Yekai’s reflection 3

At present, with the rapid development of science and technology, education has also ushered in significant changes. In the past, when people talked about education, face-to-face learning was usually the first thing that came to mind. Nowadays, learning methods are changing gradually, from face-to-face learning to online learning. For myself, the most impressive online learning experience is this door EDCI339 in University of Victoria, which is the key to my online learning. I learned a lot of learning methods that I could not get in touch with before. Because of the different learning modes, I can also boldly express my own opinions, which increases my confidence in learning and improves my learning efficiency. I’m really happy to be a part of EDCI339. Actually, to tell you the truth, I was a little worried about the online course at the beginning, I have to learn it completely based on my own learning rhythm. But when I really got into the online course, I discovered its mystery.

I summarized three points that I benefited from the EDCI339 online course. First of all, this online course usually combines many media, such as text, video, audio, etc. I found that I could concentrate more on online courses than face-to-face lectures because the resources of EDCI 339 are often more compact. The point of an online course is not to hold your hand and teach you what to learn, but to guide you in a direction that you can learn on your own terms. For example, when I taught the course face to face, one class lasted 120 minutes, and the professor spent almost 100 minutes on PPT. The boring words and long videos made it difficult for me to devote myself to it. EDCI339, on the other hand, Every week, the professor would like to say something to us or give us the instructions for this week’s course through video or text. The video lasts 2-3 minutes, and the text is no more than 200 words. It usually takes 5-10 minutes to understand the goal of this week’s study easily. I think this is the most attractive part of the online course. Crosslin (2018) said “ People generally only have a 5-8 minute attention span”. What’s more, I think video is more efficient than words, and video is more vivid by stimulating our vision and hearing.

The second thing that benefited me a lot was the grading of EDCI339. Some studies have shown that testing is a powerful way to improve learning. But most of the students don’t like tests. Examinations are the way to evaluate our performance in the course, but they are not the only way. Just like EDCI339, it breaks away from the traditional examination and grading model, and is graded by expressing its own opinions. This greatly reduces the students’ anxiety about learning and improves the fun of learning.

Last but not least, Bates (2019) wrote about “The Internet is an extremely powerful medium because through a combination of tools and media it can encompass all the characteristics and dimensions of educational media”. With the development of technology and Internet, people can search almost everything by typing some key words on the Internet. But it’s important for people to recognize the truth of the information. The Internet is a double-edged sword. It helps people use it to search educational materials efficiently and easily. It also provides many error messages. Online courses play an important role in the development of the Internet. We also hope that we can make use of this advantage, so that our learning and education to get greater development.

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