In general, this course focused more on topics related to asynchronous learning and the concepts of social presence and specific instructor strategies were the two concepts that most caught my thoughts related to improving engagement and retention. I think it is easy to rationalize implementing additional facilitation strategies and I think improving student engagement is a continuous goal for most online and in person instructors.
My first goal is to implement at least 2 of the learning portfolio strategies that I have identified within the next 6 months. This should be straightforward as my posts include the necessary information required to implement them.
My next goal is to research and find and read or listen to 2 additional useful resources on asynchronous learning in the next 8 months. I’m giving myself a bit longer with this goal as I have to have time to meet my goals from the last course. The reasoning for this goal and links to my remaining questions on engagement is that while this course focused on some aspects of asynchronous learning, I feel there is more to learn. In addition, this course talked about the group identity being more of a focus of the definition of social presence and I still don’t have many examples of effective strategies to achieve that in an asynchronous environment.