Online Teaching Journal

    Source: Google image Course Description      Once a drug has been discovered, there are many factors that influence whether it is marketed. This course will explore the societal issues that affect pharmaceutical and biotech companies as they develop new compounds. After an introduction to the Canadian and U.S. regulatory process, students will discuss topics such as laboratory animal welfare, ethics in clinical research, drug reimbursement and other pressures drug companies face to provide a drug or take it off the market. From a variety of perspectives, students will learn how decisions we make as a society impact our ability to cure and treat disease. (Ryerson University, 2020)

Getting into the Readings      This is the first time I am teaching online in Fall 2020 as all of our classroom-based courses were moved to online. All summer, I was involved in the virtualization of my course. During this process and learning about various theories discussed here made me wonder about working three presences (Social, Teaching and Cognitive) in our course. (Garrison, et al, 2000) It makes sense that for students to have the best learning experience, all these three presences are important, and an instructor can create that. Adding breakout rooms or having 1:1 chat with students at different time zones or just reaching out through various platforms, e.g. discussion forums, Twitter and inviting students to collaborate on various topics by posting articles or searching for articles. To reduce the transactional distance in my course, I have used various other approaches, e.g. adding various activities in the synchronous class where students don’t feel isolate...

  First-class EDUC 5199 G For teachers or learners, first class is always nerve-wracking. The course name is Learn to teach in an online world. I have started my course this fall and will be teaching online for the first time. Of course, virtualizing my course was done during the summer. Lots of learning happened, and more details can be found in my other blog,  Preparation for Virtualization, 2020 . Source: Google Image First Class Introductions       During our first class, we learned about each other. School teachers and other educators are in this class, and there will be opportunities to learn from each other.  The class has about 30 students and will be in two sections. I had to opt for the second section as due to my work schedule, it will be hectic to attend the class starting at 6 pm.