My Take on Cognitive Presence (OTL101 Post 2)

Posted on by Raja

I have been in academia for more than 6 years. I was not aware about few jargon but I have been actually practicing most of the things mentioned in the lesson 1 in the “Think” course in my online classes. Still, this lesson is very insightful and brought the COI model to my attention. I totally agree that education should be applied in social setting, only that way we will make students realize how relevant are studies to their successful life and career. The most important thing which I have learned from the course are the learning theories of John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky. I really appreciate the concepts of Zone of Proximal Development and Potential Development. These theories has made me realize that how assistance plays key part in performance of  students beyond their capacity.

Over the topic of “Cognitive Presence”, I would like the feedback of my colleagues that how a successful sustained communication can be deployed? What they are doing in their online classes? How can we use different strategies in order to compel students to realize and explore key concepts and integrate their existing knowledge to resolve the problem in hand? Comments will be highly appreciated in this regard. In my case my usual trigger points are the mathematical problems related to the field of Finance and then I open forum discussions where students should participate actively so that they can realize how they are related to the real-life situations.

For example, in the online classes where I have the total control over the course design and execution, my students might be assigned, say, to assess the value of a stock and then use the existing knowledge of “Time value of money” along with newly acquired knowledge on “Dividend Growth Models” to calculate the prices. Then I ask them different questions so that they engage in an open discussion and realize why the prices are different in stock market compared to their calculated values. In doing so they will go through the process of explorations, integration, resolution and collaborative constructiveness to deeply understand the topic.

Introducing Zubair! (OTL101-Post 1)

Posted on by Raja

Hello World,

I am Zubair, I consider myself a very friendly person who try to stay happy!
After completing undergrad in Computer Science I ended up taking a finance position in a Bank. From there, my love with Finance actually get started and it has eventually led me to take the faculty position in the Department of Accounting and Finance at Thompson Rivers University. In August 2017, I completed my Ph.D. in Finance from Texas A&M International University and worked as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Western Oregon University for a year before moving to Canada.

I believe that sharing invaluable experience and knowledge with others is the ultimate service one can do to the humanity and this is what made me an educator. In my free time I love to play Cricket!

Here is the video of my introduction: