When it comes to how many years I had received educations, I have been educating for 18 years since I was born. From kindergarten to the third year of university, I have accepted many different kinds of studies. Also, I witnessed the continuous progress and development of online education. When I was a child, computers were not particularly popular. We only use computers when we have computer classes. And we just learn some basic knowledge and the simple operation of computers. Because I am an international student, before university I received all traditional Chinese education. When I went abroad to college, I experienced a foreign education mode.
My formal online course in university should be considered EDCI339. This course is about distributed and open learning. I learned much knowledge about OER（Open Education Resource）and FLOE (Flexible Learning for Open Education) from this course. What I’ve been eager for before is some kind of class that has no time limitation and no place limitation. Time and place are left to the learner to decide. I think this really provides flexibility and convenience for everyone to learn. I think this is a great advantage of online learning. So I will use the SECTION Model to analyze my online course. Hawk, Reicherter, and Gordes stated SECTION Model checks instructional design from a comprehensive system Not only technical models But the entire educational environment. (2014)
1. Students
First of all, EDCI339 is for all students studying at the University of Victoria. These are highly educated learners, and they also have some familiarity with the operations on the computer. Students decide whether to enroll in this course to join online education through their own needs and choices because this is an online course, computers, and mobile devices are very necessary. Before registering in this course, students should know what is required for this course. Only after they have equipment will they decide to join this course. At the same time, the University of Vitoria also provides computer equipment and wireless network systems on campus. Even if there is no equipment at home, students can also participate in the course learning through the campus network. In addition, when we first entered EDCI339, the instructor also asked us to do a small quiz like a questionnaire. I think the purpose of this quiz is to help instructors understand which majors students take in, whether they understand the online courses, and have they had any experience in other online courses. Questions like this can help instructors design courses more comprehensively and effectively. The instructor can also choose suitable techniques for teaching. In this way, every student participating in the course can receive and adapt to online education.
2. Ease of Use
EDCI 339 has its own website. On the website, the instructor will upload each week’s learning content, learning tasks and some notifications every week. The operation page of this website is very simple and clear. On the navigation page, you can click the link on the navigation to browse the content according to what you want to find. And also provides a search function. When the student is not sure which type of name on the navigation, he can use the search to find related content. Therefore, the operation of this webpage technology is also easy for students to use. Since this is a website, it is available 24 hours. Students can choose the browsing time according to their needs and circumstances. Because in face-to-face teaching, access to learning materials is limited. Students may be required to take notes in the classroom, but if the student is distracted or cannot participate in the class, he will lose the opportunity to obtain learning materials. So, in comparison, online learning materials are better for easy access and use.
3. Cost
Regarding the cost of EDCI339, because he is an online course offered by the University of Victoria. So, the tuition fees are the same as ordinary face-to-face courses. Since it is an online course, the time and place are flexible. Students can choose to stay at home to study instead of driving or taking public transportation to the classrooms. The cost of time and transportation costs is very little. In addition, we do not need printed learning materials on paper, all the learning content can be found on the web page at any time. Means et al. (2009) found that students studied better on blended learning because they spent more time on tasks because the online materials were always available to the students. This is also an advantage of online education. Regarding the tutor, his time is mainly spent on uploading the weekly learning content, looking for a suitable and diverse teaching video and some reference videos for the operation assignment content. Compared to a tutor who teaches face-to-face, he spends less time on teaching content, but more time will be spent on communicating with students to resolve doubts through emails. The teacher-student ratio in this course is 1:45, which is not so large in comparison. The interactive needs between students and teachers can be met. In terms of grading homework, the teacher can also evaluate it more carefully and rigorously, and students can also get better feedback.
4. Teaching and Media Selection
In the EDCI339 course, we use multimedia teaching. Including text explanations, pictures, and videos to further strengthen teaching. The use of multimedia makes boring learning content more easily accepted and understood by students. Students can help them learn by combining multimedia technologies such as text and pictures. Text explanations will be uploaded on the website, and video explanations will be uploaded at the same time for students to choose to achieve personalized learning.
5. Interaction
In the study of edci339, we used Hypothes.is this application. Hypothes.is is an open-source software project that aims to collect comments and opinions about sentences in content that can be accessed from the web. While reading the content, students can also select a piece of content on it to express our comments on that piece of content. Other students can also support or refute your understanding by replying, and at the same time speak his own understanding. This is also considered a learning interaction. This is both an interaction in learning materials and a student-student interaction. Through the different understandings of the learning materials, thinking collides with each other and new understanding can be produced.
In terms of communication, we usually communicate with teachers through email. Or choose to schedule a face-to-face conversation with your teacher. I think this is effective because when you encounter problems with your homework or do not understand something about the learning content, you can consult the teacher by email. The teacher will also quickly reply to you to help you solve the problem and help you answer the difficult points. Tutors can also use the feedback from their assignments to understand how well their students have mastered knowledge. Feedback can make the interaction more effective.
6 & 7. Organizational Issues and Network
This is an online course offered by the University of Victoria. The network technology is worthy of recognition. It has also been tested and improved for many years. The instructors of EDCI339 are professional and have years of educational experience.
In this course, we have used web platforms, like WordPress. What we are using is OpenETC, a free web platform for us to make remarks. As a mode of homework，students required to publish their reflection of every study stage, and use text, pictures, videos, and other multimedia to design and improve their web page.
8. Security and Privacy
We do not have to worry about security and privacy issues. The teacher knows who the students are taught through the university system, and students also get the information of the instructors through the school information. This course can only be entered after logging into the university system. Passwords and login information are protected by individuals. And only students who have registered for this course have permission to enter the website. When you log in on another device, the system will prompt whether to trust the device and whether the log-in is your own. In addition, we communicated with the teacher by mail, which prevented the substitution of information. This is a private conversation and protected by the system. Instructors are also obliged to protect student information.
References:
Hawk, J., Reicherter, A. E., & Gordes, K. L. (2014). SECTIONS model: Strategizing technology-based instruction in physical therapist education. Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 28(1), 73-79. doi:10.1097/00001416-201410000-00013
Means, B. et al. (2009) Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies Washington, DC: US Department of Education
