2nd week of the blendit course

Centro Comercial La Gran Estación, Bogotá, Colombia- Photo by Jonathan Acuña-Solano

2 nd Week of the BlendIt Course: Some of my module reflections

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Saturday, May 19, 2018 Post 321

There is no doubt that after having gotten my Hybrid, Blended, and Online Education certificate some four years ago left some long-lasting imprint on my professional profile. Now that I am back in the virtual classroom with Prof. Janet Bianchini from the Consultants-E, I see that I am still current on the area I was working last year with faculty members from many universities through online courses. And now that I am venturing into the teaching of English through VCs (virtual classrooms), I am not out of date.

Through the second Module of the BlendIt course facilitated by Prof.

Bianchini, several tasks needed to be performed, and here I have some of my ideas/reflections in black and white to see what is going on in my mind.

The eModeration One of our first tasks was to take a quiz on eModeration Terminology terminology used in online education. Taking this selfQuiz assessment prepared at this point of the course allowed me to verify how much I keep myself current with my usual Feedly page, which has been a great addition to my professional learning network. And based on this, it is my idea that all online instructors, or any other teaching professional interested in being up to date, must keep themselves updated with new ideas or trends in online education or any other area one is interested. And if one is not able to attend conferences or courses or to participate in webinars, Feedly can help us a lot. One has to take advantage of these opportunities to continue growing professionally in one’s field.

Online Quizzes for One’s Class

Online quizzes as an effective resource for our teaching was also ventilated on this second module of the BlendIt course. From my very personal point of view, even though a teacher may not be necessarily teaching online, it is advisable to run some online quizzes even for a F2F class.

Why do I state this? Well, it is simple: We all need to start “updating” our assessment approaches when it comes to grade/evaluate learners and what they have grasped in our classes and how they are using the newly-acquired knowledge. As a personal anecdote, after using several quizzes with my learners at the university, they have become more curious about their mistakes or wrong answers, and this practice has made them become aware of what they are not doing correctly and why. The amount of discussion among peers due to reports generated by the system I have used is gratifying in terms of how much they can advance in their learning autonomously.

Becoming an eModerator

Becoming a tutor does require eModerator skills that are not developed overnight, and I bet Prof. Janet Bianchini would agree with me on this statement. Being a successful eModerator is a process that takes time when

one thinks of the skills that are needed for this job. It is not just about common sense or to have an instructor “preach� for us on what the wrongdoings of online education are and how our sinful acts on a VC can be amended.

Mindfulness becomes an element that helps us discover the kind of leader one needs to be for learners to scaffold them through their knowledge construction process. The creation of a social/human bond with students is transcendentally important for the success of a course.

And these are just a few of the things needed to eModerate a group of learners online.

I hope that many teaching professionals interested in online education can find good opportunities to grow professionally. With several MOOCs available on the web, I highly recommend that anyone wanting to further comprehend the process(es) involved in online education register one of these courses. These courses are not about one getting a diploma but getting knowledge to be ready to teach beyond the F2F classroom.

Journal Entry 04 BlendIt Course