It's over as of today. In some ways I'm happy about the end, to let the stress of deadlines and homework subside until my next course and in other ways I'm sad. I really enjoy the academic environment and online learning definitely helps me have that intellectual need met without affecting my routine too much.
The course was a great reminder what it is like to be a student in an online learning environment. It has been almost 4 years since I've been a student learning online. Now with this fresh in my mind I can concentrate on improving my own online courses by modeling some of the techniques I've learned here.
This week we discussed our reflections on blogging/journaling and it was interesting to see the feedback and discussion that came from that. It might be a good idea for the students to share their blogs and have students comment on them. I've tried to add a blogging component to my courses but it seems like my students get confused on blogging versus discussion boards and I'm thinking that some courses are going to utilizing the blog in place of the discussion board. I would be interested in seeing a successful implementation. Perhaps I'll spend some time researching it!
Anyways, I hate to end this. Our instructor has been great. Her feedback has been helpful and supportive. The final project was very good for my upcoming course development plan and has given me a good foundation in which to start from.
Oh, and exciting news this week. I was chosen to be part of our Distance Learning task force on campus and will be helping 4 others put together a 5 year plan for our Distance Learning program. I'm very excited about being a part of that and look forward to sharing my knowledge with them.
Thank you!
Friday, February 8, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
That was fast!
Okay, so just finished up week four of my first course. Wow, did that go by fast!
I like the idea of these short courses, you start to get into the course and then they end before you really want them to. That seems better than those courses that seem to drag on and you lose motivation to do your final project midway through the semester.
This week we focused on assessment. The topic really brought up my instructional design courses that I took back at FSU. I feel that I lack experience on assessment since I don't have a background in education. As an online instructor I often wonder how I can improve the useful feedback to students when grading their work. Do I respond to their discussion board posts, do I need to evaluate them? With their short answer exercises do I need to provide thoughtful responses. I find myself giving feedback that isn't very helpful. I worry about how to phrase feedback for students who are obviously not putting in the effort required without making it sound judgmental.
Therefore the idea of using rubrics seems like a great solution to these concerns of mine. I will grade more consistently and students will understand what the expectations are. The thought of creating rubrics for my assignments are a bit daunting. Do I need to make separate ones for similar assignments or can I just use the same one for the weekly assignments that are similar and than another one for the large project at the end of the course? Something to think about.
Now I have all of these ideas that I'd like to implement in my upcoming course - but that starts in a month, and I fear I won't be able to get enough availability to make some major changes. Perhaps I can focus on improving one area each semester until I get the course where I want it to be.
I like the idea of these short courses, you start to get into the course and then they end before you really want them to. That seems better than those courses that seem to drag on and you lose motivation to do your final project midway through the semester.
This week we focused on assessment. The topic really brought up my instructional design courses that I took back at FSU. I feel that I lack experience on assessment since I don't have a background in education. As an online instructor I often wonder how I can improve the useful feedback to students when grading their work. Do I respond to their discussion board posts, do I need to evaluate them? With their short answer exercises do I need to provide thoughtful responses. I find myself giving feedback that isn't very helpful. I worry about how to phrase feedback for students who are obviously not putting in the effort required without making it sound judgmental.
Therefore the idea of using rubrics seems like a great solution to these concerns of mine. I will grade more consistently and students will understand what the expectations are. The thought of creating rubrics for my assignments are a bit daunting. Do I need to make separate ones for similar assignments or can I just use the same one for the weekly assignments that are similar and than another one for the large project at the end of the course? Something to think about.
Now I have all of these ideas that I'd like to implement in my upcoming course - but that starts in a month, and I fear I won't be able to get enough availability to make some major changes. Perhaps I can focus on improving one area each semester until I get the course where I want it to be.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Week Three, My How Time Flies
Reflection on Group Work
It has been more than three years since I graduated from Florida State's Library and Information Science degree which I completed 98% through online courses. That experience was very educational for me as a student and it has given me many ideas of good and bad things that instructors do or don't do for their online class.
Group work was very common and I became accustomed to the idea of working online with classmates. It can be very scary at times. You have to put alot of faith in your fellow classmates that they will be responsible for their part. Luckily I have had mostly good experiences with online group work, and this project was very good.
The most nerve-wracking thing has to be creating your group. That was somewhat difficult as two groups had already started to form and I immediately jumped in with starting a third group. There was some confusion as to who was confirming with which group, very difficult to determine through discussion boards and email. In past experiences, my groups that were mandatory were formed by the instructor or TA so this was a new adventure!
Our group was very active on the discussion board once everyone knew which group they were assigned to and learned how to navigate to the group pages (Blackboard doesn't make this very intuitive of course.) As the deadline approached, more threads and responses were being left. We muddled through the project and I think we came up with a valid list of issues. We agreed to focus on the concept of student retention in online programs.
If I could compare the online experience of group work with face-to-face group work, I would have to say that I feel that face-to-face group work would be more productive. The asynchronous atmosphere can be quiet daunting. What if I need an answer NOW!
I continue to be impressed by the caliber of my classmates. They seem like a great group of people to embark upon this journey with. I am looking forward to the rest of the course and working with my classmates in upcoming courses.
It has been more than three years since I graduated from Florida State's Library and Information Science degree which I completed 98% through online courses. That experience was very educational for me as a student and it has given me many ideas of good and bad things that instructors do or don't do for their online class.
Group work was very common and I became accustomed to the idea of working online with classmates. It can be very scary at times. You have to put alot of faith in your fellow classmates that they will be responsible for their part. Luckily I have had mostly good experiences with online group work, and this project was very good.
The most nerve-wracking thing has to be creating your group. That was somewhat difficult as two groups had already started to form and I immediately jumped in with starting a third group. There was some confusion as to who was confirming with which group, very difficult to determine through discussion boards and email. In past experiences, my groups that were mandatory were formed by the instructor or TA so this was a new adventure!
Our group was very active on the discussion board once everyone knew which group they were assigned to and learned how to navigate to the group pages (Blackboard doesn't make this very intuitive of course.) As the deadline approached, more threads and responses were being left. We muddled through the project and I think we came up with a valid list of issues. We agreed to focus on the concept of student retention in online programs.
If I could compare the online experience of group work with face-to-face group work, I would have to say that I feel that face-to-face group work would be more productive. The asynchronous atmosphere can be quiet daunting. What if I need an answer NOW!
I continue to be impressed by the caliber of my classmates. They seem like a great group of people to embark upon this journey with. I am looking forward to the rest of the course and working with my classmates in upcoming courses.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Delving Deeper - Week Two
As Blackboard seems to be hung up, this is a perfect time for me to reflect on week two of the course.
Seems I've found myself here again on Sunday evening working on catching up on my week. Monday comes and I remind myself to stay on top of the coursework, and then I do some of it and whooosh its the weekend already. I'm reminded of the difficulty of time management in online courses. I vow to do better next week, but realistically I am in the middle of an apartment move... not exactly the best timing to start back to school.
Last week I was frustrated with the discussion forums. The activity "Threads Threads Threads" help acclimate me to the BB environment much more and I learned a lot, never taking the time to notice all of the extra links and buttons on each page of the discussion board area. Fancy features which help the online learner, indeed, but I am still not a supporter of the Blackboard CMS. Stubborn, I know!
Through the thread activity I found how to search for all of my posts in a certain discussion forum, which is exactly what I needed to do last week. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do that activity week 1 to save the frustration.
This whole experience is definitely helping me keep things in perspective from my students point of view. I think every online instructor should at least have one online learning experience, but actually I recommend more than one because of all of the different formats and concepts of what online learning is all about.
I've enjoyed the weekly readings thus far. They are relevant to our material but I get concerned as some seem to be from 2002-2003. It concerns me as a librarian due to the currency of the material. Granted we are still in the beginning of the e-Learning concept and foundations are important, but for instance, the article on careers in e-Learning bothered me because it discusses the job outlook and the economy. From a librarian point of view resources from 2002 that discuss job outlooks should be discarded and replaced with more current material. Just some feedback there!
Perhaps the problem I am having with Blackboard hanging is customary on Sundays. It is frustrating because I am finishing up my mini-project and cannot upload it as of yet. Technical problems can be a huge factor in a student's overall online learning experience.
Seems I've found myself here again on Sunday evening working on catching up on my week. Monday comes and I remind myself to stay on top of the coursework, and then I do some of it and whooosh its the weekend already. I'm reminded of the difficulty of time management in online courses. I vow to do better next week, but realistically I am in the middle of an apartment move... not exactly the best timing to start back to school.
Last week I was frustrated with the discussion forums. The activity "Threads Threads Threads" help acclimate me to the BB environment much more and I learned a lot, never taking the time to notice all of the extra links and buttons on each page of the discussion board area. Fancy features which help the online learner, indeed, but I am still not a supporter of the Blackboard CMS. Stubborn, I know!
Through the thread activity I found how to search for all of my posts in a certain discussion forum, which is exactly what I needed to do last week. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do that activity week 1 to save the frustration.
This whole experience is definitely helping me keep things in perspective from my students point of view. I think every online instructor should at least have one online learning experience, but actually I recommend more than one because of all of the different formats and concepts of what online learning is all about.
I've enjoyed the weekly readings thus far. They are relevant to our material but I get concerned as some seem to be from 2002-2003. It concerns me as a librarian due to the currency of the material. Granted we are still in the beginning of the e-Learning concept and foundations are important, but for instance, the article on careers in e-Learning bothered me because it discusses the job outlook and the economy. From a librarian point of view resources from 2002 that discuss job outlooks should be discarded and replaced with more current material. Just some feedback there!
Perhaps the problem I am having with Blackboard hanging is customary on Sundays. It is frustrating because I am finishing up my mini-project and cannot upload it as of yet. Technical problems can be a huge factor in a student's overall online learning experience.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Week One in Review
I love the idea of keeping an online journal related to my class activities and reflection for my course at CSU East Bay in Online Learning and Teaching. This will provide me a record of my experience and knowledge gained as well as a way to synthesize the material I am learning.
Starting my first course
My first week back at school was challenging. Day one came and I had not received information on how to log into the course. I was sent an email with a pdf document to fax if I was still waiting for that information. I quickly scrambled to fill that out, faxed it and patiently waited for my email to arrive with login information. To my surprise it came relatively quickly, unlike the complications I seemed to always have as an online learner for my masters degree at Florida State University.
Once I received the instructions I gained access to the Blackboard course management system. I am not a fan of Blackboard. I support open source or independent course management systems that have more flexibility. Blackboard does not seem very user friendly to me, although I can see that there have been improvements since I last used it.
Discussion forums
I posted my profile, read other students profiles and responded to a few of them. Many of my classmates seem very interesting. I look forward to getting to know them and working with them in this course and hopefully more in the future as I continue through the program.
The discussion forum posts were a bit overwhelming. I like having to read materials and write a response, but at the same time I felt a bit lost. I could not remember which forums I had replied to and I was getting frustrated at the slow response from the Blackboard system. Once I logged in and the system was doing maintenance. I had not been aware of the time frame that I would be locked out of the course, so now I know I won't be disappointed!
Team formation
I am pretty shy in general. I like to be a good student and a good team member. Generally I wait and see if someone will step up and be a group leader and if nobody seems to be going in that direction I will volunteer. That was the case for the team formation. I tried to take the lead in creating a third team as two other teams were already formed and looked like they had a fair share of members already. The process of communicating online to form it was difficult for me. In my FSU program, I had been assigned to groups which took a lot of that pressure off. This was difficult because someone would respond to all of the groups that they wanted to be a member, and then I would have to email and post a reply that 'please be in our group' and wait for confirmation. It seems like I spent hours trying to negotiate this process, constantly checking my email and waiting for the super slow Blackboard system to load the discussion forum responses. It all worked out in the end.
Reflection about my own online course
One thing that has been very useful to me is the ideas that are flowing in my head about the problems I see in my two semesters of teaching online. I had been looking forward to the online learning experience, determined to make the experience great for all of my students. Okay, maybe I was a bit naive. I realize how much time I am committing to the class, to making the students feel like they have an instructor who is available and gives useful feedback to them, encourages them, solves problems, etc. but at what expense to my own life? This past semester I had 57 students enrolled in my two courses, and about 45 of them were actively working on the course materials. Wow, was I overwhelmed. I felt like I could barely keep up on the discussion forums. Was it my responsibility to be active in those discussions or provide feedback as well? How do I find the balance? This is something I will continue to ponder on and hopefully come up with some new techniques for my upcoming course.
Starting my first course
My first week back at school was challenging. Day one came and I had not received information on how to log into the course. I was sent an email with a pdf document to fax if I was still waiting for that information. I quickly scrambled to fill that out, faxed it and patiently waited for my email to arrive with login information. To my surprise it came relatively quickly, unlike the complications I seemed to always have as an online learner for my masters degree at Florida State University.
Once I received the instructions I gained access to the Blackboard course management system. I am not a fan of Blackboard. I support open source or independent course management systems that have more flexibility. Blackboard does not seem very user friendly to me, although I can see that there have been improvements since I last used it.
Discussion forums
I posted my profile, read other students profiles and responded to a few of them. Many of my classmates seem very interesting. I look forward to getting to know them and working with them in this course and hopefully more in the future as I continue through the program.
The discussion forum posts were a bit overwhelming. I like having to read materials and write a response, but at the same time I felt a bit lost. I could not remember which forums I had replied to and I was getting frustrated at the slow response from the Blackboard system. Once I logged in and the system was doing maintenance. I had not been aware of the time frame that I would be locked out of the course, so now I know I won't be disappointed!
Team formation
I am pretty shy in general. I like to be a good student and a good team member. Generally I wait and see if someone will step up and be a group leader and if nobody seems to be going in that direction I will volunteer. That was the case for the team formation. I tried to take the lead in creating a third team as two other teams were already formed and looked like they had a fair share of members already. The process of communicating online to form it was difficult for me. In my FSU program, I had been assigned to groups which took a lot of that pressure off. This was difficult because someone would respond to all of the groups that they wanted to be a member, and then I would have to email and post a reply that 'please be in our group' and wait for confirmation. It seems like I spent hours trying to negotiate this process, constantly checking my email and waiting for the super slow Blackboard system to load the discussion forum responses. It all worked out in the end.
Reflection about my own online course
One thing that has been very useful to me is the ideas that are flowing in my head about the problems I see in my two semesters of teaching online. I had been looking forward to the online learning experience, determined to make the experience great for all of my students. Okay, maybe I was a bit naive. I realize how much time I am committing to the class, to making the students feel like they have an instructor who is available and gives useful feedback to them, encourages them, solves problems, etc. but at what expense to my own life? This past semester I had 57 students enrolled in my two courses, and about 45 of them were actively working on the course materials. Wow, was I overwhelmed. I felt like I could barely keep up on the discussion forums. Was it my responsibility to be active in those discussions or provide feedback as well? How do I find the balance? This is something I will continue to ponder on and hopefully come up with some new techniques for my upcoming course.
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