Final Reflection of Online Learning

For this course, I designed an online course for teachers on my campus. I am an elementary classroom teacher and a member of the technology committee. The course I created is an extension of my Innovation Plan to create experiential learning with VR/AR and Virtual Field Trips. Experiential learning allows students the opportunity to build their 21st Century Skills and create authentic learning connections to the content. It is a self-paced course that acts as an introduction to experiential learning. Learners in this course will explore, experience, and understand the constructs of experiential learning and how they can support it in the classroom.

Instructional Design Theories

When developing an online course, it is important to consider Instructional Design Theories. Bates (2015) references the ADDIE model of instructional design. The five steps consist of Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. ADDIE is used to help develop technology-based teaching. It can not only be utilized with online teaching, but in-person as well. This model focuses on purposeful instructional design with clear objectives and learning outcomes. While designing my course, I took the SAMR(Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition) Model into account. The activities I created for my learners were not just substitution of activities they could do without technology. If the learning was an article read online or a video, I wanted to make sure the activity was augmentation, modification or redefinition.

UbD Plan Implementation

In a previous course, I created a UbD plan for creating experiential learning opportunities for staff. This was easily transferrable to the Schoology platform. The Ubd design template helped me develop a meaningful online learning environment with backwards design. This helped me develop the activities in my course and make sure they were aligned with the desired outcomes and assessments of the course. As I developed my Schoology course, I constantly referred to my UbD plan to make sure I was on the right track in creating meaningful, authentic learning that reflected the goals of the course.

Importance of Online Learning

If I was asked what the importance of online learning was a year ago, I would have a slightly different answer. Online learning is not a new trend, but thanks to COVID-19, every teacher in America had to start utilizing it in March of 2020. When teachers were thrown into it in the Spring, the majority were not trained in meaningful online learning. It is more than taking worksheets and materials and transferring it into an online LMS. Online learning gives teachers the opportunity to create diverse and differentiated instruction to learners. I am hopeful that one good thing that comes out of 2020 is teachers seeing how we can utilize meaningful online learning in conjunction with in person learning. Online learning helps create relevant, real-world experiences for learners, flexibility for learners, and helps them take ownership of their learning. Online learning helps shift learning to student-centered learning, instead of teacher-centered learning.

Enduring Understanding

Before this course, I had not truly used an LMS in my 5th grade classroom. I had used Google Classroom to house assignments for my students. This course helped me map out an online course that is meaningful for my learners. I started with creating an online course for staff on my campus. The steps in EDLD 5318 helped to create an online learning environment seemed tedious at first. I wanted to jump right into creation mode. I found that creating an outline that broke down everything the learners needed to know was helpful in creating the activities and organization of the course. I needed to make sure that the activities were not just dumping information on the learners and them regurgitating the information. The activities had to be more than that. Learners need to take what they learn and apply it somehow and then collaborate with others.

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