Reply to michele bellomo's post:I agree that navigating the system and building a sense of comfortability is most important.
It is important to understand your role as an instructor, as well as, the role of the student. The instructor should be well versed on the curriculum and prepared to troubleshoot technology. Along with troubleshooting technology, instructors daily word duties are based on the technology platform used to teach/learn. With that said, instructors communicate, grade work, monitor progress, and based their duties around technology.
It is important to plan ahead and know each area, as this will help with student participation and retention.
Quality Online Courses have the following:
Structure, knowledge of CMS, and communication are key.
Meeting the individual needs of the students will be a challenge, not impossible but will require new venues. Online has developed a new face in educcation and will require that we all participate in the learning process.
you must know if the student is comprtant with technology and do they have a computer or device that will let them use the course
Comprehending the course content and course delivery format is crucial. Familiarizing myself with the course delivery techniques and strategies will give me a better insite as to my students learning needs and to help them success in my course. I need to put myself in my students shoes!
That course structure is key. Having modules and within those modules we need to have lessons and then topics within those lessons. I need to have a clear understanding of the course content.
There are definite technology issues that can occur and to be able to 'fix' them is so important. There are many things to think about when it comes to participation, discussions, what order, and how open the modules will be to self-pacing.
In going through this module several things stood out. The role of the instructor in an online forum is just as important and will require a lot of work to ensure student buy in and ultimately there success!! Engaging students is only half of what the online instructor will need to do. Understanding the system and not just the content is criticl to ensure each student has the chance to be academically successful!
I believe that I need to have a clearly defined structure to ensure success for all participants. I need to make sure the modules are adaptable and responsive to the needs of the learners. I need to allow for variation and provide students with support. Communication is key. Having clearly defined goals and desired outcomes will help structure the course.
It is essential that instructors know the structure/organization of an on-line learning platform and their role within the course. Being supportive of students with both learning and technology is important, as well.
The one topic that I had not previously thought about was having asynchronous content. Having to give feedback to students in two (or more) different units seems possible; however, the possibility of the faster student giving answers to slower students would lead to having a larger reliance on tests and quizzes for grades. You then would run into the issue of having quiz and test questions being given out to the slower students. If this became a problem, then having a randomized questions from a bank for tests/quizzes may have to be considered.
In the current situation (COVID), the idea of a student orientation to the CMS really resonated with me. We didn't have time to do that where I work and although many teachers were already using some sort of blended learning tools, I think students have really struggled with the navigation of various systems.
I can see how e learning can benifit students that miss classes when we are enrolled in regular classses as well.
I have learned in this module to give the students the support they need and by learning from modules like this.
As an instuctor I will use the CMS to make sure my students have the tools they need to be able to do the lesson and show my support for thier learning needs and keep the lesson interesting.
I believe this will be a great expeeince to actually learn more Technical approaches via on-line Teaching and Learning for the Instructior and student. If I folloow these gudie lines and practice them I shoudl be come a great on-line Instructor in a short period..
I will dedidicate time to lerarn to utlize this methods of on line teaching..
Mr. Pinelo
I have pretty good tech skills and even though I teach High School students, who are fairly good at using technology, I must never assume they understand and can navigate my online instruction and materials. I must make sure my CMS is effective and operating smoothly and I will always offer tech support to help my students access the content they will need to succeed in my online leasrning environment.
