Sheila Benson

I like the rubric for communication.  I learned that it is important to be clear about the guidelines for communication.  I have heard people say that their assignment was due on midnight.  It has never occurred to me that the teacher should think about how they need to be available to the students the day or two before an assignment is due.  I learned that teachers have to think a lot about the communication process so that students will be ok to communicate.  Communication between all parties is essential to learning.

There are many tools available to communicate with students.  As teachers we need to determine the need, research the options, select the best option for our situation, implement the tool and gather feedback during the course and at the end of the course.

I appreciated the comments about facing your fears when adapting to an online learning model.  I have never taught online and I am realizing that there are many things to consider.  I am concerned about how to transition or transform hands on learning to the online system.  Organization is important to the online environment.

Teachers wear many hats or shoes while teaching online.  I had never considered all of the roles until studying this material.  I also realized agaain the significance of feedback and reflections.  Students need timely feedback and teachers need to reflect on that information to make changes where necessary.  Good communication is vital to successful online learning.  Student motivation and engagement are also important to a successful outcome.

Making sure teachers and students can use the information is key to successful learning.  Classes can be taught synchrously or asynchronously or even using both methods.  I also realized the importance of the steps of the teaching process.  Just like in face to face teaching, the student must know where they are going in the lessons and see a pattern of delivery.  In my state many students do not have access to high speed internet.

I learned that there are many tools that can be used in online learning. I also learned that as teachers we need to assess what our teaching style is and adapt that style for the online classroom.  As with all teaching matters, feedback and reflection is critical to the learning process.  I liked the stop, start, continue process.  I also learned how important it is to match the online tool to the desired outcome.

I learned various ways to close the loop.  I have always done student evaluations, but I have not had other stakeholders complete evaluations.  I will plan to add that to my classes.  I realized the importance of self reflection upon the online class.  It is important for teachers to refllect upon their work and make changes to improve their teaching.  

Feedback is a necessary component of teaching online or face to face.  Students need to know if they are on the right track and teachers need to know if they need to reteach or correct a misunderstanding.  Various types of assessments are needed such as formative and summative.  Formative assessment happens during learning.  Summative assessment happens after learning takes place (end of unit, etc.).  Rubrics are great tools to use when grading projects.  I learned that the rubrics should be tied to each learning objective specifically.

Communication is an important facet of online learning.  The syllabus must be dynamic and comprehensive.  The student must feel part of the online community.  This can be accomplished by using many tools such as chats, forums, etc.  Scaffolding is important for learning.  Each of these ideas revolve around good communication.

I have learned that consistency is vitally important in creating modules.  I think the transition from face to face teaching to teaching online will be difficult for me.  I have also learned that length of videos is important to keep the viewer engaged.  I also realized that chunking content may be a better strategy than trying to cram too much information into a module.