Alina Alvarado

I liked the way the information was broken down in these sections. It outlined the common compentencies that could and do help classify common online classroom issues. However, knowing these does more than just explain what the problem can be. If instructors/designers know these are common (especially if they recognize  these issues occurring in their real classes), the competencies can be used to ask "what can I provide to help meet these competencies?"

Regardless if learners fit the typical demographic, there can still be additional resources provided to help meet the competencies needed as long as students are at the… >>>

It was interesting to learn the difference between customer service and helping students when it comes to developing a working alliance. In the past, I had been told that to be in academic advisement, we needed strong customer service skills which does help, but as long as the endgoal of helping vs satisfying and serving is kept in mind. This will help in training future team members in interacting with learners.

This course really enforced the affect and meaning of instructor and staff engagement. At my previous institution, the technology including our LMS, was severely limited and outdated, and because it offered only asynchronous courses, the president had structured it so that there was 0 contact from instructors. Students would only have content with admissions advisors, academic mentors, and alumni advisors. Receiving feedback from instructors as the content experts is a key component to social engagement though. And having systems that allow for versatile, effective and efficient communication and incorporate useful technology would increase motivational engagement while decreasing procrastination and the… >>>

I learned about the 4 Rs of androgogy, and while I am not instructing courses currently, they can also be applied in tutoring to really help students fully learn and grasp the concepts taught in the classroom.

The biggest complaint of online learning is "Where's my professor?" I have heard this before quite frequently at a previous learning institution that only had asynchronous programs. Students were not given access to subject matter experts and were expected to use only what was available in the courses to "figure it out". Moving forward, if programs are primarily asynchronous in their start/end times, material and assignments, having a synchronous element to connect directly with instructors (and students if possible) may help incorporate more active learning.

While it is true that instructors cannot know the schema of every student, for completely asynchronous programs or ones that have a synchronous lecture with hands-on labs later, assumptions have to be made. Since the instruction is prerecorded and the materials are prepared, how would an instructor be able to connect, observe, respond and adjust? The material talked about the need for this in online and in-person classes as well as synchronous and asynchronous learning, but it did not give many examples for the latter.

Passive learning is needed to reach a point that students are prepared to effectively use active learning techniques. However, relying only on passive learning can lead to inactive learning as there is no engagement or moving forward. Working in an asynchronous learning environment, I want to be conscious of the amount of passive learning there is and if there are lead-ups to active learning.

The overall format of the course and my interactions with it was interesting. I am still relatively new to MK and have only completed 4 courses all in similar formats that differ from this course. I have been trying to make the learning process both quick and effective, and while this format appears to have been made to be interactive, the time for completion was about the same as the other courses. However, the "feel of it" was different and appeared to try to be more engaging even in an asynchronous environment. This analysis relates to what we're learning because… >>>

Comment on Joshua Smith's post: This question resonated with me too because when you click on it, the answer was actually both depending if the situation was focused on art or nutrition. At first, I instinctively also thought the right answer was by eating it. Once I saw the right answer though, it sparked an "ah ha" moment of realizing there can be two right ways to approach a question or topic depending on the learning objectives for that content. 

The fact that instructor personality traits may or may not naturally fit the traits of a successful instructor, is really good to know and makes a lot of sense when comparing instructors who do or do not implement active learning techniques more naturally as well. Active learning techniques parallel a lot with the needs of all the TCs. It incorporates and encourages student Commnication (for high Blue), enforced and detailed rubrics (for high Gold), challenging learning situations instead of rote memorization and lecture (for high Green) and can also incorporate more flexibility for (high Orange).