CRJ - Week 11

What have I learnt?

Doing the Learning conversation form again, with my newly learnt and experience knowledge. It has enabled me to critically assess points and action plan in order of importance ways the lesson could be greatly improved. For example, 1. outlining clearly LO, 2. Strategies to consider the reusability of the video (IMPALA), and addressing and updating information, 3. Making external resources clear and relevant to their target audience (student centred).

In week 11’s resources which outlined ‘Practitioners in Action – Federica Oradini and Dario Faniglione’ Dario speaks in detail about the how learners cannot hide. Each interaction between peers and tutors is public. The level of students is very apparent. This is an opportunity for tutors because it means that we can plan in a timely fashion for personalised interventions when needed. It can result in adding pressure to the learners inducing performativity issues machining individuals behave ad react in certain ways which they wouldn’t face-to-face.

Federica talks about the flexibility of learning, being able to work from anywhere. Timing and pacing learning experience, and being independent to encourage a varied cohort with different experiences and backgrounds. I have experienced this as a learner and used the ability to learn from anywhere to my advantage. Travelling nearer to childcare, to free up time, enabling me to learn and keep up with my learning. Week 11’s forum discussion with Evgeni Petkov, highlights this too and demonstrates how he can work full time in China, using the time difference to his advantage, allowing him to study in the evenings.

Facilitation Vs Design: how can I most effectively deal with this – through facilitation or through design? Or both? “Some curriculum design frameworks strongly recognise this, for example Gilly Salmon’s Five-Stage Model. Here, the consideration of facilitating online participants through effective online curriculum design is embedded in the heart of the framework, across all five stages”.

In last week’s webinar, I spoke to Jamie in the breakout room about my struggles with the vast reading scholarship and the feeling of being behind. He mentioned about Gilly Salmon on youtube. I have really enjoyed hearing her speak about her Five Stage Model, using mountain climbing and sherpas as an analogy. It has really helped to embed the reading on the same subject.

Thinking back to week 11’s Characteristics of the Successful Online Student (Illinois Online Network, 2007), I believe that I generally do have all the criteria points which make up a successful student. I feel that areas which I may find difficult to maintain are to be completely self disciplined and motivated. Of course at time-to-time life distractions get in the way, but I do believe that practice being a self-employed artist have contributed to me continuously bringing myself back to what is required. Particularly, last week, I felt extremely anxious about the work load. To tackle this I made myself catch up on one of the readings from the previous week which I had been avoiding. Although it took me a lot of time, after completed the anxiety had reduced and I felt in control of my learning once again.

I feel that if I was to add to this list, it would be to have the ability to read extensive amounts of writing. This was something which I was personally very worrying when I first enrolled, as a student with dyslexia. Although I am still a slow reader, I have found that I have surprised myself with my ability to retain information and take notes at the same time. Although this has taken practice, I feel that I have greatly improved as the PGCHE has gone on.

I have a new found appreciation of the point 9. to be ‘able to think ideas through before responding’. I know that I tend to rush through my answer, and not pause over days to think through answers. I think this comes down to me only having 1.5 solid days a week to work on the course work. Other to this, I fit reading and further learning around other life commitments, so I am keen do do my weekly tasks within this unbroken time. I have now on two occasions mis read tasks, resulting in outcomes either being wrong or being far more than expected. This shows the true benefit of reading, pausing, reflecting, and then acting.

Rabeea’s response: Hi Alice, your multi-stage approach to "The Idler" is theoretically robust, particularly the emphasis on Salmon’s (2013) Stage 1 personalisation and buddy systems. The suggestion of "mini safe places" aligns well with Palloff & Pratt’s (2007) research on micro-communities reducing isolation. However, the reliance on extrinsic motivation (e.g., participation grades) might not sustain engagement long-term, as noted by Ryan & Deci (2000) in their self-determination I’d integrate Boud’s (2001) reflexive portfolios earlier - having students document how peer contributions enriched their learning. This shifts accountability from tutor policing to communal value-recognition. For "The Invisible Student," your Vygotskian scaffolding is strong, but adding asynchronous video journals (flipped classroom style) could provide safer identity disclosure channels, as suggested by Chen et al. (2020). Your buddy system idea inspires me to trial "accountability trios" in my modules. The focus on ceramic industry norms highlights context-specific engagement strategies I can adapt for health sciences.

Reference

Arkitect India (2022) Climbing The Learning Mountain- The 5-Stage-model of online learning. By Professor Gilly Salmon [Online] available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sykeJ9_quxs (accessed 04.08.25)

Illinois Online Network. (2007). What Makes a Successful Online Student? Illinois: Illinois Online Network. Available from https://www.uis.edu/ion/resources/tutorials/pedagogy/successful-online-student/Links to an external site. [accessed 14th January 2010].

Petkov, E (2025) Week 11: Forum – Reflect on Your Experience of Being Online Learners [Online] https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1334/discussion_topics/30017?module_item_id=85579 (accessed 04.08.25)

Oradini, F and Faniglione, D (2025) Week 11: Practitioners in Action – Federica Oradini and Dario Faniglione [Online] available: https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1334/pages/week-11-practitioners-in-action-federica-oradini-and-dario-faniglione?module_item_id=85582 (accessed 04.08.25)

Rizwan, R (2025) Week 11: Forum – Share Your Strategies for Dealing with Challenging Situations with Online Learners [Online] available at: https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1334/discussion_topics/30016 (accessed 05.08.25)