Running Head: ONLINE COURSE FORMATS REFLECTION

Online Course Formats Presentation Reflection

EDUC5103G Online Technology in Education, Dr. Rob Power
Alissa Bigelow
University of Ontario Institute of Technology

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Introduction
Throughout our lifetime we have seen technology evolve and transform the traditional
face-to-face lecture into virtual classroom environments. Demand for flexible learning options
that can be facilitated through various asynchronous and synchronous online platforms and
Learning Management Systems (LMSs) continues to grow at an alarming rate (Bernard, Abrami,
Wade, Borokhovski, & Lou, 2004; Walker, 2004; J. Tyler & Zurick, 2015). Technological
advancements and the creation of virtual online classroom environments provide students with
the ability to access course material at their convenience and learn at their own pace. In response
to this demand, a growing array of digital tools continue to evolve and support a blend of
asynchronous and synchronous collaboration and communication amongst the online learners.
More recently, the development and public offering of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
has created another pathway that enables thousands of students from across the globe to connect
and gain access to an abundance of information, all the while having a significant impact on
traditional views about online learning (Daniel, 2012).
We live in a rapidly evolving society and new technologies that hold the potential to
transform the delivery of education are being introduced every day. It was through our
presentation that we aimed to draw attention to the ever-changing educational landscape and
provide our peers with access to resources they will need to support an appropriate blend of
online pedagogy and technological tools when designing a course for online delivery.
Digital Tools & Multimedia
For the first six weeks of the semester, I had the pleasure of working with James Elsdon,
Michelle Rivers, and Shirley Merith. Our group was tasked with presenting the various formats
that are commonly used to deliver online courses. After much discussion around the topic, we

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decided to focus on the four most common ways in which to deliver an online course;
asynchronous, synchronous, blended/hybrid, and through Massive Open Online Course
(MOOCs) platforms. As we began to dig deeper into the available technologies that enable and
support online course delivery, we found there were an overwhelming number of topics we could
cover, however we faced a tight time frame of only one hour to present the material and engage
with the class. We developed a pre-presentation survey created through Survey Monkey to offer
our classmates the opportunity to state their topic preferences for the evening. The survey proved
to be a valuable tool to assist us when preparing our presentation, and although we did not
receive responses from every individual within the class, we obtained responses from over half
of the class and were able to better focus our presentation to meet the needs of our classmates
based on the information we received.
One of questions within the survey addressed the social aspect that we were required to
incorporate into the presentation as a means to engage our peers. Based on the responses from
the pre-presentation survey, we found that the highest number of students in our class had a
Twitter account and used the micro-blogging platform the most frequently, when compared to
other popular social media platforms. In response to this, we embedded a Twitter feed on our
website and used the hashtag #courseformats to aggregate the tweets, and share knowledge and
resources during our presentation. Throughout the presentation there was a lot of engagement
through Twitter. Much to our surprise, George Siemens, one of the fathers of the MOOC
delivery format, retweeted a tweet made during our discussion about MOOCs. Curating the
tweets through the use of a hashtag proved to be a useful digital tool as it helped us connect with
our peers, observe and immediately respond to what they were finding helpful, and extend our
presentation and valuable resources to those outside of the Adobe Connect classroom.

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In an effort to introduce everyone to our topic, we collaboratively developed a script and

I created a short video using the Moovly platform. We were initially going to create an
introductory video using a program called Videoscribe, however every group that presented
before us had used that platform to create a video. We decided to use an alternative platform for
video creation and opted to use the paper cut-out look and feel available within the program. In
my current role as an Instructional Design Technologist I am exposed to a wide array of
multimedia applications. I had not yet worked extensively with Moovly and found this to be a
very worthwhile experience as it gave me the opportunity to further explore the features and
functionality within the program. The video was a great way for us to quickly bring everyone up
to speed about the topic we were going to be discussing, and we were able to present it in a new
an engaging way.
Our presentation itself was created and delivered using Google Slides. We found this
web-based software to be the easiest way that we could work collaboratively and stay apprised of
the latest changes and updates to the presentation as it was being created. Another advantage of
Google Slides was that it gave us the option to present live from within the web-based software
or save it as a regular Power Point file. Rather than screen share to deliver a live web-based
presentation which could have caused some bandwidth issues for the class, we were able to
upload the presentation file to the Adobe Connect classroom and navigate the slides quite easily
during our presentation.
In an effort to break up some of the speaking and lecturing that commonly occurs during
presentations, it was very important to our group to engage the class in a variety of activities that
would stimulate the sharing of ideas and discussion around our topic. We began by using the
web-based mind mapping tool Popplet for the asynchronous component, and we used Cacoo for
the blended/hybrid piece. These applications gave us the flexibility to customize and present our

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activities in new and aesthetically appealing ways, provided our classmates with exposure to new
virtual collaboration tools, and gave us the ability to gather information from the breakout
sessions. While they proved to be valuable tools that effectively captured the ideas and
discussions generated from within the breakout sessions, requiring our classmates to learn how to
use two new applications in a very short period of time may not have been a good idea. If we
were to do it over again I feel that would have been a wiser choice to use only one of the two
applications for both activities to make it easier for our peers to participate.
For my piece of the presentation about blended/hybrid course delivery, I began by
engaging the class with a question about how they define blended/hybrid learning and used the
Adobe Word Cloud app to gather their answers. The app I used is a simple flash file that is
available for free download from Adobes website and after it is unzipped, can be shared in
Adobe Connect in the same manner as when one shares a document. The resulting word cloud
can then be exported and saved as a png file. This activity used a new tool to engage the class
and generated some interesting discussion around the many ways in which blended/hybrid
learning is currently defined. This tool enabled me to capture the ideas and comments from our
peers and visually display the results by posting the word cloud on the Blended page of our
resource website after the presentation. This exercise, while new and different, generated some
good discussion but it felt rushed due to the time restrictions in place. It may have been more
beneficial to the class had there been more time available for discussion around the results.
We decided to use the free website creation tool Weebly.com to create a website
(http://onlinecourseformats.weebly.com/) to house our digital resources. Throughout my
experience creating websites and blogs, I have found Weebly to be the easiest tool to use and it
offers the most flexibility to customize and better organize content on the site. Each topic within
our presentation is located on a page that contains an overview of the course format, suggestions

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of best practice, examples of learning activities, links to digital tools that can support the delivery
format, benefits and challenges that can be encountered, video resources, additional online
resources, and references. We did not use a specific Start Here button on the Overview page as
our website is intended to be a self-directed, collection of digital resources rather than a content
management system and we felt the button to be unnecessary for our situation. It was very
important to our group that we provide our peers with access to the tools and resources they will
need should they be tasked with delivering a course in an online environment. I feel we were
able to leverage the tools within Weebly.com to create a very rich and valuable collection of
resources for our peers.
Reflecting upon our presentation I am in awe at the number and range of digital tools and
multimedia that we used within a one-hour time frame. For the most part I feel that our
presentation flowed very nicely and we were very successful when facilitating the use of these
tools. Although there were a few things I would change had I to do it over again, I am very
happy with the end result and feel these tools were appropriate choices to support the delivery of
our presentation.
The Presentation
We delivered our presentation on February 23, 2016. Leading up to that evening, our
group sent over 900 emails and made countless changes to the presentation topics, format, and
activities. We dedicated ourselves to producing a quality presentation over the course of the six
weeks leading up to the night to ensure that we gave a presentation that was not only
informative, but engaging as well. Due to the wide range of skillset and workplace experience
that is present within our class, we used the pre-presentation survey to guide the focus of our
presentation. We felt it was important to provide a very brief overview of the foundational

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information so we could spend the majority of the time discussing new information, share ideas
and provide examples of different strategies that can be used when delivering courses online.
As much as we planned and agonized over the time allotted for each topic, some parts of
the presentation ended up taking much longer to discuss than anticipated. This, unfortunately,
resulted in the need to take away time from other parts of the presentation in order to stay within
our one-hour time allotment. We had practiced going through the presentation together prior to
the evening and all agreed to rehearse our parts of the presentation to ensure they fit within the
times that had been allotted. We appointed a dedicated time keeper, however it was quite
difficult, and likely would have appeared somewhat un-collegial, to cut off another group
member mid-topic. I feel it would have been beneficial if everyone had rehearsed and timed their
parts as discussed in order to keep the presentation on track and also respect the time and effort
made by the other group members.
Although the mind mapping activities had to be cut shorter than originally planned, I feel
they were well received and some very good discussions about asynchronous and blended/hybrid
learning occurred. In the beginning, we decided to use the web-based mind mapping application
Cacoo to gather ideas generated during the brainstorming activities and discussions for
asynchronous and blended/hybrid learning. Popplet was a new addition to the presentation only a
few days in advance, and while it was decided that it would be nice to change up the tools we
used for the mind mapping activities, the web-based application didnt work very well on the
night of our presentation. We had used Popplet several times prior to the presentation and did not
experience any issues, however during the presentation we experienced significant lag, and
several of our classmates were repeatedly kicked out of the activity. Reflecting on this part of the

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presentation I feel as though we should have used the same application for both activities so our
classmates didnt have to learn how to use two new applications in a very short period of time.
The part of the presentation I was most pleased with was how we conducted the breakout
rooms. We had initially planned to separate the class into four breakout rooms with each of us as
a moderator, however after participating in other presentations, we decided that it might be better
to have one person remain external to the discussions in order to keep track of the time and send
the broadcast messages. Having three groups also generated larger groups with the potential for
richer discussion.
While I was very happy with how the breakout sessions were facilitated, I think I was
most disappointed with the surprise additions to the presentation that resulted in the need to cut
back on the amount of time we had for our discussion sessions as the presentation wore on. The
discussion pieces were what we had initially deemed the cornerstone of our presentation but due
to what I would deem as preventable circumstances, unfortunately needed to be cut short.
Overall I feel we worked very well together as a group. Our presentation was the
reflection of an incredible amount of discussion, planning, and development over the course of a
six-week time period. While everything didnt necessarily go as planned, I am still very happy
with the presentation and resources we provided our peers.
Peer Feedback
In order to gather feedback about the presentation from our peers, our group used a
Google Form. We selected this tool for a variety of reasons including ease of use, the ability to
be embedded directly on our Weebly website, the ways in which the results can be displayed,
and the variety of ways in which the data can be exported. We spent a great deal of time
developing questions that we felt would measure the areas in which we excelled, the overall

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engagement levels and satisfaction of the class, as well as give our peers the opportunity to
express areas for growth. We chose to use a combination of likert scale and paragraph answer
questions. We wanted to make the feedback process relatively easy for our peers, but we also
wanted to provide them with the space to record their personal feedback about the strengths,
weaknesses and other areas they felt appropriate. One of the limitations I discovered with the
new Google Forms is the apparent inability to wrap text in the Paragraph question types. I
found this feature to be very problematic when completing the feedback forms for other
presentations during this course and have since learned that there is the ability to switch back to
the old Google Forms which is more accommodating of longer answer questions.
The feedback we received from our peers was very
positive. As shown in Figure 1, more than half of the class
stated they were engaged throughout the entire presentation.
When asked about the learning that occurred as a result of

Figure 1: Reported engagement levels throughout

the presentation

the presentation, we also received very positive results as

seen in Figure 2. A complete copy of the peer feedback
responses can be found in the Appendix.
Figure 2: Reported learning achieved from the
presentation

We received some feedback that was constructive in

nature which is appreciated and has been noted. A few responses stated that we had too much
text on some of the slides. Due to the tight time frame of the presentation, many of the slides
contained far more information than they would have, had we had more time to discuss the key
points in greater detail. We acknowledged this negative aspect during the presentation and
directed our peers to the Overview page on our website where they could view the slides in
further detail upon the conclusion of class.

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We also received a comment that expressed concern that we did not include any
information about ourselves on our website. As previously stated, we created the website with
the intent that it be used as a collection of resources and felt that an About Us section was not
necessary. In hindsight, I do feel that perhaps we should have included a Contact Us form in
the event that a visitor discovers a broken link or would like further information and as such,
have added a contact form to the Overview page of our resource website.
Other areas for improvement that were noted were the lack of time for the breakout
activities and the use of two new tools, one of which wasnt functioning very well during our
presentation. I believe I have already addressed both of these areas of concern earlier in this
paper but it was nice to see that upon reflection, my concerns about the presentation were
consistent with those of my peers.
I was somewhat surprised at the quality and quantity of some of the peer feedback we
received in response to our presentation. Personally, I spent a great deal of time reflecting after
each of the presentations in an effort to provide positive and constructive feedback that I hoped
would help my peers when writing their reflective papers. While the questions some of the
groups asked may not have directly addressed the feedback I wanted to give, I was always able
to include all of the notes I had made during their presentations within the feedback form for
each group. Some of our peers clearly put careful thought into their responses, but I found quite a
few to be lacking in detail and relatively unhelpful to the reflective process.
Peer feedback is a tricky component to introduce into the classroom at any level of
education. Personally, I have found that when it is optional and not associated with assessment,
students will not complete it, and when tied to assessment, it often feels forced and unauthentic.
The positive comments we received were fantastic to read and validated the incredible amount of

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work we put into the presentation. I feel as though we were already aware of most of the areas
that were identified as weaknesses so thankfully there were not any surprises in that respect. In
summary, the peer feedback we received, while greatly appreciated, felt as though it reinforced
what I already knew rather than promoted deeper meaning and understanding.
Conclusion
I must admit, I did have some concerns about the majority of this course being assessed
around one group presentation. I do not particularly enjoy group work for many reasons,
however I am very pleased with this experience, and I am proud of the presentation we delivered
and the resource website we created. I feel that I was given a wonderful opportunity to get to
know some of my classmates better and hope this was a positive experience for them as well.
In addition to learning a great deal about the tools and resources that are available to
support online course delivery formats, I also learned some very valuable lessons from this
experience. First, we all have different priorities and different life events occurring outside of our
studies, and while some group members may be able to dedicate
themselves to the project at a certain time, others may not. In
addition, we need to respect each ideas and opinions, communicate
clearly and frequently, and most importantly, trust each other.
This was, by far, the best team of classmates I have had the pleasure to work with, and
one of the most positive group experience I have ever had. I feel the positive group dynamic
enabled us to work well together was reflected in the quality of our presentation and that our
peers have been able to learn and grow as a result of our presentation about online course
formats.

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References
Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Wade, A., Borokhovski, E., & Lou, Y. (2004). The Effects of
Synchronous and Asynchronous Distance Education: A Meta-Analytical Assessment of
Simonson's. Association for Educational Communications and Technology.
Daniel, J. (2012). Making sense of MOOCs: Musings in a maze of myth, paradox and possibility.
Journal of interactive Media in education, 2012(3), Art-18. doi: 10.5334/2012-18.
J. Tyler, M., & Zurick, A. (2015). Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Learning Elements: Is
There A Measurable Difference? EJM European Journal of Management, 15(3), 69-76.
doi:10.18374/ejm-15-3.6.
Pappas, C. (2014). The Top 10 e-Learning Statistics for 2014 You Need To Know eLearning
Industry. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/top-gamification-statistics-and-factsfor-2015.
Walker, S. (2004). Socratic strategies and devil's advocacy in synchronous CMC debate. Journal
of Computer Assisted Learning, 20(3), 172-182. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2004.00082.x.

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Appendix
Peer Feedback Responses for Online Course Formats Presentation

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