Module 5
Based on your previous reflective posts and experiences gained throughout the course, summarize and critically reflect on your learning and development. You can use the questions below to guide your reflection:
What are the most important things that you have learnt through your engagement in this course? Why?
Summing all aspects, theories, activities, contexts, and tools, one of the most thoroughgoing aspects was the use of digital tools and competences. Something I today haven’t entirely grasped in my lectures when working with students. However, this is based on my former knowledge and understanding of digital literacy in a didactive context. In my line of work, we use the terms and aspects of knowledge within the medical or caring sciences epistemology. Often, we speak about health literacy, peer learning, construct alignment, but seldom we speak about awareness, competences and knowledges regarded digital literacy. Students who write their bachelor thesis often use digital tools such as google-docs or word and communicate with each other through video, audio and text with digital platforms and tools. Something we tutors seldom reflect on when developing courses, activities and assessments is the use of digital tools and E-learning. However, we, the tutors, often speak about the evolvement and development of E-health and E-tools within healthcare, to increase the independence and creativity of the patient “the patient as a creator”. Having said that, how are we to prepare students for future nursing, involving E-health and digital tools, when not using E-learning within our education1. In conclusion therefor, this course has been an eye-opener for me in regards of E-learning.
I miss out key-components of collaborative learning activities and assessments. This might be due to poor literature or my lack of understanding the concept. I wish the course had focused more on appliances of collaborative learning, and less on theories and models. However, the literature have shown me some important factors associated with effective collaborative learning, and the most profound one is the five-stage-model by Salmon 2. I liked this model as it seems applicable towards most courses, activities and assessments. Collaborative learning is important as it improves social skills, working with others, sharing knowledge, feedback – critical friends, analyzing and evaluating, and developing new skills3. One more aspect is that students work together rather than alone, with shared responsibilities, decisions and goals4.
- How will your learning influence your practice?
In my doctoral studies I have evolved a lot regarded digital literacy, as my daily work now involves using computers most of the time. I have felt that developing digital literacy increases my effectiveness, self-efficacy and quality, when working. Being able to experience a digital literacy evolvement myself and see its significance, but also to be able to participate in this course, has made me realize that my teaching must also be developed towards digitalization and E-learning. Furthermore, the course has also shown me the importance of collaborative learning in E-environments. How to create an E-environment, how to nourish, and how to keep it consistent, and the role and presence as tutor and students in a E-environment.
Further, this course also gave me ideas of managing content of the course through scheme-modules, implementing groups activities, time to read on course-content, E-tools, discussions, and reflections in week sessions. One important step when initializing this model is to have clear instructions of course topics, course goals, clear instructions on how to participate.
What suggestions do you have (activities and/or in general) for development of eLearning in your own teaching or context?
In general, I would recommend first looking over course syllabus within each course, that they are aligned with collaborative digital learning. By changing learning outcomes in syllabus, a higher degree of learning outcome can be adopted. Further, by changing the course layout being aligned with the Five-Stage-Model will nourish the collaborative learning within the group, as it concept is about exploring, conversation, information exchange, collaborative construction and development of knowledge. Activities that I feel can be a good contribution for Collaborative digital learning are: Conduct an Audit, peer review, and Compare Processes. These three activities are a lot alike. They all focus on conducting a paper in pairs or teams, to analyze or reflect on each other’s paper, and helping each other throughout the process of creating the paper. This is in line with a learning activity which me and a colleague have been working on for the past two years. The supervision is arranged in groups, consisting of 8 students, each working in pairs. In total there are 5 sessions, focusing on areas which are commonly experienced as difficult. At first session we let the student get to know each other, we inform them the purpose of peer-learning, and have them explore the content of the course2. In the second session they are given the first assignment to make a database-search, which are later discussed in groups. At this stage, the student learns how to use a new digital tool and how to make a valid search. In the third session, students are recommended to read up on methods for analysis, which later are discussed within the group, and later students work in pairs trying out these analyses under supervision. At stage four and five, students have written a result or maybe some parts of a discussion, and these are discussed within the group in terms of appropriate names for categories and subcategories. These activities involve digital literacy as they imply using digital tools, and evolve their awareness, knowledge, and competence within digital literacy. To further increase collaborative learning and digital literacy, sessions should include more use of digital tools and collaborative learning activities4, with more collaborative learning activities. I believe this course is a great example for further increase students collaborative digital learning as it also leads to elaboration, explication and application.
- Evans C, Robertson W. The four phases of the digital natives debate. Hum Behav Emerg Technol. 2020;2(3):269-277. doi:10.1002/hbe2.196
- Five Stage Model – Gilly Salmon. Accessed May 7, 2021. https://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html
- McConnell D. E-Learning Groups and Communities [Elektronisk Resurs]. Open University Press in association with the Society for Research into Higher Education; 2006.
- 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics.