Week 2 Mini-Session Overview

This week we have a learning activity (mini session) that will be facilitated by your colleagues. You're going to be asked to work together to explore questions around:

• How do Adult Learners get their needs met online?

If you are not listed as one of the facilitators for the activities this week (see the course schedule), then you are a "student" in that activity and will be getting direction from the facilitators.

Your facilitators will be sending out information about where and how they want you to work together online. You may use a discussion forum or they may ask you to try some other collaborative tool. 

But...do start by reading and viewing the material in Week 2 Readings and Resources, to prepare yourself to participate actively. There is a great deal of material included; scan and select the elements you feel are relevant to the topic. Given what you know about teaching adults (if you're feeling foggy about the specific recommendations for teaching adults, use the references in the list to look up "Adult Learning" or "Malcolm Knowles".  Ask yourself:

• What's different about learning online? 
• What benefits might an adult learner derive from taking an online course?
• What challenges might an adult learner encounter? (keep in mind the diversity of learners and the personal/professional circumstances they face, the differences in technological tools, course design, teacher/facilitator skills, etc.)
• How can we (as online facilitators and teachers) help adult learners to learn more effectively online?

Toward the end of the week, "students" will give the facilitators feedback on how they did in the Mini-session Feedback Forum. So you might also have a look at the learning outcomes for this unit and prepare to give feedback on how their facilitation did/not support your achieving those outcomes. And if not, what would have helped you?

If you are finding the "flow" of the course confusing, please return to the Course Outline and review the section on Learning Activities, particularly the bits on Facilitating Mini-sessions, and participating in Mini-sessions.