LORI PUTNAM-DUBY

Creating on online asynchronous class requires different methods than synchronous courses. However, many of the same methodologies of synchronous education can be "tweaked" to be useful in the online environment. 

Course syllabi for online courses are very similar to syllabi created for synchronous classes. It is important for students to know what they will learn and what is expected of them. 

Instructors need to become much more familiar with asynchronous education now more than ever. 

It is important for students to feel that they are contributing to a course in an intellectual capacity. This means instructor/student interaction is very important. 

There are many free resources available for creating an asynchronous lab environment for students. It is important to be creative and diligent in your search for viable replacements to real life lab activities. 

It is important to keep students engaged. Some students get bored very easily or lose interest when they feel they are not receving adequate attention. Instructors/teachers must try to ensure that all students are getting what they need out of the class. 

Utilizing videos for labs is a good idea for instruction, generally speaking. However, students usually enjoy labs more than their other classes because it gives them a chance to do hands on assignments. I feel that even with videos the value of labs are lost in online education. It is important for students to be able to take in lab assignments with all of their senses.

 I learned that identifying new skills here does mean content area as much as process; thinking, interaction, collaboration, communication, and application all represent areas of process. And,each of these areas is included in any process of teaching and learning. 

The most interesting bit of information in this reading, for me, was the following:

"The more students become "producers" of knowledge, the more they will realize the value of what they are learning and see the application to their own lives, thus supporting transformative learning outcomes in the process (Mezirow, 1997)."

I think that students should absolutely be a part of their own learning and that less structure should be thrust upon them by instructors/teachers. Of course this does not work for every student, and there must be some structure. I feel that loosening the reigns, so to speak, on… >>>

I found the following excerpt from the reading to be the most valuable: 

"One of the greatest challenges in most courses is in the area of assessment. Granted, many courses of study are geared towards some form of certification that requires standardized testing, but that should be the starting point, not the summation of the production of learning."

Instructors sometimes struggle with what learning outcomes should consist of, but starting at the end makes such sense to me.