Throughout the learning journey of our lives, we learn and apply many theories; small, big, easy, complicated, important, not so important and so on… Some are perfect, as long as it’s a theory, and many others can or will never have a real life use. In the Online and Networked Learning course many definitions, theories, designs, practices, and success stories were discussed. Gilly Salmon’s 5 stage model was central to the topic of designs for ONL. Although there is no “one size fits all” solutions for learning settings, Salmon’s model of teaching and learning online presents a process that could showcase the technical and e moderation roles of online learning. The open and networked learning course is thereby a good case to investigate how the Salmon’s model works in practice.
In Theory:
| Stages of the model | Technical skills | Facilitator activity | Participant Activities |
| Access and motivation | Setting up system and accessing
Technical Assistance |
Welcoming and encouraging
Rationale for online learning tools |
Gaining access to the system
Finding learning spaces, Becoming familiar with the course information |
| Online socialisation | Sending and receiving messages | Familiarising and providing bridges between culture, social and learning environments
Provide opportunities for interaction, encourage sharing of identities |
Getting to know one another, establishing online identity |
| Information exchange | Searching, personalising software | Facilitating tasks and supporting use of learning materials Provide guidance on appropriate and effective use of discussion space. Encourage participation | Engaging with course material, sharing information, identifying useful information |
| Knowledge construction | Conferencing
Support with relevant tools and their use |
Facilitating process Encourage all learners to contribute
Ask reflective questions, summarise discussions |
Actively learning and participating in discussion. Beginning to construct knowledge |
| Development | Providing links outside closed conference | Supporting—responding Encouraging critical thinking
Give space and opportunities to own the learning space, seek student feedback |
More responsible for own learning. Critical thinking and self reflection |
In practice:
| Stages of the model | Technical skills | Facilitator activity | Participant Activities |
| Access and motivation | Setting ONL resource pages and technology (Adobe connect and web 2.0) | Participants registration and information PBL groups
Welcome messages Introductory webinar |
Access to G+ community, setting accounts and access to Adobe connect, setting a blog. Reading the course information |
| Online socialisation | Zoom platform for communication
Google docs, presentation |
Connecting participants, instruction of connecting media and ways, the ONL Word press site, planning for PBL groups and weekly moderators. | PBL meetings, socialising and getting to know the group members, formal/informal discussions of how to proceed. Self-introductions in video, blog |
| Information exchange | Exploring about different software that could be used for the tasks | Guiding of what and how of the PBL meetings, webinars, tweet chats, activity tracker, reflections blog, peer feedback Facilitating tasks and supporting use of learning materials Provide guidance on appropriate and effective use of discussion space. Encourage participation | Participating in the webinars and tweet chats, PBL group meetings, sharing the information and reflections about tasks and how to carry out them as a group. Clearing out doubts and how to work in the group. |
| Knowledge construction | Use of possible software for publishing bi-weekly tasks | Leading discussions in the first PBL meeting and set the example of how to moderate. Guiding the workaround scenario in each week, Mentoring the moderatos and contribute and reflect when needed | Scenario selection, deciding on tools and work process. Fish Document and presentations. Sharing responsibility and collaboration. |
| Development | Monitoring the PBL group dynamics Problem-solving in the group | Reflection blogs, commenting and giving feedback to fellow participants |
In the real practice, Salmon’s model is more or less recursive between step 2 -5, than just linear. With each topic/module of the course, socializing, information exchange, knowledge construction, and development occur during the four (in our group) PBL group meetings. Typically, selecting the scenario and setting up the FISh document is the main focus of the first meeting. Second and third meetings are consumed for adding contents to the topic. Often times what participants added in the FISh document are moderated, edited, modified and rearranged during the online meeting. After the 4the meeting, almost all the content is ready to publish to the ONL community. In every meeting, there is a part of socializing; it could be anything from missing the morning coffee to stuck in the subway but was always with a lot of laughter. So, in practice, I experienced the recursiveness of Salmon model.
The ONL course activities, tasks and to do’s are in fact overwhelmingly many in the beginning, and hard to digest. But by the end, it was realized that the workload is not actually that unmanageable. I think there has to be a bit of focus to find a good way of presenting the course in a more understandable manner in the beginning. Splitting up the tasks into several stages or presenting them one by one would be better solutions. From my own experience, many in our group didn’t give that much of a priority for blog writing in the beginning, but by the end when the other activities become more familiar, the blog posts slowly evolved.
If I would replicate the course structure for my own course; I may have only two questions – How can I give grades to my students in the course, and, what am I going to do with those who are not participating in group activities.
Albeit, in the bottom line, after all, there is not much of a gap between theory and practice!
References:
- Gill Salmon, The Five-Stage Model: https://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html
- Challenging the five-stage model for e-learning: a new approach: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687760601129588
- The best way to imagine the future is to create it https://www.slideshare.net/ADFI_USQ/5stagemodel
- https://prezi.com/gq5pm7pykgrp/gilly-salmons-five-stage-model-of-elearning/