Ngifunde okuningi – I learnt a lot – Opin paljon during the Open Networked Learning course

14 helmi 2023

Seven weeks have passed since the curtains drew shut on the latest iteration of the Open Networked Learning (ONL) course (ONL222), and I am finally ready to share my experiences. This reflection comes with the same disclaimer as my ONL blog site – it is just a stream of consciousness on ONL. I leave it up to you to decide if you take something from this…

As an institutional learner through Tampere University, I had the choice of completing the course for 3 ECTS or writing this additional reflection on the course and having it upgraded to 5 ECTS. This was a no-brainer for me! The course description indicates that the efforts required would be equivalent to two weeks of full-time studies (i.e. 80 hours). Between the prereading; webinars; group meetings; additional effort required on the group assignments; then completing an individual reflection on each topic; and finally reading and commenting on other group assignments and/or individual reflections, those 80 hours are well understated. Putting in only those hours comes at the sacrifice of deeper engagement to take something meaningful from the learning experience. One of our colleagues kept a tally of their hours spent on the course, and it already exceeded 130 hours before the final topic had been presented.

However, investing those additional hours are worth it. Originally, my motivation to attend the course was for the credits to bolster my teaching portfolio, but I gained more from it than I ever expected. The way the deliverables are structured means you cannot hide from sharing openly and engage with the ONL community, and the wider audience since your reflections are posted on a public blog site. This may make a lot of you uncomfortable. It certainly was a challenge for me. However, once you overcome this hurdle the experience becomes truly freeing. Not only are you learning about important topics considering the shift to the blend of in-person and online learning, but you also build confidence in your online persona and using the tools that are available to you. As a bonus, the course is open access so you can join whether you are with one of the affiliated institutions or not.

Rather than waxing lyrical on the contents of the course, I would prefer to include a summary of my reflections to save you from having to read each one. And rather than having my biased view, I put my reflections into ChatGPT, as an experiment, to get an external perspective of my thoughts on the course. Here is the result:

The articles are a reflection on the author’s experiences in the digital world, navigating private and professional life, embracing openness, and sharing in education, networked collaborative learning, and transitioning from in-person to online teaching due to COVID-19. The author highlights the challenges of separating private and professional life, using separate tools for each, and becoming a guide for students in the abundance of information available online. They discuss the difficulties of working with others in a networked collaborative learning course and emphasise the importance of students having the necessary skills. The author reflects on their experience with ONL222 and how it has changed their teaching philosophy, leading them to focus on teamwork, setting expectations, and increasing student autonomy. The author sees their education as just the beginning and plans to continue improving their skills for their students.

Looking at ChatGPT’s summary, I agree with the content and the key take-aways of the course. So, mission accomplished! It is also clear to me that the tool is not perfect. I acknowledge that I have a complex sentence structure, yet ChatGPT makes me look like an amateur. That said, it can be used as a good source of information by both educators and students alike. This tool is poised to be a disruptor. That leaves me with a question in my head – How can we, as educators, leverage the potential of this tool to facilitate the learning process?

Craig Carlson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University

Read more about the course on the ONL website. The next iteration of ONL starts on 20th February 2023.