The Digital Learning Workshop-Making Adjustments

      The Digital Learning Workshop is coming along nicely. It is hard for me to believe that this course is almost complete. I was really nervous about it when I started this class. How was I going to design a 5-week course in such a short amount of time???? How would I chunk the information, and how would

I build the assignments in a manner that my learners would be able understand and complete them? Is it too late to change classes (kidding, not kidding)? These are just a few of the questions that went through my head as I began thinking about this course. HOWEVER, once I wrapped my brain around what I wanted this course to be, and I did A LOT of research. It finally began to flow. 

     One thing that has worked to my advantage is my process:  I tend to build and experiment as I outline. I do this with my writing, and I do this with projects.  I guess it goes back to me being a constructivist at heart. I am also one who needs to see the project I am outlining so I can add the details and resources that goes into tackling an endeavor such as this class. Creating this course has been an eye-opening experience for me; I have taken many online courses but have never built one before. I was reminded of  something I have said many times in the coaching world:  It is one thing to participate in a sport, but it is quite another to coach it. A coach has to break down the skills needed to play a sport, chunk the learning into sections so her athletes don't go into cognitive overload, and differentiate the teaching of those skills based on the skill level of her athetes. 

    That saying has played a huge role as I began putting my course together in Google Classroom. For example, as I was outlining the last half of my course this week, I realized that the assigment I was writing for my Google Sites module was too long. Consequently, I chunked it into two assignments.  As I was designing another module last week, I realized that the skills I was wanting to teach really needed to be broken into two separate modules, so I had to cut a big chunk and go in a slightly different direction. Moreover, once I roll this course out and  I get some feedback from my learners, I will undoubtedly go back and refine certain pieces to make it better for the next round of learners! 

     In summary, building this professional learning modules has made me appreciate the time and effort that goes into creating online courses (or any course for that matter).  Building this course has stretched my thinking and helped me grow as an educator by making me look at teaching through a completely different lens. Not only will this experience make me a better teacher, but it will also help be become a more effective administrator.