Retrieving Information for My Inquiry

As a good teacher-librarian in training, I have been using the database, Proquest, to find articles relevant to my unique inquiry.  To date, I haven’t had a lot of success finding articles that specifically refer to my particular question: how do I effectively engage and support my distance learning students with inquiry-based learning projects without the support and interaction of their peers?  And, although I haven’t found the answer to my question, I did have a very interesting conversation today that might lead me in the right direction.

W– W–, an active DL administrator, visited our school today and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to “pick his brain” for about an hour.  What a luxury!  During that conversation, we discussed ways in which I might be able to make inquiry-based learning part of my online curriculum and support the process in an effective and meaningful way. 

In an earlier post, I may have mentioned that students work through courses at their own pace.  For students, this is one of the perks of taking an online course; however, it is not condusive to forming “cohorts.”  Therefore, students rarely get the opportunity to interact with other students.  After expressing my concerns to  W–W–, he suggested that I try creating a curriculum that lends itself nicely to at least one topic and/or theme.  For example, “ambition” may be a recurrent topic/theme in the stort stories, the novel study, and the Shakespearen play chosen for a particular course.  If the content of the course is linked by a common topic/theme, then the inquiry-based unit could also be based on this same topic/theme.  That way, it wouldn’t matter when students started their research projects, other students could still be a part of the process because of the familiarity of the topic.

It’s not that I’ve found the “answer” to my question, but I’ve found some direction.  I’m very eager to explore this possibility further.  

I’m really glad that I found someone with whom to collaborate.  He was able to address my specific needs, unlike the articles that I’m reading!

Planning my Inquiry-Based Learning Project

In the very near future, I would like to create a unit of inquiry-based learning for my online, English 8 – 12, students.

Before I can begin to design this unit of inquiry, however, I need to answer a fundamental question: “How can I effectively support my online students with inquiry-based learning without the support of other classmates?“  After reading through “Focus on Inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning,” (Alberta Learning 2004), I realized that many of the phases of inquiry involve or would be enhanced by peer interaction and support.  In my current online teaching position, however, students do not work through the courses with any type of cohort.  They work independently at their own pace.  Without the support of other classmates, can a student experience an authentic inquiry-based learning experience that is just as effective?  How so?  These are the questions I am going to attempt to answer throughout my own inquiry-based learning experience.

As I work through the planning phase of my inquiry, I feel focused, but uncertain as to whether or not I will find the answers to my questions.  I’m really hoping, though, that I will be able to find suitable alternatives for my online students.