Rebecca Ferguson
I'm a professor at The Open University, focused on educational futures, learning analytics, MOOCs, innovating pedagogy & online social learning.
Location Milton Keynes, UK
Activity
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Hi @MaAlejandraCastro - it's fine to work through the course now. There aren't as many comments being posted these days, and the people answering questions have moved on, but all the resources are still available
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For those who haven't found them, helpsheets for the ten methods that work can be downloaded here http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/innovating/
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@SallieD No problem
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@KarenJeffrey At the top of the discussion, it says 'Show All Comments. Sort by Newest'. You can change 'Newest' to 'Most liked'. If you want to follow all the educators and mentors, there's a list on this step from Week 1 https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online/2/steps/757005
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There are several reasons for switching off cameras, and I find that people rarely have them on during work meetings these days. One reason is to reduce data, so the call becomes cheaper and less likely to crash. Some students may not be happy to show their home environment to others. Some may be moving around and engaging with the lesson via Bluetooth, so it...
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You can filter the responses by most-liked, or you can follow the educators and mentors and filter to see just their responses.
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Hi Vijay, a lot of people have investigated different forms of mobile learning over the past decade. Modern phones often include all these tools – accelerometer, ambient light sensor, camera, GPS, gyroscope, magnetometer, microphone, proximity sensor – so these can all be incorporated within lessons.
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Hi Zainab, see the response to the pinned tweet above. Some types of test are much more difficult to cheat on than others.
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@RosWoodhouse You can download the full set of ten helpsheets here http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/innovating/
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If you can't contact them online or via their own phone, your institution may have a contact number for a parent or carer. Otherwise, I think mail would be your only option.
With the online exam, there are systems that ask for ID verification or even have remote proctoring, and these may be necessary for the really significant exams associated with the award... -
You may find it useful to join one of the ongoing hashtag education discussions on Twitter, where people share their knowledge of different resources and approaches https://www.iste.org/explore/Professional-development/40-education-Twitter-chats-worth-your-time?articleid=7
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On this course you can get a statement of participation if you have marked all the steps as complete.
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In Google Docs you can use the comment facility. If you and the student are both signed in to Google, you can both use the live text chat feature.
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Do you have a colleague you could share it and discuss it with? As there are thousands of learners on this course, it's not possible to provide individual feedback.
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Was that the one about 'My major concern is ensuring the attendance and participation during online classes.'? If possible, check with all your pupils about the barriers they are experiencing in attending online classes. They may have limited or no access to appropriate technology, they may have little or no Internet, they may have little or no family support,...
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This is a difficult question to give a detailed response to, because it depends on location, age group, infrastructure and budget. Large institutions, such as universities, are likely to make the decision centrally. Although they don't necessarily make the best choice, using the institutional system means you have access to paid-for features, usually some...
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You should be able to get a statement of participation if you have marked all the steps as complete.
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In the same way as you would in the normal class situation. However, you might talk to the student about why they've asked an adult to do their work for them. Is it because they didn't understand the lesson, or is it because they didn't realise that the point of the assignment was to help them to understand the subject, and to help you to assess how they could...
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There will be a microcredential on online teaching opening on FutureLearn at the beginning of June.
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Hi @LuciaManzanga Might this organisation be helpful? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7B5C3ZoAwI
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Focus on what possibilities are opened up by studying at a distance or at home and make use of those.
Encourage learners to explore how they can use the tools available to them for different learning activities. How many ways can they think of to find and explore information, produce written work or images, share ideas with others, or apply what they are... -
One possibility is to choose one or a set of things that you have covered during the term, and to ask each student to write a test, including questions and examples of correct responses, that they would use to check that other members of the class had understood those topics.
You could also ask students to make something using the skills and knowledge they... -
You could add text notes, so they are not reliant on the audio.
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Plan for most of the learning to happen offline, with only short live sessions where you introduce the subject and bring students back together for reporting and feedback. You could bring students online in small groups, if the problem is the tool going down when a large group is online. WhatsApp provides a way of keeping in touch with students when broadband...
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This is a difficult question to give a detailed response to, because it depends on location, age group, infrastructure and budget. Large institutions, such as universities, are likely to make the decision centrally. Although they don't necessarily make the best choice, using the institutional system means you have access to paid-for features, usually some...
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If you use the To Do tab at the top of the page, the steps you have marked as complete have a blue box by them, and the ones you haven't marked as complete will have a pink box to them. This enables you to spot the ones you have missed out, or forgotten to check as done.
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FutureLearn is working hard to get a number of courses up online in response to the pandemic. In the short term, you may find it helpful to join one of the active Twitter chats for educators https://www.iste.org/explore/Professional-development/40-education-Twitter-chats-worth-your-time?articleid=7
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Investing in an external mike is a good option, though not always possible. Ask people to mute their mikes when not actually speaking to avoid feedback. Switch off other apps, so they don't interrupt what you are doing by pinging notifications to you. Rest your device on a firm surface that doesn't vibrate and send strange sounds through your mike.
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Glad you'll be coming back!
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You could set them work to do with the option of doing it independently or with a parent/carer. For example, things to read together or to make together. They could write a song together about what the child has been learning, or work together to write down some questions abut the subject. Think of the people who are helping the children as a resource who can...
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@NatalieBauer One option is to give group feedback at the start of the next synchronous session on things that tended to go well or badly.
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Hi @FatimaAbbas If you are a Twitter user, there are useful up-to-date conversations linked with certain hashtags. There's a list of 40 here https://www.iste.org/explore/Professional-development/40-education-Twitter-chats-worth-your-time?articleid=7 and a calendar full of links to them here...
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Hi @TelG - I agree with Gilly and Ros. You may also find it helpful to set up clear guidelines at the start about when you'll respond to student queries and how they should contact you. In the case of the feedback, you could set aside part of a lesson for talking through the purpose of feedback and how you expect them to use it. You could also give them an...
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Hi @IqraTariq Would you be able to use Google Docs to set your questions, and ask each student to download the doc and add their answer? As far as I know, there aren't any apps that automatically mark long answers, but there may be some maths teachers on here who can suggest something that would work for you. As Katan suggests, it might be better to look at...
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Hi @RosWoodhouse - there's a link here to a helpsheet on how to employ personal inquiry learning at a distance https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/iet-teaching-at-a-distance-07-personal-inquiry-learning.pdf
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One possibility is to choose one or a set of things that you have covered during the term, and to ask each student to write a test, including questions and examples of correct responses, that they would use to check that other members of the class had understood those topics.
Doing that tests each student's understanding of the material, and makes it... -
Rebecca Ferguson replied to Annabel Moult
Hi @AnnabelMoult - this is certainly a challenging thing to happen in your NQT year. Remember the school should be giving you extra backup during this year, so do ask for support from your mentor and engage with other teachers in the school. Ask if they can share lesson plans, and let you observe some of their lessons. Teacher Tapp is a helpful account to...
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to Rebecca Ferguson
Hi @LindaM - keep an eye out for people who are posting comments and working in your discipline - you have the option to follow them and then filter comments so you only see ones from people you're following. It's a good idea to update your profile (click on the square with your initials at the top right of the page and then select Profile). No need to share a...
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Hi @MuruBala - the great thing about FutureLearn is that people are able to share their expertise. The responses to the original question provide lots of good advice from experienced language teachers. For those teaching learners over 13, who can access MOOC platforms, there's a helpsheet available here on language teaching with the help of MOOCs...
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Hi @OLAEREGODSWILLNDUKWE I think you continue to manage it just as you have always done - there isn't any significant change. I'm not a physicist (physics teachers on this course will know more than me and I encourage them to correct me if I am wrong) but I have checked https://www.radiationanswers.org/radiation-blog/is-that-a-laptop-on-your-lap.html
That...
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Hi @EkaterinaGlushonok Some technologies (Adobe Connect, for example) allows you to set up breakout rooms, so you as a teacher can move between smaller groups, as you would in the classroom. Another option might be to set work to be done offline, and to schedule live sessions with small groups at a time, or to exchange text messages/ emails with individuals....
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It depends very much on your context, the level you're teaching at, and your subject area. However, I'd say that a must-have tool is one that gives you access to support. It might be a What's App or Slack group where you talk to other teachers in your school, sharing ideas and comparing notes. It might be a social media app like Twitter where you can follow...
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Lots of conferencing software allows the session lead to have some control of the microphone settings of learners, if you're using a paid-for version of the software. If you haven't got that control, could you incorporate good microphone use into the lesson as a game? Depending on the software you're using, the class might be able to use applause icons or...
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@sadiatahir This depends on the extent of the sight problems and the resources available to the student and the school. Students may use magnifiers, special glasses, task lighting, video magnifiers or a large screen. Most computers and phones have settings that allow users to make text appear larger or display it in different colours or read it aloud. iPhones...
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You may find the Go-lab portal to remote labs helpful www.go-lab-project.eu
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Why has your school banned video/voice contact? I agree that this presents a challenge to a language teacher and it would be good to have an internal discussion with whoever has imposed the ban in order to understand the motivation behind it, and the strategies that the school is recommending. The school still has the same responsibility for supporting...
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
As @GillySalmon says, it is how the word has evolved. Some people use the term andragogy, but not very many. If we used a different word to describe teaching children and teaching adults, when would the cut-off age be, and what would the main differences be? The content may be more complex, but ways of supporting the increase of knowledge and understanding are...
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Hi @VitJanik - I work at The Open University, which is a distance learning institution. We've been doing online teaching for twenty years, and it's certainly possible to create a rigorous and engaging environment in which students are exposed to research and engage in remote lab work. However, that's a long-term strategy, and most institutions won't need to go...
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Hi @RiffatShaheen Could you give a bit more detail? How old are the students? Is English their first language? Are you teaching them English, or do you want them to improve their English skills alongside another subject? Do you want to improve their skills in reading, writing, speaking or listening - or all of those?
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to Shahad Naji
Hi @ShahadNaji You have mentioned several issues that are being experienced by teachers around the world. Normally, part of putting learning online would involve making sure that learners had the technology and Internet to access it, and work on developing digital literacy would be built in. However, the pandemic has meant that wasn't possible, which has made...
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Rebecca Ferguson made a comment
A great thing about FutureLearn courses is that learners post different ideas and perspectives. However, I know it can be overwhelming to see in the region of seven thousand comments. You don't need to read them all! A good strategy is to read the most recent comments, 'liking' any that you find particularly interesting. Then use the filter button at the top...
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Rebecca Ferguson made a comment
If you've just joined the course and this is the first comment you've seen, please note that you have joined the first 'run' of this course, which began on 23 March 2020. The mentors and educators facilitating this run finished in April 2020. A second run of the course began with facilitation on 27 April, 2020.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online/2 -
Rebecca Ferguson made a comment
If you've just joined the course and this is the first comment you've seen, please note that you have joined the first 'run' of this course, which began on 23 March 2020. The mentors and educators facilitating this run finished Sunday 12 April. A second run of the course began with facilitation on 27 April, 2020.
If you are studying in April or May 2020, I... -
Rebecca Ferguson made a comment
If you've just joined the course and this is the first comment you've seen, please note that you have joined the first 'run' of this course, which began on the 23rd March, 2020. The mentors and educators facilitating this run finished Friday in April 2020. A second run of the course began on the 27th April, 2020....
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@RobEdwards Should be fine unless it starts rmf. Have a look at https://r3beccaf.wordpress.com/
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Hi @MARCOSHERNANDEZMAGAÑA - that's probably what would have happened in a normal FutureLearn course. However, this one was put together very quickly, in response to the pandemic, and there wasn't time to set up filming and edit video. The course was still being written when people had started studying it.
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Could you introduce a 'back channel'? An opportunity to text or email you with questions that you'll answer in live sessions. Or maybe circulate a short online poll before the next lesson, with an area for students to add their queries.
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@RobEdwards If you look further up the thread, I mentioned how you can Google me to find my contact details. Or I'm listed on the Mentors page at the beginning of the course, so you can follow the link there.
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@MarufRahman Hi Maruf, this is the course. However, the first run finished last week, so it's much quieter than it was.
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@SueHellman I can - it's a matter of deciding where to pin it
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@SueHellman I can't change the course content. Any ideas for where to put it?
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PS Dave Cormier (who was the person who came up with the name MOOC in the first place) has also been putting together resources to help people adjust to online teaching https://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=70638
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@RobEdwards If you email me I can send you some of the literature on MOOCs, if it interests you. The early connectivist ones developed by Stephen Downes, Dave Cormier and George Siemens were based on a particular understanding of how learning takes place online. They were interesting and lively places to be but didn't reach great numbers, and it tended to be...
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There are several 'learning to learn' skills that students don't necessarily have to acquire in the classroom but that are important for distance learning. In formal learning situations, the school manages learners' time for them. At The Open University, because we're a distance learning institution, we usually include work at the beginning of a course on...
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@RobEdwards FutureLearn discussion is designed to support conversational learning. The conversation is located with the learning activities and materials, rather than being separated from them in a discussion forum. This means the subject of the discussion is clear, whereas discussion forums need threads and headings to make the subject under discussion clear....
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These resources might be useful https://resourcesforautism.org.uk/ and https://www.autismeurope.org/blog/2020/03/20/the-autism-community-mobilizes-itself-to-face-covid-19/
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to Maria B.
I'm afraid there's no way of ensuring that people provide useful peer feedback, even though putting together feedback can be a very useful learning experience. Do you have a friend or colleague who could give you some feedback or discuss your work with you?
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@RobEdwards The way FL threads conversations is sometimes confusing. My 'work and home' response was to your question '@RebeccaFerguson . . . Milton Keynes, UK (Work address?)'. If you Google my name together with "Open University" you get my contact details (f you don't include the OU you get a filmstar and a singer). Although it might feel like we're the...
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@SueHellman Yes, you can enrol for multiple iterations of the same course and have access to them as separate entities.
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@KseniaGoncharova That's why you don't get academic credit for these free courses, because there's no verified way of checking achievement. It's possible that some people have simply marked everything as done in order to get a certificate. However, a significant percentage of people who complete FutureLearn MOOCs don't engage actively with the social elements....
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@RobEdwards Work and home address.
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You may find helpful resources on the French MOOC platform https://www.fun-mooc.fr/
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Don't worry - the course will stay open. If you have questions, there will be another run of the course at the end of the month.
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Hi @RachelBerkson The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has carried out research on the impact of its FutureLearn MOOCs. If you contact Sally Parsley there, she could tell you how they went about it (I remember they had a good framework based on landscapes of practice but can't recall the precise details).
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If you filter the comments on this step by 'most liked' you'll find the most popular questions at the top with answers to each below them
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Also check your Junk mailbox
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Take a look at Padlet https://en-gb.padlet.com/
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to Laura Secco
Live-streaming webcams might be a useful resource https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/cams/badger-cam
http://www.newforestgateway.org/Wildcam/LiveCameras
There's also audio streaming here
http://acoustics.safeproject.net/06:00/10/51503
https://jrbp.stanford.edu/about/facilities/live-audio-stream -
Welcome @HumairaKhalid @MeenuSharma and @GennaleeGreene
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to Nurisa Chen
Hi Nurisa, You might find this course helpful as an example https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/physical-theatre-exploring-the-slap
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@SamsonOluwatosinBalogun Welcome to the course.
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Hi Shwaqi, the most-liked questions were answered by the educators on Friday, so you may have to wait until the next run of the course to get a detailed answer to this one. It's difficult to give generalised advice – the apps that are good for kindergarten aren't the same as the ones that are good for teaching creative writing in primary school, or physics in...
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University of Leeds and University of Glasgow already run some of their medical training online and may be able to help out. Maybe contact Neil Morris at Leeds? It might be possible to get medical students reflecting together across the White Rose Consortium.
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@RobEdwards The 'Moons' group on Facebook emerged from the 'Moons' MOOC on Facebook and has been running since 2015. Last posting was six hours ago, and it has over 1700 members. So it is possible but - as you say - it is rare.
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@RobEdwards Hi Rob, if you click on Ross's name, you can see the biography he has chosen to share, which shows he is based in the Philippines. As far as I know, the intention is to keep this course open for people who have registered. There's also another run coming up at the end of April.
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Rebecca Ferguson replied to farzana malik
Don't worry about it. It's a resource that's here when you need it. The weekly emails have suggested areas to concentrate on if you haven't much time.
In Week 1, if you have:
10 minutes Step 1.7: Planning online teaching - where to start
20 minutes Step 1.4: Who are your students?
30 minutes Step 1.9: Resources to help you get going
In Week 2, if you... -
Rebecca Ferguson replied to Stacey Philpot
At The Open University, we have been teaching mathematics at a distance for around half a century at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Our courses originally involved guided use of books and tv programmes, but we began moving our courses online twenty years ago http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/maths
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It will remain open – and there is a second run due to start at the end of April.
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If they are contacting you via email, most email services have an option to switch on an out-office-message between certain times. You can customise this to restate your policy on office hours. For example, here are the instructions on how to do this with gmail https://support.google.com/mail/answer/25922
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A fun way of developing online search skills is with the 'Google a day' challenge. Each day there is a challenge that can't be answered with a simple search - it takes persistence, and search skills, to get to the answer. http://www.agoogleaday.com/
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Hi Rebecca, As you say, it may not be that they don't want to share their faces – they may not want to share the insight into their home environment. However, for those who are simply nervous of switching on the webcam, you could try some fun activities that rely on everyone not looking as well turned out as they normally do. 'Wear a silly hat', 'Come dressed...
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Hi Redwan, The company that carries out identity verification checks charges FutureLearn for this service and so verification is only used on the paid courses.
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You may find the Open University's Open Science Lab helpful. The OU's science degrees are all studied at a distance, and a few of the lab facilities are openly available online https://learn5.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2
I haven't used India's OLabs but it looks as though some of their simulations and videos would be useful for you... -
I think Marion's suggestion about asking a colleague for feedback is a good one. Unfortunately, as there are more than 30,000 learners on this course, and the mentors are working on a voluntary basis, it's not possible to provide individual educator feedback.
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I agree with Jessica that online learning won't be appropriate in all situations (to take one example, we have teachers on this course who are teaching practical subjects such as scuba diving and jewellery making). Another limitation will be Internet access. Even in an affluent country such as the UK, it is estimated that 5% of school-age children currently...
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I'm afraid you can't. You can search one page of comments at a time in the usual way by using Control-F. A better approach is probably to follow some of the people you have found posting about subjects that are relevant to you. You can then filter comments so you just see the ones by people you are following.
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Hi Lamya, FutureLearn and its partners are busy planning future courses. There are already several you can access - check this link https://www.futurelearn.com/subjects/teaching-courses/how-to-teach-online
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Hi Senka, Remember that personal computers have been available since 1980 in many countries. A 60-year-old teacher may have been using a computer for 40 years, whereas a 30-year-old teacher will have used one for only 25 or so years. In the UK, BBC microcomputers were introduced to schools in the 1980s. So it's not age that is the distinguishing...
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Hi Ally, an additional 10,000 learners joined this course in Week 2. I haven't got the figures yet for this third week but I suspect several thousand people have only just found it - new introductions are being added all the time. So don't worry, many thousands of people are still working through the course. Unless individuals have switched course...
