Reflective Post 1

Instructor-centered versus student-centered learning

I am an International student. Before I came to Canada, I study in China. In China, all courses are instructor-centered. I get almost 90% of the knowledge from my instructors. And the exam is based on what the instructor said in the course and in-class practices.

Then, I came to Canada and study in the University of Victoria. My major is computer science. I think the most courses of the computer science is instructor-centered, especially some algorithm courses. In algorithm courses, the instructors will explain how each algorithm works and how to use codes to do it. The course is about teaching us how to use algorithm to solve the problem and my job is to use what I learned to find the best way. In addition, there are few student-centered courses. I took an artificial intelligence course last year. This is a student-centered courses. We study and do assignments as a group. The instrutor only gives us some basic information about the course topics. The most useful website of this course is “Google”. But, it is very interesting to combine ideas from my group members and the instructor.

Asynchronous versus synchronous learning

I think this course, EDCI 339, is an asynchronous course although we use the same material. And this is the first asynchronous for my life. I do not have chance to take any asynchronous courses in China because China is a big country with a huge population. It is impossible to have a small class in any schools of China. If it is possible, it will be super expensive to be a student of that school. In my memory, my class is always bigger than fifty students and we change the teacher not the classmates. I will take the same course and use the same material with my classmates. It is similar to my univerity courses. I only took the course with more than eighty students in the university. And they are all synchronous courses. I have some tutorials or labs for my major courses. But all of my tutorial or lab teachers will use the same material to help us. So, I am happy to have a chance to take this course to try something different.

Thoughts on connectivism

For my major, I think connectivism is essential after year two. In year one and year two, connectivism is not important because the most of my assignments are single work. I cannot share my work and even my idea with my classmates. And my instructors always tell us that do not upload our codes or assignments online or outside of the school. In addition, instructors and tutorial teachers encourage us to finish the assignment without any sources. I think this is a good way to train us to write codes and it is important for my year three and year four courses. After year two, I begin to do the project with my classmates. It is interesting to generate different ideas from my partners and online sources. I also find it is easy to get a better solution for the problem when I have a meeting with my partners or search online. And sharing my ideas on some websites like”reddit” is very helpful to improve my skills.