Debra Hall

We can communicate with our students in various ways.  Making sure to establish expectations & policies for use up front in the first few days of starting a new class  are key.  Feedback to students in a timely manner are important.  Establishing a two-way street with communication between students & the teacher are important.

We all have access to tons of communiction tools via software & apps, but learning how to put them all together to run a lesson in an on-line course is where it becomes important.  Having the students (and the teacher) provide feedback will be key for making sure the use of technology-based tools aren't too confusing or complicated used during the lesson.  

The on-line course content needs to be relevent to the unit, short & concise, supplemented with a mixture of interactive activities (games, exercises, hands-on activities) to keep the students engaged.  I think one of my biggest challenges will be keeping students with various learning disabilities engaged & keeping them on-track to complete the modules as a class.   

Communication is key in the facilitation process.  Giving prompt, positive and rewarding feedback will keep the students engaged in the virtual classroom.  And providing guidelines that outline expectations up front will hopefully provide a positive learning environment for all learners

This module shows us that it doesn't matter if synchronous or asychronous learning is taking place, you still have to develop guidelines for everyone to follow, organize course content and material that is easy for students to locate and follow, as well as select the appropriate technology tools that best meet the functions of teaching styles.

The success of an on-line class will depend on the teaching tools that are used that also match the teaching style of the teacher.  A variety of teaching tools should be used to give the students choices that best match their learning style.  

This module shows that multiple types of evaluations (not only grades, but following the syllabus, pre-test/post-test, creating portfolios, interviews & peer-reviews ) are needed to revise & improve the course as it is being taught.   Both quantative & qualitative data should be collected to evaluate the whole course.

Assessments are used not only to evaluate what students learned, but how well the teacher taught the subject matter.  Assessments should consist of both formative and summative activities.  In my cooking labs, I use rubrics and assign points if they were successful in certain categories:  measuring ingredients, folllowing the recipe, did all students in the group do their assigned tasks,  was the kitchen cleaned at the end of the lab, was the lab was a success & would they use the recipe again.   Peer assessments would involve evaluating other Lab  groups food created & giving constructive criticism too.  

Posting an interactive syllabus for your course will allow you to incorporate the 8 tasks of scaffolding that were discussed in this module.  By using effective communication between the various groups, the teacher can be the "tour guide" to help students map their successes. 

This module showed us that when we are creating our learning objects database, it is important to be consistent with the learning modues and templates with how/where they are posted, how the inormation will be chunked, the types of learning activities and the types of assessments offered.  Testing & revising will be key within the learning modules.