Bruce Fraser

Well written guidlines and policies that have been constantly reviewed, rewritten as needed and effectively communicated to staff and students on a constant basis are key to faciltating a healthy and consistent pattern of communications within the organization.

This module did a nice job of identifying and parsing out different names / brands and types of tehcnology tools to conduct online classes, meetings, etc. Like anything else in today's world, people can quickly and easily get in - over their heads - by selecting technology that is too complex for the intended audience, has complicated features that are not easy to use and (in my opinion) not intuitative or easy to use. Finally, this module does a nice job of driving home the point that any technology has to be evaluated on an ongoing basis in terms of… >>>

This module contained a lot of good, solid information about moving (or transferring) a course from a F2F to an online environment. Certainly there is a lot to consider and transforming the classroom materials from something like ordinary classroom PowerPoints, pics and reading materials into something that works better and cleaner online is certainly an important point. The key point is to develop / migrate the classroom materials into something that will inspire student interest and active participation - resulting in a far better online learning experience.

Just like designing a good weebstie or app, clean and good functional (course)… >>>

Overall, another well written and organized module full of good teaching tips for the online environment, but on balance, a fair amount of the information provided applies to a well-run traditional classroom as well. For example, whether you are teaching a synchronous, asynchronous or traditional classroom, technology and technology tools are important in all three environments. The same is true for having a good course framework, consistent guidelines and effective teacher communications. Finally, being able to facilitate and encourage student engagement and having student growth and success is the most important measurement or result that makes all that effort worthwhile!… >>>

This section was a strong, well written comparison of synchronous versus asynchronous teaching along with the need to implement strong guidelines for both the instructor and the students to ensure consistency of course delivery by the instructors and to help the students acclimate more quickly and understand what is required or expected of them in a faster, easier and more consistent manner. 

Overall excellent ideas and practical application of course evaluation theory as well as every day technique. Great defintions of quantitative data versus qualitative data and using multiple forms and types of data when evaluating courses, your own (teacher / instructor) performance and the overall ability of your course or program to accomplish it's most important goal: Helping the student! 

This section on provided a lot of good tips for teaching in general, regardless of whether you are in a physical classroom situation or teaching an online coures somewhere. There were very good, clear, concise defintions of formative and summative assessments (better than most I've read locally). There were a lot of good tips about creating and using rubrics as well as self-assessment and peer-assessments. Overall, whatever person or team that wrote and constructed this section knew what they were doing, had real-world experience doing it and they did an excellent job communicating timely and valuable information. Thank-you!

Overall, I though this was a very well done module. Using a dynamic syllabus is certainly a good way to do things in an online class environemnt. However, this modules makes a point about obtaining student feedback that I have issues with: "An instructor may periodiclly obtain student feedback by asking three simple questions: 1) What should we stop doing? 2) What should we start doing? 3) What should we continue doing in this course? These questions give students the opportunity to provide feedback..."

I'm a big fan of student input and feedback and in some circumstances (like testing a… >>>

Like modules in EL102, this first module in EL103 offers a lot of insight and experienced, professional opinions on how to author an online course using course framework for design and testing, along with the use of learning objects. Among the other great strategies mentioned here is using a database to track and store reusable learning objects, which are learing objects that can be reused (or shared with peers), in other course modules, other programs, etc. Overall, this was a very good presentation on how to create, test and then propogate a successful online course. The only thing not mentioned,… >>>

I think this module, Module 4, gave a lot of great tips for ensuring the overall success of the class or program that is being run by the instructor as well as a lot of great time management and organizational tips that will save the new instructor a great deal of time, when setting up and running their first few classes. I thought the tips in the Behvior Management section were very infomative about the types of behavior problems / or personality types we might be facing, as well as measured strategies and responses for dealing with each type of… >>>