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Sunday, March 15, 2015
E-Learning Practicum Reflection (Feb. 2-9, 2015)
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E-Learning Praticum Reflection On E-Folio Construction
I have been trying to wrap my brain around the organization of my artifacts in my portfolio. I am struggling with organizing my artifacts based on each individual e-learning course because so many artifacts could fit in numerous course areas. Therefore, I outlined this section of my portfolio and would like to have a short dialogue about the organization method I would like to use.
I want to this section to flow as though you were walking through my course. I would like organize my drop down menu chronologically from inception, to course creation and design, to assessment, and would like to end with reflection. This makes more sense to me and I think it would for a person on the outside of the program looking in. I will propose this idea to my fellow classmates and course instructor for detailed, focused feedback.
I want to this section to flow as though you were walking through my course. I would like organize my drop down menu chronologically from inception, to course creation and design, to assessment, and would like to end with reflection. This makes more sense to me and I think it would for a person on the outside of the program looking in. I will propose this idea to my fellow classmates and course instructor for detailed, focused feedback.
E-Learning Practicum Reflection #1 (Jan. 12-25, 2015)
Part One: A brief update on the events of your internship that week. What is happening? How are you feeling? What are you learning? What questions do you have?
The first week of class for my oral/interpersonal communication course was Jan. 12-18, 2015. The first week of classes was very busy, but my online class did exceptionally well during week 1! All of the students who logged on the first week were able to create and post their blog URL’s without any assistance by the due date! Yahoo! Over the past three years, I have always had a few students who submitted their blog address past the deadline and needed to be reminded to complete the assignment. This week I kept up with grading student assignments, but next week, I will receive 60 email assignments I will need to grade for Written Communication. I will also hear and grade 25 storytelling speeches in my face-to-face courses (50 storytelling speeches the week after). Next week I will begin the true time management test.
My first week of my internship and practicum have been busy, but I think I am doing well by breaking the work into small pieces and doing some work each day, so that it doesn’t become overwhelming (I am finally taking the advice I give students. Ha ha!). Surprisingly, my biggest struggle this week has been trying to figure out what to say on the introduction discussion board. Frankly, I am a bit shocked that this has been a struggle for me! Usually, this is not an issue. As our reading point out this week, sometimes it takes awhile to connect with others and build a learning community. Finally, I have been trying to work ahead on my e-folio and the tasks I have agreed to work on in my oral/interpersonal course, so that when my schedule does get busier in February I will be able to mitigate the chaos.
Part Two: The bigger picture. Seek out the reflections you wrote in all of the classes you've taken to get here. Consider what you knew then vs what is alive in your mind now. What do you now understand more deeply from your current perspective?
I think when I began teaching and taking online classes, I made the assumption that undergraduates would want to be fully engaged in discussion of course material with their classmates. Clearly, I had on my rose colored glasses! I think I believed this because I discovered that I really enjoyed the fruitful discussions in my online graduate class. Although I enjoyed discussing theories face-to-face in my graduate communication courses, I think I now prefer to discuss theories and graduate course material using discussion boards. This allows participants time to reflect, to re-read material, and to conduct some outside research before replying to others. Why wouldn’t undergraduates want to do the same? Oh yeah, that’s right, I forgot! I have a captive audience whose interests might not include communication. Furthermore, many students don’t enjoy the process of reflecting, conducting research, or writing responses. Students act in a similar fashion in the face-to-face classroom therefore; I shouldn’t have assumed my online students would be different. Yet, in order for me to increase student’s critical think abilities, I need them to experience the exact thing they might not like.
One of my goals this semester is to increase discussion board participation. Last semester the discussion board participating was waning, I sent out an announcement to the class providing suggestion for improvement, which did increase the quality and timeliness of discussion. When students posted earlier, I noticed a significant increase in the number of responses and the quality of responses. Thus, I know that better discussions are possible from my students. Now that I also have a better understanding of the grading center and group assignment tools, I am will be breaking the class into two smaller groups to discuss questions to increase student accountability. Finally, I will have more discussion extenders prepared in advance to help me continue to stimulate deeper discussion and sharpen students’ critical thinking skills.
I believe that during the progression of my certificate courses, I have learned to be more realistic about my expectations of student learning in the online environment. I am confident that had a similar learning curve experience when I first started teaching face-to-face courses a decade ago. As humans, we tend to forget these experiences and by reflecting on the subject, I now see the similarities between my past and present learning curves.
The first week of class for my oral/interpersonal communication course was Jan. 12-18, 2015. The first week of classes was very busy, but my online class did exceptionally well during week 1! All of the students who logged on the first week were able to create and post their blog URL’s without any assistance by the due date! Yahoo! Over the past three years, I have always had a few students who submitted their blog address past the deadline and needed to be reminded to complete the assignment. This week I kept up with grading student assignments, but next week, I will receive 60 email assignments I will need to grade for Written Communication. I will also hear and grade 25 storytelling speeches in my face-to-face courses (50 storytelling speeches the week after). Next week I will begin the true time management test.
My first week of my internship and practicum have been busy, but I think I am doing well by breaking the work into small pieces and doing some work each day, so that it doesn’t become overwhelming (I am finally taking the advice I give students. Ha ha!). Surprisingly, my biggest struggle this week has been trying to figure out what to say on the introduction discussion board. Frankly, I am a bit shocked that this has been a struggle for me! Usually, this is not an issue. As our reading point out this week, sometimes it takes awhile to connect with others and build a learning community. Finally, I have been trying to work ahead on my e-folio and the tasks I have agreed to work on in my oral/interpersonal course, so that when my schedule does get busier in February I will be able to mitigate the chaos.
Part Two: The bigger picture. Seek out the reflections you wrote in all of the classes you've taken to get here. Consider what you knew then vs what is alive in your mind now. What do you now understand more deeply from your current perspective?
I think when I began teaching and taking online classes, I made the assumption that undergraduates would want to be fully engaged in discussion of course material with their classmates. Clearly, I had on my rose colored glasses! I think I believed this because I discovered that I really enjoyed the fruitful discussions in my online graduate class. Although I enjoyed discussing theories face-to-face in my graduate communication courses, I think I now prefer to discuss theories and graduate course material using discussion boards. This allows participants time to reflect, to re-read material, and to conduct some outside research before replying to others. Why wouldn’t undergraduates want to do the same? Oh yeah, that’s right, I forgot! I have a captive audience whose interests might not include communication. Furthermore, many students don’t enjoy the process of reflecting, conducting research, or writing responses. Students act in a similar fashion in the face-to-face classroom therefore; I shouldn’t have assumed my online students would be different. Yet, in order for me to increase student’s critical think abilities, I need them to experience the exact thing they might not like.
One of my goals this semester is to increase discussion board participation. Last semester the discussion board participating was waning, I sent out an announcement to the class providing suggestion for improvement, which did increase the quality and timeliness of discussion. When students posted earlier, I noticed a significant increase in the number of responses and the quality of responses. Thus, I know that better discussions are possible from my students. Now that I also have a better understanding of the grading center and group assignment tools, I am will be breaking the class into two smaller groups to discuss questions to increase student accountability. Finally, I will have more discussion extenders prepared in advance to help me continue to stimulate deeper discussion and sharpen students’ critical thinking skills.
I believe that during the progression of my certificate courses, I have learned to be more realistic about my expectations of student learning in the online environment. I am confident that had a similar learning curve experience when I first started teaching face-to-face courses a decade ago. As humans, we tend to forget these experiences and by reflecting on the subject, I now see the similarities between my past and present learning curves.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Would you teach a MOOC?
MOOCS? My
first thought was, “Why would I want to teach a MOOC? Do faculty members really
enjoy teaching MOOCs?” The Chronicle of Higher Education (2013)
conducted a survey of faculty members teaching MOOCS and found that 71% of
respondents who teach MOOCs do so to expand student access to higher education.
Additional significant reasons for why faculty members teach MOOC’s included
expanding their visibility and reputation as an instructor (Kolowich, 2013).
Palloff & Pratt (as cited in Rockwell, Schauer, Fritz, & Marx, 1999)
report that instructors indicated their desire to teach online was for personal
reasons versus financial incentives.
As a professional in the field, I understand the excitement, visibility, and the altruistic motivation that attracts an instructor to engage in this type of professional development. The chance to be innovative and creative is rewarding in itself, but how much time are instructors investing into creating and facilitating a course with 10,000 students? Palloff and Pratt (as cited in Bates & Sangra, 2011) contend that constructing an average online course ‘requires 12.5 days’ (p. 48). Similarly, Kolowich’s survey (2013) found that, "Typically a professor spent over 100 hours on his MOOC before it even started, by recording online lecture videos and doing other preparation. Others laid that groundwork in a few dozen hours" (para. 33). Clearly constructing an online course, regardless of the number of students, takes a tremendous amount of preparation time.
Since many MOOC’s are primarily delivered at Ivy League schools, I thought, professors must be receiving extra compensation for their time. Yet, if the course is not charging tuition, then, how is the professor’s extra time being compensated? Unfortunately, the answer is that educators are not receiving additional compensation. Kolowich’s (2013) article surmises that faculty members are not getting extra compensation, although some professors who are teaching a MOOC do so as a part of their regular course load. Therefore, many faculty members are taking on a significant amount of work to facilitate a MOOC. Kowitch (2013) opined that, “Many professors in the survey got a lot out of teaching MOOCs, but teaching MOOCs took a lot out of them”(para. 32). Although, teaching a MOOC would be exciting and challenging, I am uncertain that I would receive the same inherent benefits from viewing student self-improvement and participating in students’ educational journeys that I currently receive teaching online. I am uncertain that a strong connection can be established between MOOC professors and their students to provide the additional support that some students need to be successful.
Finally, if MOOC’s have low completion rates, is the extra time and energy worth teaching a MOOC? Or is your time as an educator better spent elsewhere?
As a professional in the field, I understand the excitement, visibility, and the altruistic motivation that attracts an instructor to engage in this type of professional development. The chance to be innovative and creative is rewarding in itself, but how much time are instructors investing into creating and facilitating a course with 10,000 students? Palloff and Pratt (as cited in Bates & Sangra, 2011) contend that constructing an average online course ‘requires 12.5 days’ (p. 48). Similarly, Kolowich’s survey (2013) found that, "Typically a professor spent over 100 hours on his MOOC before it even started, by recording online lecture videos and doing other preparation. Others laid that groundwork in a few dozen hours" (para. 33). Clearly constructing an online course, regardless of the number of students, takes a tremendous amount of preparation time.
As many
non-academics may argue, the hours should drop off once the course starts,
right? Kolowich (2013) discovered that:
Once the course was in session, professors typically spent eight to 10 hours per week on upkeep. Most professors managed not to be inundated with messages from their MOOC students—they typically got five e-mails per week—but it was not unusual for a professor to be drawn into the discussion forums. Participation in those forums varied, but most professors posted at least once or twice per week, and some posted at least once per day. (para. 34)
Yet, instructors’ time and effort seems to vary.
Thus, if the workload for a professor does increase, does the reward of
teaching a MOOC outweigh the extra work? What are the intrinsic benefits to the
instructor, if there is less or little interaction with students? Are there
benefits to teaching a MOOC?
Finally, if MOOC’s have low completion rates, is the extra time and energy worth teaching a MOOC? Or is your time as an educator better spent elsewhere?
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