Reflection 1

"A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions."

I am a junior lecturer in Industrial Psychology and the majority of my students are first year BComm students. They generally do not have an interest in the subject nor do the see the necessity and relevance thereof. My objective is thus to ensure that they grasp the importance of the focus areas within this field even if they do not like the course. I am a co-lecturer on the modules I oversee and the slideshows are standardized to ensure continuity between the English and Afrikaans classes. The assessments are compiled by the course co-ordinator who lectures the Afrikaans group. My role is therefore to present the material but I have very little input in the assessment and administration of the course.  

The focus of my lecturing at present is primarily introductory and the content is theory-based. The groups are quite large and if the majority are in attendance there are about 200 students in each class. The challenge I face is conveying the utility and relevance of the subject matter and effective engagement with the material. The large groups make practical group work exercises very difficult to facilitate and smaller case study or scenario-based activities are a paperwork nightmare. When assessing their understanding during class I can only ask a handful of students for their input.  Nevertheless, I make use of these methods but the feedback is delayed, I cannot assess everybody’s level of understanding and my attendance progressively declines as the semester progresses.

With the technologies I am being exposed to I hope to learn how to effectively utilize the Blackboard learning management system in order to create a platform whereby I can actively engage my students. For this purpose I would like to develop interactive, practical activities using emerging technologies and tools that are based on the theory conveyed in class, without all the paperwork and in a manner that is interesting and engaging for the students. Making use of polleverywhere and clicker-like assessment I hope to develop a means of formative assessment for myself and for my students, as well as provide an environment where everyone can contribute and participate.

In order to design my intervention I need to know if all my students have cellphones with internet access, their knowledge of and experience with different tools and platforms, the types of activities that would support their learning and which elements of my current methods worked best for them. I intend to revisit my evaluation forms and develop a Google documents survey that addresses my areas of interests. As it is so late in the semester I would use this information to improve my course next year but also implement changes in my second semester courses as I will be lecturing the same group of students.

In terms of my personal competence to effectively utilize this tool I need to develop my knowledge and understanding of the Blackboard LMS and its features through this course and workshops offered by my institutions. I would also like to share this information with my co-lecturers and other lecturers in my department who are unaware of the potential teaching and learning opportunities this avenue holds. This in itself will be a pronounced challenge.