[Melissa TealParticipant]

Hi Everyone,

As I read through the posts this week, the term engagement has been mentioned often. I really like the idea of Genius hour. My husband worked in a Virtual Construction department and set up this concept for his team (he had read about the Google approach) so they could have a set time to play with new ideas to solve problems in their department, then once a month they would have a team share afternoon to share new ideas and methods. He saw an increase in ownership and motivation in the team members.

I think that the concept of “teaching presence” from the Community of Inquiry framework provides opportunity for increased ownership, and hopefully increased engagement, for the learner. COI provides an approach to new pedagogy that is needed to “fundamentally reconceptualize and restructure the teaching and learning transaction” (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008, p. 5). It is helpful to have both a theoretical and practical template to follow when trying to implement blended learning practices.

Rob, I’m not sure if the online instructor changes to “the guide on the side”? Anderson, Rourke, Garrison & Archer (2001) comment that the teacher is involved in direct instruction “by interjecting comments, referring students to information resources, and organizing activities that allow the students to construct the content in their own minds and personal contexts” (p.8). I do agree that there is a responsibility shift as learners can be “performing a substantial part of the teaching presence role” (Anderson et al., 2001, p. 13). I saw this in my last eLearning course through the peer review process on major projects and appreciated both my instructor and my peer’s constructive insights.

Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing environment. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks , 5 (2).

Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. (2008). Chapter One: Introduction. Blended Learning in Higher Education. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. Available at: http://www2.mtroyal.ab.ca/~nvaughan/chpt1intro.pdf

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