Updating online content is a necessaryevilo if you want your courses to make your students successful!
Being able to make changes to a syllabus, or having a dynamic syllabus, managing dynamic elements (and their respective links and / or websites) along with a myriad of course revisions and updates (much or all of this executed in software) stored in some type of "course repository" in case the changes need to be "backed up" or "undone" is a great policy to have at the individual online teacher / course level.
Course evaluations should not be completed only at the end of the course. They should be implemented every three tio five weeks.
An online course is a process of teaching that changes quite often. Instructors have to be flexible and understand that they are continually learning from the assessments whether formative or sumative. Information should be used to better the course for both the instructor and the student.
Just as with a F2F course the onlne course can be dynamic. This quality ehances learnng and student engagement.
Professional development will provide updates and give the techers new stratagies needed to succeed. The student success rate and the understanding the students have to work sucessfully online is the goal.
It is very important to contNiue doing professional development. Making sure to have a course history and adequate backups.
In order to provide an engaging online learning environment, teachers should be willing and able to conduct fomrative and summative course evaluations and revisions.
I would use the Stop, Start, Continue evaluation to ensure my students had the most beneficial and least frustrating learning environment that I could provide.
Use the stop, start and continue evaluation every few weeks or end of each course. Make the evalation anonymous so you can get better results.
Creating and maintaining a course history is great practice in workload management. It could include a history of changes and updates made to the course and additional learning objects used such as additional assignments.
A good online course needs constant revision, updating and evaluation.
I like the idea mentioned of keeping a history of what was changed to the previous classes and also keeping older versions of all classes so if there is something that went well from a previous class it can quickly be adjusted to suit the needs of the current class. I will be sure to remember this when I teach an online class.
Ileane about developing and maintaining a course history or learning objects.
It is good to make sure to try and not reinvent the wheel. It is okay to save and store some of the online courses and tools that you have used in the past in order for future courses.
Reply to Tianna Staples's post:That is something I haven't been the best at in my in-person classes, so I can see that it would be very important for an online class as well.
Course history, dynamic elements, and planning are key!!! Each one plays an important role to the online learning environment. The instructor and student benefit from such organizational course outlines.
Professional development including online course design, online pedagogy,and technology tools as a workload stragety to enhance and improve upon weakness. Online administrators need ot be aware of pitfalls that may occur if the online design isn't properly thoughtout.
I learned the importance of using your evaluations, summative and formative to revise the course and the importance to keep a back up copy and archive of prior material.
Course revisions, dynamic elsements and assessments must be intentional and planned out. The course shouldn't be willy nilly, it should be purposuful.
I am going to use the question "What do you want the instructor to stop doing, start doing and continue to do" with my students.
