Second Reflection on Online Pedagogy

Belinda Allan

This was my last subject (along with one other) in my Masters degree, so things were beginning to make sense. I was much better at writing to an academic standard as well as reading faster and more efficiently all the papers required.

Being the end of my Masters, and given the amount of effort and grades awarded already, I was determined not to slip down in the grading scale. I had signed up for two subjects (as opposed to one previously) so I knew the workload was going to be high. I approached my workplace (Jiaxing University) at the end of their first semester (November) and asked for a lighter workload in teaching (and the lesson planning that goes along with it). They agreed to 16 hours of teaching with roughly (and only) 4 lesson plans required. With my lesson plans designed between USQ semesters I was down to 14-18 working hours per week due to timetabling. The rest of my time including weekends was dedicated to study and I have to admit most of that was spent in Online Pedagogy as this is where my interests lie.

Coming from a computer science background, I enjoy practically living “online”. This is fortunate for me as I live overseas in a small town in China (roughly 300 000 which is quite small for China). Being a small town in a developing country, there’s not many distractions (i.e. not much to do). So my spare time is basically my own and was spent online studying to complete my masters. My partner and I have rearranged our lives for 2.5 years in order for me to dedicate as much time and effort as I could afford to complete this masters (meaning most household chores were his).

So on reflection, I dedicated a great deal of time and effort into Online Pedagogy from reduction in workload both teaching and household, and from dedicating most of my spare time for my own interests in this subject. From the first reflection question of “what do you want to get out of this subject?” I fully realised how much I wanted to learn and was motivated to ‘get stuck in’ and begin the journey. I have not regretted any of the sacrifices I’ve made along the way and have enjoyed every minute of my learning journey, especially in Online Pedagogy.