A presentation on Miriam College's experience on teaching online facilitation

1. Active Learning in a
Virtual Learning
Environment
MIRIAM COLLEGE’S EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING ONLINE
FACILITATION
SHEILA LO DINGCONG
MARIA LOURDES QUISUMBING-BAYBAY, PH.D.

2. What is Active Learning?
self-directed
and determine
their own
learning style
equal sources
of knowledge

3. Miriam College,
Philippines

4. Who is the 21st century learner?

5. 21st Century Student Literacies
Kennedy (2009)

6. 21st Century Facilitator Literacies

7. Theoretical Approaches &
Frameworks
Teaching Online Facilitation
adopts theoretical approaches
and frameworks to guide its
teaching-learning process

8. Heutagogy
McAuliffe, Hargreaves, Winter & Chadwick (2008)

9. Social Constructivism
Dingcong (2012)

10. Connectivism
http://mms.uni-hamburg.de/epedagogy/mmswiki/index.php5/Connectivism/

11. Local Knowledge

12. Teaching Online Facilitation

13. Teaching Online Facilitation for
Local Knowledge

14. Objectives of TOF
 Describe online learning and
understand the different underlying
principles of this approach;
 Identify the different components and
processes in facilitating online learning
and explain the different phases of an
online course delivery including the
tasks and roles within each phase;

15. Objectives of TOF
 Demonstrate enabling attitudes to
online learning and learn strategies for
the delivery of an online course;
 Develop facilitation skills & techniques
& create an online delivery plan as
course project.

16. Learner Demographics
 A total of 146 teachers and academic
professionals enrolled in 6 batches of the TOF
course with 101 from Miriam College and 45 from
AUDRN partner schools
 Average passing rate of the 6 batches is 67%
with the sixth batch having the lowest passing
rate of 47% and the 4th batch with the highest at
88%
 Passing rate increases from the 1st batch with
60%, 72% for the 2nd batch and 77% for the 3rd
batch; the AUDRN class had a 67% passing rate
in the 1st batch

17. Learner Demographics
 Successful graduates from Miriam College were
composed of 35 college faculty, 24 basic
education teachers, and 14 professional
employees
 Average age is 44 years old with 64 as the oldest
and with 44 years of teaching experience and 22
the youngest with no teaching experience
(professional)
 75% are female and 25% are male from Miriam
College while an even 50/50 ratio for females and
males make up the two batches from AUDRN
partner schools.

18. Course Participation
 Discussion forum is the primary activity
used in the course.
 Average of 716 posts in discussion forums
per batch was registered with the 3rd
batch having the highest at 1,130 posts
and the 6th batch with the lowest at 433
posts.
 Most popular forums are the topics on
social constructivism, web2.0, the basics
of online facilitation, and icebreakers

19. Course Participation
 Other activities are the wiki, glossary, and
knowledge checks, and icebreakers
given once every week.
 Learner contributed materials – almost 50
videos, 38 pdf files, over 60 websites, and
roughly 20 photos or images
 In addition, the 98 graduates each
generated original audio and video
materials as their assignments

20. Discussion Forum Posts
 Highest number of post registered by a
single student is 127 from the 3rd batch
 Lowest is 27 which is the minimum
required number of posts to complete
the course
 For the 98 graduates, the median
range of posts is from 40 to 50 per
student.

21. Time Spent
 Highest number of hours spent by a
student ran up to 200 hours for six
weeks, spending 4 hours a day on the
average, to the course including offline
readings and preparation of
assignments
 Online time spent is 7 hours a week or at
least one hour per day

22. Reflective Thinking
A lot of questioning…….
Nothing
personal….what
happens to the
affective nature of
education?
How can we facilitate
and strengthen the
development of values
in an online setting?
Hey teacher, are you
still relevant?

23. Reflective Thinking
deconstructions and reconstructions
“Equalizing power in education is one way
that I see the internet radicalizing our
times. And when power relations are
transformed, there will also be new way
of learning - one that generates
diversities, contestations, and new forms
of inter-subjective humanity. We begin
from standpoints- viewpoints and end,
hopefully, with more wisdom in the
convergences and divergences of our
multiple ideas and our sciences. Who
knows, we might even end up with a
new civilization?” (Francisco, TOF 1 final
exams, 2012)

24. Reflective Thinking
“Recently, I learned about the difference
between appreciative inquiry and
critical thinking. As a teacher and
online learner, appreciative inquiry is
(also) an attitude/philosophy I’d like to
cultivate in myself because I believe it
leaves more room for creative thinking.
Rather than being competitive with
others, it nurtures a more collaborative
and cooperative atmosphere since it’s
respectful of divergent ideas...and with
this, we get to appreciate each other’s
gifts no matter how diverse or different
we are from each other.” (Carandang,
TOF1, DF4, 2012).

25. Miriam College E-Learning
System - Moodle

26. Some Conclusions
 Applicability of online courses to
upgrade teaching competencies of
teachers
 Constructivism, connectivism and active
learning facilitate learner engagement
leading to knowledge construction and
ownership
 Teaching strategies in online courses
can be applied to face-to-face sessions
for younger learners

27. Some Conclusions
 Virtual learning environments are
effective and viable in achieving
learning outcomes ensuring academic
vigor
 Paucity of local digital materials for
online courses which poses the
challenge of developing these materials
using local knowledge to reflect local
situations

28. Daghang Salamat!
Madamu gid nga salamat!
Maraming salamat!
Thank you very much!