ONTL-6201 First Blog

Hello, my name is Angela Knox and I have taken the first course for the ONTL certificate program in 2013, so I am a little rusty.  One piece of new information about me is that I am getting married this week actually on June 5^th.  Facilitating online learning today means that students are more in-control of their learning.  This is due to the fact of technology and the majority of students taking online courses due to their busy schedules.  I plan on using my knowledge from this certificate programs in my future endeavors as well.  Somewhere in the far future I would like to teach communication courses online on the higher education level, and I believe that it is good to have this knowledge in my background.  Moreover, I took ONTL-6101 so long ago, but one thing I remember the most are the different kinds of learners, and how I can reach out to each type of learning using different teaching styles.

Final Blog of the Semester!

FINAL BLOG

First and foremost, we spoke on learning theories and the impact that the selection of theory has on the design of online courses.  Knowing ones learning style can make a huge difference in a student’s outcome in the course. For example, if you have a kinesthetic learner and your class only consists of lectures and note taking the student will not excel in the course. Therefore, knowing the student’s learning style can make a huge difference.  Furthermore, in unit 7 we learned more about the models of instruction in terms of their potential effectiveness in the online environment.  One model of instruction we focused on was student-centered instruction.  Student centered instruction can be effective because it puts the student in control of their learning.  That is why others see this type of instruction as the student doing more than the lecturer.  The student is fully responsible for his or her success in the course because the teacher becomes more of a facilitator and resource person than a teacher.  Also, in unit 7 we discussed the factors involved in achieving the Seven Principles of Effective [Undergraduate] education in the online environment.  Those seven factors are and strategies to achieve them are:

1. Good practice encourages student/faculty contact (Hold convenient office hours).
2. Good practice encourages cooperation among students (have plenty of group assignments/role playing)
3. Good practice encourages active learning (ask students who broke up into groups to discuss what they learned with the class).
4. Good practice gives prompt feedback (students will receive immediate feedback on their work).
5. Good practice emphasizes time on task (due dates will be established for all assignments).
6. Good practice communicates high expectations (make expectations clear on the first day of class).
7. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning (assign readings that relates to the unit being discussed).

Furthermore, some technology based strategies that would be effective for implementing the seven principles in an online course would be Skype, Blackboard IM, the Wiki tool on Blackboard, etc.  Also, one of the main instructional strategies that is effective in distant education is for the instructor to apply to students in a timely manner.  Since students do not have that face-to-face interaction it is extremely important to make yourself available to the students.  Some of the major technologies used in web-based instruction today are video and audio streaming, push technologies and data channels, audio and voice chat, instant messaging, handheld and wireless technologies, peer to peer file sharing, etc.

Although I do not teach any courses, if I were to utilize a technology strategy it would be the web whiteboarding. This is the first time I have been introduced to this teaching strategy, and I feel as if it would be extremely useful in an algebra or statistics course. If I was teaching an algebra course I can use this strategy for lessons and examples of algebra problems. Web whiteboarding would support student-content and student-student interaction because these products are now incorporating small video images as well as "Web safaris," in which the teacher leads the class to visit various sites, and application sharing that allows any of the distributed uses to control a single application.

Additionally, we identified a variety of resources on the Internet for locating existing content to incorporate into online courses.  One of those resources was Boolean Logic.  Boolean logic will help you to find media and interactive sites.  To find them, one of the best search strategies is to use your primary topic in quotes (a literal search) followed by a + sign and then keywords denoting multimedia.  Moreover, I am now aware of the content used to supplement textbooks.  One way online instructors develop the content for online courses is by linking to existing resources on the Web.  According to unit 9, this can be an excellent strategy in situations where you have rapidly changing content and/or where there is a great deal of good information available.  In one of the discussions we explored different technology sites used for learning, and found a lot of useful content for our discipline.

To conclude, the semester is finally over, and I have learned so many new things in this course that I am sure that I will incorporate in my life.  It has been a rough couple of weeks, but I am glad that I stuck with it.

End of Part 1 Blog

This is how I'm feeling right now...

I must admit that the first part of this semester has been very overwhelming for me. I have been juggling working a 8 to 5, taking two graduate-level courses, chasing two kids, dealing with the death of two close family members a week apart, AND planning a wedding. There were a lot of times during this course when I just felt like throwing in the towel, but in order to finish the course successfully I am going to just continue to give it my all because I have found all of the lessons to very informative.

To begin with, so much new material was introduced in lesson 1. When this course first began I realized that it was going to be very challenging course, and it was going to be more challenging than other online courses that I have taken in the past. When taking an online course you need to know how to properly communicate because some things may be taken out of context. That is why the appropriate "netiquette" is important, and I learned a lot of important tips by using the course tools and after reading the articles assigned in the course lessons. I always thought I had a lot of knowledge and understanding and learning due to the fact that I have taken many online courses in the past. However, I am always open to learning new things. Therefore, my expectations for this course are high. During the first week I was introduced to so many different new ways of learning online such as Blogger, Blackboard "IM", and Collaborate, and how easy it was to contact the professor and/or my classmates through email or our discussion posts. All of this new knowledge has helped me become part of a vibrant online community of learners.

Furthermore, during lesson 2 we really began to get into the different learning material. First thing we got into was the "High Tech, High Touch" dichotomy. This course lesson basically explained how people should find a balance between high-tech skills and high-touch skills in life. According to one of the readings in this lesson, two professors “found that online students often feel more connected to their online classmates than to their on-ground ones”. In my discussion post I stated that this may be true for their students, but you need to consider the students they are teaching. A typical university student is in their late teens to twenties. Now there are a lot of older adults who are going back to school, like my mother, who would prefer being in a classroom. Also, we discussed the characteristics of a constructivist course. Some characteristics are as followed:

•  Introduction of overarching concept followed by expansion of individual components
• Knowledge is compiled through active dialogue between students and teacher
• Group interaction is encouraged to foster negotiation among students
• Value is placed on the process of learning through experience and interaction
• Learning occurs as students gain exposure to a variety of individual perspectives
•  Construction of knowledge based upon a comprehensive view of learning
• Student-centered learning is the essence

Constructivism is very popular in the online teaching and learning community because it allows students to think outside the box and integrate new information. Lastly, during lesson 2 we were introduced to BB Collaborate. I did listen to the archived Collaborate meeting with the guest speaker Jennifer Boender since I was not able to attend the meeting on that date. That is one feature I like about that tool.

Additionally, during course lesson 3 we learned how to differentiate between web-enhanced, hybrid, and fully online courses. The assignment for this course was to choose an on-campus course and explain how we would convert it into a full online course. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of online courses were addressed in this lesson. For instance, a lot of students yearn for that face-to-face contact which a lot of online courses lack. However, online courses are very convenient for busy learners. Therefore, one of the best strategies to address this is to teach a hybrid course that is a mixture of online and some face-to-face or utilize the many online learning tools such as Blackboard IM or Collaborate.

In addition, after lesson 4 we were able to distinguish between the VARK learning styles. The four learning styles are visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic. I learned from taking the VARK survey that I was more of an aural learner, but I was one point away from being a kinesthetic learner. Around this lesson we were introduced to the group project, and in our group we all chose a different learning style. I chose visual, and the assignment I chose consisted of two parts:

• For the first part, the student was required to select an important figure during the American Civil Rights Movement. Once they made their selection they had to create their own flow chart pointing out significant events involving the important figure they chose during the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 through 1968.
• In the second part, the student needed to post their assignment under the assignment post in order to receive a grade, and they also needed to post their flow chart in the discussion board in order for their classmates to see their work.

Our group was very successful because we had a lot of communication with everyone. Lastly, what also helped is that we established our own due date which was nearly 3 or 4 days before the actual due date.

To conclude, we were introduced to lesson 5 which went over different teaching styles and digital portfolios. During this lesson we took a quiz, which was suppose to help us find our teaching style. As I stated in my discussion post for that lesson, it really didn’t provide me with accurate information because I scored high in three different areas. I received a 5 in personal model and facilitator, and a received a 4 in delegator. I believe my scores were so close because I never taught a class before; therefore, I was unable to accurately answer the questions. After going over the different teaching styles I learned how my teaching style would help the students with different learning styles. For instance, in my case all learning styles would be easy to work with considering the fact that this style encourages student participation and utilizes various learning styles. Therefore, the learning style that would be easiest to work with is multimodality, which is a mixture of two or more learning styles, and with this teaching style there is really no learning style that would be difficult to address. The second part of lesson 5 went over digital portfolios. This “big boom” would be very useful in both face-to-face and online courses because the majority of coursework today is in digital format anyways. It is not only very useful, but it reduces the paperwork the instructor would have. This would eliminate the risk of an instructor misplacing an assignment, and it is very easy to see archived work. For our online portfolio project I plan on using Wetpaint Wiki because I do not really have no experience in creating my own website. The only website I created was an “Our Wedding” webpage for my wedding guests, but that does not count.

Well I guess this concludes my “end of part 1” blog, and now I am very optimistic to see what part two has in store for us!

First Blog Entry

Hello all who are viewing this right now! First, I will start off by saying that this is my first time I have written a blog. I must say it was somewhat intimidating due to the fact that I am putting myself out there for other reader's entertainment. I do have a Facebook and Twitter account, and when I update a status or post a tweet I am somewhat putting myself out there. However, that does not measure up to writing a blog.

My Family and I

As you all see by the picture above I am a very busy person. Besides the fact of having an active and mischievous two and four-year-old, I am employed full time at an university, and I am pursuing a M.A. in Communication and Training. Yes, it may seem as if I am rambling a bit about my life, but that goes into the topic of my current understanding of online learning. Since I am always "on-the-go", I am no stranger to taking online classes. Online learning is very convenient to those who have a lot going on in their life so I am taking full advantage of this. On the other hand, online teaching is new to me because I never taught an individual in my 24 years of life (yeah I'm young so what!), but in the future I do plan on teaching online.

Moreover, I originally planned on completing the coursework for the ONTL certificate towards the end of my master's degree, but I changed my mind. During SP'13 registration I registered for two on campus classes (two 7:30 p.m. classes on Monday and Thursday).  Towards the end of December I decided to drop one of my other classes, and add Intro to Online Teaching. To be honest, I thought this course was going to be a breeze, but looking at the syllabus I see I was so wrong.

Since I am new to online teaching and teaching in general I have high expectations for this course. I enjoy working in higher learning, but I am always told that I should pursue teaching as well. Therefore, I want this course to help me decide if this is really something that I would like to pursue right now. Also, I want this course to introduce me to a lot of the technology that I do not know about. I do have a good understanding of computers, but there is a lot more that I can learn. 

To conclude, I feel that the information gained from this course won't only help me in deciding if I want to move forward in this pursuit to an ONTL certificate. Nonetheless, it will will help me in nearly every aspect of my life because technology is always evolving.