Setting up your first online course can be a huge challenge but equipped with the expertise of others more experienced in it and a self-assuring ‘mantra’ of your personal choice you can do it!
Technology
Boettcher & Conrad (2010) stress the importance of not overloading yourself as an instructor while designing the course for the first time and be open to accepting help from your students and just add more tools to your course when you teach it the second or the third time. Mostly what you need to get acquainted with or decide on is the Course Management System (CMS) and what components you are going to use within it. As I explained in my previous post I will be relating all the questions to the real course I am thinking of designing. My asynchronous Mnemonics course 2 weeks long will be delivered using the following technology: Blackboard CMS and an added synchronous collaboration tool like Skype or OOVOO messenger or Elluminate depending on how big the class is going to be. The tools within the CMS I am planning to use are quizzes, discussion boards and announcements. I will be delivering the content through short subtitled video lectures that will be immediately followed by taking a related quiz. For example, after learning about association method used for memorising vocabulary the students will be asked to choose the best association for a selection of vocabulary units. There also will be text material available for download but I am planning to make content interactive to suit all learners’ individual styles.
Expectations
To make sure learners feel comfortable I will present them with a set of expectations through the announcement tool. They will be informed about the netiquette, deadlines and contact information (however most of my first class for the first course are going to be the students that I have been teaching synchronously for quite some time, I will still make sure they have my mobile number as well as email and Skype contacts).
The rubric for their discussion activities with explanation for grading is another important step that will ensure participation as Boettcher & Conrad (2010) said 'if something can be done anywhere and anytime, it usually never gets done'.
Discussion
Additionally discussion questions and structure of discussion and its facilitation are at the core of my consideration in creating this course. Boettcher & Conrad (2010) describe discussion boards as the 'campfire' around which course community and bonding occur at the same time that content processing and knowledge development are happening. I am still in the process of designing the questions but I can share one already. The idea is that students will be given up to 10 words that are easy to create mnemonics for and asked to come up with mnemonics to at least 3 of them and post them by a certain day. They will also be invited to post up to 5 words that their groupmates will come up with mnemonics for. They are required to post their mnemonics suggestions to at least 3 other students’ vocabulary units. This is an open end problem solving question that is challenging and stimulating but at the same time is conducted in a game like form. This discussion activity gives students a way to describe how they are integrating incoming knowledge with their existing knowledge structure, which is coincidentally what mnemonics is all about.
Presence
This week also taught me how to establish presence for both an instructor and students in a fun informal way through ice breaking activities. You can see my Little Men and Little Miss activity that I am planning to use in my course here. Boettcher & Conrad (2010) emphasise that establishing presence is crucial to building trust between the participants of the learning process as without it it's impossible for students to be open and vulnerable about their beliefs. Also Pratt and Palloff (2010) suggest that you can refer to your students' bios throughout the course to make informed comments and responses.
References:
Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R.-M. (2010). Ten best practices for teaching online. In The Online Teaching Survival Guide (pp. 36–47). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Video: Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Launching the online learning experience [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Hi Yulia,
ReplyDeleteThe class you are planning sounds amazing! Based on our resources this week, you are making sure your students feel comfortable by making sure they know what is expected of the and how they will be assessed. You also carefully chose which tools you will use throughout the course. Have you seen the checklist I mentioned in my blog? I thought it is a great way to keep up with the different tasks in course facilitation.
Mary
Bart, M. (2010). A checklist for facilitating online courses. Faculty Focus. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/a-checklist-for-facilitating-online-courses/
Thank you, Mary!
ReplyDeleteI had a look at the check list and loved the idea of a closing social activity – Send an email with a closing personal message to students. Confused about the usage of the word 'pedagogical', as it is in its essence a science of teaching children hence another term 'andragogy'. I would use 'teaching' maybe. It does correlate a lot with the types of presence Boettcher & Conrad (2010) describe: social, teaching and cognitive presence.
Bart, M. (2010). A checklist for facilitating online courses. Faculty Focus. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/a-checklist-for-facilitating-online-courses/
Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R.-M. (2010). Ten best practices for teaching online. In The Online Teaching Survival Guide (pp. 36–47). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hello Yulia,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, You discussed some important aspects o online learning. I believe that it is important to have the correct technology in place to support faculty and students. Technology should be user friendly so that it lessens the chance of confusion and frustration among users.
As far as expectations, "clear and unambiguous guidelines about what is expected of learners and what they should expect from an instructor make a significant contribution to ensuring understanding and satisfaction in an online course"(Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 55). When students do not have clear expectations, it leads to students becoming frustrated and confused.
Discussions are a great part of the online course and helps build community. It allows students to get to know each other and to not feel as if they are alone in their learning. Instructors should also have clear guidelines about discussions posting. I think that students should be required to read over etiquette of online learning before engaging in an online course.
According to Boettcher & Conrad (2010), "presence is the most important best practice for an online course and is linked closely to student satisfaction and a related belief that a course is effective" (p. 53). I have taken courses where the instructor was not very involved and it was difficult getting in contact with him/her and I remember thinking that overall I wasn't satisfied with how the course was managed. Students need to have the presence of an instructor and students.
Reference:
Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. (2010). Phase One: What's Happening, Themes, and Tools. In The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips (pp. 109-156). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
hi Stephanie, I feel your pain when you speak of the poor presence of an instructor and fellow students. But luckily for us the course at Walden is constructed that way that if you want to learn you will do so, despite the factors you mention but I agree the satisfaction goes down when you don't feel supported, when your emails don't get replied to for days and when you don't get graded on time.
ReplyDelete