Throw me to the wolves......

Finally, the last class is coming to a close! Where has the semester gone? I can hardly believe that it has been a complete year since I have started this journey. For my final blog post I would like to reflect on not only my journey as the completion of my online course comes to a close, but also the previous courses that have led the way.  But first, let's reflect on the progression of building my first online course.

As a final assigment, I had to create three lessons and build them out to completion.  My course includes lectures, quizzes, discussion boards, group acitivities, extra credit, syllabus, and orientation. I feel that the design of my first online course has reflected well of the standards presented in the Blackboard Best Practices rubric.  The course I have built utilizes Blackboard's exemplary rubric because each of my online lessons consists of learning objectives. These learning objectives can be easily located at the beginng of each learning module. My online course lessons are based on a textbook. My lecturettes for each lesson are short. The lecturettes are designed to keep the students on task to completing the reading assignments and to point out any information that may be important.  Supplemental exercises were provided throughout the course for the students to use as practice and to apply what they have read.  I tried to refrain from exercies that encouraged regurgitation of information. Weekly discussion topics and an ongoing group project were developed to create a best practice for solid student to student interactions. Instructor to student interactions are ongoing which can either take place in my virtual office hours, course messages,email, and weekly annoucements. Both interactions offers opportunites for synchronous and asynchronous interactive learning tools to provide course updates, reminders, or special annoucements. My syllabus and orientation was designed to be clear, concise, and helpful to a first time online learner. I made sure that items were easy to find and were located in multiple areas for the student to locate. Assessments were developed to test the student's knowledge and as a clear way to provide immediate feedback to the student to see if they are meeting the learning objectives in each lesson. Extra credit assigments were designed to help the student study in a group, to apply what they have learned, and to keep them encouraged if they are not doing well on the quizzes.

As I designed my online course, my memory drifted to the vast technologies and education practices that I have learned throughout this program.  I would have liked to use all of the technologies that I was exposed to in a meaningful way throughout the online course that I built for my final project, but unfornately there was not enough time to incorporate it all.  As I continue to grow as an online educator, I may use these technologies of learning, organizing, and studying in subsequent classes or lessons as I see fit.

For my final thoughts, in the beginngin of the course, I felt that I had been "thrown to the wolves" as I tried to navigate a new learning managment system for the first time.  But at the end of the course I felt that I have come back " as the leader of the pack" as the semester comes to a close. My final thoughts on completing this online certification course is this: I hope I land a job!

Producing Digital Content: The Pleasure Principle...

Welcome to fall semester!  This is the final semester to my online journey.  I am excited and ready to be finished. I am also a little apprehensive.  This semester, I am expected to use the learning management system, Blackboard, to produce digital content-an online course. Let's reflect on my experience leading up to this moment.

Prior to entering this online teaching journey, I have some experience in producing digital content for other projects.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, but remember very well about the pains and joys of learning new things. One of the greatest challenges I faced in my last project and during this program was producing adequate course sound. Both times it was challenging and quite frustrating. Although producing quality sound was a challenge, I overcame my technical issues and produced successful projects. Defeating challenges and completing projects are one of my ultimate pleasure principles. Who doesn’t like feeling accomplished?

Another example of producing digital content has been creating my e-portfolio. Throughout the certificate program the student is required to develop and update an e-portfolio displaying their resume, course descriptions, individual projects, and group projects. I have really liked creating, producing, and updating my e-portfolio throughout the online program.  It exposed me to a not only a new technology but a very useful one that I can employ again and again.

In closing, I look forward to facing new challenges. This includes adding the skill of understanding the inner workings of Blackboard to my resume, the finale of producing my very first online course, and receiving my official Online teaching certificate. But before I can receive all of the accolades, it’s time to get back to work….ciao!

Designing a new language....

Now comes the fun!! The design process is well underway! This semseter is all about designing and creating! The design course is where I decided what online class I would be creating, the audience that I would be targeting, whether the course will be administered fully online or a hybrid, course goal and objective development, assessment development, and establishing my learning units. I decided to create a 100% online anatomy and physiology course.  I wanted to formulate a course that I was familiar with and had taken before in a traditional classroom. This course will be a rigorous six week course that will be open to a general audience that is interested in continuing their education in nursing, graduate school, medical school, or teaching. So let me guide you into the educational language that I have been designing over the last few weeks.

At the beginning of week two, I began to engross myself in becoming an online instructor. I wanted to produce a class that always keeps the essential ingredients for learning in a social community in mind.  These ingredients include inclusivity, organization, self-management, and participation. I believe it is imperative to have different representations of learning methods.  These unique learning methods will be invaluable material that can be incorporated into online lessons and assist in helping the many unique online learners that enroll in your class.   I took all of this into account and it lead me to week three.

In week three, I had to consider the design considerations for non-learner and learner design considerations in the online community. The first non-learner design consideration would be time constraints.  I plan to teach an Anatomy and Physiology course which requires the instructor to teach a large amount of information in a relatively short period of time.  This course can be offered during the summer utilizing a six to seven week time frame or offered in the fall utilizing a twelve or sixteen week time frame.  Either time period would propose a great challenge for the instructor and the student learning the material. For the instructor, the challenge lies on keeping time on task.  For the students the non-learner design consideration would be making sure that all materials that are required for success on exams, quizzes, or projects are covered. For the student, the biggest learner consideration challenge lies in learning the material to ensure a successful outcome in the class.  While every class has its challenges, I think as an instructor it is imperative that you meet these challenges with solid solutions and be open to peer and student feedback. I feel you should always be willing to go back to the drawing board.

During week four, I examined the two types of assessments.  Formative assessments provide feedback and information during the instructional process, while the learning is occurring.  Formative assessment measures the student’s progress but it can also assess the instructor’s progress.  Summative assessment takes place after the learning has been completed and provides information and feedback that sums up the teaching and learning process.  Typically, no more formal learning is taking place at this stage, and the student is demonstrating what he or she has learned throughout the class. In my class there will be various types of formative assessments, such as quizzes, discussion posts, homework, and group projects.  The summative assessment will be the midterm and final exam.

As the design course progressed I moved from thinking about the class as a whole, but instead thinking about the class as individual lessons.  It was in week five that I was required to begin designing my first three lessons using a design worksheet. This included forging learning objectives and identifying any content resources that may be included in your lesson. I was able to utilize several free websites in addition to the textbook.  These resources will hopefully assist the student in learning the information, but also presenting the same information in a variety of ways.

In week six and seven, I got the chance to focus on the three most common and distinct learning interactions and how this will be demonstrated within an Anatomy and Physiology online course. The interactions that I decided to focus on were the student-content interaction, the student-student interaction, and the student-instructor interaction.  For student-content interaction, I plan to incorporate on the oldest and traditional forms of student-content interaction by assigning textbook readings throughout the course, encouraging the student to engage the material through the completion of review questions, and completing student-content interactive activities to reinforce what has been learned. For the student-instructor interaction, I plan to engage my students through introductory icebreakers, discussion post responses, assignment feedback, announcements, syllabus, and virtual office hours. Finally, for the student-student interaction, I plan to have an ongoing group project that will encourage weekly student-student interaction, regurgitation of information, generate new material, and encourage group and individual study.

This course will be rigorous but hopefully rewarding to the instructor and the student. I plan to have virtual office hours and to check the course progression multiple times a day to answer questions and concerns. I am looking forward to producing this digital content in the next semester to see how it turns out and to get some real life experience in not only designing my course but also building it!! Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Designing the Super Power

Another semester is here!! I am really looking forward to the learning in this semester's class! This semester I will be learning all about the design of an online course.  I expect that this will be the beginning of the "meat" of the program with learning how to design your online course this semester and then producing digital content next semester.

As I dig deeper into learning about producing digital content and what it takes to have a successful online course, I can't help but think of the similarities and the differences of the traditional verses the online learning environments.  Both learning environments aim to identify specific and clearly stated learning goals or objectives, both rely on student participation and instructor encouragement, and both environments prepare the student for a series of class evaluations such as class discussions, exams, and quizzes. The difference between these two environments relies more heavily on the online environment than in the traditional classroom.  Teaching online can be rewarding because of the flexibility and the variety of learning styles that can be presented to assist the student in online learning. Personally, I don't think an instructor's educational requirements for online teaching versus the traditional classroom are any different. I expect this class to help design my super power of teaching into being more effective in an online environment. 

Throughout this certificate program I have learned the importance of how the student learns, receives feedback, and participates in classroom discussions. I have participated in discussions about common problems in the online learning environment such as lackluster student participation, late arrivals, and cheating within the course.  All of these discussions and solutions posted by myself and my classmates have been very helpful in adjusting my thought processes on how I would like to conduct my online class. I, myself, have participated in two online courses as a student, and have thoroughly enjoyed both classes. Since I do not have a lot of traditional classroom instruction both online classes have helped me to visualize on what types of materials I should include in my own online course.

Finally, after all the learning is completed and the certificate has been achieved, I will have to apply what I learned in the online classroom to my real life online course. In recent years, I have become a firm believer of having new experiences daily, not knowing if these unique experiences will pay off in the future.  Designing my super power as an online instructor will be an invaluable experience that I look forward to rejuvenating my teaching career and the addition of creating another unique experience of learning.

Eyes that Commit......

Well, we are coming to the end of a very informative and busy semester.  In lesson eight, we had to differentiate between formative and summative assessment.  Formative assessment provides feedback and information during the instructional process, while the learning is taking place, and while learning is occurring. Formative assessment measures student progress but it can also assess your own progress as an instructor. Summative assessment takes place after the learning has been completed and provides information and feedback that sums up the teaching and learning process. Typically, no more formal learning is taking place at this stage, and the student is demonstrating what he or she has learned throughout the class. This is where the student’s knowledge gained is used to derive a final grade. Since this was the week that I facilitated, I did not have to structure or develop an authentic assessment activity or rubric, but I did have to respond to everyone's discussion post, which was fun.  I liked taking the time to see everyone's different thoughts on a subject and to learn there perspective on things.  When using the authentic assessment, the instructor will first define the tasks that need to be completed to demonstrate their mastery of a subject, and then the instructor will develop a curriculum that will assist the students in performing their tasks well. I think when structuring any rubric or an assignment it should be clear, concise, and easy to understand so that the student may use it effectively, complete the assignment, and learn something in the process. Providing effective feedback is one the most important aspects of being an online instructor. Feedback should always be given in a timely manner and be detailed with both the positives and negatives that the student should be aware of. Social media is a great resource to be included in the online classroom. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter are just the beginning of the social media empire as we know it. Blogging can be used as an open communication forum for the instructor to posts any class updates, start informal discussions for relevant current events for the class, and create a inclusivity that helps thrive a social community.  I would like to use my instructor blog as way to communicate with my students about the life and times of a Registered Nurse. I believe it is imperative to have different representations of learning methods such as the instructor blog. There are various learning styles and in my opinion every online student is visual first.  We as humans take everything in with our eyes first, and then with our hearing.  There is so much unique technology for the online student and instructor to incorporate in their course work that there is no excuse for an online student not to have “eyes that commit” to learning.

In lesson nine, we discussed how cultural issues can impact the facilitation of a course.  I think one of the most important things to do as an online instructor is to facilitate a community. I as an online instructor would want students to share there experiences and to embrace the diversity they bring to the course.  Some of the strategies that I would develop would be to try to provide the lessons in a different language if permitted by the University. When discussing the ethical concepts related to teaching I chose the principle dealing with sensitive topics.  I believe that both the traditional and online world will have challenges dealing with this principle. In today's digital society individuals have strong opinions about everything.  In the online environment when posting to a discussion post, one can have time to contrive their response to a topic that supports their thoughts and feelings about a topic of discussion, which I think is a great thing. This type of effort makes for a more interesting discussion. Many individuals may feel that another person's opinion is directly related to them although that may not be necessarily true.  I think although most instructors may encourage open and honest discussion among their students, I feel there still has to be a sense of netiqette among the students and instructors which would effectively address to the students how to proceed with discussing sensitive topics.I realize that addressing sensitive topics will always be a work in progress for the instructor since it may be difficult to predict which topics will elicit a stronger response than others, but regardless it will always make for a more interesting class. Finally as a group project, we were assigned to create a brief reference guide for new online instructors, our group included items such as ensuring that the technical aspect of your class will be running smoothly, change dates to the course materials so that it reflects the current semester, provide timely and effective feedback, and create unique opportunities for student participation.

In lesson ten, I learned how to apply online facilitation practices to online class issues.  This week had interesting online class issues where I had to create a solution to the issue.  One of my best responses, was explaining a solution of when the student does not understand the material and they are technologically challenged.  As the saying goes, as much as things change, things stay the same.  Although you may never truly avoid the technologically challenged student altogether, you may be able to make suggestions for the student to try before starting the class.  My first suggestion would be to ask what type of phone the student has, if they have a pretty advanced phone, you can suggest that the student plays a variety of computer games on their phone or home desktop computer.  Playing computer games helps an individual familiarize themselves with the mouse, improve dexterity, and increase confidence with the use of the computer.  You can also suggest to the student to watch a YouTube tutorial and then teach an older person what they learned.  This way the student may get an understanding of the amount of patient it takes to teach someone else and the value of listening skills and following directions.

In closing, this semester was full of interesting topics and a variety of situations that an online instructor may find themselves in. I enjoyed learning these hypothetical situations because it really gave me a true reality of what online teaching may be like.  Real world examples are always of great value to a novice.  I look forward to being exposed to more examples like these during the summer.

Facilitating Ahead

A couple of weeks ago, I completed my first live Blackboard classroom facilitation. This is where you present your class lecture live to your class full of students. I completed this assignment with another classmate, which was nice since I was a little nervous of how my voice would sound to others. Facilitating consists of the synchronous lecture and the asynchronous discussion posts.

To prepare for the synchronous section of the facilitation the first thing I suggested we do was complete a sound check.  This turned out to be most challenging and frustrating step of all!! On my end, my computer passed the Blackboard sound and mic check, but unfortunately my partner could not only not hear anything I said, but when she did hear something it was garbled. We spent many hours and frustrating moments trying to solve our sound problem, but it remained an issue. I notified my instructor of the issue and she suggested since we did have sound in the sandbox, we could conduct our live session from there.  My partner and I agreed thinking our sound issue was finally solved and that she would use the conference line to complete her part of the lecture.  The night of our facilitation, I began my part of the lecture. Everything was going smoothly, until my partner discovered that the phone conference line was down-so she couldn't complete her lecture! When we discovered that the conference line was not working correctly, we paused the class in order to troubleshoot, but nothing was working. I didn't want to lose the interest of my classmates so I decided to complete the rest of the lecture. My partner handled the chat room, and after a rough beginning my first facilitation ended smoothly!

For the asynchronous section, our week had two discussion posts, My partner took one discussion and I the other.  I enjoyed reading and reacting to everyone's posts.  I quickly noticed how discussions can get quite lengthy very quickly.  So, in the future I would like to respond earlier to my student's posts to generate a meaningful conversation and to encourage consistent participation.

In closing, overall the facilitation went well. I enjoyed presenting to my class and receiving feedback on my performance.  I really liked the flexibility of responding during the asynchronous section of the course.  I started out nervous about the entire facilitation, but in the end it suits my personality and schedule. I look forward to more facilitation experience in the coming months, in the mean time I will be "facilitating ahead.".

The Superlative Psyche

Welcome Back!

My facilitating online course is moving along gloriously. I have recently reached the end of part two of this course. I think the second half of the course has given me a deeper understanding to the psychological role that both the instructor and student engage in while participating and preparing to engage in online learning and instructing.

During week four, I learned ten principles to incorporate for an effective online teaching environment. The three I took away that were most important for me were the following, plan for the unplanned, show up and teach, and establish patterns of course activities (Ragan, n.d.).   I would use all of these principles as a guide for designing my teaching principles to structure my online course.  These principles can help to create a cohesive teachable and well organized online class or an entire online program. These principles would not only help to guide my expectations but also my students’ expectations. 

In week five, I was assigned to design ice breakers for my potential online class. Icebreakers are always fun to do in a traditional classroom. I think using an icebreaker with an online class will be equally fun and interesting.   My icebreaker would be the following question. If you won the lottery, what would you do, where would you go? Would you keep your job or call off? If you had student loans, would you pay them off or would you go off the grid until they found you ;-). Another icebreaker would be-what is the one food you never want to taste again?  Where were you when you tasted this particular food? Would you visit the place again and try something different? Ice Breakers are an excellent way to establish a foundation of community among your students and break the ice between student and instructor.  I definitely plan to incorporate this in my syllabus.

During week six, we had to discuss what course I would use to convert to an online class and establish five key points that would make this class a success. The course I decided upon was Nursing Physical Assessment Part 1. The five key points that I would incorporate into this course would be the following; welcome page, syllabus, resources, course materials, and calendar. I will briefly explain how I would use these five key points within my online class.  I would use the welcome page as a navigational tool for the student. The welcome page will list what the student can expect for the week. This can include the assignments that are due and if there are any class sessions that week. To keep student's spirits high and to make the class interesting, I would use inspirational quotes, images, or cartoons included on my welcome page. My syllabus would include what the student should expect from me as the instructor- such as office hours, and timely feedback, course objectives, grading criteria, participation expectations, significant projects such as group or individual projects, what to expect in the clinical session of the class, and collaborate sessions. The syllabus would also include any institutional and classroom policies. I believe the syllabus is a guide to create a cohesive mission statement that should be presented before the class begins.  The syllabus would be not only my guide but the student's guide detailing the expectations, learning objectives, and grading criteria throughout the course.   Nursing Physical Assessment will be a hybrid course, where the class portion would be a 100% online, but students would be required to do clinical hours twice a week. As an online instructor the entire online course would promote active learning and critical thinking among students.  As an instructor, I aim to spark provocative and interesting discussions among the students, and emphasize the why. Additional online resources will be suggested to enhance what the student is learning. I believe all students are visual first, and what greater advantage in taking an online course than viewing real life case scenarios through audio and video at the student's leisure.   It is very easy to lose track of time when learning online.  As an instructor, at the beginning of the course, I would emphasize the learning agreement and the calendar, the mission or the goals of the course, and the subsequent learning objectives that we as a class plan to achieve.  I would make sure the course schedule is available and reference it during the daily announcements which would be located on my welcome page.  I would also encourage students to update their calendars on their smart phones to reflect when assignments are due.  I think when learning online, patterns of when assignments are due could also be very helpful.  For example, discussion posts could be due every Friday, while journals could be due every Sunday.

For week seven, our instructor provided us with a "day in the life of an online instructor".  I really enjoyed this particular assignment because it gave an hour by hour breakdown of how an instructor incorporates facilitating an online class into their daily lives and I think it really painted a picture of how busy facilitating an online course could be.  I mean those discussion posts can really get out of hand very quickly-lol!  I also had to post my thoughts on how long an instructor should take to respond to course questions and emails. I think 24 to 48 hours. Grading papers and examinations would take longer, so I would think a week for papers and and 3-4 days on examinations depending on the class size. I think this information should be included in the syllabus and should be communicated throughout the course. This way students know at the beginning of the course what to expect in feedback and the instructor has it in writing. I thought this was a very insightful read.   I enjoyed the hour by hour breakdown, it really gave the reader a visual breakdown on how your day can roll along. I was pleasantly surprised on how many times the Instructor checked in and how quickly the posts can get into the hundreds! That is a lot of reading and a lot of opinions :-). But I do like the flexibility of the online world. I noticed that a lot of time is spent on the discussion posts, answering course questions, and improving course materials.  

As a new instructor I will be busy designing, facilitating, and advising my students.  Many students take online courses for the flexibility and the ability to work ahead and around life's bumps. As I delve further into the psychological aspects of the teacher-student interaction I will develop or learn my own unique techniques that will help the online student get the best experience in the virtual classroom.

Source: Ragan, L.C. (n.d.) Ten Principles of Effective Online Teaching: Best Practices in Distance Education. Faculty Focus, 1-26. Retrieved from https://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingwithtechnology/tech_resources_pdf/Ten%20Principles%20of%20Effective%20Online%20Teaching.pdf