Blog Post 4_Flipped strategy for online course particiations

What kinds of flipped strategies could you use in an online course to shift the focus from the instructor to the students; to encourage active participation from students rather than passive observation?

In the working places, it is not easy to ‘tunnel’ online learning experiences to the actual outcome at ordinary jobs or life places. I think the critical points to encourage students to participate actively in online learning lie in how much successful to persuade them that online learning is effective in solving problems they face. Sometimes I find that learners feel departed online learning experience from their real world. When such perception grows, passive observation increases and only few number of participants lead the discussion or learning experience. 

In order to prevent this, I think that scenario-based learning combined with the mobile app might be an effective way for more participation. Through the past several years in a corporate training, I have witnessed that a well-designed performance support is a lot more effective than a training experience itself. The performance support is meaningful when blended learning proceeds in and outside of working places as well as when colleagues or bosses are involved in such training process. Mobile apps are one of the most powerful tools, but due to compliance policy, it is not often easy to apply.

Scenario-based training was so effective. For this, there are several prerequisites: First of all, colleagues and bosses need to participate in the goal setting from the first step. This process is necessary to establish the common sense of training objectives as well as getting support from them during the training periods. Secondly, learners themselves need to gather all related and actual examples or data of the job. Such information really helps prove the legitimacy of the scenario or adjust it to the real ordinary job. After these processes, scenario-based training can be activated. Mobile apps, eBook data resources, webinars and etc can be also combined with it, however, themselves cannot solely help trainers utilize their own learning experiences in ordinary workplaces. This method will be able to be used in school format education, too.