Online learning: Design, teaching & research

Course design

I design online courses, and teach and facilitate online. I also design training and materials to help educators teach more effectively in online learning environments, for example:

Experiential learning opportunities such as practicums are intentional applied and reflective educational opportunities that “highlight the power of experience” in the learning process (Roberts, 2012). They do not simply task learners with make-work projects in the wider community or workplace, but instead offer experiences that are deliberate in their pedagogical and philosophical design. The MET practicum offers students an opportunity to complete a valuable experiential learning project as part of their MET degree, through placement with an academic or community partner engaged in eLearning development, educational technology integration or other work relevant to educational technology. Project partners host and supervise a practicum student, and benefit from their eLearning expertise.

  • Planning and Managing eLearning: ETEC 520 (2020 – )

Originally developed by Dr. Tony Bates, this course is focused on managing and planning eLearning in educational institutions and organizations, and it is aimed at people who have, or hope to have, management and leadership responsibilities in this sector. Since 2020, it has been radically overhauled to reflect the needs and learning across many sectors during the COVID pandemic.

  • Understanding Learning Analytics: ETEC 543 (2019 – )

Learning analytics (LA) is a significant area of technology-enhanced learning that has emerged during the last decade. It is a fast-growing area of educational technology research with roots in a variety of fields, particularly business intelligence, web analytics, educational data mining, and recommender systems. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in moving from research to practice and in implementing analytics to support learning and teaching. Contemporary educators and educational technology specialists need to be able to understand and think critically about the possible advantages and disadvantages of LA in different contexts. This course is not intended to teach MET students to become sophisticated data scientists, even though we may undertake some simple data exploration for learning purposes. Instead, it is be aimed at a scholar practitioner audience and investigates LA in the context of other data-focused approaches to educational change.

  • Research Methodology in Education: ETEC 500 (2018 – )

I therefore completely redesigned and rebuilt ETEC 500 as a course for education practitioners that emphasizes critical thinking about educational research. It is an important introductory skills course for MET students that supports their further study – especially for those who have been away from education for some time. Materials and activities invite students to identify their own research interests as practitioners, make use of online library tools to find and cite published research, learn about research ethics, explore approaches to qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and action research, and complete a critical academic review of a published research article.

  • Culture and Communication in Virtual Learning Environments: ETEC 542 (2013 – )

This course, developed in collaboration with Yael Tagerud of Linnaeus University in Sweden, and Dr. Hyoshin Kim, is an elective course in the University of British Columbia’s Masters in Educational Technology online graduate program. First offered in spring 2013, it introduces learners to theoretical frameworks and existing research that considers the potential impact of culture on communications and learning in virtual learning environments.

  • Foundations of Global Citizenship (hybrid): HUMN 103 (2016)
    College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada
  • Perspectives on Global Citizenship: SOCI 430B (2005-2013)
    Department of Sociology, UBC Faculty of Arts
  • Cell Biology 1: Structural Basis: BIOL 200 (2008)
    UBC Faculty of Science
  • Effective Online Teaching and Facilitation (2009-2010)

This online professional development course for educators who will teach or facilitate online courses has now been implemented by UBC Continuing Studies as Facilitating Online Across Cultures, within their IDRC-funded North-South partnership Cooperation Knowledge and Development with Centro Boliviano de Estudios Multidisciplinarios (CEBEM) in Bolivia.

Research

I undertake qualitative and quantitative analyses of online communities – primarily online learning communities – to investigate how online learners ‘perform’ their ethnic and cultural identities, and to identify ways in which cultural differences must be considered when teaching online.

See my related research and publications