The main takeaway for me is in an online course we need to strive for opportunities where students can interact with the material. I was around when online learning first started, and it mainly consisted of reading static PDFs or books and writing responses on a discussion board. There was a need for engaging activities such as interactive labs and simulations to peak a student’s interest. These engaging activities not only improve student success metrics and mastery of the course learning objectives but increases retention and graduation rates. One helpful thing I have seen as an administrator, instructor, and student is video feedback in addition to written feedback. It is a monotonous task to simply post a response to a discussion question and then a few forced responses to classmates. This is not active learning and more of a situation where the students are checking a box to earn their points.
In active learning, students must take responsibility for their own learning. THe instructor can be a guide in this process. Ways to include active learning in the online and F2F envirnoments include individual assignments, small group and large group assignments, talking, listening, and relecting on course materials. The R2D2 approach is good. This includes: reading, reflection, displaying and doing.
