Final Blog

Producing a digital online class was somewhat challenging yet exciting. Constructing a class requires a variety of content, which is essential for the progress of a student’s learning process.   Introducing the class will definitely set the tone and tell a story, which will present a positive or negative connotation for the class.  Therefore clarity and expectations will set the tone for the class; leaving room for humor.  Often applying visual images in the introduction will also help to soften the mood, which will invite students into the mind frame of curiosity.  The purpose and structure of the class is formulated in a precise way, to give students clarity of what, why and how the class is arranged and what is expected of them. The expectations include online etiquette, basic skills with technology, Discussion Board participation, introducing themselves to their classmates, dates and times for submitting assignments and understanding how to reach the instructor. The instructor is responsible for demonstrating his or her transformational leadership skills; starting with the learning objectives.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives are a central part of the structure for the class. Basically it’s the foundation, which is measurable and should be clearly stated.  Each lesson module is required to have objectives offered prior to starting the lesson plan. This will help students to understand what outcomes are measurable and provide consistency with the course. Instructors should illustrate to the students how to meet the learning objectives and assist with any needs or problems they are having. The learning objectives lead into assessment strategies and the course activities.

Assessment Strategies 

When it’s time for an instructor to evaluate a student’s progress an assessment tool is essential in measuring the overall effectiveness of the course and development level of the student.  The assessment tools used for this course involves participation on the Discussion Board related to assignments, two quizzes, a survey, presenting a PowerPoint presentation, taking a self-evaluation quiz on emotional intelligence and writing a paper. These instruments will reflect the overall outcome of the course and understanding levels of the student.  The challenges for the students are to learn how to achieve a higher level of understanding and implement the content with their everyday lives. This correlates with the instructional materials that will help to guide the nurses.

Instructional Material

The central goal for instructional material is to support the objectives and learning outcomes for the course. The instructor will have the discretion to select material that will support the foundation for the course. The resources come from online websites, scholarly articles, and YouTube video’s along with text books.  These resources will help to guide, instruct and help to enhance the student’s overall knowledge base related to the subject.  Online learning can often be challenging and difficult for some students to comprehend and therefore they may need to view online details from videos (YouTube) or seek additional help from the “Help Desk”. The instructor will present resources that are current with variability, which will give several viewpoints on the subject of ethics and emotional intelligence.  These resources will illustrate to students how to cite reference material when presenting their work. This will help students learn how to interact and incorporate a variety of resources in their work. For example, learning how to link different websites and designing a Blog or Portfolio will help to motivate students to the world of technology. 

Navigation into Technology

Technology is challenging yet when one learns how to navigate the Internet system the experience helps to enhance ones knowledge base.  The technology system will not only improve the student’s learning ability but also widen the skills for the instructor. The media support system from the school will guide and engage the student into the next level of technology. The next level consists of cut and paste, download material from a website, open up different links and many other skills. These skills along with others will help to facilitate a successful learning process for the student.

Facilitation /Commitment and Support Services

Students will learn how to facilitate their way throughout the class with a support system from the institutional support services. The instructor is obligated to inform the students what institutional services are available and where to find such services for success.  The instructor will also set standards and document what is considered a reasonable time frame for submitting assignments.  A course syllabus and orientation package will be available, which stipulates the requirements along with grades.  The grading process will include points for on time assignments and points taken away. All instructions will be given prior to the due date of the first assignment.   Most support services are computer friendly and will assist with helping the students to succeed and complete the course outline. Overall the course will demonstrate a sound commitment to the student and provide the tools that are needed to succeed. The instructor will maintain a high level of responsibility for providing a course with current resources and available for any questions or guidance.

      

Exploring the digital world with online teaching

                       

                                Looking for a new beginning

In todays society the educational system has advance its requirements for learning to a higher level of receiving and delivering education. Thanks to the promotion and help from the Library and Information Science  (LIS) group. Who has help educators to extend their knowledge base beyond normal classroom learning, to the online learning management system?

The educational system has expanded their pedagogy and migrated to the online environment in which universities have successfully fulfilled requirements to deliver experience for virtual classrooms.

This is where my story begins. I have always had a desire to teach online nursing and therefore pursued this vision.  I am in the last class that teaches me how to develop and produce digital content, structured for a course in which I designed.  This deals with online learning management systems (LMS) in which Web-based tools are discovered and will assist in students learning abilities from a virtual classroom setting.  This class has a serious tone to it therefore at times I felt somewhat nervous of the unknown. I question my abilities to perform and wondered if I was ready to design a digital course for students to learn from.  These thoughts take me back to the very first time I developed and wrote my first blog.

I was ecstatic and felt creative with artistic ramifications to become great. I felt even prouder when I produced my portfolio. Now I am going to challenge myself once again by submitting weekly sections of my work so my peers will critique it in which I can learn from.

The design worksheet will help to guide my innovative mind, which requires developing a syllabus with an orientation package and learning modules that will guide the students.  The students will learn from the discussion boards via student-to-student interactions. They will also learn how to blog, write in journals and utilize the necessary tools to complete their work assignments.

The digital design will allow students to understand the content from a variety of multimedia resources. This will help to collaborate a learning experience that is invigorating and allow them to enhance their knowledge base on any particular topic. Therefore I look forward in becoming apart of this great mechanism, which will help support students in achieving learning in a unique way. 

Reflection Blog on Finalization of Design Project

             Reflection Blog on Finalization of Design Project

                Instructional Design Worksheet

The design course for Online 7101 started off somewhat complex. I say this because at first I did not know what to expect. Although the syllabus was quite explicit, doubts of my skills, allowed me to question my ability to produce a design fit for online teaching.  This is new territory for me therefore I needed guidance and immediate feedback. The instructions worksheet to design a course for online teaching and learning helped me out tremendously. I followed the directions and realized the missing pieces started to come together. Having my peers review and critique my work inspired me to do better. This is a valuable learning experience, feedback, in which one can learn and grow from. The foundation begins with the objectives and content, which leads to resources.

Objectives/Content/Resources

In order to design a course the foundation should be established, which is the framework (core) that represents the content. The objectives will support the outline that gives a systematic review of what is required and how the course work is divided.  A variety of resources will allow the students to research the web and review scholarly articles to support the work in the outline. This will help support the student content and interactions that are required when designing a course.

 Student-Content Interactions

Student content involves the necessary material that is required to help a student succeed in an online course. Understanding how to navigate throughout the course requires literacy skills with modern technology.  Online content requires skills in writing essays, blogging, and discussion boards on blackboard, facilitations of learning modules and submitting an e-portfolio.

Student-Student Interactions

This process requires collaboration, autonomy, and understanding to provide information in a collective way, which is essential for students to interact. The designee has to organize a structural format that will direct students to interact with each other. For example, working in a group requires participation form all, therefore students will have to follow the guidelines and submit Powerpoint presentations or wiki data revealing the outcome of interacting as one.

Student-Instructor Interactions

Educators/instructors are the real moving force behind preparing students for the challenges they will endure with online learning. Therefore the interactions and synergy affect among the two is vital. A positive relationship will definitely influence students to work hard and persevere. History suggests that positive effects from the student-instructor relationship will inspire students to learn and achieve their educational goals.  In this section the instructors will interact with students and reinforce a positive relationship. The goal is to develop students to a level that will help them gain the necessary knowledge base to succeed.  Feedback will influence the student-instructor relationships. Often students are faced with challenges and therefore the instructors need to understand what type of ways students are equipped to learn. This moved the class to the category of learners.

Learner Issues and Design Considerations

In todays society advance education is required for one to succeed in the competitive world of technology especially with online studies. The central concern is the learners and how they interpret the data and what type of styles they present in order to learn. This class informed me of what and how students learn. Therefore I learned about educational assessment

tools for students and how essential it is to come up with a solution to help them to learn. Therefore as an instructor I must take in consideration when designing a curriculum what is needed for learners because often some are unprepared and have deficiencies.  It is imperative that instructors include students in the process and practices related to learning abilities, which will help shape, their personal lives.  One must not underestimate the linguistic and innovative minds of learners. Strategic lesson plans are required, which I must include when designing for learners and non-learners.  

Learners and Non-learners Issues

            When designing an online course for college students the instructor must consider the hidden barriers that exist when designing a course for learners and non-learners. For example, the length of the course, enrollment size, difficulty of the content and technical proficiency of the students all is viewed as potential barriers for success. Prerequisites are usually required to help support students learning abilities, therefore when designing a course one must understand barriers exist. Often as an instructor giving a basic quiz prior to the start of the class is often a great idea.  This will give the instructor a guideline concerning the knowledge base of the student for online learning and who are the learners from the non-learners

Resources and Web-based Tools

When designing a course, rich technology resources are essential. Therefore several pedagogical theories will help the instructor to venture out and utilize devices that will help students to grow such as virtual classrooms, Blackboard system, PowerPoint presentations, Wiki, YouTube, Blog sites and an e-portfolio.   The learners will understand the logic of the software from the tutorial tools because a basic design will allow them to manage and follow the directions of the course. They will increase their technical literacy proficiency with the basic designs of the system. These programs will strengthen the process of a learner and allow the instructor an opportunity to engage in expanding their skills. A strong assessment tool will help with the quality of content and the entire process.

                            Assessment Strategies

            Teaching an online course requires certain elements that assist in examining the effectiveness of the curriculum, which involves an assessment.  The assessment is a tool that is stipulated between two categories such as formative and summative and used to increase the learning process. Formative assessment begins with a non-threatening form of feedback for the students, which contributes to fostering their learning styles throughout the course and increasing their level of competence. Summative captures the entire process of what the students have learned and provide an avenue for accountability for the students and educational system with measuring tools to validate the outcomes.

Formative Assessment

            Formative assessment is a tool that will help to foster a conceptual understanding of the subject that is presented.  This tool will help to guide and inform students of the basic learning principles involved in a course outline.   Problem-solving, clinical decision making reviews and open-ended questions, will help to illustrate how formative assessment tools will work for a student and help a student increase and retain their knowledge base related to the subject matter.  The key is for instructors to integrate these tools to prepare students for a career-minded profession. Students can also blog about their learning experience in a formative way this will help them express themselves.

Summative Assessment

            Summative assessment is straightforward and is used to analyze the amount of knowledge a student has learned. This tool also points out the accountability factor in which, students and the educational system, as a whole is responsible for receiving and providing appropriate material for learning. This tool is described as an “ongoing two-way dialogue that takes place between a teacher and learner known as the assessment for learning” via summative in nature (Gavriel, 2013, p. 93). Writing is also a subjective form of expressing one’s knowledge base, therefore students can use scholarly articles to help them write and sum up their learning experience.

Conclusion

Overall a great deal of knowledge was learned from this class. Preparing and designing a class requires a thought process that will flow with the learning population. An effective form of communication and assessment methods will help me to meet the requirements for learning in a systematic way with online classes.  To establish an objective evaluation process requires reliable tools that will help interpret constructive feedback for learning. Performance is the key and often students behavior is different in a face-to-face classroom oppose to online learning.  Some student’s take for granted that they have more time and often fall behind, therefore competency test is vital for performance via written, multiple choice or pass-fail criteria. The overall aim is to provide a variety of assessment systems to challenge not only the students but also the system.  I truly enjoyed this class and learned a lot to be proud of. Thank you for the guidance and understanding.

                                                              

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