Anyway, at the end of last year the facilitator for the course Leigh Blackall asked that we give some feedback on the FOC 08 course. Sorry its a bit late Leigh, but I deliberately stayed away from computers over the Xmas break, I needed to get away from it all for a while!
So here are some of my thoughts on FOC 08...
What were the most enjoyable aspects of this course?
The fun of discovering so many unknown technologies out there! As someone not "au fait" as such with these, I had a ball investigating Second Life, Facebook, etc. Getting to chat to people from all over the world was great too, seeing how many people from so many walks of life together in one forum was excellent.
What were the most challenging aspects of this course?
At the beginning when I felt so very lost and "amateur". I got completely overwhelmed with the email forum, finding out about RSS Feeds, and of course being new to blogs as a whole. I'm glad to see Leigh has said he is thinking of reviewing how the course begins. As I said in a previous post, I almost dropped out before it really got started through severe feelings of inadequacy!
I have to admit I did feel a little abandoned towards the end of the course when Leigh went overseas for 2 weeks and we didn't hear from him - no comments on our blogs etc. Those comments helped motivate me to continue on to the next week!
Did the course meet your expectations? How or how not?
I didn't really have many expectations to be honest. So much of this elearning qualification is new to me so I was just hoping I could cope! Eventually I did :-)
What improvements would you suggest?
I've read through Leigh's blog post giving his thoughts on how the course went (obviously many others have posted their comments already) and I like the improvements he has suggested such as changing the "intensity" at the beginning of the course and the YouTube video link to help introduce us to the topic.It is so difficult to get people to participate in online activities such as the Elluminate sessions but I think these are really vital to see how a facilitator works. But then again Leigh very correctly said it just takes the "a ha" (I call it the lightbulb over the head switching on) for it all to start making sense. Some may take longer than others to get that lightbulb working! So maybe strongly encouraging more participation in these sessions (don't ask me how) would be advantageous.
Any other comments?
I think Leigh, you did a wonderful job. I enjoyed the course (eventually!) and was challenged by the format (away from Blackboard) and the content. I'm sure you will do an even better job this year. I will try to keep an eye on the email forum in semester 2 to see how it goes.
PS. Just to say I got an "A" for FOC 08. I was so delighted - the stress and late nights paid off. Thanks Leigh :-)
1 comment:
No, thankyou Elaine. I'm really pleased you stuck with it, and it would be great to see you around on the Internet more often - especially for when the next course starts.
Perhaps also, you might consider blogging about your work in teaching tourism. We are looking out for Internet savvy tourism teachers for our Applied Travel and Tourism course... perhaps you might consider using one of our courses, or adding one of yours to the list we have under development. Students have an option to study some of these courses online. We are still a long way from ready for blending online and face to face, but I'm pushing the staff down here to start thinking about it at least. Having you around could lead to some interesting progress such as using Elluminate on a white board in a normal face to face class so that distant students can join in...
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