Before starting this academy I have not had a lot of experience teaching courses online. However, the courses I have taught online I found it to be very difficult to be engaging enough to get the students to want to participate, when we had synchronous meetings. Thus, I have tried to make an effort to explore opportunities to learn effective ways to teach online.
Reflecting on these last six weeks, I can honestly say I have added a lot of tools into my teaching toolbox. I remember exploring the humanizing showcases and the wisdom wall of past participants at the beginning of this academy, and I remember feeling a sense of intimidation. I was coming into this course not having experience uploading a video to YouTube, transcribing a video, using Adobe Sparks to create a presentation video, or incorporating apps in Canvas assignments (ie. Flip). Now, at the end of these six weeks, I am very confident and knowledgeable in all of those areas.
I will continue to refine and edit my liquid syllabus and Canvas homepage to make my online course an engaging and humanized experience. In addition, I would also like to applying some of these humanizing tools I have used in this academy and incorporate them in my in-person courses; such as the presentation videos and Flip.