- Did you engage in each of the phases of the critical inquiry process?
Looks like it. I had trouble coding for the resolution phase, so maybe there could be more in that phase compared to now?
- Were you able to resolve any problems or dilemmas?
I was able to come to greater clarity on some issues or thoughts I was having. I don’t know if I solved and problems or dilemmas.
- What might you do differently in a future course?
I don’t know how to answer this question to be honest; I guess it would depend on the future course?
I found myself becoming more disengaged in this course the longer I was in it. I think one part of that was due to the dates at which I was seeing other participants posts come up on my sites ‘feed’. Most posts I saw showed dates in 2018, which made me think that although the course espoused that what I was posting would be open for the whole wide world to see, I was likely posting to an audience of one. From a different angle, this may just be my lack of imagination, as even if something was posted last year I could be the audience for it.
- How might you engage with your students to ensure that they are working through the entire inquiry process?
I continue to be a believer that showing effective teaching means showing an active presence. When it comes to ensuring students working through the entire inquiry process, this means that I initiate interactions as I see students work through activities. For example, the current course I am an open learning faculty member in has a ‘classic’ structure, in that it has midterms and finals. I have set up an auto-update feature to notify me when students complete these assignments. If they complete them I will initiate contact to encourage dialogue on their end about the assessment. If they have not completed the assignment in a ‘reasonable’ amount of time (given the course time frames), I will initiate contact to inquire how they are doing.
- Do you think that working through this course in an open platform like WordPress helps to encourage reflective learning?
I do think the platform offers good opportunities for reflective learning. One of the primary reasons I think this is because of the flexibility it offers to students. Compared to other LMS like Moodle, I could imagine some students embracing the creative presentation options. I also believe that compared to LMS like Moodle, it is easier for someone to track their work on WordPress.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say a more open platform like WordPress is always going to be better than a more closed LMS though. The ability of content to live outside of the confines of a LMS is nice, but it is highly likely that only those directly involved with a given course would ever see the content. I have nothing to back this claim up, and would be happy to be proved wrong.
Cael