For an upcoming assignment I am looking at social learning theory. At its core the theory is about how we learn in community and how we perceive  one another in a community and then align our behaviours and actions with the norms established or where we find successful outcomes. Modelling is a big piece of this. In face to face environments instructors model for students ways of being in their respective disciplines and learners model for one another and through that process students find what is acceptable and not in the learning space.

In online environments there are some blind spots in being able to observe the nuances of the learners and the instructor limiting how the community can perceive one another so this needs to be designed into courses with intention. One way I am going to experiment with this is through sharing the products from the MALAT courses on this blog more.

There are a few considerations around this for me:

  1. I don’t get the best marks. This would be super easy if I was A+ on every assignment. I am not. I still think it is worth sharing. In fact I think it is even amazing if my students see me not getting A+ on my assignments. I teach business writing. Do I need to show them I am an expert at writing in this program? Certainly there is reason for them to think I am in the position of instructor because I can write and have some experience with writing well but even more important for me is to show them that the process of learning and improvement does not end. I also think we can model for each other that process throughout the program more readily if we share our work.
  2. This also needs consideration of the instructor who has completed the marking and whether they are willing to have their marking on display (in this case my current instructor is willing) but I would need to ask each instructor if that was agreeable to them.
  3. It has been brought to my attention that by doing this the risk of plagiarism is higher. For me plagiarism of my work is a problem that is not mine. I don’t create plagiarism through sharing my work. I also don’t think plagiarism is a moral question but one that reveals where students are. They need more time, they are overwhelmed, they don’t know how to think of the topics, they have an unmet need and because of this cannot think deeply about topics in their own way. Plagiarism is not created by giving the opportunity to do so.

In this spirit of opening up the ability to observe one another in the learning community and modelling the messy process of learning I have shared an essay from my current course here. In this one I do what I committed not to do in my writing when embarking on the course. Repeated claims with no backing. There are some other issues but this is issue I am having trouble really overcoming in my academic writing. I love a sweeping statement of judgement, and it shows.

1-Karen McMurray_LRNT522_Research w-Loni comment

 

Slagter van Tryon, P. J., & Bishop, M. J. (2009). Theoretical foundations for enhancing social connectedness in online learning environments. Distance Education, 30(3), 291–315.
DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/01587910903236312