Jessica Bajorek

This course has reminded me of how I am able to diversify and personalize learning materials to reflect the lives and areas of expertise of adult learners. Knowing how best to critically engage with non-traditional students is important for them to feel empowered in their own learning process.

I liked the idea of using muddiest points as a form of exit ticket so that it was less about quizzing the students on what they know and more about allowing them to advocate for what they don't understand.

I thought it was useful to know what information we should be aware of in order to correctly break down a rubric so that it is both easy to understand and helpful to the student.

I thought the consideration about allowing students to post to discussions anonymously was interesting. While I like the grace it affords to certain students whom are sharing more sensitive content, I could also see this feature being abused. There is a certain accountability that comes with putting your name to something, and I think students under aliases could become too comfortable saying things they might not if they were to use their real names.

It was valuable to learn how to structure and chunk modules to create more engagement and ease-of-use for students.

It was valuable to learn about the different forms of learners in this environment, and especially about how to engage quiet learners with nods to their interests in course discussion. I also thought the use of an FAQ board was a valuable tip.

I like how this section talked about the importance of leaving room for small talk and building community during synchronous lessons. So much of the time I feel like the emphasis is on the material, but some of the magic of the classroom happens in being with one another.

I think this training is important and valuable in terms of thinking of how best to support and engage with online students, but I think it also begs the question of how to approach students who opt into online learning environments because they prefer less face-to-face interaction and do best with self-study courses. How can we provide support to them while also allowing them to work how they work best?

Something that I hadn't thought of before that this section addressed was being aware of how student time zones can impact how they move through an e-learning experience. Because a class is asynchronous, I think it can be easier to forget those considerations, but getting a bigger picture of the students and their lives, even when you are not face-to-face with them, is important for adapting a course to best suit your student body.

I thought it was important to note that the same tools will be applied differently per the instructor's teaching style. I've found in my previous experience with teaching online courses that it has been difficult to really build out a course as I would envision it when having to work in the confines of a standardized Canvas shell, but I liked how this highlighted the different mediums of support that instructors could take into account and how it can become more individualized.