Tracy Simon

I learned that various forms of communicating with students needs to be considered for many reasons.  You need to decide which communication tool will accomplish the goal of sharing information effectively and clearly.  Note that you do not have to use the all of the tools the mode of communication has to ffer but you do need to regularly evaluate whether or not that tool is working for everyone involved.

This unit talked about the design of course units and establishing a purposeful lay out with a constant, delibrate layout for easy use.  Developing modules that build upon each other will help students follow the natural progession of the content.

I learned the importance of being a facilitator to student learning and that communicating course expectations to students is important to promote success in the course.  As a facilitator I will need to have good communication and feedback.  I will need to provide a learner centered environment and broblem based learning opportunities will bring on the best active engagement from learners.

We learned that the two types have various pros and cons.  Organization, guidelines and consistency matter to the overall design pattern therefore leading to the success and achievement of the learning goals.

Throughtout this lesson I learned to pay attention to the appropriate technology tools to choose when setting up the class.  They described some tools and noted that some can be used in a variety of ways that may not have been the intended use to begin with.  Use caution when doing that so that you do not compromise learning because of the program use. Tools need to assist in engaging students, the teaching process, and orginazation of the course and it's content.

It is important to include more than one way to evaluate your course sturcture and content.  One should consider what feedback you are expecting to choose an effective means of collecting that information.  Using the feedback to enhance, change, add to current course structure is key to the future success of the experience.

The importance of focusing your feedback on providing information to increase learning instead of using your comments to justify the grade reonated with me.  I didn't really think of it that way. Letting the rubric provide justification for the grade but my questions and feedback will encourage addtional oppourtunites to learn was great advice.

It is important to build and provide a dynamic syllabus in order for students to successfully navigate the course to completion.  It can change based on need for the students and new content building on the other content.  Be sure to anticipate any online issues students' may have accessing information.  Scaffolding is encouraged to build on prior knowledge and communication and collaboration are essentia.l

I learned that it is important to consider students learning styles when deciding how to set up the courses.  There are considerations to keep in mind when using the variety to methods to deliver the content.  I would probably use the moduels set up by weeks and I would keep the way I assign tasks consistant and the same from week to week.

I learned that it is important to consider learners indiviually when monitoring participation and progress.  Various individual circumstances  effect their ability to be successful and to be able to even complete the course.  Educators need to be vigilant in monitoring and picking up on personal struggles students may be experiences and reach out to assist them to be confident and successful.  Keep in mind that students will bring their individual personalities as well which may present problematic behaviors that would need to be monitored and addressed.