Open Network Learning Blog by Leysan

  So many things to focus on when it comes to designing an online course! I have seen an approach in the beginning of the pandemic, of putting an offline course online, without any consideration of the nature of the internet, and remote learning. In my university, we've learnt so much about the peculiarities of online environment, yet it seems we still think of the Internet as a back-up option: If face-to-face is not possible, then we adapt the offline content to online platforms. With this approach, I am afraid that we are missing the opportunities provided by the Internet and the various platforms.  But I would like here to discuss one aspect of online courses - facilitating community of inquiry. And I think this is the aspect that does need special attention. When we have classes face-to-face, communities often form naturally (although here we also can develop our approaches more than we usually do). But offline, facilitating a community of inquiry requires a certain structure

What a great topic this was to explore - networked collaborative learning.  Collaboration often happens in groups. We know (and maybe some of us also feel that way) that group work is often avoided. There are many reasons for it - and many of them are valid. It seems there is some kind of an assumption that when we get together, we should easily figure out how to work. When we see that we are different, we see those differences as obstacles. For example, in research on intercultural teams, studies focused on how to overcome those cultural differences and assumptions. Yet, I see little research (if any) on looking at how those differences - of opinion, of background, of gender, of cultural background, etc. - can be used for group collaboration to foster innovative thinking, better work environment, building inclusive and sustainable communities, etc. Could those differences be a resource? And how can we get to the point where we use those differences as a resource?  Prior to the course,