RSA 4: Designing for Learning: Ten Best Practices for TeachingOnline

http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html

Self-reflection is an important component of a successful online course, which leads to transformative learning.  Students need to be guided in the right direction in order to achieve this.  According to Palloff and Pratt (2007), “it is important to ask such questions as, “How were you as a learner before you came into this course? How have you changed? How do you anticipate this will affect your learning in the future?”…this is important…as it helps us know whether we have achieved our learning objectives.” (p. 199). This is difficult for students to learn how to do, because it is not something they are typically asked to do.  It is important for the instructor to setup their online course to allow this self-reflection process to occur.

This is addressed on a website, Designing for Learning: Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online- Quick Guide for New Online faculty.  Boettcher (2011) Dr. Boettcher has put together the top ten things needed for a successful online course.  “Best Practice 7: Prepare Discussion Posts that Invite Questions, Discussion, Reflections and Responses” (para. 21) There are six types of purposes for discussions listed, including “Supporting students in their own reflections and inquiries.” (para. 22).  Students need to be given the time think and reflect about what they have learned.

Both the textbook and website agree that self-reflection is an important part of a successful online course.  There are a variety of ways that students can do this, such as a blog or a journal (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).  Students were asked to create a blog for the online EDT 6030 course, and to post a summary of an online resource that supported our weekly topics for a Resource Sharing Activity. An additional component could be added to this, in which students are asked two or three times during the course to post a reflection.  This would allow for an opportunity for the student to have a transformative learning opportunity.

References

Boettcher, J.V. (2011). Designing for Learning: Ten best practices for teaching online- quick guide for new online faculty. (May 2001). Retrieved from http://www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-7879-8825-8.

RSA3: A Tale of Two Forums: One Professor’s Path to Improve Learning through a Common Online Teaching Tool

RSA3: A Tale of Two Forums: One Professor’s Path to Improve Learning through a Common Online Teaching Tool
submitted by: Lisa Kokos

http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ958885 

            Teaching an online course is different than teaching in a traditional face-to-face format.  Not all teachers are successful in both areas.  There are several different factors which help ensure the effectiveness of an online course. According to Palloff and Pratt (2007), “it is up to the instructor to create an effective container within which the course proceeds by posting goals, objectives, and expected outcomes for the course, initial guidelines for participation, thoughts and questions to kick off discussions, and assignments to be completed collaboratively” (p. 19).  If there is not enough guidance given to the students, then it is too easy for the course to take a detour and never reach the intended goals of the course.

            This is addressed in the peer reviewed article, A Tale of Two Forums: One Professor’s Path to Improve Learning through a Common Online Teaching Tool.   Nash (2011) wrote about his personal experience of teaching his first online course using the online discussion, or asynchronous discussion forum (ADF).  At the end of the course, he felt that he had learned from the mistakes he had made.  Nash realized that he had not given his students enough guidelines to follow and that he had to be an active participant in the online discussions.  “My solution to creating ADFs that were focused, effective, and assessable involved making conscious design choices that would create purposeful structure. While this could be done in a number of ways, I chose to break down the core components of the course by human role: what students will do and what I will do.” (p. 186).  Nash became a more active participant in all of the discussions, as a coach and as a peer.  He also used email to send out Monday reminders of the work to be done for the week, and additional emails showing support of the quality discussions his students were posting.

            Both the textbook and article agree that online teaching can be effective, if it is done correctly.  The online EDT 6030 course offered through Concordia University, does an effective job of blending components of the face-to-face course and best practices of an online course.  The online discussions are only a part of the program.  Guidelines are well established, with a grading rubric posted for each assignment.  By having established “Online Class Meeting Times” throughout the eight week course, students get the opportunity to collaborate with the instructor and fellow classmates.  This format ensures that the course goals will be met.

References

Nash, J. (2011). A tale of two forums: One professor’s path to improve learning through a common online teaching tool. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 6(5), 181-194.

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K.  (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. (2nd ed.). San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-7879-8825-8.