Welcome to Demystifying the Student Perspective: Online Environment + Educational Technology

Welcome to Demystifying the Student Perspective: Online Environment + Educational Technology

by Diana Chan -
Number of replies: 7

Welcome to our 3 day interactive discussion on the online environment and education technology from a students perspective. We have a great line up of 3 Undergraduate students from Simon Fraser University to share their experiences.

About this seminar

This seminar will uncover myths in the classroom from a students perspective. Topics will include: use of online platforms, engaging with students online, and effective teaching methods.

About our facilitators

Diana Chan is in her final semester as an Undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business majoring in Marketing and Information Systems. She has taken a whole variety of experimental courses to experience different teaching techniques. 

Hilda Anggraeni is a 4th year student at Simon Fraser University majoring in Interactive arts and technology concentrating in design and informatics. She would like to share her experience in completing her degree both through face to face and online interaction

Our student participants

  • Gracelle Mesina 
  • Mark Woo 
  • Tracy Choi

Participating in SCoPE seminars

SCoPE seminars are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. You are welcome to come and go according to your schedule and interests. To contribute you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site -- a quick process.

The students are eagar to share their experiences with you all, so  feel free to use the forum as a tool to ask questions and get insight on what students think. 

Please feel free to introduce yourself and don't forget to mention your affiliation with a Post Secondary Institution! 

In reply to Diana Chan

Re: Welcome

by Irwin DeVries -

Hi Diana and Hilda,

Thank you for taking the time to do this! I really look forward to learning from your experiences and from those of other participants. I'm involved with developing online courses at TRU, Open Learning and am eager to gain any wisdom and insights from students who live in the online learning world. On a side note, I was an undergrad at SFU more years ago than I care to tell, and I think I can safely say things may have changed a little!



In reply to Irwin DeVries

Re: Welcome

by Hilda Anggraeni -

Hi Irwin,

Welcome to Demistifying the Student Perspective, we're terrific to have you with us! Would you like to share a bit of your own experience as an undergrad student and how teaching and learning has evolved up to now?  

In reply to Hilda Anggraeni

Re: Welcome

by Irwin DeVries -

Well… I haven’t recently noticed revolutionary posters in the Main Concourse or heard of sit-ins in the President’s office at SFU lately. Seriously, though, there are so many changes that I hardly know where to start. I could fill a book with responses, which is something I am sure you don't want or need. However, the one biggest thing, when I force myself to narrow it down, is that academic knowledge and activity are no longer so much the exclusive property of, or confined to, the halls and classrooms of the university, approved textbooks and library stacks. In fact, I would go further and say that things have turned inside out: The world is the university and we just have to figure out how to harness this new concept and how we as universities can redefine our role in this reality. To me the jury is still out on how this will happen, although there are some interesting hints of things to come. For instance, high quality open courses and other learning resources are now available with the tap of a finger on a touchscreen or mouse from MIT or Stanford University; countless high quality video resources such as lectures by eminent professors and thought leaders are available from the Khan Academy, TED or YouTube; and tools for debate, research, collaboration and mass communication are available for anyone with Internet access to use. Many creative faculty are inspired to reach out and bring the world of resources and tools for collaboration into their courses, testing new and interesting forms of teaching and learning. Some of these initiatives seem to be working well and some of them are more hype than substance. But these are still early days and we have a lot to learn – and I don’t think that will ever stop. At least I hope it doesn’t!  

In reply to Irwin DeVries

Re: Welcome

by Hilda Anggraeni -

I agree with your point that now academic activity are not exclusive to what we do inside the university. For me as an interactive art student, a lot of the skill that I have learnt are not coming directly from the lab session or lecture anymore. Most of the time student has to learn on our own to complete the project given out in the course. In most of the cases, I feel that the courses I took is designed for student as a guidelines and information resources and it really is up to the student to take the project for their own exploration. This has worked out pretty well in my school experience but i think sometimes it relied on too much on student's motivation. This is my own perspective from the program I am currently in, will be interesting to know other people's experiences around this topic!  

In reply to Irwin DeVries

Re: Welcome

by Diana Chan -

SFU has definitely changed in the last few years to try to foster student engagement on campus. http://www.sfu.ca/engage.html

Also a few courses in the SFU Surrey Campus are very interactive and more project-based compared to the standard lecture styles. Things are surely changing!

In reply to Diana Chan

Re: Welcome to Demystifying the Student Perspective: Online Environment + Educational Technology

by Jim Julius -

Hi! This is a great setup for a discussion and I'm looking forward to hearing from the students. I'm the faculty director for online education at MiraCosta College, a 2-year college on the coastline north of San Diego, California. Previously I worked at San Diego State University in Instructional Technology Services and we made it a point to have regular dialog with student leaders.

I think one topic that would be great to hear from you all on is the idea of the "net generation" or that somehow because you have "grown up with technology," all students are automatically facile with technology, are harder to engage, and want to use technology in all aspects of your education. Of course this is overstating things, but many faculty (across the spectrum of technology comfort and use) do think something to this effect. 

What are your thoughts on this kind of characterization of today's students? What does the average educator need to understand about young people, technology, and learning?

In reply to Diana Chan

Re: Welcome to Demystifying the Student Perspective: Online Environment + Educational Technology

by Colin Madland -

Hi everyone,

I'm the e-Learning facilitator at TRU open learning and beginning work on my thesis for the MEd (Distance Ed) program at Athabasca U.

I may not be able to participate 'live' throughout the weekend, but I see significant value in a conversation like this to encourage dialogue between students and those who claim to know something about students and what they need ;).

Looking forward to the conversation.

Colin