Final EDTECH 522 Reflective Blog Post

This course provided a couple of opportunities to really sink my teeth into learning something new.  The Rich Media tutorial was excellent in learning how to use a few programs available to me.  The whole process of preparing a tutorial, making sure I cover everything required, determining the flow and finally moving on to actually creating the tutorial was excellent.  I ended up using a couple of different types of software to do it.  I ended up using an application called Screeny to record my screencast with a video of myself while it was happening.  For my credit slides and what not, I used Google Apps and to put everything together I used iMovie.  In addition I reviewed what I knew about Google applications as well as learned a few new tricks. 

The other big project was the Moodle Lesson.  I have never created a course in Moodle before, so the learning curve was steep.  It was interesting to see behind the scenes at just how powerful an application it is.  There is a lot of potential with Moodle and I’m sure that courses in 5-10 years will not necessarily look the way they do now, as Moodle has the potential to grow.  The military does not use Moodle, however I am hoping that the experience of building this course will translate if/when I need to develop something in our own Defence Learning Network.  

Having an undergraduate degree in Adult Education, the theories in this course were largely a review for me.  The big take-away for me was putting it all together in the context of online learning.  I found my undergrad was heavy on the theory and light on the practical applications.  The Masters of Educational Technology Degree I am working on, and in particular the courses leading towards the Online Teaching Certificate are providing me the opportunity to refine my understanding of and put these theories into practice.  Taking these particular courses concurrently with my initial occupational training as a Training Development Officer are providing a fantastic non-military perspective as well.

Speaking of, as a Training Development Officer in the military, I will be advising subject matter experts as to the construction of various courses.  The experience gained here gives me a leg up when making suggestions when it comes to distributed learning.  The artefacts I have created won’t be shared now with anyone, but as I progress and start to actually help design training, they may make an appearance.  The ability to make a suggestion and back that up with a visual aid of what is possible, is worth quite a bit and I will use it when I can.  After Christmas break, I will actually start in the Development phase of the course I am currently taking in the military.  This course will directly correlate to what I will be doing.  

Overall, I had a great time and learned a lot in EDTech 522.  I’m looking forward to moving onto the next course that makes up the Online Teacher Certificate at Boise State University.

Creating a Moodle Lesson

My latest assignment with EDTech 522 was to create a lesson on Moodle.

Creating a lesson on Moodle was an….  Experience.  

My first challenge was picking a topic.  When I was an instructor, what I taught is not appropriate for the online realm.  So I had to go with something else.  I had some topics in mind.  Most of them work related.  One had to do with my interest (hobby?  passion?) of going to Walt Disney World.  I decided since most of my classmates were professionals with jobs I would make a lesson a the various levels of accommodations at Walt Disney World.  I ran it by the prof and she seemed receptive, which is great.

So I proceeded.  Learning Moodle was the best part of the assignment though.  Of the various systems I have used in my academic career while taking online courses, Moodle is one of the better ones from my perspective as a student.  As an instructor though, it certainly shows it’s powers.  You can just do…  So much with it.  My lesson ended up being pretty basic, but I’m sure with more time and experience that I could create something that is great.  Unfortunately, my workplace doesn’t use Moodle for courses, but you never know what is in store for the future.

To apply my understanding of Andragogy in the lesson, I always try to include the ‘why.’  Anyone can put together a lesson with how to do things, but for adults, the why is especially important.  Adults do not tend to learn just for the sake of learning (some of us are weird that way though!) instead they learn something for a reason.  A course for people in the workplace for example has a reason why that material is being taught: safety, efficiency, etc.  So linking booking Disney World accommodations with ‘why’ for adult learners was part of the challenge I placed on myself.  I tried to include the why in my lesson.  I geared this for those adult learners who are nearing the end of their degree program.  In the case of the MET program, I find that many of the students are professionals, doing well already, and could likely afford (if they wanted too) a trip to Disney World at some point.  The end of a degree is a great time to celebrate our accomplishment.  Is there another reason to celebrate?  I know myself, I have a family who also sacrifice so I can get this degree done.  They sacrifice time they might otherwise spend with me when I am completing readings and assignments.  They pick up extra chores around the house so I have the time to work.  So this course isn’t just about booking a hotel at Disney World, it’s about celebrating a great achievement in life with your family, who need to be celebrated as well.

I’m in the military and like things neat and orderly, in their spaces.  When designing my course, I tried to stick with that.  My lesson has its space on the main course page, but I tried to organize it so it was easily accessible and obvious to the user how to go through the course.  I think I did a great job.  Looking at some of the other examples of students in my class though, it is interesting to see how they chose to organize things.  I find this fascinating (maybe I should have done a psych degree?  Who knows) on many levels, but also in the fact that Moodle itself is powerful enough to accept a wide arc of creative license so to say.  

As problems came up during my design phase, Google was my friend.  It turns out most of the problems I had, other people had as well.  Moving forward, this experience will immediately translate to my professional life.  I’m currently completing a military course to become a qualified Training Development Officer in the military, and one of our next subjects of study is the design of training programs.  As well, once I’m done this course and qualified, online learning has been gaining quite a bit of traction in the military, I want to help make that better as time goes on.

Glenndon

Online Learning Tools

This past module was about online learning tools: which ones are out there, what they do and what they are useful for.  Another aspect of the module were the readings in the textbook by Stavredes (2011), which covered the elements of the concept of community of inquiry: cognitive presence, social presence and instructor presence.

Jumping right into cognitive presence, which is “when learners share their multiple perspectives to construct knowledge” (Stavredes, 2011, p. 107) everyone was tasked to create a VoiceThread about an online teaching tool.  We had to discuss strengths, weaknesses, when to use it, etc.  Since I’m in a class full of people with a wide variety of teaching experiences, reading everyone’s posts and watching the various VoiceThreads were interesting.

My VoiceThread was about Prezi.  I have used it a few times during my Bachelor’s degree and now as I work on a Master’s degree.  You can check out my VoiceThread on it by clicking here.  A classmate of mine mentioned that she liked to use VoiceThread, but between motion sickness and how distracting some of the animations can be, she has decided to stop using it in her class.  

Since there was so much great work done by my classmates, I’ll compile a list of all their VoiceThreads at the end of this post.  This is mostly so I can check them out later, as you never know when I may need to make use of some of these tools.  

As per the assignment instructions, I had to respond to at least two other of my classmates posts.  So I picked two that had no responses yet.  The first was about a service called WizIQ.  I had never heard of it before, so was interested to learn about it.

WizIQ seemed similar to my experience with Adobe Connect in EDTECH 502 for the Happy Hours.  It allows the instructor to teach synchronously (read: at the same time, live) online to a class.  The instructor is viewable through their webcam, while the lesson is displayed.  This allows the instructor to really develop their instructor presence to their students.  When learning, the student is part of the larger class, but with the visual cues of the instructor, hearing their voice, I believe it really reinforces that instructor-student relationship.  When asking questions, the instructor can voice them out loud, to all the other students.  Students can feel engaged this way.  WizIQ also has a whole learning management system (LMS) so may have some promise for projects in the future.

The other thread I commented on was about Google Hangouts.  This particular tool I have experience with, as I used it last semester to collaborate with other students in EDTECH 501.  I found it a fantastic tool for this purpose.  The ability to chat with students (all my group members were in other time zones and in the USA) with a visual/audio connection with all of them was great.  I think this tool really helped with social presence.  I was able to build relationships with my fellow students in real time.  I was able to see their mannerisms, there was no misinterpretation based on how they type.  

With this experience, I checked out the VoiceThread on Google Hangouts and took part.  She mentioned that there was a limit to how many participants there could be (10) and that lag could be an issue.  Luckily, those weren’t issues in my case.  I can see how Google Hangouts could be used for student collaboration.  Even extra help with small groups from the instructor, this could be a good online tool for that.

Reading through the readings and completing the assignment really reinforced to me that the online learning world is getting better all the time.  Compared to my first online learning course over a decade ago to now, the ability for the instructors and students to really create online communities of learning has dramatically improved.  We have so many tools to aid learning, the problem now is deciding which to use and when.  I would say in the early days, it would have been a big challenge to really hit upon all three elements: cognitive, social and instructor presence.  I remember in one of my first online courses, there was very little forum work.  Someone on the same base as me was taking the course as well, and we met up in person to talk about the course.  Now, I can do group projects with people in different countries and timezones and it all goes pretty seamlessly.  

• Google Hangouts – https://voicethread.com/share/8231943/
• Google Classroom – http://voicethread.com/share/8227352/
• Google Hangouts – https://voicethread.com/share/8229479/
• Second Life – https://voicethread.com/share/8238105/
• Bubbl.Us – http://voicethread.com/share/8227441/
• Kaizena – https://voicethread.com/share/8230609/
• Blogging in the classroom – https://voicethread.com/share/8228478/
• Google Apps – https://voicethread.com/share/8216929/
• VoiceThread – https://voicethread.com/share/8227152/
• YouTube – https://voicethread.com/share/8210240/
• Slack – https://voicethread.com/share/8239507/
• Virtual Worlds – https://voicethread.com/share/8233950/
• Yellowdig – https://voicethread.com/share/8230902/
• Zoom! – https://voicethread.com/share/8231032/
• Rezzly – https://voicethread.com/share/8225417/

 

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Online Learning Reflection

I have recently started a new course at Boise State University, EDTECH 522: Online Teaching for Adult Learners. This week, I need to reflect on online learning. I have chosen two questions offered by the instructor.

I chose these questions because I have taken quite a few online courses. My work offers quite a bit of training online, as well I was able to complete my bachelor’s degree online as well. I feel I can offer some insight and reflect on my own experiences while answering them.

• Where are you on the Grow’s Staged Self-Directed Learning Model described in Ch. 2 of Stavredes? What is the implication of this model for you as an online teacher?

If you are not familiar with Grow’s SSDL Model, feel free to click here and see a table with the basics: http://www.teachthought.com/learning/self-directed-learning/the-four-stages-of-the-self-directed-learning-model/

More on the subject can be found with a Google Search.

As a student, I do not believe I fit into just one of the stages. When it comes to my own personal learning, I would say I am very much in Stage 4: Self-Directed. I have always had a thirst to learn. After I completed high school, I did not go to College or University, but instead joined the military, where I have taken many courses to learn various skills. It was not long before I started to take courses on my own as well. Over the years I have completed a couple of certificates, a bachelor’s degree and am now working on a master’s degree.

During this time, I have also managed to do well in my chosen career, be married and have children. Online learning has given me the opportunity to live my life and learn at the same time. Since I earned my bachelor’s degree, it even offered chances for advancement in my career. Stavredes (2011, p. 17) mentions characteristics that are part of Stage 4: time management, goal setting and being self-directed to name a few. I feel I have demonstrated these.

That is not to say that I am always learning what I want to learn all the time. My job and life do require me to learn things that I otherwise would not want too. I also enjoy courses that are more in line with Stage 3 where the instructor is more involved. I enjoy learning from their experiences as well as those of the students I am learning with. As well, with my busy work and home lives, sometimes an instructor who offers a more rigid schedule and expectations can be easier to manage at times.

The implications of me teaching and my experience with online learning and where I fit in Grow’s SSDL Model could be seen in positive ways. First, I have been through all the stages of the model and believe I can help my learners achieve want they want. Any issues they have I hope I can help them through their issues. I believe I can recognize where my learners fit in the model early and will be able to adjust my teaching methods to try and maximize their learning potential.

• Discuss challenges that affect learners’ persistence in online courses and relate these challenges to your own online teaching or learning experiences.

How many people start an academic program online, yet fail to complete it? Persistence rates are what is measured by institutions to answer that question. The persistence rate looks at the total population who how many students are coming back semester after semester, year after year until the whole program is complete (Stavredes, 2011, p. 22).

My experience with online learning include many courses at my work, college certificate, bachelor’s degree and now as I continue working on a master’s degree. I have done this over many years and will outline a few challenges that I have experienced or seen others experience:

1. Time: I mention this first because time is completely finite. We only have so much of it in our lives. The next two challenges actually just take away from your time so you do not persist and finish.

2. Work: Jobs and careers take up time. Some people work a little some people work a lot. If you have been in the workforce for a bit, need to pay rent/mortgage, put food on the table, work is a high priority in your life. Depending on your job, if you have to work overtime, travel, etc. this can be a draw on your time. After a full days work, you may not have the time or motivation to complete online courses.

3. Family: Not everyone working to complete online courses are single. According to Stavredes, (2011, p. 4) one report said that 37% of online learners were married with children. You may not have the option to work a full day, come home and spend a few hours working on a course. Coaching a kids team, helping with their homework, cleaning the house or whatever other family responsibilities you have may get in the way. Some spouses may be more or less supportive than others as well.

4. Money: Depending on your work (income) and family obligations, money can be an issue. Although initiatives like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) or other ways to learn for free are admirable, if you want to take actual university or college courses and get credit for them, they are not necessarily cheap. Even if someone takes a few courses or are almost done their program, if they run into any amount of financial trouble, they may have to delay their education or suspend it altogether. I have been lucky in that I have an employer that values education and has financial programs to support it.

5. Poor Planning: This is a tough one to describe, because poorly planning which courses a person signs themselves up for may be the cause. However, if they plan to take courses they have no interest in or their present skills will not allow them to succeed with, they will have problems persisting through their programs. I had trouble with academic writing for a few of my courses, before I finally decided to take a course to work purely on the writing of essays. After I completed that course, the rest of my program went much more smoothly. I wish I had taken that course early on in my program. If I had not identified my issue and fixed it, but kept struggling with more and more senior courses where writing was increasingly important, I may have never finished my program in the end. Poor planning and not taking advantage of resources offered by colleges and universities to help plan can make starting and finishing a program a great challenge.

These are some of the challenges I recognized during my time learning online.

Glenndon

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.