Reaching Out - Online Learning

I was invited by a senior staff of Pacific Adventist University (PAU) here in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in early 2016 to be a guest lecturer to one of their courses "Mass Communications".  I was asked to give presentations on New Media as a component of mass communications.  Since it was one of my intentions and passion to share digital knowledge with students throughout the country, I accepted the invite.  I however, reasized that my schedules were extremely tight so I had to think of a way to make it possible for all parties-the students, the university and for myself.

Philemon Yalamu presenting on "The Evolution of Presentations"

I resolved to online learning so I immediately logged into my Edmodo account and set up a classroom then invited the students.  I liaised with Mrs. Rebecca Thomas, the Associate Lecturer of the School of Arts and Humanities to get the lectures and online sessions going and eventually got everyone online.  I actually organized few pre-sessions with the students weeks before meeting them face-to-face.  Since its going to be the first time for me to meet these students, I thought it would be better to give them some experience using an online classroom prior to giving them online exercises which will prepare them for their presentations assignments. 

Edmodo - the online classroom

I have been using online learning in some of my private lectures with some of my corporate clients and therefore had experiences of how effective learning can be.  In fact, alot of time I've committed myself to multi-tasking and found that time is always against me.  Using organised lessons for my private classes as well as outreaching online lectures had helped me achieved much of what I intend to do.  At the time of my engagement with PAU, I was also doing full-time lecturing at the University of Papua New Guinea and also traveling to other provinces to assist with the GBV Data Collection training with UNDP, and this idea fitted well.  

Prezi - interactive presentation software

The contents of what I delivered online were derived from researches based on concerned subjects as well as personal experiences.  I believed in interactive learning (computer interaction) and therefore tried as much to get students involved in online learning as one of the means. The process of learning which the students were taken through involves various modes of computer interactions such as videos, online classroom, email and via interactive applications such as using Prezi.

Students and Staff participating at one of the presentations

For this lot of students, I started off by developing a step-by-step guideline for them to follow along.  I uploaded it on the tutorial page of my website for them to download and follow along.  I also sent the links for the log-in page to their emails so they can directly access the page to get in.  Within the first 24 hours, half of the students gained access to this online classroom and posted something on the noticeboard.  There were few who found it difficult at first so they had to contact me for more help.  I've also noted that students were having difficulty accessing the internet using the network provided by the university so some of them used their mobile devices to log into the classroom.  

By the end of the second week and just before our first contact, everyone was able to log into the online classroom.  I then posted a task for the students to follow prior to our contact which over 90 percent of them did.  Just a few of them who did not complete the task were guided through during our first contact.  The reasons behind them not completing was due to technical limitations which we sorted out with the Information Technology department of the university.

Students and Staff listening to one the presentation

The moment came for me to do my first presentation.  There was a good number of both students and staff, though it was small about 20 altogether in one of the labs.  The first presentation I did was on "The Evolution of Presentation" where I talked about the different periods and stages of presentations from the traditional blackboard presentations to whiteboard, to analogue projectors then to digital projectors and gave a brief insight of where the future presentations might head us into.

There was total concentration in everyone and I felt satisfied when the presentation was over.  We had questions and answers then ended the session.  The lecturer for the course gave assurance to the students that there would be another lecture in the coming weeks to proceed on where we left.  It confirmed to me that the presentation had influenced these students and my motivation to share digital knowledge was elated by the spirits I get from such interactions with the institution.