My First Blog Entry (2nd time around)

Where to start? For starters this is the 2ND time around for me and I won't lie that it's a bit draining of my energy. I honestly thought it would be the best thing to do but now I am not so sure for several reasons. First, I am not as excited as I was the first time around and this might be a problem to my entire design. The amount of work it took the first time around was intense and to do it all over again. I am teaching four traditional classes which takes a lot of preparing. What was I thinking?

As a student, I have learned that the design is crucial for success. To be able to have a well-thought out and structured design makes it an easier and more successful journey for students. For online courses, it's necessary to remember that certain elements will not be the same as teaching a F2F traditional class. What works for F2F may or may not work for an online format. It's a serious process that one needs to feel comfortable doing.

In my mind these courses should have an option of designing or not because when teaching online courses most facilitators I know personally took an already established course and facilitated it. I am not so sure that I want to continue towards completion of this certificate. Initially, I was excited and ready to embark on this journey but soon realized that maybe not all of us are ready to design. It does take a lot of experience and energy that is a FACT. For some it's a great opportunity because they have been teaching F2F classes for quite some time. These individuals have the experience designing traditional courses that offer a structured and challenging way to meet objectives and assess their students' progress. For others who do not have the experience this course in particular can be very difficult. Out of all the courses this one is the most difficult so prepare to be challenged.

I wish I could feel different but I can't. This is the first time I repeat a course and it's a feeling I don't wish on anyone so my advice read, participate and ask questions. Meet with the professor when you have a doubt because this time around I won't wait or hesitate to contact the professor for additional help. The one thing I can say with complete confidence is that she is always ready to provide her guidance and help you and me clarify any misunderstandings we might have.

Remember stay ahead do not fall behind. Attend all live Wimba meetings to participate in the discussion process. The best of luck to each and every one of you.

Towards the END!!!!

WOW!!!! MEGA WOW!!!! We are near the end can't hardly believe it. The greatest part of all is that I come back to think about the importance of TEAMWORK. Taking a closer look at the review process made me look at things differently. After writing our draft paper we were given the wonderful opportunity to get feedback and a second look before the final submission. I found this to be very valuable. I will walk away realizing that when we are the only ones reading and writing even if we look at our paper over a few times we don't notice mistakes and end up submitting with tons of errors. To be quite honest I learned so much from this experience; apparently over my academic years I have felt that I don't need help. Some people always get others to review their papers while I never did. Boy did I make a mistake!!!! From this point on I plan to have another reviewer before I do the final submission.

I also learned something else. I did not know how to use the comment on word and found this very helpful for my own instruction. With this said I know there is always room for improvement and learning new knowledge.

We are so close to the end with just a few more things to submit. I guess with the submission of the final project, the portfolio submission and this blog entry we are really done. In my opinion I gained so much knowledge than I ever thought possible as with all the other online courses towards the online certificate. I want to continue spreading the word about how essential these online classes are and everyone who will be teaching should take these to enhance their teaching abilities and strategies to enhance learning.

I am so happy that I ended up staying in this course without giving up which I almost did. Online Teaching is definitely not for everyone. I know online teaching is for me.

Yikes!!! This course is a true challenge.

Where do I start? Well by admitting that this course has been a true challenge. I just finished writing my draft paper and I am exhausted. I did not quit almost did though, I had a f2f meeting with professor Janet Engle and she helped me tremendously. I was over thinking things and very much needed her guidance and expertise.

Before meeting with her I was tired, frustrated and almost ready to give up. I don't usually give up easy and had to find a way to stay motivated to finish this Online Teaching Certificate. I must admit that while this course has been extremely exhausting it has also been so beneficial to me as an instructor. I now admire online designers so much more than I did before. As a matter of fact I never even thought about it. Now I have so much more respect for curriculum designers and online designers that my new profound knowledge has opened up a new world of opportunities and possibilities. I will incorporate these skills into making better choices when it comes to instruction both online and f2f.

Well this is all for now. I am going to take a nice long bubble bath and get some rest. Hard work always takes time and energy and leaves us feeling good about the finished product but worn out physically and emotionally.

Until next time not too much longer to go.

Josie

What's on my mind?

WOW!!! I don't know where to start, at this time I find mysef a bit worried. Maybe I should have waited until the fall to fully commit more time and effort to this design course. Summer seems to be the best time of the year for me, family cookouts spending more time with my daughters but right now it has not been easy to do. Trying to concentrate on all that this course requires takes more than I thought.

In my opinion this course is probably the most difficult. It has been a true blessing to have professor Engle guide us each step of the way. I never thought I would say this but I almost considered dropping it. Why? While I know the online world is for me, I seem to be a bit discouraged and overwhelmed at this time. I have previously mentioned how I never stopped and paid attention to the amount of time and energy a designer goes through. My appreciation has definitely increased for online instructors/designers.

Now that I know what the course design entails it gives me a bit more confidence to make sure I cover all the following:

-how will my students access the course content
-what types of learning exercises will I provided to encourage student-content interaction
-how will I as a facilitator communicate and interact with my students
-how will my students interact with one another

When I see it this way it does not seem very difficult to do, but the more I think about it the more I truly know that at times certain stragies may or may not work. It's almost like trial and error and then adjusting what did not work to make the course better. The only downfall I see is that our students suffer the consequences.

I don't think anyone starts off as an expert and practice in my opinion does not make perfect but it makes it better. There is always room for improvement and thinking of ourselves as lifetime learners we are open to feedback and with this comes more knowledge that will enhance our experience in this online world.

There is one very important part that I feel guilty of not complying with which is my feedback to my team. I honestly feel that giving feedback to my design team is a bit much if I am not an expert in that subject matter because in my opinion what works for a Spanish online course may not work for a psychology online course. I know that anyone can give feedback but do we trust their judgement fully to make necessary updates to the online design or do we keep our own ideas if we are sure they will work.

I will end this entry by saying that the bar has been raised and with this comes the knowledge of technology. Let's work hard at staying current on what is going on and move forward with the changes in order to be in demand.

Designing Online Courses

I would like to write about a few aspects of designing Online Courses that I find to be important for the success of any individual in his/her final project design. These aspects I plan to write about are also important to us as designers and online facilitators.

I never thought developing content for online learning required so much effort and energy. As online students we think we do a lot but did we ever sit down and thought about the person responsible for designing the online course we are taking? I will honestly say that I never did--yes it briefly went through my mind but it never occurred to me that the designer would go through so much planning and work before the students log in for the first time.

The most shocking thing found was the fact that if a course falls above or below the level of the actual students taking the class it will be ineffective. By taking this class I have opened my eyes to the reality that while certain strategies work well in the traditional classroom they may not work well in the online environment. As online facilitators we need to adjust and adapt to using different strategies to make our online experience favorable.

It takes a lot of energy, time and commitment to implement a well-designed course. As a designer and developer we must consider a number of things. First we must think about the design process and start thinking about the environment in which the course will be taught in order to develop and deliver the most appropriate course possible. The design process is no easy matter it takes time to prepare and analyze the best course to take in making the most effective online course. The details at each stage towards the final project takes time and requires our undivided attention. Having a design team that can guide you and give you feedback about doing and not doing certain things is a great advantage.

As facilitators we need to realize that all courses begin with the student in mind the learner. The considerations and constraints that we must factor in the design are many but the most important are to recognize learner issues that we must factor into the design process in order to have an effective online course. We must also remember the importance of tailoring the learning experience to appeal to students from different learning styles in order to maximize their learning and their experience in the course. Bottom line is that when the learners leave your online course all objectives must have been met. Even though this sounds easy it is not, as a matter of fact dealing with so much can overwhelm any designer. Making mistakes during the design can make learning boring or too challenging making some students drop your course. With this in mind it's extremely important to have a design team that will help you achieve the best possible online course.

To have an effective online course assessment is needed. Assessment has to be an ongoing process that will help the online facilitator know how students are learning. Assessment is not all about grading but about the learning progress of the students. The most important part about assessment is about achieving all the learning objectives set in the beginning.
Assessment is an ongoing process in an effective online course. Consequently, it is important to consider how you will assess student learning (not just in terms of 'grading' but also in term of how both you and your students will get feedback on the progress toward the achievement of the stated learning outcomes.) before you actually begin the detail design of your learning units. Working from course goals/objectives you will need to determine what kinds of assessment will bets demonstrate that students are successfully meeting learning objectives. As an online facilitator we must find the best assessment strategies that will best fit with our course.

What must we start with? In the design we must first start with a clear set of learning objectives. We can do this by thinking of what we want our students to learn and go from there planning how they will achieve these. We must consider what technologies we will incorporate in our design, how will we present, and keep in mind all learning styles in order to have an effective outcome. We need to keep in mind considerations and present our content in a pedagogical manner.

What have I enjoyed about online courses? There are many reasons but the top reason is the interaction I never expected from an online course. Unlike the traditional classroom online courses demand more from us the students both in terms of interaction and discussion activities. In our unit it said, "Interaction is the heart of online learning." We were presented with the three types of interaction that can be designed into online courses. There is student-content, student-student, and student-instructor. These all help our students in the learning process and I can personally say that it has enhanced my learning tremendously. I did not learn as much in the traditional classroom because sitting there listening to a lecturer is alright but I learn by doing and interacting more. I get bored easily when someone just stands there and continues to speak and speak without involving his/her students.

At one point in time before I took online courses when I thought about online learning I thought ISOLATION. To my surprise through icebreakers and class albums and discussion forums there is a sense of community that provides us with so much more than expected. We can be social and academically support each other. We learn about team work by collaborating on projects and engaging in interesting discussions. There are many benefits to online learning like incorporating innovative and new ways to engage students to learn more than they ever imagined.

I will continue to write more about designing courses because I am a true advocate of online learning and now online teaching. This blog will serve others who have the wrong ideas about online learning.

Josie

My Experience up to this course-Designing Online Courses

I want to start by writing about my experience so far in this course. It was very interesting to participate in the first Wimba meeting in order to get some clarity about what this course is all about. Professor Engle made some clarifications on what will be expected from us and our team.

All the experience that I've had in the previous courses has helped me feel comfortable with the challenges to come in designing. This course will be more intense because we will now concentrate on the planning of designing a course. Our students will benefit if we help them meet all learning objectives in our online courses.

All the experience I have teaching face to face courses along with my pilot online program teaching Spanish will serve me well in putting this course together. My pilot program as with any other courses had some challenges. However, I have faith that once I finish theses courses for my Online Teaching Certificate everything will be better.

I know that the design process is very different than how I expected. It's definitely very structured and with this great opportunity we will have great outcomes in all of our designs.

There are many expectations that we have as future facilitators and one of them to be able to make our online courses easy to follow and meet the learning objectives for our students.

I know this will be a fun but challenging opportunity. As a team let's be there for one another and rely on our professor for any advice to enhance our experience here. Being able to communicate our concerns and worries helps us learn and accomplish our tasks in this course.

Your feedback is always welcomed.

Josie

My Experience as an ONLINE FACILITATOR.

The end is here for our second course towards our Online Teaching Certificate. Half way there I tell myself. After completing this course, I have met the expected outcomes stated in the course. I am able to select strategies for developing an online learning community that are appropriate to course content and student needs. I am able to select appropriate synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies for interacting directly with students, individually and with the class as a whole. I have been able to employ effective online facilitation strategies to maintain active and appropriate student-student interaction. I am able to develop rubrics that clearly define student performance requirements for online courses. I missed the opportunity to submit this important assignment but did more research on this and felt comfortable with it. I am now able to employ alternative online teaching strategies that address different ways of learning.

My experience throughout this course has been a positive one. Due to medical issues I was not able to put forth as much effort as I wanted to. My experience as an Online Facilitator was a fun one. I had lot's of fun during week 9 which was my facilitation week. Unit 9: Focused on the technical role instructors play in the online environment. Everyone was there for me and it turned out to be a fantastic experience and I felt very comfortable. My topic to discuss was the TECHNICAL ROLE. Never do we anticipate the problems that can happen and yes, Murphy's Law happened because on the day of my facilitation week my computer caught a virus and I could not log in to join everyone. I panicked but started to think and called my professor who by the way is the best. She gave me the phone number to join by phone and it worked.

We read and discussed about many things regarding different technology roles we take as online instructors. We must perform, according to Berge, the ultimate objective of the technical role which is to "make the technology transparent" to the student. Even though many see this as a simple process, just know that there are many skills required in order to make this happen.

Technology must be selected and implemented in such a way that it clearly supports pedagogical purposes and integrates seamlessly into the course environment. In this unit, we will focus on this final role that online instructors play and identify the skills and activities that are involved in executing it effectively.

I will first write about my synchronous experience. What does synchronous mean? Synchronous communication (SC) can be defined as real-time communication that occurs between two or more people through a virtual or electronically mediated system. SC systems have become more prevalent as network bandwidth has increased and become both more readily available and affordable.

When I began to prepare to facilitate I was a bit nervous especially because the professor would be there to observe. Leading a synchronous communication session was fun, challenging and rewarding at the same time. I had everyone there from professor Silver to each and every one of my classmates. My experience was unforgettable and listening to the archive made me realize that I need to be more confident and stop getting so nervous. We were told to do this blog entry quickly to have our experience fresh in our minds but with the archive feature on Horizon Live we relive that moment again. It was an unforgettable experience but we do need to hear ourselves in order to judge our own teaching and improve on our weaknesses. All my classmates were available to discuss many of the items presented that night of my faciliation. Synchronous chats are always rewarding. I learned a lot about facilitating in this class and with this comes my gratitude to all my professors. In this class we had to provide a feedback report to the student facilitators (via email) for all synchronous sessions.


My asynchronous experience was also one of my favorites as well. I had the opportunity to answer to the students replies and comments about this topic. I replied quickly to all the students, but there was one student who had provided information that did not meet the demands of the required question. This was an uncomfortable situation because I've had past issues with this student and did not know how to address the problem in the best way possible to avoid getting the student mad instead I wanted her to submit the correct information the question requested. It was a great change for this student to use higher order thinking in order to engage her in this great learning opportunity.

I truly did not know what to expect in this course. I knew and considered that this would not be as difficult as the previous class and when the professor told us that same thing I was at ease. I have to admit that no course is easy towards this certificate. We have to work extra hard and apply ourselves in everything we do in order to have a positive outcome. My fear was definitely not being able to survive through the whole course due to many set backs in my life.

As the weeks progressed I did apply myself more because I knew that I was a bit behind. I have been successful at completing all the required assignments that I need to turn in. There is only one thing that I did not comprehend very well and which I expressed my concern to the professor this was dealing with HTML. I am not alone in this many of the other classmates also expressed this same concern.

I have been surprised by many things during this course. One of them being how some classmates come to the rescue to complete an assignment for a group project while others because of medical conditions or other things do not get as involved as the others and yet the group grade is the same. There is a saying, "If you want to achieve your dreams you better work and play well with others." While this is true many students do not care to work in teams or complete group assignments. I want to take this time to say thank you to Ray and Shirley for helping our group finalize the group project. It was fun to work on the summary with Shirley. In the past we have worked very well together. I look forward to continuing this journey with Shirley next semester.

This experience has definitely changed my perspective on facilitation. I know for sure that online teaching is for me. I also know that we have to be ready to improvise when things do not go our way.

Thank you to all my online facilitators for making a great teacher out of me. I want all of you to know that your positive feedback and encouraging words make us believe in ourselves and be confident in all that we do. Again thanks.

Josie Davila