Introduction
Regarding the best learning tool for Jackson, our group believes that online distributed learning asynchronous class environment with support of a few face-to-face sessions will be most suitable for Jackson. First of all, we took advantage of Jackson’s excelled computer skills by designing online activities and assignments which Jackson will feel more comfortable to utilize his computer skills to complete, this could build up his confidence and interest in economics. To maximize flexibility of the course, we will make all course material available online to cope with Jackson’s part-time job and house chores. As discussed above, Jackson is not social, indirectly meaning that Jackson prefers individual tasks where he could manage his learning pace and time which makes asynchronous classes perfect for him. By making majority of classes online also helps with Jackson financially as he does not need to move out of home and rent closer to school. As mentioned, due to the pandemic, Jackson’s parents’ business drastically declined, working and studying at home could ease off on the financial side of things. Also keeping Jackson’s morale and mental well being as he’s able to associate more closely with his family than friends. We hope that this will change as he progresses with camera learning to interact with potential new friends through Uvic.
Access
Accessibility is also one of the major benefits of open and distributed learning because materials could be accessed anywhere and at anytime. This will be most suitable for Jackson’s lifestyle as his part time job is now moved online, he will need to be at home a lot more. With materials moved online with progression notification, Jackson could pick up the topics at his own pace and learn more with resources online. Some online web-based learning tools will have instructions and progression both to help keep Jackson on track. This is part of our belief that open education is better since he will have the access (at his own pace) to find which methods of study suit him based on our observations in the Jordan and Weller’s guide (Jordan and Weller, 2017). Also since he’s tech savvy as we also are confident that the positives outweigh the negative as he’s most likely have the equipment and right learning environment (especially being in the comfort of his own room) to organize and connect more comfortably with people at his own pace.
Engagement
For engagement purpose, we have thrown in a small portion of face to face sessions for Jackson to be able to meet up with classmates to discuss course materials and to connect with the professor. One major advantage of having occasional face to face sessions is for the professor to get a general sense of everyone’s progress through the course and help out the students who are behind in their course progression. As discussed before, Jackson feels lonely most of the time, this indicates that Jackson is introverted but wanting to have friends. We knew based on reading teaching online that the platform provided with face to face sessions will motivate and help steer him to problem solve and clearly lay out his confusion when it happens (Major, 2015). Especially with his background being a foreign student, this is more clear. Face to face sessions provide the best engagement between the students where each student could meet up in reality and interact physically which could not be achieved with pure online. This provides Jackson an opportunity to meet new friends with similar situations or with the culture background. With open online materials, Jackson has more opportunities to explore the course material with online videos and other resources. It is superior to traditional face to face learning because the internet opens up more resources for Jackson to research for some open ended questions. Especially because Jackson is not passionate about economics, but this could be caused by the limitation of the materials that are presented in the traditional way of teaching. Now with lots of resources online, Jackson has the opportunity to explore more about economics in different fields of application and perhaps, finds something that combines his wish of being a journalist and economics together. With his interest in reading articles online, this will be the most suitable way of learning for Jackson.
References
Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)
Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.
