The Role of Learners and Instructors in Creating an Inclusive online Community

Introduction: the concept of community

Well-designed online communities make students the center of course attention and have curriculums designed to encourage peer-to-peer engagement through the help of online discussions, blogs, video conferencing, chatting, whiteboards, wikis, and other technology tools connecting participants 24/7 electronically regardless of geographical-physical boundaries (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011).  

To create an inclusive, effective online learning community, instructors must promote social and academic interaction among learners while influencing and motivating them to learn and solve problems independently.  Effective, inclusive online learning communities also enable learners to feel safe sharing their experiences, knowledge and ideas without fear of being judged.

This journal reflects on my perspectives of the importance of creating an effective online community with respect to experiential learning theory while focusing on the roles of the learner and instructor in building an inclusive community of learners through eLearning.

Instructors’ role in creating an inclusive online community

According to Bernard et al., (2012), in an online environment, instructors are involved in instructional design, provide feedback, facilitate learning, post course material/content, process assignments, assess and evaluate students’ work, support/motivate students by being present at all timed and encourage learners’ social and academic involvement.  To a certain extent, I argue that a truly effective online course requires more time and dedication, particularly on the part of instructors. As noted by Clark (2012), by including an on-going instructor presence, the course adds more responsibilities and workload to faculty even when the course is not instructor-centered or lecture-based.

Significant characteristics of instructors creating a truly effective, inclusive online community of learners are caring and nurturing. These attributes help empower instructors to make their online learning communities approachable by students, while also setting an example making clear the benefits of reaching out to support each other’s learning and broader human development using online communication tools and collaborative activities.

The learners’ role in creating an inclusive online community

In an instructor-facilitated environment, learners contribute constantly to knowledge building through interactions with peers, through engaging activities among online learners, and through self-directed study. Therefore, a successful online learning community requires an asynchronous environment where online learners are actively involved with their own learning, use computer technology to communicate with their peers and instructors, work on collaborative projects with their peers, and share knowledge and experience with each other in a supportive environment (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011). All of the later points take place when the instruction encourages collaboration and the acquisition of knowledge in creating an online learning community as emphasized by Conrad and Donaldson in chapter one of their book Engaging the Online Learner.

Given this, in an online community, learners should reflect on their own work while reflecting on their peers’ ideas and experiences to construct knowledge and generate critical thinking skills within the collaborative context. In this case, engaged learners play essential roles in building an effective online community as they fully involved and engaged in knowledge acquisition, and their interactions are the driving force behind learning.

The challenge of creating culturally inclusive online communities

Designing a culturally inclusive online community requires much care and consideration because values, beliefs and styles of teaching/learning differ widely from country to country. In this regard, Reeves & Reeves (1997) pose that great challenges may arise when the core pedagogical values in one culture are culturally inappropriate in another culture. For example, critical thinking is encouraged within many Canadian educational institutions, but this is not the case in societies run by authoritarian governments such as in Iran, where I was born and completed my elementary and high school education. Even today, students are not allowed to question or challenge an instructor and are punished up to including expulsion from school simply for being ‘critical thinkers’. 

Online courses reach out to local and international learners, and so instructors must accommodate cultural differences and be culturally sensitive to learners’ potentially very diverse values and customs in designing all aspects of their courses.  Although it makes sense to be culturally sensitive and respectful of all cultures, designing an effective, engaging, inclusive course for an international class is very challenging, especially when numerous international learners have been taught to view women as second class citizens.

Consider, for example, the case of York University sociology Professor J. Paul Greyson, who refused a male student’s request to avoid participating in a group project with female students on religious grounds, and the decision of the university administration to overrule Prof. Greyson’s decision. Their action to support sex-segregated learning alarmed me and forced me to think more about the challenges of implementing an inclusive community of online learners.

The moment this news came to my attention, I sided with Prof. Greyson because he understood that when a male student refuses to participate in a group project with women, that student is denying principles of gender equality and wants to impose his belief system that considers women either as a second class citizens or less than fully human in public life. Men sharing this student’s anti-women beliefs rule most Middle East countries and make life very difficult for women, and I was surprised when York University’s highest administrators accommodated the student’s exclusionary attitudes, saying it is the role of the professor to accommodate cultural differences. This leads me to believe that institutions need to guide instructors on how to design online courses which accommodate learners’ beliefs and values while not undermining gender equality which also fully respect individual rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Although course designs need to accommodate international learners’ beliefs and values, it should move beyond the narrow prescriptive of cultural boundaries. This means that the instruction design should implement multicultural values that are inclusive and meet the needs of a diverse learners’ community.  

It is beyond the scope of this paper to go further into this issue; however, this prepares me to be more thoughtful and collaborate with more experienced individual instructors when designing courses reaching out to the international community. 

Conclusion

As discussed earlier in this paper, eLearning is largely facilitated through the asynchronous model, and learners produce knowledge through peer engagement and collaborative work.  Therefore, when an instructor designs an online course, the focus should not be only on the creation of course content and material, but the instructional design should also be based on creating opportunities to empower learners to be critical thinkers, and to put them in charge of building knowledge and their own learning experiences. As stated by Conrad and Donaldson (2011), in a learner-centered community, the successful learners are those who become active partners in knowledge generation and play roles in making decisions about learning while being engaged throughout the course.

References

Bernard, R. M.; Abrami, P. C.; Lou, Y.; Borokhovski, E.; Wade, A.; Wozney, L. &  Huang, B. (2004). How does distance education compare with classroom                     instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational  Research, 74(3), 379-439. Retrieved on March 12, 2014 from http://education.indiana.edu/graduate/programs/hesa/iuspa/4-%20Student%20Growth%20in%20Asynchronous%20Online%20Environments%20Learning%20Styles%20and%20Cognitive%20Development.pdf

Clark, C. C. (2012). Student Growth in Asynchronous Online Environments: Learning Styles and Cognitive Development.   Retrieved on March 12, 2014 from http://education.indiana.edu/graduate/programs/hesa/iuspa/4-%20Student%20Growth%20in%20Asynchronous%20Online%20Environments%20Learning%20Styles%20and%20Cognitive%20Development.pdf

Conrad, R. M. & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Peer Partnership and Team Activities. Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. Jossey-Bass Wiley: San Francisco

Reeves, T., & Reeves, P. (1993). Effective dimensions of interactive learning on the World Wide Web. In B. Khan (Eds.), Web-based instruction (pp. 59-66). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: ­Educational Technology Publications.

The Real Cost of Financing a Mortgage

The real cost of financing a mortgage 

I purchased a pre-construction condo for the amount of $426,900.00 in 2006 and have documents showing I paid a $64,000.00 down payment toward this purchase. The condo was ready in Nov 2007 and originally my mortgage started with Maple Trust. After two years of mortgage payments to this company, we learned that Maple Trust merged with the Bank of Nova Scotia. I then transferred the mortgage to TD Canada Trust April 1, 2009. Despite having paid more than $50,000.00 mortgage payments to Maple Trust, our mortgage with TD started at $388,806.40! 

For many reasons, I decided to sell our condo in 2013. The mortgage maturity date was June 1, 2014, and the closing balance on our mortgage was $337,505.56 as of Nov 29, 2013. My notary public agent paid the full amount owing to TD Bank including a $2200.00 penalty for terminating our mortgage before it expired. The closing balance was $339,876.03. To my surprise, TD bank continued taking money toward the discharged mortgage account from my checking account on the evening of Nov 29, 2013 ($404.11) and Dec 6, 2013 ($404.11). However, a withdrawal of $404.11 was returned to my account immediately, giving me the impression that someone did not disable automatic mortgage debiting until Dec 6, 2013. 

Despite my request, I was never reimbursed the $404.11 for TD Bank’s Nov 29, 2013 withdrawal, nor have I received any discharge statement from TD Bank as of Feb 3, 2013 in spite of numerous requests for them. The point is that the TD Bank manager states that even though the notary public paid my mortgage debt to TD Bank on Nov 29, 2013, I was still responsible for paying one additional payment on the discharged account and she refuses to reimburse me for this additional payment. 

My result of paying my TD Bank mortgage for almost 6 years is that almost all money they took from me was for interest payments, with very little going to reduce my debt. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I now am faced with paying TD Bank even more – this time in the form of a $2000.00 penalty because I ended this mortgage six months prior to the expiry date of June 1, 2014. Did I become poorer by dealing with this mortgage or was it a huge mistake to buy a condo in the first place and give thousands of dollars interest to the banks?!

Summarizing my Learning from PIDP 4150

 Sedi Minachi Journal #3

Objective Questions: My Learning Experiences about Developing an Effective Online Course

In my experience, developing an effective online course depends on how the course provides a sense of leadership to the learners’ community so that they contribute to the learning experience and the development of course content. As stated by Boettcher and Conrad (2010), “Having learners lead activities also supports Vygotsky’s theory of the zone of proximal development” (226). In order for the learners to develop skills through an online course, I think it is important that the course instructor assumes the role of coach, shaping, supporting, clarifying and critiquing (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010) instead of directing and telling students what to do.  For example, the instructor needs to empower learners to be self-directed in working on a project whether individually or in a group. In this sense, as stated by Boettcher and Conrad, “Learners then can see themselves as knowledge generators and connectors”, not as those who follow the instructor’s direction. Although designing and implementing a learner-led online course can be challenging and complex, the instructor should clarify the outcomes of an activity such as developing expertise in being self-reliant and problem solvers in a cooperative and engaging process. The objective of this paper is to reflect on the development of an effective online course with respect to my learning experiences throughout the PIDP 4150 course.

Reflective Questions: Matching PIDP 4150 with Learner’s Experience

Through PDIP 4150, I gained knowledge about learning theories (e.g., experiential and transformative learning), teaching guideline/principles, online teaching best practices and teaching tools. As part of the course requirements, I developed my own professional blog and gained experience in working with a partner to complete a wiki project.

This course has become a template for me to use designing effective and meaningful online courses meeting the needs of communities of engaged learners. For instance, I now know to use various online tools to facilitate experiential and transformative learning theories among learners, and to provide an opportunity to them to actively reflect on their new skills. In addition, through this course, I learned about the importance of providing effective and constructive feedback to learners so that they develop writing skills and critical thinking.   

In addition to providing relevant course content, effective teaching, and being available to meet student needs as required, I will ensure learners have access to online support services. Like their counterparts taking on-campus courses, distance education students taking online courses should have access to online support services such as advising/counseling, financial aid, libraries, tech help desk, academic writing centers, etc. 

Interpretive Questions: Moving Forward

The first important fact I learned in this course is that as an online course instructor, my role is to be an accessible, responsive, transparent facilitator open to creative ideas. This is because when online learners do not receive the support they need from the course, they quickly become frustrated and discouraged from finishing the course. This will negatively impact the reputation of online courses, and in particular the course not meeting students’ needs. Therefore, it is important that the instructor provides a nurturing and encouraging environment empowering and supporting learners throughout the course which also implement experiential and transformative learning theories and reflect on skills learned throughout the course. 

Decisional Questions: Applying PIDP 4150 in Designing an Online Course

            As experience has shown, the elearning industry is rapidly attracting students from both the new and older generation of learners. Educational institutions are increasingly offering online courses to students who can access these courses from anywhere worldwide having electricity and internet access.

I think, online courses provide freedom and flexibility to both learners and instructors and teach them to become good time managers. Working as an online instructor is attractive to me and I am eager to pursue my career in this exciting field because it gives me the opportunity to teach from almost anywhere while enabling me to engage diverse students from different cultural backgrounds worldwide from the convenience of my own home.

 All the useful learning theories, teaching guidelines and tips I learned throughout this course have increased my motivation to facilitate effective and meaningful online courses following proven teaching and course design guideline, with transparency being the foundation of my teaching ethics. Nevertheless, my primary goal in designing and delivering online courses is to create an atmosphere fostering mutual learning between the instructor and students and between peers. For me to be a creative and open minded instructor, I will keep abreast of new technologies and online tools and adopt those enabling me to more effectively interact with my communities of learners.

Word Cited

Boettcher, J. V. & Conrad, R. M. (2010). The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical

Pedagogical Tips. Jossey-Bass: Wiley.

Journal # 2: Using Quality Guidelines in eLearning

Sedi Minachi Journal # 2: Using Quality Guidelines in eLearning

Objective: Quality Guidelines

The objective of this journal is to explore what goes into creating and conducting a quality course following guidelines for online course development. Many people know how convenient online or distance education is in terms of the flexibility it provides learners to choose their hours of study and location. Online courses have become increasingly popular since the first online courses following the introduction of the internet in the 1990s, and many learners, especially adults, prefer to take online courses instead of taking in physical classrooms. The goal of educators is to develop knowledge and build skills, and learners are increasingly choosing distance education when given this opportunity. It’s for this reason that educators must provide relevant, quality, effective distance learning courses enabling learners to meet their educational goals.

Negative Reputations in the Absence of Quality Guidelines

While online course instructors may not set quality guidelines, any lack of attention to course quality on their part can lead to chaos and confusion among learners who become less impressed with distance education. In addition, learners have the potential to become discouraged and may not continue enrolling in other online courses, possibly creating negative reputations for online programs.  For example, I took an online ‘mediation and conflict resolution’ course a few years ago through a European institution. I enrolled in it because the course description promised its instructor was a well-known scholar in the field of conflict resolution. However, when the course started, we, the learners were disappointed to learn that an unknown instructor living in a country with poor internet connectivity was assigned to teach it.  The course was a disaster for many reasons I describe below. Firstly, the instructor was absent most of the time and rarely responded to our emails, and tried to justify his unavailability/lack of support by saying to his class that he travelled frequently to participate in various conferences. Secondly, the course objective was vague and did not have clear instructions or guidelines, and the learners did not know what the course expectations were. We found this both disappointing and frustrating. While the students including myself were confused about what to do, a few of us decided to inform the course administrator.

We were further frustrated when we also found her unresponsive and seemingly uncaring. Almost half of the class participants dropped out of the course and those who finished it felt that we did not gain skills or knowledge in the field of mediation and conflict resolution. My final disappointment came when the course finished and I expected to receive a certificate as promised in the course description. Several months passed and I did not receive the certificate or any response from the course administrator. I felt that my time and money was wasted and contacted a scholar who originally told me about this course. To make a long story short, I finally - after one year of ongoing communication with the director of the institution - received my certificate, and the only other good news is that my prodding enabled other students to receive theirs as well.

Quality Checklist for Online Courses

For an instructor to design and deliver an effective online course, it is essential they follow certain criteria and guidelines.  According to Barker (2002), both instructors and learners are interested in acquiring education and training that are effective and efficient. In reading Barker’s “Canadian Recommended E-learning Guidelines”, I gained a better understanding of the importance of the elearning course guidelines and would adopt the following general checklist based on her paper:

Organized: The course should be facilitated in an organized way to minimize confusion and frustration. For example, the instructor should be easily accessible to the learners’ community and have regular office hours. The course syllabus should clearly include course description, learning objectives, completion requirements, course material, additional learning resources, course activities and required assignments. 

Quality Content: The course must have good quality content addressing learners’ needs and identifies course material relevant to the course’s goals and objectives. In my opinion, good quality content not only helps the instructor to ensure the course is learner-centered and meaningful, it also provides learners with relevant skills and knowledge.

Presentation: The material must be presented clearly, professionally and be user friendly.

Technology: The technology needs to be reliable and easily accessible to the learning community wherever they are. Furthermore, it should enable learners to actively engage with each other in the construction of knowledge and should provide assistance, guidance and communication to the learners’ community. It also needs to be easily updatable, reliable and navigable.  

Supports Learners’ self-directed learning:  The course should be designed to respect learners’ flexibility, and allow them to progress at their own pace with respect to interacting with the learning community.  

Admission information: The course should state any admission/degree requirement and prerequisites, the curriculum overview, specific delivery format, and grading methods. In addition, it should state learning assessment procedures and evaluation criteria, tuition fees, books/materials, equipment, institutional regulations, policies on plagiarism, entry-level technical skills, and course evaluations.

Reflective: Personal Experiences

I have taken four online courses including this one. Aside from the negative experience I had during the ‘mediation and conflict resolution’ course described earlier in this paper, my VCC elearning experiences have been great. Like most elearning students, I expect to receive a high quality education, and my goal is to design and deliver an efficient and effective online course so that learners can smoothly complete it successfully. 

Interpretive: Meaning of the Guidelines

            As technology continues to develop and more learners take advantage of online programs, the need for designers capable of creating effective, high quality online courses increases. To create courses of this caliber, I must incorporate guidelines reflective of my learners’ needs and perceptions. The negative experience I had in the ‘mediation and conflict resolution’ online course did not discourage me from taking more online courses. However, it motivated me to become involved in this profession to do this right and design an elearning course based on ethical guidelines maximizing opportunities for the learners’ community to acquire knowledge and meaningful skills.

Decisional: Concluding Remarks

As a growing method of education, elearning courses must be designed and delivered with care within the framework of standard guidelines so that the learners are able to successfully complete their courses and fulfill their educational goals. From my own experiences, and by reading elearning guidelines for creating and delivering effective courses, I learned about the importance of ensuring high quality design in all online courses and am determined to deepen my knowledge of how to do this. Finally, with respect to recommendations offered by Barker (2002), I will incorporate all the standard guidelines when structuring, designing and developing learner-centered online courses. 

Work Cited

Barker, K. (2002) Canadian Recommended E-learning Guidelines (CanREGs). Published by Future Ed

and Canadian Association for Community Education. Retrieved on Dec 18, 2013 from

http://www.futured.com/pdf/CanREGs%20Eng.pdf