Share your thoughts and ideas about the e-learning initiative you are developing. Have you selected a topic yet, and if so, what is it and why did you choose this particular initiative? What knowledge or skills do you bring to designing the initiative? If you haven't selected an initiative, what are you considering? Do you need assistance with identifying a topic or narrowing your focus?
Are there any other areas of the course where you need assistance or feedback?
Hi Donna!
Here is my first reflection for the Instructional Design course.
E-learning initiative topic:
The topic I have selected is a carry over from my Adult Learning Certificate internship. For that internship I conducted a workshop where I taught adjunct faculty members at the graduate school I work for many new and interesting techniques/strategies (web 2.0 tools, quick assessments, and reciprocal teaching concepts) to engage their students in the f2f classroom. Many instructors wanted to participate but getting to our Washington, DC campus where I taught the training was a challenge because like many adults, our instructors stretch themselves thin every night of the week. Some of them wondered if the training would be held on the web, and if it was they would be happy to attend in that format. So I saved that thought and will now be taking that f2f training and running it in Adobe Connect. I am excited to do it! I do not think many of them have used Adobe Connect before, or if they have experience with Adobe Connect it is likely they were only listening to a webcast and not actively using all the features of Adobe Connect. I felt confident giving the f2f training because I had just finished the course work for the Adult Learning Certificate, and I got a lot of positive feedback from our faculty who attended. By the time I deliver this initiative, I will have completed the Online Teaching and Learning Certificate. I am also familiar with Adobe Connect because I use it at work. I see a great need for more of these types of trainings in my workplace because our f2f instructors our subject matter experts but get little, if any training on how to teach effectively. We do have an excellent Instructional Resource Center in my workplace but all of their resources and time revolves around training our online faculty. In addition, when I look over our student evaluations, students consistently comment that they crave engaging f2f classrooms. They get very frustrated when they pay such a high tuition rate and sometimes only receive power point lectures from our instructors.
Question:
I am concerned about the short length of this initiative though, it will probably be only 1 hour in length. I am wondering if that is sufficient for the assignment.
Comment:
This is my first online class and I've had a pleasant experience so far. I still feel like I do not know my classmates that well, but that will come in time. I see how working in an online team provides a social experience to the class because I do know my teammates moderately well at this point.
Thanks for your feedback!
by the way: my co-worker Michelle Mentzer says hi!
Hi Kelli,
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading through the first part of your post, my first thought was wow! This initiative is relevant and authentic, and based on a real need for faculty you support. You mentioned you are going to use Adobe Connect, and I thought hmm…that’s primarily a synchronous format so is that going to be OK with faculty to all meet at the same time? Then, as I continued to read your post, realizing that your initiative was only an hour-long, I understood the rationale for using Adobe Connect.
So to respond to your question about whether or not that’s long enough for this assignment, I would suggest that we explore some additional considerations:
- Based on what you really need to cover with faculty, is one hour enough? You mentioned you had a f2f workshop where you covered “many new and interesting techniques/strategies (web 2.0 tools, quick assessments, and reciprocal teaching concepts) to engage their students in the f2f classroom,” That’s quite a lot to cover in one hour, and I’ll bet you can offer something more in depth to cover that content.
I would encourage you to think about all of that content you want to teach faculty and consider how you might structure it into a meaningful experience that perhaps combines synchronous with asynchronous format. Or, perhaps combine a self-paced tutorial or module with several synchronous sessions? I think there are definitely some opportunities to expand upon an hour-long synch session.
Thanks for your final comment. We’re only into week 2, so hopefully you’ll continue to make connections and thus feel more connected to the community. And hello to Michelle! I’ve had the pleasure of working with her in several different contexts and when I spoke with her on the phone before this course began, she mentioned your name.
Donna