I learned how important is mobile communication for today's students and how to incorpotate it into online teaching.
Maximizing Student Output in a course is dynamic and often relies on setting outcome forward at the beginning a class and working backwards. Student who know the expected outcome perform towards the outcome better.
Students wshould be given a multuiple of arrays of learning options when taking an onliine class. I find it interesting that the module encourages you to allow students to work backwards on their assignments.
Today's technology offers teachers an opportunity to engage students with a wide variety of methods of interaction. We need to take those methods and apply them into real life situations for the students. Will be doing portfolios on students.
The information on profolios and holistic assessment was very good information.
A portfolio assessment is new to me - I like how the student has more control over what they choose to submit. That sounds like it would encourage them to be intentional and take more pride in what they include.
I have learned that differentiation is so important to meet all student needs. I also learned the importance of the 3 C's. Portfolios are a great tool to use to document student performance that I plan to use with all my classes.
biggest take away is definitely ….When ideas are valued, students are empowered in the process. We can all remember teachers who made us feel inadequate and we can also remember teachers who made us feel valued in the learning process.
I found this was an excellent chapter in the training. I use these strategies in course design consistently. Specifically, I find project-based learning where authentic assessment and outcomes are communicated to students at the outset is effective. Communicating the relevance of a project is done in two ways: the first is through an informative video from the instructor where the relevance and expectations are clearly communicated, and the second is with clear text. I find the instructor can communicate industry use and relevance in a way that connects with students and is less cumbersome to absorb than text. The specific outcome and what precisely students will do is communicated with text.
I would add one key strategy to this chapter; scaffolding. I find that introducing individual skills to students with low stakes assignments and then designing projects where these skills are synthesized as high stakes projects is effective.
I see value in the holistic assessment as a way to introduce and ingrain basic concepts as well as the ability of the student to personalize those outcomes.
Students benefit from a variety of assessment opportuntities, including group projects, portfolios. blogs, wiki's. There is a difference between discussions and conversations. Get the students talking and digging deeper. Provide the opportunity to customize their learning space, collaborate, cooperate and communicate.
Ensuring that instructors provide relevant material to aid in student success is highlighted in this section.
Interactive whiteboards allow students to interact with the learning material. They become a part of the lesson and can even teach each other. Educational games can be played by entire classrooms. They also provide immediate feedback, so students and teachers can easily assess student progress.
I have gotten some great ideas from each section. I enjoying the sections over heightened interaction and project-based learning.
This was a very enjoyable course and one that can easily be put to practice. I do agree that allow students to demonstrate the knowledge gained in the form of portfolios and not just exams is a great way to evaluate them.
The most interesting bit of information in this reading, for me, was the following:
"The more students become "producers" of knowledge, the more they will realize the value of what they are learning and see the application to their own lives, thus supporting transformative learning outcomes in the process (Mezirow, 1997)."
I think that students should absolutely be a part of their own learning and that less structure should be thrust upon them by instructors/teachers. Of course this does not work for every student, and there must be some structure. I feel that loosening the reigns, so to speak, on student learning is invaluable.
The requirements of learning online have become clear after this program. This factor is essential since it has taught me about the best strategies of connecting students who are learning online.
What I have learned is:
1) That my breaking up of the midterm and final into weekly mini-exams is a good strategy. Yes, the students complain about the workload, but it is the same workload spread out, as opposed to two main weeks of effort. Glad to see that this has been noted by others.
2) That there are plenty of tech-based ways to enhance student engagement, and I need to explore them.
Great information reguarding challenging students
This was very informative. It was a reminder that projects should be based on the real-world and that multiple forms of communication should be utilized to interact with students, especially in the virtual world.
