This week I am particulary overwhelmed. I barely finished reading articles and I see how people are commenting in the forum several times, with long and great thoughts, re-reading articles, exlporing extra materials, and I feel behind! Not time for anything…
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
Hello Lydia, as long as you’re blogging around three times each week (tick!), are engaging with the materials (tick!) and are willing to take a position in response to some of the ideas we are encountering (tick!) you are doing everything that is expected.
Perhaps it’s a feature of online and predominantly asynchronous learning, however I wonder whether it is easier to get the feeling that everyone is more productive? Is it maybe the case that you’ll notice other members of the group who are posting more regularly, but without knowing what is happening in their blogs or whether they have circumstances that particularly allow them to do more reading, and so on?
To be honest, I feel the same way when I compare myself with scholars who seem to publish research prolifically, without knowing whether they are teaching or have home circumstances that particularly allow them to do this. Maybe in the physical campus it would become apparent through corridor conversation that, in fact, lots of people are in the same position as ourselves? You’ve made me wonder whether there is any existing research around this – the idea that online we are more inclined to inflate or be intimidated by the output or energy of our peers? Fascinating!