I started a course in ‘Edupreneurship’ in 2019. Most people I spoke to about the same had never heard of the term or what it entailed. At the time and in relation to my future planning, what it offered seemed perfect.
I have been a graphic designer for most of my adult life, out of choice. I became a design educator as a stop-gap career move, owing to personal reasons. At the time, I thought after a few years I will go back to being a full-time designer and life will be sorted. Well, fate had other plans I guess and I stayed. Most of the last now nearly 3 decades that I have spent as a design educator, I have loved doing what I do most of the time. When I came across this course I realized that without having given it much thought or having articulated the same in regards to the terminology, being an ‘Edupreneur’ is what I identified with.
Simply put, ‘Edupreneurs’ have a background in education. Coming from the teaching sector they are always looking to introduce something new and fresh into their discipline; they love sharing ideas, collaborating on projects and helping to take their field to the next level of professionalism and application.
This is something I am always looking to do. One of the courses that attracted me to this year-long certificate was one of the key modules of ‘Teaching and Designing an Online Course’. Little did I realize at the time that I would be putting that knowledge into action even before I was done with all the components for the certificate.
My experience with teaching online is now in my third term, and so far, if I have to evaluate the same, I would say overall, it’s been worthwhile. I guess for me it was not as much a challenge, as the mental block that I saw with some other colleagues, I had crossed that before this switch happened. The fact that I had enrolled in a course that would help me do that, meant that it was something I was looking to do in the future anyway. Just not maybe as soon as that.
I am generally grateful for opportunities that force me to get out of my comfort zone, and this pandemic did just that. My experience so far has made me realize that if we give due attention to course design and delivery, there is no reason why an online course cannot succeed just as much as an in-classroom taught one.
But the fact is, it’s not as simple. An online course cannot be expected to make the grade at best, if we just take the existing course and simply deliver the same online. That transformation takes thought, knowledge and effort.
So, according to my way of thinking, there are some key factors that can make an online course successful and that we as educators can work towards:
- Learner Motivation and Engagement: Learners need to feel connected to the course, the content and other learners in a classroom setting. Doing the same online needs some work. Online course design should incorporate activities that connect the course to real-world relevance and content knowledge giving learners the tools to build on the same as they go along. Some initiatives like inquiry-based learning [IBL]. It is important to foster interaction and one initiative that has worked for me in this regard, in my design 1 class room, is ‘show and tell’ [have spoken about in a previous blog post].
- Collaboration: Collaboration does not mean forcing the learner to speak and interact in class. Personal experience has made me think [and read] a lot about how introverts learn. There are many platforms that are rich for collaboration between learners. Using the ‘Discussion Board’ is one of them. Other platforms like ‘Padlets’ and ‘Miro’ can be used to their advantage.
- LMS & Mode of Learning: The Learning Management System [LMS] that we use, is an important tool when it comes to online classes. It is imperative that the course page has clarity in regards to learning modules, due dates, support material and evaluation. Making regular announcements is something that has worked for me, as it helps the learners be on top of their task. Also, a good balance between synchronous and asynchronous aspects can help too, especially if your learners are logging in from multiple time zones. Some course also benefit from the option and lends to flexibility of approach for the learner.
- Reflection: Take consistent feedback from learners and adapt and evolve with the same. Feedback does not have to be only at the end of the course. Simple strategies like ‘Stop-Start-Repeat’ can reveal a lot and help us be reflective practitioners.
- Evaluation: Lastly, there is this ever-impending doom of evaluation. Formative evaluation tools throughout the course will take up more of our time and energy, but they go a long way in making the overall learner experience more positive and the learning deeper.
