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.