Course Reflection
I loved the opportunity to think critically about my course. It is such a passion of mine to teach this course and lead this trip. I have been wanting to redesign the course for several semesters but have not made the time. I am not sure that I will take the course online, but the exercise of making it online ready has definitely helped me to make the course better. I am very excited about the chance to teach it this winterim and get feedback on the enhancements to the course. My teaching assistants both took the course last year so I will be able to get their comments about the value of the changes. The following are thoughts I had from each week's activities.
Week One
One of the best parts of this week was seeing how engaging a course can be with the inclusion of video. I really felt like I knew my instructor through her videos and podcasts. I also loved the idea of an unlimited quiz opportunity. I learned by taking the quiz multiple times to get mastery of the material. It felt more like a learning activity than an assessment. I will use this approach the help ready my students for classroom discussions. Currently, I give students a great deal of reading between classes. If they do not complete the readings then they are not able to participate fully in our class discussions. I intend to have the quiz due in D2L at the beginning of class. This way students will at least engage with the material before class enough to pass the quiz. This should help them to be prepared to talk about their learning in class. Finally, I loved the Jing feedback. I am hoping to learn how to use this software to respond to some my students' reflections and other written work. Currently I write a few comments in the feedback box and it doesn't feel meaningful. I need to try the medium to make sure it is reasonable given the number of students I have in my course. If it is reasonable in terms of my time and workload, I hope to add this feature for my winter course.
Week Two
I struggled getting into the discussion process. I am in way over my head with my work and family schedule so struggled in the first two weeks to carve out time to work on the projects and discussion in a way that made me a full participant. Two things happened this week that prompted me to make time to be more fully engaged in the course. First, I really had fun completing the activity and began to see how the course would not just be a hoop to jump through to get my certificate, but rather was going to be a great opportunity for me to think critically about my course and analyze it from all angles. I absolutely love my class and I love teaching it. So, the chance to make it better was so exciting for me. Secondly, some of the threads in discussion were really interesting and I got lost in the content of the discussions. It was much easier to make time (still usually between 10 p.m. and 1:00 a.m) to really immerse myself in the course. I had strong course learning outcomes but had not thought about outcomes for each portion of my class. Dividing my course into modules and identifying specific outcomes for each module was a fantastic learning opportunity. After I completed this activity I had a really strong sense for where I wanted to take the learning in each module. In hindsight, having strong outcomes made the activities in the future modules much easier because I could continually return the the module outcomes.
Week Three
This was a great week. I asked my husband and daughters to help with my little boys to give me a little more time to work on the discussions and my homework. This additional help really gave me time to really dig in. It was a great experience to be able to connect the learning objectives to concrete assessment. This was a fun chance to think outside the box about how I might be able to get proof that the students are learning. I also enjoyed the opportunity to begin thinking about the learning process through the from 7 project. And, I loved the videos and articles that my colleagues connect me to through the discussion posts. I has been my favorite week of discussion so far!
Week Four
I loved the absorb, do, connect activity! I didn't do it perfectly and got some good feedback from Dr. Manning about how to improve it, but it was such a good exercise to really dig into the content of the course and make sure that the objectives, the course materials, and the activities all aligned. I have never done this before and while I am not done yet with my revisions to the original document submitted, I can see already how I will be more intentional about the delivery of the content and the ways in which I assess the learning of my students. I also loved the discussion this week. We really had some great conversations that helped us to think about some important issues in online learning (and learning in general). I also learned that I have enough millennial characteristics to be closer them in my thinking. I know this helps me to connect with my students! And, it was fun to think about the ways in which millennials approach the world. I also appreciated the readings this week. I valued the resources regarding to making your courses align with the absorb, do, connect model. Thinking about content and learning in this way was a helpful experience for me.
Week Five
I didn't make time to start my website until this week. I spent a tremendous amount of time beginning to develop the site. I really got into the project and spent so much time adding pictures, linking videos, embedding the facebook and twitter links for the Civil Rights Pilgrimage, writing my reflections, and uploading existing artifacts. I also worked on enhancing my syllabus and turning it into a graphic syllabus. Updating the syllabus was easy for the modules that I developed the learning guides for . This helped me to realize that if I want the course to be most useful and beneficial for my own course, I need to create learning guides for each of the 8 modules for my course. In this week, I was able to complete 4 of the learning guides. By the time I submit this final project, I hope to have revised the complete syllabus and developed learning guides for each for each of the modules. I also developed a graphic syllabus for the course. This was a time consuming exercise because it required that I synthesize the learning of each module into chunks and then give those chunks should phrases as identifiers. It was a time consuming but valuable exercise. I think it will help me to really tighten each module in a way that is very purposeful and will hopefully enhance the learning of the students. Discussion was a bit of a downer this week. I have been enjoying follow people's links and threads of thinking in the previous discussions. This week I only needed to comment on the syllabi of folks in my discussion group. Since I am not a content expert in the courses of my groups members and they courses were mostly secondary education, it was a stretch for me to give feedback, Furthermore, some folks were creating syllabi for courses that they do not teach. This would be a real challenge for me so I was happy I could use an existing course. But, it hindered the quality for the products posted to discussion.
Week Six
I struggled with the activity this week. I enjoyed doing it, but missed the mark. Dr. Manning gave me some good feedback and I was able to make adjustments to the assignment that improved it significantly to make it more functional for the course. I didn't understand that the first column of the form was for the objective. Instead, I placed the event in this spot. My favorite part of the assignment was writing the transitions and introductions. I have appreciated that casual style that Dr. Manning uses. She makes the content so accessible with the video introductions and her easy-going style. It feels good to spend time on the site. I really want my class to feel like a space where people can hang out to learn. In addition to the assignment, we were asked to participate in group discussions. I had a very stressful week with work and my kids converted our barn into a haunted house for a 4-H event. They opened the event to the public so my nights were consumed with helping them. So I got scared,but I didn't spend enough time in discussion. I researched interactive classroom environments and posted examples of activities from a number good sources. I was especially amazed at the many resources are available to increase engagement. I raised questions about the difference between interactivity and student learning outcomes. I shared that my class is very interactive,but some of my assessment shows that the students may be active but they not always learning at the level I would hope for. This is challenge that needs to be considered when developing interactive exercises.
Week Seven
We are in the home stretch this week! I had a much less stressful week at work and home so I was able to devote much more time to digging in with the content. I especially enjoyed the rubrics that help to assess the quality of the course. I started doing Form 11 and opted to modify the rubric to allow for a column where I could conduct a check of each element of the course. I got a bit carried away and went far beyond the five item check practice for form 11. It was a very helpful exercise to go through each item of the rubric step by step and test my course. Sadly, I am not ready to win one of the awards like the master educators featured in our Activity 1 of this module. It was a very helpful experience to go through each element of the courses we had the opportunity to get a sneak peak at. I picked a very well designed course and ended up feeling a bit insecure about my own course. I choose to harness that feeling and get to work on my own course. I definitely won't pass the rubric today, but I was able to get a great deal of work done to get the course closer to where I would like to be! I spent the better part of this evening getting my course ready to go online officially. I have everything saved in a folder. My D2L site has been assigned for winterim so I just need to make the move.
We also did some interesting work this week on universal design. I really enjoyed the podcast and all of the resources available. Because I am passionate about social justice and my course focuses on justice, then it seems appropriate that my course would be accessible and adaptable so that everyone can be successful in the course. I still have much work to do to gain the technical skills needed for some of the steps. However, I can do many of the steps so I plan to get busy!
Week Eight
In week we had the opportunity view the final projects of our classmates. It was a real treat to be able to see how others actualized their learning in the course. The array of courses was remarkable to see. I was able to get some feedback from my partner to make a few improvements to my portfolio. I was also able to give feedback to others to help them improve. This chance to get and give feedback in a safe environment was a good experience for me as a learner. Group work is often daunting for me- brings back memories from high school and college where I did most of the work. But this framework for working independently while also collaborative felt good to me. I'll try to find a way to incorporate this concept in my course.
We also spent some time on evaluation of the course in this last module. It is so important to get feedback to improve a course. And,I really feel like feedback will be used in this course!
Week One
One of the best parts of this week was seeing how engaging a course can be with the inclusion of video. I really felt like I knew my instructor through her videos and podcasts. I also loved the idea of an unlimited quiz opportunity. I learned by taking the quiz multiple times to get mastery of the material. It felt more like a learning activity than an assessment. I will use this approach the help ready my students for classroom discussions. Currently, I give students a great deal of reading between classes. If they do not complete the readings then they are not able to participate fully in our class discussions. I intend to have the quiz due in D2L at the beginning of class. This way students will at least engage with the material before class enough to pass the quiz. This should help them to be prepared to talk about their learning in class. Finally, I loved the Jing feedback. I am hoping to learn how to use this software to respond to some my students' reflections and other written work. Currently I write a few comments in the feedback box and it doesn't feel meaningful. I need to try the medium to make sure it is reasonable given the number of students I have in my course. If it is reasonable in terms of my time and workload, I hope to add this feature for my winter course.
Week Two
I struggled getting into the discussion process. I am in way over my head with my work and family schedule so struggled in the first two weeks to carve out time to work on the projects and discussion in a way that made me a full participant. Two things happened this week that prompted me to make time to be more fully engaged in the course. First, I really had fun completing the activity and began to see how the course would not just be a hoop to jump through to get my certificate, but rather was going to be a great opportunity for me to think critically about my course and analyze it from all angles. I absolutely love my class and I love teaching it. So, the chance to make it better was so exciting for me. Secondly, some of the threads in discussion were really interesting and I got lost in the content of the discussions. It was much easier to make time (still usually between 10 p.m. and 1:00 a.m) to really immerse myself in the course. I had strong course learning outcomes but had not thought about outcomes for each portion of my class. Dividing my course into modules and identifying specific outcomes for each module was a fantastic learning opportunity. After I completed this activity I had a really strong sense for where I wanted to take the learning in each module. In hindsight, having strong outcomes made the activities in the future modules much easier because I could continually return the the module outcomes.
Week Three
This was a great week. I asked my husband and daughters to help with my little boys to give me a little more time to work on the discussions and my homework. This additional help really gave me time to really dig in. It was a great experience to be able to connect the learning objectives to concrete assessment. This was a fun chance to think outside the box about how I might be able to get proof that the students are learning. I also enjoyed the opportunity to begin thinking about the learning process through the from 7 project. And, I loved the videos and articles that my colleagues connect me to through the discussion posts. I has been my favorite week of discussion so far!
Week Four
I loved the absorb, do, connect activity! I didn't do it perfectly and got some good feedback from Dr. Manning about how to improve it, but it was such a good exercise to really dig into the content of the course and make sure that the objectives, the course materials, and the activities all aligned. I have never done this before and while I am not done yet with my revisions to the original document submitted, I can see already how I will be more intentional about the delivery of the content and the ways in which I assess the learning of my students. I also loved the discussion this week. We really had some great conversations that helped us to think about some important issues in online learning (and learning in general). I also learned that I have enough millennial characteristics to be closer them in my thinking. I know this helps me to connect with my students! And, it was fun to think about the ways in which millennials approach the world. I also appreciated the readings this week. I valued the resources regarding to making your courses align with the absorb, do, connect model. Thinking about content and learning in this way was a helpful experience for me.
Week Five
I didn't make time to start my website until this week. I spent a tremendous amount of time beginning to develop the site. I really got into the project and spent so much time adding pictures, linking videos, embedding the facebook and twitter links for the Civil Rights Pilgrimage, writing my reflections, and uploading existing artifacts. I also worked on enhancing my syllabus and turning it into a graphic syllabus. Updating the syllabus was easy for the modules that I developed the learning guides for . This helped me to realize that if I want the course to be most useful and beneficial for my own course, I need to create learning guides for each of the 8 modules for my course. In this week, I was able to complete 4 of the learning guides. By the time I submit this final project, I hope to have revised the complete syllabus and developed learning guides for each for each of the modules. I also developed a graphic syllabus for the course. This was a time consuming exercise because it required that I synthesize the learning of each module into chunks and then give those chunks should phrases as identifiers. It was a time consuming but valuable exercise. I think it will help me to really tighten each module in a way that is very purposeful and will hopefully enhance the learning of the students. Discussion was a bit of a downer this week. I have been enjoying follow people's links and threads of thinking in the previous discussions. This week I only needed to comment on the syllabi of folks in my discussion group. Since I am not a content expert in the courses of my groups members and they courses were mostly secondary education, it was a stretch for me to give feedback, Furthermore, some folks were creating syllabi for courses that they do not teach. This would be a real challenge for me so I was happy I could use an existing course. But, it hindered the quality for the products posted to discussion.
Week Six
I struggled with the activity this week. I enjoyed doing it, but missed the mark. Dr. Manning gave me some good feedback and I was able to make adjustments to the assignment that improved it significantly to make it more functional for the course. I didn't understand that the first column of the form was for the objective. Instead, I placed the event in this spot. My favorite part of the assignment was writing the transitions and introductions. I have appreciated that casual style that Dr. Manning uses. She makes the content so accessible with the video introductions and her easy-going style. It feels good to spend time on the site. I really want my class to feel like a space where people can hang out to learn. In addition to the assignment, we were asked to participate in group discussions. I had a very stressful week with work and my kids converted our barn into a haunted house for a 4-H event. They opened the event to the public so my nights were consumed with helping them. So I got scared,but I didn't spend enough time in discussion. I researched interactive classroom environments and posted examples of activities from a number good sources. I was especially amazed at the many resources are available to increase engagement. I raised questions about the difference between interactivity and student learning outcomes. I shared that my class is very interactive,but some of my assessment shows that the students may be active but they not always learning at the level I would hope for. This is challenge that needs to be considered when developing interactive exercises.
Week Seven
We are in the home stretch this week! I had a much less stressful week at work and home so I was able to devote much more time to digging in with the content. I especially enjoyed the rubrics that help to assess the quality of the course. I started doing Form 11 and opted to modify the rubric to allow for a column where I could conduct a check of each element of the course. I got a bit carried away and went far beyond the five item check practice for form 11. It was a very helpful exercise to go through each item of the rubric step by step and test my course. Sadly, I am not ready to win one of the awards like the master educators featured in our Activity 1 of this module. It was a very helpful experience to go through each element of the courses we had the opportunity to get a sneak peak at. I picked a very well designed course and ended up feeling a bit insecure about my own course. I choose to harness that feeling and get to work on my own course. I definitely won't pass the rubric today, but I was able to get a great deal of work done to get the course closer to where I would like to be! I spent the better part of this evening getting my course ready to go online officially. I have everything saved in a folder. My D2L site has been assigned for winterim so I just need to make the move.
We also did some interesting work this week on universal design. I really enjoyed the podcast and all of the resources available. Because I am passionate about social justice and my course focuses on justice, then it seems appropriate that my course would be accessible and adaptable so that everyone can be successful in the course. I still have much work to do to gain the technical skills needed for some of the steps. However, I can do many of the steps so I plan to get busy!
Week Eight
In week we had the opportunity view the final projects of our classmates. It was a real treat to be able to see how others actualized their learning in the course. The array of courses was remarkable to see. I was able to get some feedback from my partner to make a few improvements to my portfolio. I was also able to give feedback to others to help them improve. This chance to get and give feedback in a safe environment was a good experience for me as a learner. Group work is often daunting for me- brings back memories from high school and college where I did most of the work. But this framework for working independently while also collaborative felt good to me. I'll try to find a way to incorporate this concept in my course.
We also spent some time on evaluation of the course in this last module. It is so important to get feedback to improve a course. And,I really feel like feedback will be used in this course!