As this course comes to an end, I reflect on everything I’ve learned over the summer. Many of the learning objectives I was introduced to in the first course were studied in depth in the facilitation course. I won’t rewrite my previous posts that explain what I learned in the first two parts but I will briefly touch on the key learnings I’ve taken away from the course overall.
I was introduced to Wimba in the first course but now I feel comfortable with both Wimba and Blackboard Collaborate. After facilitating two weeks of material and listening to five other presentations, I understand how to use the system. More importantly, I understand how to troubleshoot with students having difficulties and how to assist them throughout their presentations. The ice breaker exercise is something that I will incorporate as soon as I have a class to facilitate. My ice breaker involves having my students go to ww.walmart.com and find three items that best describe who they are. This stood out to me because it is different from other ice breakers I’ve participated in and allows students to be creative. Participating in the live sessions also gave me a firm understanding of the difference between synchronous and non-synchronous communication.
In order to be an effective online instructor, I must engage students in a meaningful way that stimulates them to learn the material I present. The learning objectives which focused on engaging students and encouraging them to participate in a substantive manner gave me the tools to express the course and student expectations. Managing a course is much different than taking the same course. Therefore, the management process for the instructor begins before the course begins. Prior to the first class, the syllabus, calendar, orientation page, announcements, and links are just a few things the instructor needs to ensure are working properly. Once class begins the instructor is responsible for the management of discussion topics activities, grading and student feedback, using the CMS tracking tools to monitor and update grades, etc. In addition to the managerial responsibilities, we are responsible for the technical aspects of the course. Facilitators do not necessarily design the course they are teaching. Although design requires much more technical involvement than facilitation, facilitators are still expected to keep links updated, understand the CMS, use search engines, and create and edit HTML documents.
Lessons 8-10 were the last learning units for this course.
These final learning units focused on assessment strategies, ethics and problem solving as an online instructor. We studied summative versus formative assessments. Assessments are an important part of online instruction. Students need to know how they will be assessed and what material will be covered. A summative assessment is used periodically to understand what students know. An end of chapter test is an example. Formative assessments are used to understand how a student is doing in time for changes to be made in instruction. The assessment should align with the course goals and learning objectives being taught at the present time. When there is an assignment that is unique or difficult to grade a rubric is helpful. Rubrics allow instructors to set guidelines for how the assignment will graded. Regardless of the assessment used, it is important to provide feedback in a timely manner. Late feedback can give instruction to students too late for them to make necessary changes in the class. It also makes students less likely to put an effort into fixing assignments that have passed.
Lesson 9 focused on the diversity and ethics involved in online teaching. When I initially thought of diversity I thought of American minorities. I didn’t consider the International students that used English as a second language or the time zone issues that could arise. These are important challenges for an online instructor to understand so that consideration can be made when scheduling due dates for assignments, synchronous sessions and group formation. Students from a different country should not be penalized for their location. Something I had considered because of my advertising experience is how things are translated between cultures. What is funny here may be insulting or inappropriate somewhere else. It can also be difficult to understand examples when you are unfamiliar with the culture. As an instructor you will be expected to adapt to the changing climate. It may be helpful (if you teach a course known to attract International students) to have guidelines established in your syllabus to counter some of the challenges you can foresee.
The second part of lesson 9 focused on ethics. Every profession has an ethical code that governs them. On ground instructors are expected to understand the following terms: acceptable use, privacy, licensing, piracy, copyright, fair use, plagiarism and ownership. These terms should also govern the online teaching space. Students are held to the same standard online as they are in person. Many programs can spot text that has been plagiarized and once an instructor is familiar with a student’s writing style, they should be able to find inconsistencies in a student’s work. Instructors must also be careful not to blur the lines of professionalism by having a personal relationship with a student outside of the classroom.
The class was introduced to a paper titled, “Ethical Principles in University Teaching”. The principles that stood out to me the most were numbers one and eight. The first principle focuses on content competence. It states “A university teacher maintains a high level of subject matter knowledge and ensures that course content is current, accurate, representative, and appropriate to the position of the course within the student's program of studies. This principle means that a teacher is responsible for maintaining (or acquiring) subject matter competence not only in areas of personal interest but in all areas relevant to course goals or objectives.”
The next principle that stood out to me was number eight, Valid Assessment of Students which states, “Given the importance of assessment of student performance in university teaching and in students' lives and careers, instructors are responsible for taking adequate steps to ensure that assessment of students is valid, open, fair, and congruent with course objectives. This principle means that the teacher is aware of research (including personal or self-reflective research) on the advantages and disadvantages of alternative methods of assessment, and based on this knowledge, the teacher selects assessment techniques.” These principles stood out to me because I don’t believe an online instructor can be effective without incorporating them into their profession.
Lesson 10
In the final week of the course we were challenged with real life scenarios that arise in online teaching. It was helpful to see how my classmates would handle the situations. Many of the suggestions were in line with what I would do, but there were many helpful suggestions that I saved in my notes as a resource.
Group Work
I worked with a group to complete the resource guide for new online teachers. The experience showed me one of the challenges associated with online group work. Often there are so many places to connect, it can be confusing. I started the class posting to our group discussion in Blackboard. The conversation moved to an email thread and later to a wiki page. Knowing where to go to find the next conversation presented a challenge. I contributed to the project by editing the work that was already there, adding substantial information to the "checklists' for the new online instructor and I wrote an introduction to the guide. When the project was completed, I saw very little of my work included. The group didn't see the completed project until it was submitted and apparently the project we were working on in Wiki was not used. It appears that an earlier version was used. Below is an example of how the resource guide was laid out:
Facilitator’s Checklist – Before the Course
Facilitator’s Checklist – Before the Course
- Fully learn your course management system from the instructor and student perspective
- Review course, including readings, and discussion questions – do they still flow, are they still relevant?
- Test the course navigation
- Double check all the spelling or grammatical errors in the course
- Check to make sure all of your links work and are active and that the links open in a separate window (mark the box) Remove broken links and replace with an alternate link on the subject.
- Include rubrics for activities, group projects and discussion boards
- Make sure all phone numbers and contact information is changed
- Include due dates for major course work
- Establish when discussion threads are due
- Post the rules of netiquette and behavior expectations at the start of the class
- Make sure grade book works for assignment grading
- Do you have access to students in the class and their information
- Develop a welcoming home page
- Develop - Online Learning Environment & Technical Skills Survey
- Create Cyber Cafe & Ice Breaker Blog
- Create an "Ice Breaker" activity
- Review notes taken during last class and implement any recommended changes
- Prepare yourself by setting up a consistent schedule of when you will attend to course
- Create a "Welcome Letter" to students.
- Course expectations & instructor roles
- Provide instructor email and phone number contacts
- Advise on use of course questions and course email
- Group project and process
- Extra credit opportunities
Individual Work
The example of my individual work I selected is the paper I was assigned to talk about how I'd use social media in an online teaching .
Social Media Summary
The social media tools I’ve found to be the most
useful are Facebook, twitter and diggo. I’m
personally familiar with the first two and I’ve started to use the third on a
regular basis since learning about it in this class. All have capabilities that will enhance the
online learning experience for students.
They also allow students to keep course information as a reference long
after the class ends. I did not select the social media page as something I’d
use in my course because I don’t see the same benefits for students that the
other methods possess (convenience, connectivity, and interactivity). I’d like to incorporate social media tools
that will be efficient and easy to navigate.
Facebook, Twitter and Diggo offer the tools I believe will benefit my
students the most.
Facebook
The interactivity of Facebook gives a personal and
convenient way to connect with peers. It
can be downloaded to most phones for quick access to the class group. Students also have the convenience of
responding to discussions from a mobile device, receiving real-time
notifications of responses to posts or new posts and sharing websites with the
group for resources. Students can see
the faces of their classmates every time they interact. This creates a greater sense of community
because they are able to put a face with a name in every interaction.
I would use the Facebook group feature to create a
closed or private group for the class.
Facebook is a popular social media site that is compatible with most
websites. The Facebook share button
commonly found on websites will allow other members of the group to share information
from the website with the group for review. Voting thumbs up or “like” gives other group
members a simple and quick way to communicate their thoughts. Groups working on projects will benefit from
the ease of communication and interactivity associated with this tool. Participation can be measured by the number
of posts group members individually contribute to the project.
Twitter
Twitter is another popular social media tool that
can be used effectively in the online classroom. Asking students to follow a person in the
advertising/public relations field can give them deeper insight into the
industry and can be a great networking opportunity. Students would be expected to follow someone
in their field and interact with the person they’re following at least once. It would be the student’s responsibility to
identify a good time to ask a question or respond to a post for the person
they’re following. Once the assignment
is complete, students will be asked to provide feedback on how the interaction
turned out. Additionally, I will ask if they had to do it over again, would
they chose to follow the person again or select someone else.
Diigo
Diigo is the newest social bookmarking tool I’ve
been exposed to. It allows students to
bookmark web pages that can be assessed from any computer. Text on the page can also be highlighted for
easy reference. The sticky notes allow
the user to type and save notes on the page.
Once everything has been completed on the page, the user can share it
publicly or save it privately. I would
use Diigo in my course to have students submit “Going Deeper” assignments they
find online. They can point out the text
that stands out to them and add notes if they desire. One downside to Diggo is that pdf files
cannot be highlighted.
Overall, I believe all of these social tools can be
used effectively in an online learning environment. They allow students to interact with each
other outside of the CMS and expose them to educational uses for social media
they may not have thought of before.
Students will have access to many of the activities after they no longer
have access to the CMS. This will allow
them the opportunity to refer to the information when they need it in the
future. Some of these methods will
enhance community building efforts by allowing students to have a constant
visual of the person they’re interacting with.
If used correctly, my students will benefit from their experiences with
these social tools in online learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment