Week 8

WHAT WILL YOU REQUIRE OF THE INSTRUCTORS WHO TEACH THE COURSE YOU DESIGN? WHY?

            When I think of designing a course, lesson or unit, the first thing that I always think about is what am I going to teach? Why am I going to teach this certain topic? What do I want the students to get out of it? The most important part to “creating a positive online teaching and learning environment is the instructor needs to carefully plan the course and maintain an online presence”(UNB). No instructor designs a lesson then hands it to their students without thinking of the approach or the students background and previous knowledge. Teaching a course online is the same design approach as teaching a course to students in a face-to-face classroom.

            It’s important to spend “a longer time designing the structure of an online course. More time spent in design up front will lessen course maintenance time”(UNB). If the instructor doesn’t take time to design their course in an organized way, their students will always be disorganized, won’t know the expectations or the requirements of the course. It’s important to post on the course website what the student expectations are and their responsibilities. With this adds the importance of the rubric for the course. A rubric “helps students self-assess the quality of their postings and stresses the importance of active and regular participation to learn course content and make connections between topics” (Lehmann and Chamberlin).  Whenever I teach to students I always explain how they are going to be assessed. I find if students know this upfront they produce quality work.

            Instructors need to interact with their students. The most difficult part of teaching a course online, is not knowing if your students understand the concept or know the expectations. In a classroom setting, instructors are observing their students, available to ask immediate questions or concerns on the task and assessing their students knowledge. In an online course, students email instructors and wait a few days until a response. To have a successful course, it’s important to know how students react to what you have written (or say in a live session), unless you ask them to tell you through some feedback mechanism” (Moore and Kearsley).

            Our Givercraft training had very little participation. We created a recording of our training and sent it to the rest of the teachers hoping they would watch it. We then sent an assessment survey, which outlined the questions from our needs assessment. The results only showed one teacher responding to the survey. Our team does not know exactly how effective our training was. We can tell from the students buildings that they were prepared and the teachers understand the expectations of the course. However, I don’t think we guided the teachers to be “actively involved in the learning process” (Moore and Kearsley). With the response we had on the needs assessments, trainings and the post survey, teachers took it upon themselves to train for Givercraft.

            I think our online discussion board helped teachers feel apart of a small group for the training, I’m still stumped as to why we didn’t get a lot of participation. The reading this week from Moore and Kearsley explains how instructors should know their students, understand their life and work environment. I’m wondering if we should put on the needs assessment or registration form a question to help us understand more of the teachers background. This will help us create a course that will best fit their needs and we will be able to have them participate in a way that works for them.

            With an online course it’s important for students to understand the content, have interaction with the teacher and with other peers. I enjoy reading other blogs from the same reading. We all have different points of views and ideas from the required text.  Something to remember when teaching an online course, “plagiarism is a particular worry for educators in the online environment because it can be so easily located and captured electronically” (Moore and Kearsley). It’s important when students are writing to emphasize the importance of citing their sources.

            To have a successful online course, there needs to be some kind of assessment. We don’t teach students and then hope they understand the content. There is always some type of assessment that is given. In an online course it’s important to provide “ongoing feedback and respond to questions in a 24-48 hour turnaround” (UNB). A friend of mine’s son had to work on a project for three weeks. This student was up many late nights working on the project and even the parents were helping. The project was turned in and it took about a month an a half for the student to get feedback or a grade on the assignment. I remember the parent saying, if the teacher is going to have the requirement for students to turn it in by a certain date, then there needs to be a date the instructor will provide feedback.  The last thing any student wants is to complete an assignment and never hear how they did or what they could improve on towards the next assignment.

            Where it’s important for the instructors to provide feedback on a timely manner. It’s also important for students to understand the expectations on graded assignments they will complete. What are the circumstances for late assignments. Some instructors state they will “review late requests and circumstances on a case by case basis and make decisions accordingly” (Vandervelde). Lee mentioned how her first online course she didn’t like due dates. The students took advantage of the expectation and turned in all of the assignments on the very last day of the course where all students received an incomplete in the course. I think as an instructor there are going to be students who procrastinate and don’t turn assignments in on time and then there are going to be students who sometimes need an extension or an excused absence. Whenever my student is absent due to an illness, appointment or vacation I always excuse their work. Depending on the assignment the student will either complete at home or be assessed for their understanding through a different activity.

            To summarize what I would require from an instructor who is teaching my course is;

           

• Get to know the students (background and living/work environment)

• Interact with the students make sure they understand the content, expectations and requirements of the course

• Provide opportunities for students to ask questions to the whole group and on an individual basis

• Let students interact with each other and learn from one another

• Complete assessments on students interaction and completion of assignments

• Provide feedback on a timely manner

Resources

Moore, M.G., and Kearsley, G. (2011).  Distance Education:  A Systems View of Online Learning, 3^rd Edition.  Belmont: Cengage Learning.

More Best Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://www.unb.ca/cel/online/info-faculty/best-practices-2.html

Vandervelde, J. (2012, January 23). Sample Late Policy. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/teachingonline/late_policy.html

Lehmann, K., & Chamberlin, L. (2015, February 28). Discussion Board Topic Links. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/discuss_etiquette.html#your