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

Collaborating with a Genius

I have now come to end of part one of the second semester. I am well on my way to becoming an online instructor! In lesson one, I had to identify and discuss the difference between teaching online and teaching face to face.  For me teaching face to face has its challenges. First, I think it can be more intimidating speaking in front of a large audience verses speaking to the same audience from the comfort of your home office. I believe that in face to face teaching the instructor has to perform on the spot whereas in online education the instructor may be able to look up answers to student questions, can proceed more carefully when answering questions, and may provide more detailed answers. The most important and widely accepted role of the online instructor is the role of the guide.  The online instructor takes on a more “guide on the side” role than in a traditional classroom course, where the instructor may represent the most expert person in the class.  Many times the instructor may define the problem, but it is up to the online learner to take the necessary steps to analyze the problem, or dig deeper in a subject to acquire the knowledge that they seek. In other words, the online student takes more responsibility in one’s outcome of learning, and may look at the online instructor as an adviser. 

As I engross myself in becoming an experienced online instructor, I feel that I must always keep the essential ingredients for learning in a social community in mind.  These ingredients are inclusive, organization, self-management, and participation.  These are the essential ingredients for learning success in a social community, such as an online course. 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.

            As I progressed in lesson two, I learned some valuable tips when trying to establish a vibrant online community of learning through the use of the discussion board. These strategies included providing prompt feedback to the student, encouraging the student to post their questions about the course in the discussion board instead of emailing the question, creating a frequently asked questions section within the discussion board, and providing criteria for the student responses.   One of the most important lessons in this section was the importance of providing the student with prompt effective feedback that stimulates the student to dig deeper and to ask questions. I think the valuable part of online learning is the active discussion boards.  It is within the discussion boards, the student is reading and interacting with their peer's thoughts and opinions on subjects.  Many times during the discussion threads students include helpful websites or new technology for the class to explore or assist them in completing their assignments more efficiently.

            In lesson three, I got to focus more on what challenges an instructor will face as they move from the traditional classroom to the virtual classroom. Online learning has been a huge adjustment for me. I have years of experience of the traditional classroom.  I have adapted my learning habits, thought process, expectations based on my classroom experiences. It has been an interesting educational journey for me. This new experience of online learning has been a fascinating and unique journey, where I have continued to evolve my thought processes, teaching habits, and organization skills that will be more suitable to the online learning environment. As I continue to progress through this course, I will be gathering priceless pieces of technology, knowledge, and teaching strategies that will broaden my scope of practice and keep my students at the edge of their seats J. 

The Art of Facililtation

Welcome back! After a much needed winter break, I have come back refreshed and ready to work! This semester we will be learning how to successfully facilitate an online course using the learning management system, Blackboard. 

Last semester, we learned about the seven principles of teaching to assist in gaining knowledge of the various instructional concepts. These principles included, encouraging contact between student and faculty, encouraging active learning, developing student reciprocity, giving prompt feedback, emphasizing tasks completed on time, communicating your expectations, and respecting the talent and contributions of others.   After familiarizing myself with the seven principles, I plan to use these principles as a guide to structure my online course facilitation.  I could also use these principles as a guide to create a cohesive mission statement to be presented at the beginning of class as a leaning agreement contract.  These principles would not only help to guide my expectations but also my students’ expectations during my time as the facilitator. 

There are multitudes of learning styles. 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 I know it will be difficult to decide what will be the best course of action. On Tuesday, the class will be required to participate in our first live Blackboard Collaborate session to talk about the expectations when it is time to facilitate your class session. I am looking forward to the suggestions of my colleagues and instructor on what it takes to instruct a successful facilitation. I look forward to creating a lesson plan that will be visually appealing and informative. I plan to let my creative juices guide me through to successful first time facilitation. Finally, it will be interesting to use the Blackboard learning management system as an instructor instead of just a student.  

Let's get started!  

Final Thoughts during a Blizzard!

Greetings! I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season.  But now that the holiday season is upon us, that means that my first semester in obtaining an online certificate in online teaching and learning is coming to a closeJ!  With that in mind, I wanted to share with you some course reflections and final thoughts as you enjoy our first snow of the season. 

As I entered week six, I was required to submit a discussion post about digital portfolios as a potential learning tool.  My thoughts on the use of digital portfolios as potential learning tools in the online teaching environment would be an excellent choice.  The digital portfolio is not only a great teaching tool but a skill that can be used beyond the classroom when investigating job perspectives. The digital portfolio will be invaluable to the online student because of its dynamic ability to show case the student’s individual and group work, course reflections, and creativity.  My instructor suggested several sites for the class to use to create our own personal digital portfolio.  I selected the Wix site, for its user-friendly visual instructions.  In this portfolio, I plan to link my personal blog site, individual discussion posts, and my learning style group project.  As I continue the online certificate program, I will be required to continue to add group projects and individual work as I complete the program.  I am looking forward to that and becoming a savvy Wix user.  

In week seven, I discussed learning theories and the design of online courses. The learning theories that were discussed were constructivist, cognitivist, and behaviorism.  Constructivist theory relies on real life experiences. This can be very useful in explaining complex topics to the online student, who may be preparing for class or researching a topic of interest.  Cognitivist theory depends on what the student already knows, and uses the retention and recall method to help the students gain more confidence in learning new material. The behaviorist theory encourages use of environmental stimuli that utilizes negative or positive reinforcement to shape behavior.  All three learning theories can be applied to assist the instructor in helping the student retain information.  I also think that these theories, when executed in an online educational environment, are malleable enough for the instructor to combine these learning strategies to benefit the student. During this week, I was also required to complete an assignment that applied these learning theories to three mini cases.  In the mini cases, I defined the learning theories that I would use in a particular case then supported the chosen learning theory with a series of learning activities to assist in solidifying why I chose a particular theory.  

In week eight, we discussed the seven principles of effective education and the online environment. I really enjoyed this particular learning activity.  I enjoyed this activity because I was able to use the seven principles as a guide for designing my teaching style and define the structure of my online course. I am a firm believer that every online class should have a general mission statement or general guidelines on how the class will be conducted and its expectations.  The seven principles included encouraging contact between student and faculty, developing reciprocity and cooperation among students and faculty, encouraging active learning, giving prompt feedback, emphasizing time on task, communicating high expectations, and respecting diverse talents and ways of learning.  As I have previously stated, these seven principles would not only guide my expectations but also my students’ expectations (Chickering, 1987). Through the discovery of the seven principles, I had to develop learning activities in how I would carry out each principle.  I will give you a few examples.  When encouraging contact between students and a faculty, as instructor, I felt two activities should be mandatory. The first activity would consist of me scheduling virtual office hours and as needed availability. The second activity would require students and myself to have a weekly discussion on a topic either using a discussion board or Blackboard Collaborate.  In my opinion, one of the most important principles was respecting diverse talents and ways of learning. The learning activities I developed for this principle was making sure that my students were not only learning the necessary material that will assist in their success in the course, but that I was offering or creating alternative learning strategies to promote absorption of knowledge.  

Another skill I developed during week eight was identifying instructional strategies to use for online learning. For this assignment I chose collaborative learning as one of the best instructional strategies to facilitate distance education.  Collaborative learning uses small groups to facilitate learning.  I thought that the best course of action to achieve the most effective small group would be the following: gather information from my online students which included what their learning strengths and weaknesses were in a particular subject, their learning style, and their opinion about working in a small group. After establishing this information, I would develop groups of three students where each student would represent a specific learning style, such as kinesthetic, aural, and visual.  After the group is established, I thought the best way to promote collaborative learning would be to have weekly assignments that would represent each learning style.  I feel that this would not only encourage learning the information, but expose the student to multiple learning styles.

In week nine, we discussed the different web technologies that can be used in web-based instruction. In this section of the course I was overwhelmed with the amount of technology that is available for school, work, and social interactions.  I found several technological strategies but narrowed my favorites to the use of data channels and push technologies.  I preferred this type of technology because it would give students a way to pull educational topics and enhance discussion topics through the use of channels and push technologies. I believe that student's access to current information through the use of data channels or push technologies will keep the student interested and inspire them to dig deeper on a particular subject.  During week nine, I was encouraged by my instructor to think about how these web technologies can influence student to student or student to instructor interaction. Student to student interaction can always be a challenge in the online environment, so I will always stand by the idea of group projects facilitating or promoting student to student or student to instructor interaction. Especially, if the group project requires the student to learn a web technology they are unfamiliar with.  

As we continued through week nine, I got the chance to reach out to my fellow peers to complete our second project. This group project consisted of identifying multimedia and static web resources that can be incorporated into an online class as a part of the lesson plan. The group identified our web resources that we could use in our discipline of interest. Once we collected our web resources of interest we as a group, created an annotated bibliography through the use of Wiki pages. I was able to find a few interesting websites that could be used in my discipline of interest, which is nursing.  The first web resource I discovered was a series of physical assessment videos that would be very helpful to the new nursing student who is unfamiliar with what to ask a patient during a full body assessment. I thought that this type of reference would be very useful for a aural, kinesthetic, or visual learner, since it combined doing, visual, and listening, which are strong characteristics of these particular learning styles.   The technology of the Wiki was something that I was unfamiliar with. I thought this project to be very useful in teaching me how to create, modify, and link wiki pages. This group project required an exhaustive research of useful technological resources that can be incorporated into your online class.  I discovered that some web resources were better for education than others, and verifying the validity of a website can be challenging. My final thoughts on this group project are that any web resource chosen requires the student to be actively engaged in seeking out information, collaborating with their peers, and performing their tasks in a timely manner.

In closing, this semester has been full of unique technological surprises and new knowledge.  I look forward to building my technological expertise in the next class. I think as we become more savvy online instructors we will discover that learning can not only be fun, but educational, profound, and resourceful.

Reference:

Chickering, A. W. & Gamson, Z. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Racine, WI:The Johnson Foundation.