Course A
Content: This course will cover
beginning college algebra.
Instructor(s): This course is
taught by various adjunct and full time professors who are very familiar with
the content who have differing degrees of tech skills and online teaching
experience. The same class has to serve for all instructors.
Students: All students in this
course are college freshman and sophomores with good technology skills and each
has successfully taken an online orientation to online learning course.
One issue I would have to deal with is the difference in
tech skills and online teaching experience of both adjunct and full-time
professors. Every professor has their
own teaching style and ways they feel is best for their students, so to expect
that all professors will be able to utilize the same online tool to teach a
class they are familiar is unrealistic.
For example, a professor with previous online teaching experience might
feel standalone e-learning is a more effective technique to teach students the
coursework but a professor that rarely teaches an online class might feel a
virtual classroom might work out better.
Luckily, Horton (2012) outlines an essentialist approach that could help
find a common ground for lessons, topics, activities, and Medias so every
faculty member can feel confident teaching the new course.
Another issue I see is the willingness and motivate of
student to learn subject matter. Math is
a boring and difficult subject to learn even in a face-to-face setting, so my challenge
would be to find a solution that will not only engage the student but create a
learning environment that truly provokes thought and retains the knowledge.
Course B
Content: The course is a philosophy
of leadership class.
Instructor(s): The instructor is an
experienced face-to-face instructor with good tech skills and prior online
teaching experience. This instructor prefers lecture and discussion classes.
Students: Graduate students who are
well motivated and with a broad range of technology skills, from average to
very advanced.
The two main issues that would impact my design are the
content of the class and the preferences of the professor. If the professor would rather teach in a
face-to-face classroom where lecturing and having a discussion with his/ her
students is convenient, then I would have to create an environment that is
comfortable for him/ her. But my
ultimate goal is for the students to be able to learn and understand the
philosophy of leadership, and by the end of the course feel changed because
this course has taught them something.
So I am faced with the difficult task of creating an online experience
that will teach the skills and principles of a leader. Even though the learners are graduate
students, I believe there are some subjects and true learning will begin when
these students see these principles modeled in a leader so they can build
associations and identify those characteristics in the future.
Course C
Content: This course is an
introduction to college success. It teaches study skills, communication skills,
and tries to help students learn how to fit into the college community.
Instructor(s): This course will be
taught by various instructors all with good tech skills and prior online
teaching experience but who have never taught this content before.
Students: Students are incoming
freshman who have been identified by advisors as high risk for drop out.
Two main issues in this scenario are: 1) the instructors
have never taught this content before and 2) students lack of motivation, their
ability to learn the material, and what their needs might be. These issues directly influence my design in
terms of what material/ lessons are taught and what media(s) in order to accommodate
the needs of both the instructors and the students. Since the instructors are not familiar with
the course and the students are high risk for dropping out, the design of course
is extremely important. Because these
students have been identified as “high risk for dropping out” the design of
this course must be able to cater to a diverse group of students as well as
motivate the students to learn and develop the skills necessary to success at
community college. Not only does the material have to be engaging but it also
has to fit the learning needs of the students and meet the teaching criteria
for the instructors.
2. Now, think about an online learning experience
that you might someday create. Describe in detail the content, instructor and
student characteristics. What are the design issues or features that these
suggest? Explain your answers.
Guidance Course:
Content:
This course is a guidance course at a community college. It teaches students to understand the roadmap
of community college: how to register for classes according to their Educational
Plan, how to transfer into to a 4-year university, earn an Associate’s Degree,
and how to utilize all the resources available to them.
Instructor:
This course will be taught by experience face-to-face counselors with little to
no online teaching experience but have taught the content before.
Students:
Students that have been attended college for over 5 years and have not
transferred or earned a degree.
Some
of the design issues in this course are the online teaching experience of the
counselors, and motivation of the students to work towards graduation or
transferring. My design has to be fairly
simple for both instructors and students, so that any counselor (with or
without previous online teaching experience) can instruct the class and teach a
diverse group of community college students.
More importantly, my design has to be adaptive because it is inevitable
for students to change their minds about their major or career goals.
3. List the 11 instructional design steps presented
in chapter 1 of the text (Design Quickly and Reliably).
1. Identify
your underlying goal
2. Analyze
learners’ needs and abilities
3. Identify
what to teach
4. Set
learning objectives
5. Identify
prerequisites
6. Pick
the approach to meet each objective
7. Decide
the teaching sequence of your objectives
8. Create
objects to accomplish objectives
9. Create
tests
10. Select
learning activities
11. Choose
media
Source:
Horton,
W. (2011). E-Learning by Design, 2 edition.
Newberry,
Brian.Webpage Lecture. 26 September 2012.
Hi Melissa,
ReplyDeleteGreat answers to the three scenarios! I agree with you in Course A that the professors need to dicuss the content of the course in detail if they want the course to run smoothly. They have differing opinions (which is fine), but they need to formulate a plan and find common elements to get the class running. In addition, you spoke of students and their need to be motivated. Great topic! In any e-learning course there is room to lose track of time and forget an assignment. This is where strict time management and participation kick in. Lastly, I also discussed in my course outlook that simplicity in an online course may be better than being explicit. Where would the creativity ever come in?
Do you know of any online navigation tools you are interested in using as a future counselor?
Hi Tamira,
DeleteI use several online tools and have listed a few that I use a regular basis below by category, so feel free to search and pass along the information to anyone that you think might benefit from them.
Financial Aid:
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/
https://mygrantinfo.csac.ca.gov/logon.asp (grant information specific to California)
http://www.calgrants.org/index.cfm?navId=22& (more info on Cal grants)
Transferring to a 4-year university:
http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html (helps with transferring requirement and exploring majors)
I just remembered a few more for transferring:
DeleteCSU Mentor: http://www.csumentor.edu/
UC Pathways: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/
Assist.org is a resource that I used to see if I was taking the right courses for my major. It saved me time, helped keep me on the right track, and was recommended by my counselor. Great source!
ReplyDeleteHello Ladies,
ReplyDeleteAssist.org is a good resource and it's also a site my colleagues and I recommend our perspective students to visit if they would like to know if the courses they have taken(at a community college) or want to take(at a community college) are transferable to CSUSB. Our Admissions staff at CSUSB uses this site very often! Another site we use is collegesource.org. We use this site to look up schools in the U.S. mostly to see if they are accredited institutions. Both are really good sites.
You did great! You presented your thinking on each scenario well. The advising class idea is one that is needed. We have considered creating such a class for our ETEC program. What do you think? Do we need it?
ReplyDeleteIt might be a good idea, but at least you wouldn't be dealing so much with a drop out scenario;-) I think the only drop out issue is if the tuition keeps rising.
DeleteFor one, I would love to see a pathway to actually getting online teaching jobs. I look at how neither of my teaching situations is full time, and the fact that I could teach at a distance and still meet students needs is great, I just don't know how to get into actually doing it.
Hi Dr. Newberry,
ReplyDeleteI think creating a guidance course or even a simple webinar that covers those ideas for the ETEC program would not hurt. I cannot give you a definite answer because I am not in the program, and I don’t know the Director’s vision for the program. But if the program is looking to increase retention and graduation rates, I think it would be a great idea to have a class/ webinar on expectations of the program, how students can maximize their time and efforts, what resources are available to students and when to use those resources.
Math is one of the hardest I think to translate into a successful online course. It may require that the student try to work with some study buddies either in the online class, which would need to be done distance wise, and can be difficult, or find others that want to take the class along with them where they meet up to go over the problems.
ReplyDeleteI am one of those that needs all kinds of exposure to math to get it.