so my presentation is basically based on
the premise that one of the missing
elements in online course excessive
practice what does that mean well in
order for me to give you this
explanation I need to take you back
about three years ago I started a
program here at New Jersey City
University specifically the educational
technology leadership doctoral program I
told many my friends and family members
that I was going to do a doctorate they
were very excited for me it’s something
that I was passionate about more
importantly I’m the first person in my
family to get a doctorate so for me this
was a huge milestone just all unto
itself
however I did have some people give me
some interesting comment about online
learning and these were the comments
that I’ve heard over the years not only
from peers and colleagues but even from
some my former students why are you
taking an online course why are you
doing a degree that’s online online
learning is hard it’s difficult it’s
solitary now for those who don’t know me
I am a believer in online learning I’ve
spent the last 20 years and I hopefully
don’t look like it I spent the last 20
years designing implementing and leading
online learning in both corporate and
academic environments so I think in my
mind I think I know something about
online learning and more importantly I
know how to succeed so I started with my
cohort and this is a picture of my
cohort in the educational technology
program and when I first spent my first
week with them one of the things that
our instructor in this case dr. Laura
Seeger said to us was you are a
community and you’re gonna learn from
each other you are going to learn from
each and every single one of these
people in this room so to me the road to
success was simple in my mind I was
going to apply the same tactics the same
tools in my tool kit that I
always used to succeed in online
learning which for me what’s always hard
work time management and a lot of
sacrifice because that’s what I did
throughout my entire career I’ve
sacrificed I’ve worked hard I got to my
masters I got to a post masters and I’m
like well I can do all that I can do a
doctorate and within the first year of
the program that’s what happened I was
succeeding I things were going well I
was doing well on my coursework then
about two years ago I hit a roadblock
and what was really interesting was I
started hearing a lot of the echoes for
my former students and peers who used to
tell me online learning is hard online
learning is solitary I was taking a
research course here at New Jersey City
University and for me this was a
difficult course it was something that I
had never encountered I had zero frame
of reference but I trusted in the
professor’s I trusted in the program and
I said I’m gonna do well I’m just gonna
work hard I’m gonna study hard I’m going
to answer all of my discussion board
posts it’s gonna be great
the first time it comes in let me
rephrase that
I handed in my first assignment I got a
not-so-good grade the second assignment
comes in I got an even lower grade now
in my mind I’m I’m struggling because in
my mind it’s I’m working hard I’m doing
everything that I’ve told my students
over the last twenty years this is what
you do to succeed in online course and
here I am seeing that it’s not working
for me talk about a reality check so one
of the biggest challenges that many of
us have especially if you’ve been in
online learning like I have for a long
time is you’re used to working alone
you’re used to working in your own
little silo and one of the things that I
had to break out of my shell was to ask
others for help and the reality is
learning is a social activity learning
happens in a social context meaning you
don’t just sit and absorb information
when
you engage with others learning happens
and that’s what I needed to do but in
this case I needed to take it a step
further and that is when I started
working with my community
aka my cohort New Jersey City
University’s educational technology
leadership program uses a corporate
system so you are taking classes with
about 15 to 20 students at the same time
and you take these courses together
through the course of your time in the
program so I was doing all the standard
things that you would expect I was
answering the discussion board I was
handing in my assignments but the one
thing that I really wasn’t doing was
engaging with the community now based on
Wagner’s work I’m not going to read you
the entire quote but just the kind of
paraphrase what makes a community of
practice different from the regular
community for example think of everyone
here right now we are in a community we
are all here because you’re interested
in learning about these variety of
topics here today Jersey City as a
community because people happen to live
and work and get educated in Jersey City
right but a learning community of
practice is different in that people
come together because they have a
specific interest it could be for
example becoming math teachers in my
case it was I was taking courses with
educational technologists we have a
common interest but the goal is to learn
to grow in that if I to become experts
in that field and part of that which is
what’s highlighted and underlined here
on my presentation is that it’s not just
about being part of a community
it’s about actively engaging in the
community meaning active discussions
active cooperation because active
participation is what leads to learning
you can’t just sit in a community and go
I’m a part of a community I’m waiting
for all the knowledge to come in and
just simply download into my brain does
it happen however what can happen if you
actively engage with students asking
questions getting into healthy debate
you can learn something and that’s what
I did I spent time talking to my
colleagues and said look I’m struggling
in this
research course I don’t know what I’m
doing wrong tell me what I’m doing wrong
help me understand what I’m doing that’s
just not working so I spoke to a bunch
of other students and you know what they
were having the same problems but the
beauty of it was that they had found
different solutions and by my having
these conversations these active engaged
conversations I was able to come up with
solutions suffice to say I passed the
chorus at the end but the real
interesting part was how we did it it’s
an online program which meant we only
met in person one time a year and these
are by the way actual chats from our
group yes I didn’t get permission to use
their images before this presentation
today but this is a live zoom chat and
this is alive what’s app chat these
tools along with zoom became our life’s
blood whenever I had a question whenever
I had a moment I just need some
encouragement or more importantly I
wanted to invite people to some sort of
presentation like today’s TED talk we
use these tools to interact with each
other so what we were doing is we were
forming the community beyond the
classroom we continue to engage each
other through these tools both on and
off our different semesters so the
epiphany that I had was you could be
successful in an online course but when
the chips are down when you find
yourself struggling you need your
community it’s not just enough to have a
community you need to actively engage
with them by asking the appropriate
level of questions by debating your
thoughts and ideas you will learn far
more than just simply sitting in front
of a computer and reading materials so
over the next year I spent time working
with all my colleagues and peers
I spent time not only asking questions
but then it’s a community right it’s not
just enough for me to take from them all
this great information I also started
actively giving information to the
members of my community because that’s
what a community does you give
and take you work for the betterment of
the group and over time we not only help
each other in terms of course
assignments but we were there to support
our fellow colleagues in some of their
dissertation research and in some of
their activities in addition we started
having social events where we every
whenever we could we would meet we would
just sit and chat and just have a
conversation we evolved our community
beyond just being a classroom of
students that were together we became
friends in some cases family ultimately
these groups had been working closely
together to form this cohesive unit of a
community over the last three years and
quite frankly I can’t imagine not doing
this program without them so where does
this all lead to so I learned about the
importance of a community I’ve learned
about the importance of using the
community through active engagement and
active dialogue well I’m happy to report
three weeks ago fifteen of us defend
their dissertation and 15 of us
succeeded so technically and dr.
Schaumburg tell me if I’m wrong here
we’re all doctors right now including
myself unofficially May 22nd we’ll walk
down the aisle and we’ll be official at
that point in time but what was very
interesting about this event this is a
week-long event where our instructors
and our co-op members were going through
our defenses and throughout the entire
week this wonderful little device was
ringing every single five minutes
because what was happening was even
though our coursework had ended our
community members were cheering us on
sending us text messages sending us
emojis sending us all kinds of images
cheering us on congratulating us when we
finished our defenses the interesting
thing is is that our coursework has
ended but the community thrives and
continues to exist even today
so in conclusion for those of you who
are thinking about taking an online
course for those of you who have taken
an online course and you feel that it
wasn’t for me there’s some challenges
I’m not so sure of it
before you go down that path let me
offer some advice and take it from
personal experience in the last three
years I came to realize the importance
of this learning community practice that
is formed whether it’s by design or
otherwise this is something that you can
form in all of your online classes I
don’t care if you’re taking a single
online course or you’re taking an entire
degree program online you can succeed by
using this community of practice if one
does not exist by design you can form
one start talking to the people around
you you can form the necessary
communities and support mechanisms to
help you in succeeding in any type of
online environment I know that this
community is going to live long after
graduation and you know what I’m a
better person for it
more importantly together we all have
grown and have become doctors you know
what I think it proves something
together we can achieve a lot thank you [Applause]
the premise that one of the missing
elements in online course excessive
practice what does that mean well in
order for me to give you this
explanation I need to take you back
about three years ago I started a
program here at New Jersey City
University specifically the educational
technology leadership doctoral program I
told many my friends and family members
that I was going to do a doctorate they
were very excited for me it’s something
that I was passionate about more
importantly I’m the first person in my
family to get a doctorate so for me this
was a huge milestone just all unto
itself
however I did have some people give me
some interesting comment about online
learning and these were the comments
that I’ve heard over the years not only
from peers and colleagues but even from
some my former students why are you
taking an online course why are you
doing a degree that’s online online
learning is hard it’s difficult it’s
solitary now for those who don’t know me
I am a believer in online learning I’ve
spent the last 20 years and I hopefully
don’t look like it I spent the last 20
years designing implementing and leading
online learning in both corporate and
academic environments so I think in my
mind I think I know something about
online learning and more importantly I
know how to succeed so I started with my
cohort and this is a picture of my
cohort in the educational technology
program and when I first spent my first
week with them one of the things that
our instructor in this case dr. Laura
Seeger said to us was you are a
community and you’re gonna learn from
each other you are going to learn from
each and every single one of these
people in this room so to me the road to
success was simple in my mind I was
going to apply the same tactics the same
tools in my tool kit that I
always used to succeed in online
learning which for me what’s always hard
work time management and a lot of
sacrifice because that’s what I did
throughout my entire career I’ve
sacrificed I’ve worked hard I got to my
masters I got to a post masters and I’m
like well I can do all that I can do a
doctorate and within the first year of
the program that’s what happened I was
succeeding I things were going well I
was doing well on my coursework then
about two years ago I hit a roadblock
and what was really interesting was I
started hearing a lot of the echoes for
my former students and peers who used to
tell me online learning is hard online
learning is solitary I was taking a
research course here at New Jersey City
University and for me this was a
difficult course it was something that I
had never encountered I had zero frame
of reference but I trusted in the
professor’s I trusted in the program and
I said I’m gonna do well I’m just gonna
work hard I’m gonna study hard I’m going
to answer all of my discussion board
posts it’s gonna be great
the first time it comes in let me
rephrase that
I handed in my first assignment I got a
not-so-good grade the second assignment
comes in I got an even lower grade now
in my mind I’m I’m struggling because in
my mind it’s I’m working hard I’m doing
everything that I’ve told my students
over the last twenty years this is what
you do to succeed in online course and
here I am seeing that it’s not working
for me talk about a reality check so one
of the biggest challenges that many of
us have especially if you’ve been in
online learning like I have for a long
time is you’re used to working alone
you’re used to working in your own
little silo and one of the things that I
had to break out of my shell was to ask
others for help and the reality is
learning is a social activity learning
happens in a social context meaning you
don’t just sit and absorb information
when
you engage with others learning happens
and that’s what I needed to do but in
this case I needed to take it a step
further and that is when I started
working with my community
aka my cohort New Jersey City
University’s educational technology
leadership program uses a corporate
system so you are taking classes with
about 15 to 20 students at the same time
and you take these courses together
through the course of your time in the
program so I was doing all the standard
things that you would expect I was
answering the discussion board I was
handing in my assignments but the one
thing that I really wasn’t doing was
engaging with the community now based on
Wagner’s work I’m not going to read you
the entire quote but just the kind of
paraphrase what makes a community of
practice different from the regular
community for example think of everyone
here right now we are in a community we
are all here because you’re interested
in learning about these variety of
topics here today Jersey City as a
community because people happen to live
and work and get educated in Jersey City
right but a learning community of
practice is different in that people
come together because they have a
specific interest it could be for
example becoming math teachers in my
case it was I was taking courses with
educational technologists we have a
common interest but the goal is to learn
to grow in that if I to become experts
in that field and part of that which is
what’s highlighted and underlined here
on my presentation is that it’s not just
about being part of a community
it’s about actively engaging in the
community meaning active discussions
active cooperation because active
participation is what leads to learning
you can’t just sit in a community and go
I’m a part of a community I’m waiting
for all the knowledge to come in and
just simply download into my brain does
it happen however what can happen if you
actively engage with students asking
questions getting into healthy debate
you can learn something and that’s what
I did I spent time talking to my
colleagues and said look I’m struggling
in this
research course I don’t know what I’m
doing wrong tell me what I’m doing wrong
help me understand what I’m doing that’s
just not working so I spoke to a bunch
of other students and you know what they
were having the same problems but the
beauty of it was that they had found
different solutions and by my having
these conversations these active engaged
conversations I was able to come up with
solutions suffice to say I passed the
chorus at the end but the real
interesting part was how we did it it’s
an online program which meant we only
met in person one time a year and these
are by the way actual chats from our
group yes I didn’t get permission to use
their images before this presentation
today but this is a live zoom chat and
this is alive what’s app chat these
tools along with zoom became our life’s
blood whenever I had a question whenever
I had a moment I just need some
encouragement or more importantly I
wanted to invite people to some sort of
presentation like today’s TED talk we
use these tools to interact with each
other so what we were doing is we were
forming the community beyond the
classroom we continue to engage each
other through these tools both on and
off our different semesters so the
epiphany that I had was you could be
successful in an online course but when
the chips are down when you find
yourself struggling you need your
community it’s not just enough to have a
community you need to actively engage
with them by asking the appropriate
level of questions by debating your
thoughts and ideas you will learn far
more than just simply sitting in front
of a computer and reading materials so
over the next year I spent time working
with all my colleagues and peers
I spent time not only asking questions
but then it’s a community right it’s not
just enough for me to take from them all
this great information I also started
actively giving information to the
members of my community because that’s
what a community does you give
and take you work for the betterment of
the group and over time we not only help
each other in terms of course
assignments but we were there to support
our fellow colleagues in some of their
dissertation research and in some of
their activities in addition we started
having social events where we every
whenever we could we would meet we would
just sit and chat and just have a
conversation we evolved our community
beyond just being a classroom of
students that were together we became
friends in some cases family ultimately
these groups had been working closely
together to form this cohesive unit of a
community over the last three years and
quite frankly I can’t imagine not doing
this program without them so where does
this all lead to so I learned about the
importance of a community I’ve learned
about the importance of using the
community through active engagement and
active dialogue well I’m happy to report
three weeks ago fifteen of us defend
their dissertation and 15 of us
succeeded so technically and dr.
Schaumburg tell me if I’m wrong here
we’re all doctors right now including
myself unofficially May 22nd we’ll walk
down the aisle and we’ll be official at
that point in time but what was very
interesting about this event this is a
week-long event where our instructors
and our co-op members were going through
our defenses and throughout the entire
week this wonderful little device was
ringing every single five minutes
because what was happening was even
though our coursework had ended our
community members were cheering us on
sending us text messages sending us
emojis sending us all kinds of images
cheering us on congratulating us when we
finished our defenses the interesting
thing is is that our coursework has
ended but the community thrives and
continues to exist even today
so in conclusion for those of you who
are thinking about taking an online
course for those of you who have taken
an online course and you feel that it
wasn’t for me there’s some challenges
I’m not so sure of it
before you go down that path let me
offer some advice and take it from
personal experience in the last three
years I came to realize the importance
of this learning community practice that
is formed whether it’s by design or
otherwise this is something that you can
form in all of your online classes I
don’t care if you’re taking a single
online course or you’re taking an entire
degree program online you can succeed by
using this community of practice if one
does not exist by design you can form
one start talking to the people around
you you can form the necessary
communities and support mechanisms to
help you in succeeding in any type of
online environment I know that this
community is going to live long after
graduation and you know what I’m a
better person for it
more importantly together we all have
grown and have become doctors you know
what I think it proves something
together we can achieve a lot thank you [Applause]
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