• 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.