Pre-Activity

To get started with this course, take about five minutes to do a little research and thinking. Think about the last communication that you received from anyone at your organization. Perhaps it was an email message from the president’s office, a discussion-forum post by a learner in your learning management system (LMS), a text message to your mobile device from a colleague, or maybe even a real-time conversation over a video or audio channel (remember old-fashioned phone calls?).

First, think about how you responded to that particular communication, using the lens of systems and tools. What device(s) and technology tool(s) were needed in order to create and send the message? What devices and tools did you use to receive it? And what technologies would you need in order to respond or take action?

Then, flip your thinking from systems to interactions. After you received the message, were you interested in finding out more or perhaps starting a conversation? Did you need to discover new information in order to continue? What actions could you take in response to the communication?

Whether the message you’re examining was engaging, detailed, actionable or none of those things, it’s likely that the interaction-based questions in this thought exercise were easier to answer. Many of us design our online materials, activities, and assessments from a systems perspective: please use these tools in this way to achieve this result. But most of us engage and communicate from an interaction perspective: do I want to continue? Can I find more information in a way that makes sense to me? How can I take action, practice, and express my ideas?

This difference helps all of us who design, teach, and manage online teaching or training offerings, by allowing us to find and address engagement gaps when people use the systems that we have adopted.

Discussion

In the area below please respond to the following questions: Think about the last communication that you received from anyone at your organization. Think about how you responded to that particular communication. After you received the message, were you interested in finding out more or perhaps starting a conversation? Did you need to discover new information in order to continue? What actions could you take in response to the communication?