Reflections on the Development of My Online Course
Click the image above to visit my online course.
Now that the initial version of my online course is complete, it is interesting to look back on how this course has developed over time. Before even beginning the design of my course, I started by studying the foundational principles of online learning. It was through this study that I established some of the critical pedagogical decisions that would shape the creation of my online course. Throughout the readings, one thing was clear – Meaningful learning is the result of effective teaching practices, whether the learning takes place online or face-to-face. It is not online learning in itself that will result in successful learning experiences. I recognized that I needed to carefully consider the teaching strategies I would employ within this online environment to produce successful learning experiences.
As I learned more about online learning, several recurring ideas became apparent to me. First, is that learning is a social experience. I knew that in my course, I would need to promote communication between students and teachers. I chose to achieve this through the use of discussion boards and wikis. By facilitating this communication, students are more likely to become active-participants in their learning experience as they talk, write, and apply what they learn. Another way I worked to have students become active-participants in their learning was to incorporate several opportunities for self-reflection throughout my course design. This supported learning by promoting metacognition and self-monitoring of progress.
Many of my course design decisions were influenced by Konrad Glogowski, who believes that traditional assessments limit learning by assigning a finite value to student work, therefore eliminating the process of future reflection, growth, and improvement. This led me to recognize that frequent, meaningful, and conversational feedback about progress is an important component in student learning. I therefore made the decision to become an active participant in student discussion boards and wikis. In doing so, not only would I model productive discussion, but I would also have frequent opportunities to provide ongoing, conversational feedback to students.
My overall course design is also based on an inquiry-oriented approach to learning. Through this approach, my course includes several project-based activities with real-world connections and applications. These projects ask students to apply their learning by creating a product that reveals the knowledge they have gained. In the final project of my course, students also have choice in how they present and share information. This lets students express their learning in diverse ways, while still addressing standards and meeting specific learning goals.
One crucial step in online course design was selecting the course management system I would use. To do this, I generated a list of capabilities I was looking for in a CMS and compared three different systems based on how they met these needs. I eventually decided on Haiku, and I was very happy with this choice. It offers many organizational functions, allows teachers to easily embed multimedia within the lesson, and is very easy to learn and use. I do find it interesting that some of the capabilities that I thought I “needed” in my CMS, were not as important to my course design in the end, given the pedagogical choices I made. For example, I wanted a CMS that featured an online grade book, but since I learned about the value of mastery-oriented feedback over simple letter grades, I realized this grade book was not as crucial. Similarly, I felt I needed a system that allowed students to upload files to submit assignments. However, because I decided to structure most assessments around collaborative conversations within discussion boards or Wikis, this feature is not necessary. I am still very glad that I settled on Haiku and learned how to use this powerful program, however, I do find it interesting to note how my priorities changed between the beginning and the end of the course.
One pitfall I faced during the development of this course was often becoming overwhelmed by the massive task before me (and in turn, I became paralyzed in my ability to accomplish anything). A few things helped me overcome this challenge. First, I selected on rubric (the Quality Matters Rubric for Online Learning) to evaluate my work. I then used this rubric as a checklist of sorts to evaluate my work throughout the design process. I would advise others who are designing an online course to explore, evaluate, and understand a wide variety of these rubrics before even beginning their course design. Then, after choosing the one that best suits your needs, reference it often! Using this rubric helped me stay on track throughout the course design. When I found myself asking, “How can I improve this lesson?” or, “What’s missing here?”, looking at the rubric helped focus my thinking and identify areas for improvement. This constant reflection of my progress against the standards outlined in the rubric allowed me to stay on track.
I also found it was very helpful to first develop “the bones” of the course, such as the basic content that would be covered in each lesson and a general overview of the assessments that would be used. Then, I revisited each lesson several times to further develop each with elements such as challenge activities, check-up quizzes, visual aids, and multi-media to help support learning. In doing this, I broke the large task of creating an online course into smaller, more manageable pieces. This also allowed me to see small successes along the way, which helped me persevere when I felt the task would never be complete.
The second pitfall I encountered did not become evident to me until after I received my first round of initial feedback on my work. In this feedback, my instructor commented that some of the images and text formatting were not displayed properly on his screen, even though this text looked fine on my computer. It is important to remember that how something looks on your screen is not necessarily how it will appear within another person’s Internet browser. Test, test, test – I recommend asking friends, coworkers, and fellow teachers to preview your online course for formatting errors that might interfere with student learning.
What I most appreciate about my progress through the development of this online course is that I already have a vision for how I can further develop the course in the future. Through this class, I learned a great deal about online learning and online course development, but what is most apparent to me is that it is an ongoing process. There is always more that can be done to help support students learning, such as implementing elements of Universal Design for Learning to make the course more accessible to all students. I also recognize that as my students interact with the course, other improvements will become evident. Just as teaching in the traditional face-to-face classroom is a process of planning, teaching, reflecting, and revising, teaching in the online classroom is very much an ongoing process that I look forward to diving into in the future!
This reflection is an excerpt from my Developer Notebook, written in CEP 820. You can view my entire Developer Notebook here.
As I learned more about online learning, several recurring ideas became apparent to me. First, is that learning is a social experience. I knew that in my course, I would need to promote communication between students and teachers. I chose to achieve this through the use of discussion boards and wikis. By facilitating this communication, students are more likely to become active-participants in their learning experience as they talk, write, and apply what they learn. Another way I worked to have students become active-participants in their learning was to incorporate several opportunities for self-reflection throughout my course design. This supported learning by promoting metacognition and self-monitoring of progress.
Many of my course design decisions were influenced by Konrad Glogowski, who believes that traditional assessments limit learning by assigning a finite value to student work, therefore eliminating the process of future reflection, growth, and improvement. This led me to recognize that frequent, meaningful, and conversational feedback about progress is an important component in student learning. I therefore made the decision to become an active participant in student discussion boards and wikis. In doing so, not only would I model productive discussion, but I would also have frequent opportunities to provide ongoing, conversational feedback to students.
My overall course design is also based on an inquiry-oriented approach to learning. Through this approach, my course includes several project-based activities with real-world connections and applications. These projects ask students to apply their learning by creating a product that reveals the knowledge they have gained. In the final project of my course, students also have choice in how they present and share information. This lets students express their learning in diverse ways, while still addressing standards and meeting specific learning goals.
One crucial step in online course design was selecting the course management system I would use. To do this, I generated a list of capabilities I was looking for in a CMS and compared three different systems based on how they met these needs. I eventually decided on Haiku, and I was very happy with this choice. It offers many organizational functions, allows teachers to easily embed multimedia within the lesson, and is very easy to learn and use. I do find it interesting that some of the capabilities that I thought I “needed” in my CMS, were not as important to my course design in the end, given the pedagogical choices I made. For example, I wanted a CMS that featured an online grade book, but since I learned about the value of mastery-oriented feedback over simple letter grades, I realized this grade book was not as crucial. Similarly, I felt I needed a system that allowed students to upload files to submit assignments. However, because I decided to structure most assessments around collaborative conversations within discussion boards or Wikis, this feature is not necessary. I am still very glad that I settled on Haiku and learned how to use this powerful program, however, I do find it interesting to note how my priorities changed between the beginning and the end of the course.
One pitfall I faced during the development of this course was often becoming overwhelmed by the massive task before me (and in turn, I became paralyzed in my ability to accomplish anything). A few things helped me overcome this challenge. First, I selected on rubric (the Quality Matters Rubric for Online Learning) to evaluate my work. I then used this rubric as a checklist of sorts to evaluate my work throughout the design process. I would advise others who are designing an online course to explore, evaluate, and understand a wide variety of these rubrics before even beginning their course design. Then, after choosing the one that best suits your needs, reference it often! Using this rubric helped me stay on track throughout the course design. When I found myself asking, “How can I improve this lesson?” or, “What’s missing here?”, looking at the rubric helped focus my thinking and identify areas for improvement. This constant reflection of my progress against the standards outlined in the rubric allowed me to stay on track.
I also found it was very helpful to first develop “the bones” of the course, such as the basic content that would be covered in each lesson and a general overview of the assessments that would be used. Then, I revisited each lesson several times to further develop each with elements such as challenge activities, check-up quizzes, visual aids, and multi-media to help support learning. In doing this, I broke the large task of creating an online course into smaller, more manageable pieces. This also allowed me to see small successes along the way, which helped me persevere when I felt the task would never be complete.
The second pitfall I encountered did not become evident to me until after I received my first round of initial feedback on my work. In this feedback, my instructor commented that some of the images and text formatting were not displayed properly on his screen, even though this text looked fine on my computer. It is important to remember that how something looks on your screen is not necessarily how it will appear within another person’s Internet browser. Test, test, test – I recommend asking friends, coworkers, and fellow teachers to preview your online course for formatting errors that might interfere with student learning.
What I most appreciate about my progress through the development of this online course is that I already have a vision for how I can further develop the course in the future. Through this class, I learned a great deal about online learning and online course development, but what is most apparent to me is that it is an ongoing process. There is always more that can be done to help support students learning, such as implementing elements of Universal Design for Learning to make the course more accessible to all students. I also recognize that as my students interact with the course, other improvements will become evident. Just as teaching in the traditional face-to-face classroom is a process of planning, teaching, reflecting, and revising, teaching in the online classroom is very much an ongoing process that I look forward to diving into in the future!
This reflection is an excerpt from my Developer Notebook, written in CEP 820. You can view my entire Developer Notebook here.