Impact Cycle Online Course

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Week 1- My learners within my course will be new instructional coaches that have started this year for my district. My teaching style is really to be a facilitator to the learning that is happening. I am a big believer in the power of timely, specific feedback. I think that the person doing the talking/typing/reading/watching is the one doing the learning. There should be much more student talk than teacher talk as knowledge builds and connections are made. I have done many professional development sessions and partnering with teachers and instructional coaches through virtual instruction. I also filled in at the beginning of the year for just the first week as we hired a 2nd grade teacher. My experience with the content is extensive as I have read the book, been to at least 6 trainings from the instructional coaching group on this book, and I have taken several teachers through the Impact Cycle both face to face and virtually. I am very comfortable with the technology I will be using, as we are a Google district. I will be using Google Classroom since it will be the most accessible to the coaches.

When it comes to the four learning theories according to Bates (2015) and my online course, here is how I see them fitting in with my online course development.

Behaviorism- Information will be presented in an organized way to the audience of my course. Feedback given to the instructional coaches who will be taking my course, will really help them to know if they are on the right track and will help them to adjust how they are completing assignments. I do not, however, feel as though this course can be black and white, or have one right answer. These instructional coaches will be using this class to create and analyze teacher goals based on data provided.

Cognitivism- This theory will really go well with my course as it will really progress through lower level learning about the Impact Cycle for instructional coaches and into them applying what they have learned by watching someone go through the Impact Cycle and determine how to use the tools, then actually taking a teacher through one themselves where they will analyze data and evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching cycle success. I also feel that the aspect of learning how to learn goes well with online courses since there is not a teacher present at all times. The learner really has to be self-directed and know a lot about themselves as a learner in order to be most successful.

Connectivism- This one was tricky for me. Since my course will be for instructional coaches who are learning about the Impact Cycle, which is a type of coaching cycle where they partner with teachers with job-embedded professional learning through looking at data and student outcomes, I feel like this one does go with my course specifically. It does bring together coaches and teachers where that new knowledge that is acquired daily throughout the cycle really does determine what is learned and how it is learned, at the decision of the teacher. Connections will need to be made between the data, the content, and delivery in the strategy. There are many variables that are dependent on student knowledge levels, teacher delivery and consistency, coaching ability, and choosing the right strategy to implement change. This happens outside of the online component though. It will happen when they go apply the learning at the end of the course.

Constructivism- This theory will be embedded within my online course within the discussion board where instructional coaches will build their own knowledge off of each other's thinking as they analyze a coaching cycle together before they go off on their own. As they partner with a teacher to start their own Impact Cycle, they will also merge their thinking with that of the classroom teacher and it will build as they try out new strategies with students.

References:

Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (Chapters 1 & 2). Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Week 2- In an online course, lectures alone should not be the norm for a multitude of reasons. When we think about our audience of learners, we have to think about how they learn best, not how we would like to teach. Since I work at the elementary level, most classrooms have moved away from lectures even in face to face courses. Students need to be engaged in the learning as much as possible. So if there are lectures, they should be short and interactive in order for students to be able to pay attention for the amount of time and to be able to apply what they have learned. According to McKeachie and Svinicki (2006) as cited in Teaching in a Digital Age by Bates (2015), they believe that lecturing is best used for summarizing material found in a variety of sources, adapting materials based on the audience, as an introduction to new ideas, or to model expert thinking. Another point to bring up is that if students can access the learning themselves, they should be. Vital pieces of information are lost when transferred to a lecture, which could also contain bias. One of the benefits of being in an online course is also to be able to access the learning when it is convenient. I have enjoyed in our courses at Lamar how that we can watch the lecture around our own schedule since all of us work full time and most of us have families, it allows me to learn when it is the best environment at home for me to learn.

In regards to learning by apprenticeship, I think it is a great model and reminds me of my student teaching. Even though there are some downfalls, as mentioned by Bates (2015), overall it at least gives the learner a real context for all of their learning from theory. I don't know that this could be done well in an online environment at least in a trades field. My course does have the learners doing the work on their own campuses, but it doesn't require any machinery or any materials. I think that would be harder to replicate and really feel comfortable in their ability to do the work. It's like if a doctor got their degree without every actually being trained in person or going through clinicals and skills labs. I wouldn't trust that doctor to have the deep learning that the other doctors who studied in person would have.

The experiential learning in my course will be instructional coaches taking teachers through the Impact Cycle, which is a specific structure to grow teachers in something that they care about. It will be a self paced course set up in modules based on distinct parts of the cycle. The assignments will be to submit a video of them coaching or a video of reflection about that portion of the coaching cycle. They will then give and get feedback from their peers. The course will include a reflection portion for each module so that they can remember what they want to do differently in their next Impact Cycle so it gets better and better every time. These instructional coaches will also have mentor coaches to reach out to along the way with questions and to problem solve with, including me as a resource.

References:

Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (Chapters 3-4). Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

McKeachie, W. and Svinicki, M. (2006) McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teachers Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin

As a synchronous aspect of the course, there will be a weekly Zoom Meeting at 2:00 pm on Thursdays. This will be an opportunity for collaboration, breakout rooms for giving/getting feedback, and any problem solving that needs to happen. There will also be a lecture for each week. Here are the slides for all six modules.

Week 3- Tony Bates does an excellent job of describing various MOOCs. What do you see as the value of a MOOC as a learner or as a course developer?

I LOVE the idea of MOOCs. I recently started listening to podcasts. The ones I love are educational in nature about leadership and coaching. I can kind of see those as a type of MOOC. I think it's just a human thing to do. In the description in the book (Bates, 2015), talk about how people in remote places could learn from the best professors in the world if we can just get them the technology. We could change the lives and trajectories for so many people in rural areas of the world by giving them nothing more than the opportunity to learn as long as they have internet and a computer. I think another great point that was brought up in the book was that these lectures could also be used to just enhance the learning as another source for students and not be the sole form of learning.

Do you find the distinction between media and technology helpful? Explain.

I somewhat find the distinction between media and technology helpful. It's nice to know, but I don't think it will affect how I proceed with the construction of my course. I had never thought of the word media and how we use our senses to interpret it.

Will your course be synchronous, asynchronous, or a combination? Describe.

My course will a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous. Each module will have an asynchronous short lecture. It will also include reading, videos and assignments that will be asynchronous. Each week, we will meet synchronously to problem solve any issues they are having as they work with teachers through the Impact Cycle, and they will be put into breakout rooms with experiences coaches depending on what module they are working on. This will be a self- paced course with loose deadlines because it is for instructional coaches that are all at campuses. With the pandemic going on, there are things that are out of their control that could impact their ability to do the work. Also, sometimes it takes coaches a little longer to do their first Impact Cycle as they are figuring it out.

Describe the broadcast and/or communicative media you will use in your course.

Broadcast- Video webinars with coaching consultants, asynchronous video lecture, Google Slides to get information, Blogs, articles, book, simulation of coaching.

Communicative- Discussion, giving and getting feedback from peers after posting videos, breakout rooms in Zoom, Synchronous Zoom meetings.

After reading about media richness, will you be able to enhance the media you plan to use?

I have a variety of of rich and simple media. I will look for more ways to enhance the media I am using.

Week 4-

The author of your textbook acknowledges the difficulty and complexity of choosing appropriate media and technology. To assist with this process, he has created and included the SECTIONS model as well as others. Discuss how you can use these models in planning your teaching and your students' learning.

Using the SECTIONS model will help me to look at every aspect of my courses before getting started so that students are most successful. When thinking about my course right now:

S- The students for my course will not need a ton of support. Instructional coaches are high achievers by nature and are good at learning. They will all have access through the technology provided by the district on district time and I made my LMS Google Sites since our district is Google driven. It should be the most friendly platform for them to use and be able to save and adjust any documents they need within the course.

E- My course is very straightforward and easy to navigate. The teaching materials should be relevant for the foreseeable future. As we get more training from the consultants who wrote the book, we will probably be able to add tools, articles, tips to keep the course updated.

C- The district buys the book for the instructional coaches and provides the Google account and technology. Having the class in an online platform is more feasible than in person, especially since the work they are doing is on their own campuses.

T- This section was all about the pedagogy behind the course and how it is presented with the audience in mind. I took a constructivist/connectivist approach. Instructional coaches will be applying their learning each week as they go through the course. Reading through the points in this one were very helpful. I feel as though I may need to make some of the videos I have uploaded shorter so as to keep the attention of my students.

I- When thinking about ways to include interaction within my course, I have created reflection/notes pages for each chapter they will read in the book to make the reading more interactive. I have also included a time each week to meet synchronously so that instructional coaches can interact with each other, they will also be able to interact with each other as they reflect on their work on each stage of the Impact Cycle. They will also be interacting with the teacher of their choice as they implement their learning each week.

O- I don't think there are any organizational issues.

N- There are opportunities that I can add for this. I'm glad this was brought up. I will add some networking opportunities for Twitter and Facebook.

How can you use Mayer's multimedia design principles in your current online course or in future planning?

The multimedia design principles tell us that we need to present information both visually and auditorily for our students to help students process the learning in more than one way where they combine what they see and what they hear to make connections that increase learning. I do have many videos that have closed captions, but I do think that in my lectures that are synchronous, I need to think about this more to ensure I am providing both learning opportunities for my students.

Consider the continuum of technology based learning in Chapter 9. Where does your course fit on this continuum?

My course is definitely blended. The learning is online asynchronously and on Zoom for a synchronous lecture and collaborative time each week. There is also learning each week that is flipped, but teachers will be applying their learning on their campus face to face with a teacher.

Considering all the information you have gathered so far in this course, identify two other courses in your school that you could redesign into online courses. What would you need to consider for this redesign?

One course that can be redesigned would be how instructional coaches learn about our data platform, Mastery Connect. Right now, there are professional learning videos on their data base, and our instructional coaches get training during online meetings. The teachers then have to hear everything second hand, when they are the individuals that really utilize this tool daily. If there could be a course that really walks them through each of the different tools they need and reports they could run, it would cut out the middleman and be in their hands whenever they need it. A course could really focus in on how our district is using each part of the product, so it wouldn’t be mixed messages with all of the webinars that are available right now.

Another course that could be redesigned would be a course for incoming virtual teachers for next year. We know that virtual instruction is not going away in our district. Now that we have a year of virtual instruction under our belt, we have some very underutilized resources, our virtual teachers. I would like to get a few of our master virtual teachers to create a course with videos of how they are doing things successfully. They have the experience and trial and error behind all of the amazing things they are doing online with our students. A Slideshow that was used last year to tell teachers what to expect is now irrelevant. This will also allow for our new teachers next year and any teachers who have struggled with different aspects of online learning to use this course as a tool to get better at just the parts they need.

Reference

Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (Chapters 3-4). Retrieved from

https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

One course in my district that I could redesign would be our data platform, Mastery Connect. Right now, there are professional learning videos on their data base, and our instructional coaches get training during online meetings. The teachers then have to hear everything second hand, when they are the individuals that really utilize this tool daily. If there could be a course that really walks them through each of the different tools they need and reports they could run, it would cut out the middleman and be in their hands whenever they need it. A course could really focus in on how our district is using each part of the product, so it wouldn’t be mixed messages with all of the webinars that are available right now.

Week 5-

When it comes to the four learning theories according to Bates (2015) and my online course, here is how I see them fitting in with my online course development.

· Behaviorism- Information will be presented in an organized way to the audience of my course. Feedback given to the instructional coaches who will be taking my course, will really help them to know if they are on the right track and will help them to adjust how they are completing assignments. I do not, however, feel as though this course can be black and white, or have one right answer. These instructional coaches will be using this class to create and analyze teacher goals based on data provided.

· Cognitivism- This theory will really go well with my course as it will really progress through lower level learning about the Impact Cycle for instructional coaches and into them applying what they have learned by watching someone go through the Impact Cycle and determine how to use the tools, then actually taking a teacher through one themselves where they will analyze data and evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching cycle success. I also feel that the aspect of learning how to learn goes well with online courses since there is not a teacher present at all times. The learner really has to be self-directed and know a lot about themselves as a learner in order to be most successful.

· Connectivism- This one was tricky for me. Since my course will be for instructional coaches who are learning about the Impact Cycle, which is a type of coaching cycle where they partner with teachers with job-embedded professional learning through looking at data and student outcomes, I feel like this one does go with my course specifically. It does bring together coaches and teachers where that new knowledge that is acquired daily throughout the cycle really does determine what is learned and how it is learned, at the decision of the teacher. Connections will need to be made between the data, the content, and delivery in the strategy. There are many variables that are dependent on student knowledge levels, teacher delivery and consistency, coaching ability, and choosing the right strategy to implement change. This happens outside of the online component though. It will happen when they go apply the learning at the end of the course.

· Constructivism- This theory will be embedded within my online course within the discussion board where instructional coaches will build their own knowledge off of each other's thinking as they analyze a coaching cycle together before they go off on their own. As they partner with a teacher to start their own Impact Cycle, they will also merge their thinking with that of the classroom teacher and it will build as they try out new strategies with students.

In my eyes, when it comes to learning theory and online courses, you have to take the best of what each one offers and tailor it to your audience and the learning focus. The course should get progressively harder in my opinion and that is what I have seen within my own online courses throughout this program. The first week or two is more of the objectivist approach where we learn about very concrete ideas. Then the learning goes to more abstract and watching others and looking at examples, the cognitivism approach, and what we think about the topic, then on to constructivism where we create and practice the new learning.

When starting to create my course, I loved using the UbD framework and saw it as very helpful (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). Figuring out my learning outcomes first, really helped me to think about the logical progression and breakdown of my course. Then determining what I wanted to assign was so important to think about and something I adjusted more than anything else. While studying the Impact Cycle book and knowing how I felt as an instructional coach myself, I realized that making it a requirement to turn in videos of themselves goes against everything that we believe in as part of building trust in our department. As a new coach in a new role, it is already intimidating to be doing your first Impact Cycle, but then to have to post a video of you coaching a teacher for all of the other coaches to see as you are trying to figure it all out is demeaning and breaks trust. Instead, since I do think that watching videos of yourself is VITAL part of learning and what the Impact Cycle is in huge support of, I assigned that they need to video themselves, but they can choose to post it to get feedback from others or they can choose to watch it by themselves and post their reflection. As part of stage 3, I was able to really create the learning opportunities that I would have loved to have had when I first started the Impact Cycle. I’m still in the process of getting experienced Instructional coaches to send me examples of their coaching within these stages as well so that they can be added as examples.

Providing online learning as an option to students really has given me a totally new perspective this year on what is possible. We should be providing opportunities for learning wherever possible. I love the idea of MOOCs for economically disadvantaged people in the US and around the world to get to become proficient in skills that they may not have even known to pursue (Bates, 2015). If people have the desire to learn, we should make it as easy as possible for them to have access to the learning. For some adults that are trying to get through school while raising a family and working, online is such a powerful environment that can change lives.

The enduring understanding that I received from this course comes around many topics. One is that communication in an online course is vital. Every form of communication must be clear and abundant. Another one is that creating a course with the end first is not only what we try to get teachers to do for students at the elementary level, but also at the adult level. It was highly beneficial to backwards plan this course and it is even more evident how vital it is than what I thought before. Another enduring understanding is how beneficial checklists are when you want to improve something. The checklists provided in this course caused me to refine my work over and over again and have my learners in mind every step of the way.

References:

Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). The Understanding by Design guide to creating high-quality units. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Here are some successful online programs that you have discovered through your Discussion forum using the space you need.

Google Sites

Google Classroom

Canvas

CourseSites

Schoology

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