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
