Course Outline

ISWO Learning Outcomes

These learning outcomes are drawn from the fields of adult learning and online learning. We have selected a few key themes related to successful online facilitation. At the end of this course, you will be (better) able to apply these to your planning and teaching online.

Themes

Learning Outcomes
(participants will be able to...)

Where & how this shows up in the course

Apply relevant principles & theory to support adult learners online

  • Identify instructional/design problems and propose solutions appropriate for adult online learners 
  • Design and facilitate online learning activities that accommodate diverse groups of adult learners online 
  • Use learning outcomes to guide activity design and evaluation
  • Mini-session topics
  • Your mini-session: designing, choosing tools, and facilitating
  • Engaging in reflective practice (journal nuggets, FLIF, forum discussions)
  • Readings: completing, reflecting, journalling, and sharing

Build & sustain online community

  • Recognize and assess community-building elements and strategies in the design of online learning activities and courses
  • Use appropriate strategies to support diverse communities of online adult learners
  • Mini session topics
  • Design features of this course that support community include: team work, Building Community forum, sharing "journal nuggets" weekly
  • Readings: completing, reflecting, journalling, and sharing

Manage the online course environment

  • Use appropriate strategies and tools to establish and maintain instructor presence, and support learning and community goals
  • Articulate rationale for instructional choices (including tool selection)
  • Attend to “general housekeeping” of the online environment
  • Work effectively with groups online (including recognizing group dynamics, and identifying opportunities to prevent or manage group conflict)
  • Mini-session topics
  • Your mini-session: how you begin, middle, and end it!
  • observing and reflecting on others' approaches to managing the online environment
  • Readings: completing, reflecting, journalling, and sharing

 

Use feedback and assessment strategies skilfully

  • Provide constructive, growth-oriented feedback to your peers
  • Critically reflect on feedback and course experiences to self-evaluate work and learning
  • Your mini-session: facilitating, receiving feedback from others, reflecting on it and submitting a reflection (FLIF)
  • Others' mini-sessions: providing feedback to others on their facilitation
  • self-assessing your participation

Note: If you are an instructional design geek, you might find this interesting:  the learning outcomes listed here are the ones that guide the ISWO course (they apply to you as a learner, here). And, each mini-session has its own learning outcomes and assessment criteria (they apply to the participants of mini-sessions, and the facilitators of mini-sessions need to work with them). The ISWO outcomes in italics (in case you were wondering) are those also found in the mini-session learning outcomes.