Authentic Learning in Online Environments - Transforming Practice by Capturing Digital Moments

The purpose of this paper is to examine the specific techniques and teaching methodologies that enabled the authors to create authentic online learning experiences in undergraduate and graduate courses. Using both synchronous and asynchronous methodologies, the authors examined the highs and lows of translating meaningful face to face practice to the online environment. The paper examines teaching strategies used in a six week online graduate course using Adobe connect, Blackboard LMS and synchronous weekly meetings. While the digital world speaks in a language of one or zero, pedagogy cannot be reduced to such simple terms. It is a complex, dynamic, and creative process. This paper discusses how the richness of human connections traditionally experienced in face-to-face learning environments can be easily transmuted to an online class. Through the use of unique strategies such as "digital moments" and embracing creative thought, an authentic, constructivist community was created. The authors' journey to developing this authenticity, their online pedagogical style and an innovative, safe learning community has been chronicled using narrative qualitative inquiry in this paper. The writers' use of digital moments empowers students to create and have ownership of their own online community. While it is important to note that there as many differences in online courses as there are in f2f environments, it is clear that the human aspects of fundamentally good teaching remain untouched. For both the authors and their students, previous experiences with distance education had been impersonal and disengaging. That alternative, a group of utterly disengaged and inexorably bored students was unacceptable. The old style of traditional distance learning held no particular draw from a humanistic perspective. The authors discovered that there are ways to embrace creativity, and develop the kind of collaborative learning environment that they designed in their face-to-face classrooms. This paper articulates their journey into the abyss of digitizing themselves as teachers; it examines the specific techniques used for best practice in online learning, while simultaneously celebrating the splash of colour that is essential to brighten digital learning environments.