equally beneficial for me, as they are equally applicable to the content and organization of any course one can think of. The collective knowledge of all these strategies will work around:

• Student engagement (e.g. activities, discussion boards)
• Assessments and assignments
• Communication (e.g. feedback for students, announcements)
• Inclusivity (e.g. course design, learning outcomes)

I would like to implement a lot of explained strategies into my own practice. I will use Adobe Premier Pro to connect all the PowerPoints, images and screen capture of my lectures together. This will contribute towards design, teaching presence and facilitation. Moreover, I will try to organize and design my courses on Moodle in a comprehendible manner. The courses that have too many places to look for information regarding the course content and assignments contribute towards frustration at the student’s end.

Virtual office hours will add to direct instruction. e.g. offering non-mandatory synchronous online sessions offer a way for classmates to meet with each other and the teacher; yet students who cannot attend these sessions should not be penalized as there are time limitations for some students. I will also use external services (e.g. polling activities through Mentimeter, quizzes through Kahoots, use of Padlet and WeVu for discussions and CanVa for presentations), as these offer chances for students to engage deeper with the content and keeps online sessions both learning and entertaining. Discussion Boards should be carefully crafted, effectively moderated, and have a clear learning objective or purpose as well.

Additionally, I will encourage use of services to help with assignments (e.g. Turnitin, Grammarly etc.). I will ask my students at some point how they are doing, how their other classes are going, are they anxious or nervous about online learning (if so, why), and what they expect from teachers during this time of online learning to bring about connectivity and freedom of thought to improve their comfort level in the course. Students are usually appreciative of a chance to communicate their feelings to the instructor.

To sum up, this “Teach” course and WordPress platform gave me a better understanding of linking my assignments with the course learning objectives. Each of the sub-categories including integration, exploration, resolution and triggering event works together to form the critical thinking process. Accessing each of these individually would bring clarity to my assignments and assessments at the same time.

Reflection (OTL301 Post 5)

Posted on by Raja

• Did you engage in each of the phases of the critical inquiry process?

Answer: I engaged in each phase of the critical inquiry process. I have identified different triggering events, then explored different solutions to address the issues and finally integrated the solution in the online teaching environment, thus leading to successful resolution. For example, one of such triggering events was the difficulty to correctly answer the challenging Finance questions on McGraw Hill’s Connect platform. On this platform, in my course, adaptive and randomly generated questions are given on different Finance topics. I identified that students are complaining as they are not able to answer the question in time and got frustrated. They had to wait for my reply and I was over whelmed by questions popping up at greater rate.

In view of this I explored many options but eventually designed one solution which is turning out to be successful. In this solution I created an online discussion forum where students will ask question to their fellow students and they are encouraged to help them as it is a graded discussion. This has solved the issue and I can see that students are actively participating and engaged on this discussion forum. I am extremely satisfied by the results as my integration of solution fits the online teaching environment.

• Were you able to resolve any problems or dilemmas?

Answer: See my answer above, as mentioned I am able to effectively resolve the issue.

• What might you do differently in a future course?

Answer: At this time, what I am thinking is to better prepare for future courses. I believe that the most important and challenging task in the online or blended teaching environment is to appropriately design the course. If a course is correctly designed it can help to attain the learning objective in an effective way.

• How might you engage with your students to ensure that they are working through the entire inquiry process?

Answers: I ensure that the key elements of community of inquiry should be an integral part of my courses for example, cognitive, social and teaching presence must be considered while designing the course. In future, I will prioritize the social presence through activities which enhance the interaction between course participants and between students and instructor. Likewise, teaching presence must be ensured through effective designing, course facilitation and authority as subject matter expert by the instructor. If these elements are properly integrated in the course there is no way students will not be engaged.

• Do you think that working through this course in an open platform like WordPress helps to encourage reflective learning?

Answer: There is no doubt that I have learned a lot in these courses. The way WordPress is integrated in these courses really helped to evaluate myself and my teaching strategies. I am carrying so many lessons with me when it comes to designing, facilitating and teaching an effective course. Many things we will learn with experience and practice but such open platform have set the course straight for the new Thomson Rivers University open learning faculty members as it encourages reflective learning.

Interview (OTL301 Post 4)

Posted on by Raja

Post 4 “Interview”
Q1) What entry level course did you teach?
Answer: Human Geography

Q 2) How do you promote community and connection in a continuous entry course?
Answer: I use several strategies to keep a continuous connection with my students. We start with brief 30-minute video introductions posted to blackboard so that we can get peer connections and I can get to know my students as well. Second step is to launch a survey to get their views on the following topics:
• Expectations from the course?
• Whether they are interested in class activities to be synchronous or asynchronous?
• Do they have technology related issues?
• How can I as an instructor facilitate them through a course? Etc.

Q 3) What are your strategies for facilitating the process of critical inquiry, especially those leading to integration and resolution?
Answer: I provide helpful weblinks to my students to facilitate them through this process:
 Institutional sources available from the teaching and learning center
 Library sources
 Free access to turn-it-in for plagiarism checking
In addition to this I allow them to send drafts to me for pre-checking before they make final submissions. I also post sample assignments from previous courses like term papers and research projects. I also post rubrics with the assignment details to guide them through the expectations and how they will be judged/assessed.

Q 4) Digital tools to support the process of critical inquiry in a continuous entry course;
Answer: I have used some new innovative tools to support the process of critical inquiry in my course. These include:
 WeVu: for video presentations
 Padlet: for my discussion forums/blogs
 CanVa for poster making etc.
I, Dr Raja, skimmed through the internet and got the following information about the above mentioned softwares.

• Wevu: The only way to share video privately in classes, teams, workgroups,with time-specific comments for feedback and dialogue. Learners use their phones to record their skills. They upload to share with peers and teachers for pinpoint. It provides time-specific feedback and assessment.
• Padlet: Padlet is an online virtual “bulletin” board, where students and teachers can collaborate, reflect, share links and pictures, in a secure location. Padlet allows users to create a hidden wall with a custom URL. Padlet creators can also moderate posts, remove posts, and manage their board 24/7.
• CanVa: Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. It is available on web and mobile.

Q 5) Questions that you have struggled with?
Answer:There have been some difficult inquiries like:
A group member for a particular assignment is not responding.
Why did my class fellow get a better grade for their discussion board comment?
Can you provide extensions for the submissions?

Designing Learning Activity (OTL301 Post 3)

Posted on by Raja

Dear Colleagues,

In summer 2020 I am teaching an online course of Portfolio and Equity Analysis (FNCE3150). I used to teach this course in face-2-face setting and for the first time I am teaching it in an asynchronous setting. I record my videos each week and upload them so that students can see my videos on important topics. After that I expect them to go through the book chapter and attempt the homework questions in the back of each chapter. Because this is no longer a face-2-face class therefore I am concerned that students might not be able to put due efforts in the course and won’t be able to attempt homeworks. Therefore, I have designed an activity in which I have attempted to build a community of learners so that they help each other to attain the learning outcome through discussing difficult homework questions. This lesson has helped me to design this activity as I have tried to follow the principles and did not waste students’ time by engaging them in irrelevant work. My learning outcomes and a sample activity of the course are given below:

Learning outcomes:
1. Evaluate the effect of risk and diversification on investment decisions.
2. Discuss the characteristics of the various types of investments and the ways in which they are sold.
3. Defend the use of mutual funds versus investing in individual assets.
4. Explain the functioning of financial markets and their role in pricing investments.
5. Compare the efficient market hypothesis with behavioral finance.
6. Value equities using fundamental analysis and technical analysis.
7. Analyze a company’s prospects in relation to its industry and peers.
8. Use the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Asset Pricing Theory to estimate investment returns.
9. Develop a portfolio management plan reflecting the goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances of individual and institutional investors.

Sample learning activity designed under the guidance of principles taught in this lesson:
Graded Activity: 10 Marks (Read carefully)

“Dear students I have opened a discussion forum for all of you, under the name of “Student Cafe” so that you can post your questions here and learn from each other. Try to post your questions here and also participate to answer each others’ question once it is posted by any student. In the end I will consider your participation here as it is a graded activity.

If you are stuck with any homework question, kindly post your question here in “Student Cafe” discussion. I will keep monitoring this discussion forum and will help if I see students are getting off-track.

Marking for this activity is relative for example, if a student has participated actively and say engaged in 10 replies (helping other students) and therefore ending up getting full 10 marks, while another student just replied on 1 post then latter will get 10% (2/20 replies) of the former student i.e., 1 mark only. EVERY STUDENT MUST PARTICIPATE IN THIS DISCUSSION FORUM if a question is raised by your fellow student. Remember, purpose of this forum is to develop the community of learners so that you must learn from each other therefore you all need to help each other. Once the question is raised then discussion on that question will remain open for 1 week only and no one will be able to post reply to that question after 1 week, thus losing the opportunity to help other. If any student will not post any question then I will post a question on this discussion forum”.

Because this is a graded activity I can see active participation of students where they are trying to help each other on difficult questions thus ensuring learning outcomes are achieved. My colleagues, here at TRU can guide me that how can I further improve the design of this or similar activities. Please feel free to comment on this post and suggest me improvements.

Teaching Presence (OTL301 Post 2)

Posted on by Raja

After reading about teaching presence, I have learned that my Professor actually included all the key ingredients of teaching presence in the activity which I have mentioned in the first post (https://zraja.trubox.ca/2020/06/17/past-experience-otl301-post-1/). He first designed the learning activity, then he acted as the facilitator, ensuring every one must participate in that activity and finally he was also the subject matter expert. Therefore, all the characteristics of the teaching presence were fulfilled in that activity. My views though not changed much but now I can specifically identify that which element or characteristic of teaching presence I have advised to improve in my previous post.

My suggestion, in the first post of this course, to improve my professor’s learning activity actually related to the design element of the teaching presence. After learning about teaching presence, in future, while designing any learning activity I will ascertain to include all three elements of teaching presence. Definitely this lesson on teaching presence has broadened my horizon when it comes to effective teaching.

Past Experience (OTL301 Post 1)

Posted on by Raja

I remember when I was doing MBA from the Texas A & M International, I took an online course on Financial Institutions. One task which was assigned to us by the professor was to read the chapter from the book and post any question on a topic of choice on the discussion forum and then rest of the student needs to answer that question. Even though it turned out to be a lot of discussion but this approach helped students to get answers of some challenging questions. I learned a lot with this activity as students raised up many questions. Key ingredient of this exercise was manifested in the fact that students may have different perspectives about a topic and they can come up with different questions, sometimes very challenging as well. This laid the foundation for healthy debate and open discussion. Not only such discussions were insightful but also helped us to master the key concepts and to think out of box. If I will be replicating this exercise again, I will create groups and ask them to post the questions from every chapter on the forum rather assigning this task at the individual level. This way I will limit the discussion to manageable size so that as an instructor I can also effectively contribute in the discussion.

Sample Video Lecture

Posted on by Raja

Hello,

One of the activity I post in my regular Thompson Rivers University classes -not yet posted in the open learning class though as it is not designed by me- includes my online lectures on important topics. Here is my sample lecture on Time Value of Money which I have recorded for the Introduction to Financial Management (FNCE 2120) class.

All Posts from “Engage” Course (OTL201 Post 6)

Posted on by Raja

Here are all the posts from the “Engage” course including the learning portfolio

Updated Learning Portfolio:
Learning Activities Portfolio by Dr. Zubair Ali Raja (please click)
Integration:

Integration (OTL201 Post 5)

Introductory Video:

Video Introducing Me (OTL201 Post 4)

Second Introduction

Better Introduction (OTL2 Post 2)

Basic Introduction:

Here I am again!!! (OTL201 Post 1)

Integration (OTL201 Post 5)

Posted on by Raja

This course has helped to understand that why social presence is important. The concept of introducing yourself in a way that can reduce the power distance between teacher and student is very important. This can make students communicate freely with the faculty member and help the instructor to understand the student which is a challenging task in online environment. As an instructor it is our duty to have our presence felt throughout the course. Another concept which has impacted my thoughts is that instructor should effectively facilitate the communication among the students so that they engage in a learning process through one another. Instructor should ensure that they engage in discussion and reply to one another.

Courses which I teach usually need up-to-date information on current affairs e.g., news related to economy while evaluating stock prices are very important. Therefore, I think discussion forum on news related to the economy can help me to retain my students and keep them engaged. Indeed, my experience from face-to-face classes suggests me that it is a very popular strategy among students as they actively participate in such discussions.

Moving forward my plans are to create a series of videos on important finance topics, may be 6 to 8 mins long and share it with my students. This task is getting mandatory due to pandemic as face-to-face classes are going online and students need videos to learn the topics. I have already started making video but at this time I am struggling with the duration of my videos as most of them are on complex topics and need detailed explanations. Another goal I have is to arrange meetup among students, especially in post Covid-19 era, where they can meet each other given they are living in the same city and have their pictures posted on the Moodle. This way even in an online environment student will feel as a part of the community and actively participate on the post of fellow students whom they have met. This second goal seems to be bit ambitious but very much possible.

Finally, there are so many questions on top of my head when it comes to teaching students in an online setting. I really want to experience that how much efforts are really needed to engage students in an online environment? Are they mostly self-motivated to study with deep learning approach? How seriously they pay attention to academic integrity? Etc. The only way to find the answers of these question is to get experience through online teaching. Also, instructors need to use the tools to ensure students are forced to perform the desired behavior. For example, students should be forces to use Top Hat if they are taking synchronous exams in an online class. It is a software which ensures that students must not open any other tab in the browser when they are taking synchronous exams.