Planning my Online Course-Where to Start?

   As I  have said many times, this pandemic has permanently altered the face of education.  Teachers and administrators alike have had to rethink everything they know about lesson delivery and content mastery. While some have embraced the change and are moving forward at full steam, others are still struggling with the technology tools that have become a requirement. I am sure that higher education institutions are adjusting their instruction to help future teachers incorporate these digital learning tools into their lesson plans; however, there is still a bit of a learning gap. For this reason, I have chosen to develop professional learning modules using an experiential approach. My main goal for this workshop is for teachers to create lessons that they can take back to their classrooms for immediate use. My thinking is that I don't want this PL to be "one more thing" they have to do; rather I want teachers to experience using various Google apps and add-ons, and seeing how these apps can be applied to their content.

      Learners will have to submit their projects and will be assessed based on a rubric, which will lay out all of the required elements. Since I fully intend to use this online course as professional development, I am hoping that my learners will be able to earn PD credits once they successfully complete each module. Although I plan to have a Google meet to kick off the workshop, this course be self-paced course that learners can work through on their own time. This will, in theory, reduce the cognitive overload that can happen during traditional lectures  or PLs. I know I have felt at times like I was being fed information through a fire hose, so-to- speak. That is never fun, and I rarely walk away from  those PLs remembering anything useful. I want my learners to enjoy building lessons that will work for their virtual students as well as their face-to-face students, so they will be more apt to embrace digital learning and the richness it can provide to all students.  Furthermore, by modeling an online learning environment, I feel that my learners will see that there a variety of ways to deliver curriculum and see the value in redesigning their lessons to meet the needs of all of students, 

      One  piece I will be incorporating into the modules is reflection. I strongly believe that a great educator engages in reflective practice, which helps self-evaluate and refine teaching skills. By having my learners  reflect on their learning as well as the execution of their lessons, I will be able to only refine the existing modules in the digital workshop, but also help me plan for further learning on my campus. Another important piece to online learning, in my opinion, is collaboration. As humans, most of us need interaction with others. Sharing lessons with one another is a great way to collaborate and get feedback. Furthermore, having a partner or a group of people who are working on similar content is a great way to "work smarter, not harder."  Under ideal circumstances, I envision content teachers trading lessons that they have created, so that teachers can have a digital database to pull from as needed. This is the reason that I will be including a padlet for teachers to post the lessons they create. 

Online Course Design: The Future of Education

    School is back in session, and this course is going to be quite the challenge. We are being tasked with building an online course. I am both excited about this challenge and a bit nervous about it at the same time. 

       After watching the video outlining the different theories (LearningDctr., 2010),  I definitely feel I that I have adopted  a constructivist approach to teaching. I learn by doing, so I tend to teach my students in the same manner. Moreover, I find that my students are more engaged in the learning when I give them enough information to get them started and let them work through the lesson/activity, asking questions as needed. As I design my course, I will take a constructivist approach, while making sure that my learners have an opportunity to reflect on their learning (cognitivism) and apply what they have learned in their own classroom setting (connectivism).   Since "the primary objective of any eLearning course is to give ... learners the information and skills they need to improve some aspect of their lives" (Pappas, 2019), applying Gagne's 9 Events to my online course works very well, providing a path on which to follow. Therefore, I feel Gagne's 9 events will prove invaluable to me as I plan a comprehensive course that  will help my learners meet the objectives. 

          As I began reading about the UbD (Understand by Design) framework, I realized that I already utilize the backwards design process to some degree in most of the lessons I teach already. Now that I am teaching face-to-face and virtually at the same time, I do tend to state  objectives and goals more clearly, in the way of "I will" statements on a daily basis.  When I let students know what the goals and expectations are, they seem to feel more confident in taking the first steps toward reaching those learning goals. Even though this year is my first true experiece teaching virtual students, I have pushed myself toward blended  learning over the past few years. Because I teach in the cafeteria (affectionately referred to as the classeteria), I made the commitment to go 100% digital. I feel that this has prepared me, in a small way, for this course. For this project, I will definitely have to shift my thinking a bit more, so that the modules I create can be completed with little or no face-to-face interaction. 

     Since I will be interviewing for assistant principal and digital learning specialist positions in the very near future, my audience will be adult learners on my prospective  campus. I want to design an online course that will help my teachers gain the skills they need to help their students thrive in a blended or 100% online learning environment. I will use the UbD framework to flesh out  the professional learning plan I created for a previous course, essentially putting that plan into actionable, authentic professional learning modules that I can present to prospective employers. One of the common questions that I have been asked in interviews is "What can I bring to their campus/district?" This online professional learning course will be a great piece to "bring to the table'" so to speak.  One thing has become evident to me: this pandemic has changed the face of education, and we must support our teacher in developing a different approach to teaching to increase their effectiveness in their classrooms (Bates, 2015).

References

Bates, A.W. (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (Chapters 1 & 2).Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

LearningDctr.(2010, June 17). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism & Learning and Instructional Theory [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOqgXjynd0 

Pappas, C. (2019, September 24). How To Apply Gagné's 9 Events Of Instruction In eLearning. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-apply-gagnes-9-events-of-instruction-in-elearning