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Effective teaching is inherently dynamic. Each time we teach a course, present a lecture, or engage our students in a learning activity, we teach when we respond to student questions and feedback “in the moment.” Effective teachers use experience to modify a lesson from semester to semester. Great online courses are not simply copied from semester to semester without significant changes, or allowed to run on autopilot, but rather are taught dynamically and improved with each iteration.
Reflections
Reflections
Where I was.
Where I was.
I decided to take the Dynamic Online Teaching @ONE course for a few reasons. First, I had been working on taking professional development courses for step increases for about 1.5 years now. I had taken all online courses through local community colleges as well as through sites like Vesi and GraduateCourses. They have been fine, but often not engaging. It wasn't until I stumbled upon @ONE via a colleague that I realized I had many more options for professional development. In Summer 2019, I put my own online English 1A course through the OEI rubric. I am really proud of my new online course, though now that it's live, there are still kinks to work out as I see my students navigate it.
That said, I wanted to have a bigger, more dynamic online presence in my courses.
Where I am.
Where I am.
After completing this course, I revised my English B1A course for Spring 2020. To start, I looked at my students' page views and announcement views. I wanted to know if students look at something a lot and it shows a good/bad grade, or something students look at very little and it shows a good/bad grade.
I also created a direct-feedback survey that asks students to identify the resources (pages) that they found least and most valuable. I think that if I reframe my survey to be required (for a small point percentage, formed in a way that gives me constructive criticism, and have students reveal their identities), then I will get more feedback than I have in the past by making it optional.
Where I'm headed.
Where I'm headed.
Going forward, I've been thinking about my plans, questions, and concerns for engaging in ongoing course design and revision. On my campus, I joined an Online Student Affinity Group, where various faculty get together to discuss online challenges for students. In our most recent meeting, we discussed the difficulties students with no computer/technology experience might face when trying to access a Canvas course for the first time.
I am also part of my college’s Peer Online Course Review committee. We meet often as we work to get various departments to create online versions of face to face courses. During our meetings, we often share technology ideas and online teaching practices that we have explored or seen other faculty use.
Examples
Examples
Assignment Prompt:
To help you prepare for the third and final research paper you will write for the course, we are going to take some time finding outside sources on our topic--technology addiction--together.
1) Using the research skills based on our lectures about Finding Credible Sources and Fake News, find three sources on our topic of technology addiction. You must make sure that your sources are applicable to the research question posed to you in the essay instructions.
a. Of these sources, one must be from a peer-reviewed academic journal accessed through BC’s library database system, one must be a current news article from a reputable source, and the third can in any format. Some examples include documentaries, news interviews, or speeches. Do not post sources that are more than 15 pages in length.
2) Next, post your sources to our Canvas Wiki page in MLA format as Works Cited entries. Review your Little Seagullhandbook for correct formatting.
3) Then, read three new sources posted by your classmates. After reading, you will complete the Annotated Bibliography entry for that source.
Student Generated Assignment
I learned that one of the most successful ways to engage students and create dynamic content is to include students in the development of course content. This inclusion can help out students in a number of ways. First, it can excite them more than if I choose everything for them. Since it's technologically- based, students will also work on developing their digital literacy skills as well as online collaboration.
For this assignment, I asked students to complete one large, collective Works Cited list on a number of topics. They had to prove that the source is credible and trustworthy (by putting it through a test) and to then cite it in MLA format. See the instructions to the left.
Web Conferencing: Displaying Our ConferZoom Skills
One of the most valuable tools I learned about from this course has been ConferZoom. I learned about this before most of America's colleges and universities went online due to COVID-19, and I'm forever grateful that I had the opportunity to try out all of ConferZoom's host features with an @ONE classmate. Currently, all of my courses have moved to an online format, and I have been confortable in training both students and my colleagues about how to use Zoom for various purposes. For example, during a Zoom Q&A session for one of my English Composition classes, I shared my screen wiht students to illustrate Canvas walkthroughs (how to find feedback, grades, etc.), I conducted a poll to find out their biggest concerns about online education, and I showed students how to send each other files so that they could easily conduct peer reviews.
To the left you will find a video that illustrates myself and my classmate displaying our Zoom skills.
Self-assessment question to students: What can you, as a student, do to improve your chances of success in this course?
A few student answers:
- try to communicate more with you. Have more faith in myself about my writings, ask more questions when needed. dont feel discouraged if things are confusing just keep pushing for better, never give up.
- As a student, the only thing I can do is do what is assigned and if I am confused or unsure about something just ask, it will not hurt to do so.
- pay better attention and give myself time
Student Class and Self-Assessment
About three weeks into my course, I ask students to complete a voluntary class and self-assessment "quiz." This gives students a chance to send their feedback anonymously.
The "quiz" also ends with a self-assessment question, which can be viewed to the left, along with a few student answers. I feel that this question helps students, early on, form better study habits.
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