What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken?
Years ago, I completed a Master of Professional Education and Training through Deakin University in Victoria, about a thousand kilometres from where I lived. To this day, I have never set foot on the campus. Not for an intensive, not even for graduation. But it was one of the best courses I have ever taken.
At the time, I was working as a university lecturer. I already had degrees in Science, Theology and Management, but nothing in Education. Like many academics, I had learned to teach largely by imitation. I taught the way I had been taught, experimenting with new approaches along the way. I decided it was time to understand more about what I was doing.
I chose to specialise in online learning, which brought together my experience in information technology and theology with my growing interest in how people learn. There was something particularly satisfying about studying online learning while experiencing it as a student myself.
The course suited me perfectly. I am an independent learner who enjoys working on my own. But independence doesn’t mean I want to be left without direction. I value a well-designed curriculum and assessments that make me think.
And that was the best part. Rather than simply demonstrating that I had understood the material, I used my assignments to explore real problems I was encountering in my daily work. The course didn’t take me away from my teaching. It helped me become more thoughtful about it.
Perhaps what I appreciated most was the opportunity to bring different disciplines together. Science, theology, management, information technology and education weren’t separate compartments. Each offered ways of understanding problems that the others might miss.
Looking back, I think that is what made the course so valuable. It didn’t simply add another qualification to my collection. It helped me make connections between things I had learned over many years and apply them in new ways.
The best learning doesn’t simply teach us the new things. Sometimes it helps us make better sense of what we already know.
What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken?
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