Course Description
An online course offered by Durham College through the innovative OntarioLearn consortium which includes all 24 Ontario Colleges. In this space, instructors might be teaching students from various colleges across Ontario in one digital course space.
Narrative
This course included formal Course Evaluations that were implemented following the end of term for each section. I combined all responses from the multiple sections that I taught from 2013- to 2016 into the following table.
What did I learn from this experience?
While I was did not choose the questions myself, they provided me with appropriate feedback on my online facilitation skills during my early years teaching online.
Lesson One - Timing of Feedback
The course evaluations results were only sent to instructors following the end of the term which is common practice. While the details were useful, they did not serve the students as there was no opportunity to modify my teaching style.
This experience inspired me to pursue additional forms of iterative and ongoing feedback throughout the term so that I could adequately adjust the learning experience for current students.
Lesson Two - Course Design vs Facilitation
This course evaluation also made an interesting division between course deisgn and facilitation with two separate list of questions. While I would like to think these live together, the staffing requirements in HigherEd don't always allow the same individual to teach the course they designed for implementation.
In short, I learned that online courses can have one of three outcomes:
OUTCOME 1
Good Facilitator
Bad Course
OUTCOME 2
Good Facilitator
Good Course
OUTCOME 3
Bad Facilitator
Good Course
note: I use the "bad" and "good" labels fairly liberally here in jest...
While the results teaching this course showcased a consistent positive outcome for my facilitation skills, the course results did suffer at times due to the design. This was corrected with a few updates in between semesters adjusting materials, assessments, and activities with fellow instructional designers.
Lesson Three - Impact of Privilege
Although I continued to evolve my skills as a facilitator, I remained mindful of the undeniable impact that privilege had on my "performance". Many studies have demonstrated the bias students have in assessing their instructors based on their personal identity.
As a white cis-male, I would (by-default) score higher than other excellent instructors from different backgrounds. I would commonly address this fact with students openly in an attempt to decolonize and deconstruct the course evaluation process by asking them to focus on the learning environment. These efforts and subsequent discussions built a strong foundation for my practice.