Week 1 & 2 - Reflection

Greetings all,

I am so happy that I can now get this page up to communicate my thoughts to you.

Online learning using technology is not as easy as it may sound. My biggest challenge since the beginning of the semester was trying to familiarise myself with the different LMS that are used in this course, in particular, the creation of a blog. I initially thought it was easy, but, my god, it was quite a challenge. Just creating a blog account took me three days in week 2 despite clear instruction from our e-facilitator. I think it's because of the new features in the platform and I was afraid to navigate freely in case I do it wrong. I am now happy that I am, finally, able to do this.

The situation I was in depicts the reality of online learning; this is the kind of difficulties students out there in the region encounter, and imagine the frustrations they go through if they don't immediate and constant feedback or assistance from the e-facilitator. Delay in this may result in dropouts or failures; thus the role of the e-moderator is crucial as seen by Salmon in her book "The Moderation: E-tivities". The 5 stages of the Model are explained simply and is very easy to understand depicting the process a learner goes through with the technology, and again, the role of the e-facilitator is highlighted as a key element of the success of the course. For 'old-fashion' or 'traditional' students like me, I would like to have a demo on new things such as creating a blog.

Okay, that's it for now.