Creating an Online Course Module

August 19, 2021

Over sixteen weeks, I managed to create an online course. Being a second-grade teacher who taught virtually through the Covid-19 pandemic, I made a Google Classroom that stored everything taught, yet it was always very cluttered. Well, this summer, I got the chance to hone in on one specific subject while creating my course module.

When creating the outline of this course, I thought about the things that my students would need the most that were missing from my google classroom last year. First, students need ways to interact with the course. Students need a constant presence to feel comfortable and relate to the learning material. In each of my lessons, I created videos that gave students an overview of the material and taught students how to do the work. The videos allowed students to see me interacting with the material. Second, I thought about the layout of the classroom. I knew that my students needed a visual schedule to understand the order and what to do when. I used a numbered outline through my google classroom so students would not just jump around and complete Lesson 3 when they have not completed lesson 1. Doing this, provided the opportunity to keep my virtual classroom organized while keeping the students in mind.

It was difficult for me to make an appropriate assessment for each lesson (formative) and a summative assessment to see if students mastered the material. Each lesson has an exit ticket at the end to make sure students mastered the material that was being taught. An exit ticket makes sense for the end of each lesson as it shows whether the student needs more help or if they truly mastered the material. If the material was not mastered, students would have a chance to be retaught, meet with me, and retake the exit ticket. Also, I wanted to make sure that each lesson reiterated the material from previous lessons, so each activity has some review. Lastly, I made a summative assessment using multiple-choice questions. I wanted to see if students understood the material. Based on students' answers to the summative assessment, I will see if the information needs to be retaught or if we can move on.

When making an online course module, DO NOT expect everything to be perfect. During the sixteen weeks, I used google classroom as my learning management system. However, Google has a lot of specific kinks. For example, each document needs to have a setting turned on so everyone can view the assignment or slides and not just a select number of people. Another issue when creating an assignment is making sure there is a copy for each student. When there is a copy for each student, students will each have their assignment. Without that specific setting, assignments will not work the way you anticipated them to work. Lastly, another quick tidbit I wish I told myself, captioning videos requires patience. It is an equitable idea to have captions on videos to make sure all scholars can access them, but be patient. The automatic transcriptions will come (Rookie mistake- I typed half of my videos out), be patient and make sure to check the auto transcriptions before finishing the video. Even though there were lessons learned along the way, creating an online class module was beneficial! I am excited by the possibilities of this course and look forward to seeing how it might develop once the school year begins in person. I hope to see the improvement of student's math skills through online learning in my classroom.

For a sneak peek of my Online Course Module, check out this overview.