It's clear that much more planning and preperation is required on the part of the instructor & student with virtual learning than F2F. I plan on utilizing my experience in having taking online classes in applying the best practices I've experienced there.
Time management may be the biggest factor in succeeding in an online course. Successful online students have to be proactive in their studies and take responsibility for their own learning.
It's important for students to know oneself in order to realize if they can be successful in an online course. Also keeping an eye out for students struggling to realize if they may have a disability and discuss strategies with those students to help overcome the disadvantages that disability creates.
Helping students learn how to prioritize and schedule their time can lead to much success. Many students just never learned those skills.
Online classes have a lot of disciplines. Many people will find questions as invasive at times. Ohters will tel you what you want to hear when you can't look them in the eye. A teacher is on a slippery slope until they know the dynamics of the entire classroom.
Find the students strengths and weaknesses. This will greatly help in motivation and to improve the learning environment.
It is so important to be able to accommodate for students with disabilities. Every student needs to be able to learn.
I thought it was interesting that it takes 10-20 hours of prep time for 1 hour of onine teaching. That is about the same as F2F classroom learning. I also like the idea that students need to be motivate and excellent time managers to take an onine course.
The importance of instructor and student self analysis when preparing for online class. I will ensure that I complete a self analysis for myself as well as for my students when preparing for online class.
Often, students have the idea that an online class is like drive in fast food, stop, go, be satisfied. It is our job to be clear this is not the case and to provide quality content, presentation and assistance to change that perception.
A clearly detail syllabus with modifications to accomodate the needs of all students is essential in an online class.
As an online instructor it is important to help assist in motivation to the student while the student is applying self motivation to themselves. It is my job to give frequent feedback, creat open and positive learning enviroment and help my students feel valued.
I never knew that online teaching could accomadate learning disable students. This was a very encourging section.
Strageies to assist students with Special Needs.
I've noticted that in this class, there is an assitive technology that reads along with the text. I love this idea, and plan to incorporate something similar into my online course.
Once again, I learned how important my syllabus is. I will add specific information about notifying me if accommodations are needed. I already make accommodations often.
Teaching students to become better planners and how to complete thier work on time. I learned the seven principles of learning.
Instructors and students need to be aware of their online persona. Barriers such as time managemen, disabilities and techn issues can reduce learning and increase student frustration.
We must structure an online course that students will find clear and concise. Every student learns differently and their time management skills will need to improve and used wisely.
In order to help the students on creating a successful learning environment and to develop their online persona, I as a online instructor must take the following facts in to consideration:
- Perform a student and instructor self-analysis.(following the guidelines)
- Examine the role of motivation in the online classroom.
- Help the students to understand and develop skills on time management in the online classroom.
- We are going to find students with special needs. In these cases we need to follow the principles of the Universal design
It's important to realize that motivation on the students' part is very important but also difficult to achieve sometimes. It's tough when an instructor is not face-to-face with students on a daily basis to remind them to complete work and such.
I like the idea of doing a survey of students at the beginning of the couyrse to assess online abilities.
