Objective Questions: What have you learned about developing an effective online course? Online education has increased exponentially during the last decade. Many educational organizations consider online learning as a critical component of their long-term strategy (Urdan & Weggen, 2000). In fact, educational institutions embrace e-learning as a complement or replacement for traditional classroom methods because this method of teaching enhance students’ learning. It offers new possibilities to integrate various types of learning content according to the learners’ need and is additionally compatible with the learners’ preferred learning styles (Little, 2001). Broadly speaking, “E-learning system can be analysed as an inventive approach for delivering, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to anyplace, anyone, anytime by utilizing the features and resources of different digital technologies along with other types of learning materials suited for an open, distributed, and flexible learning environment” (Khan 2005, p. 3). Many scholars believe that adapting online learning does not guarantee a rich learning environment. In fact, successful online learning depends on many factors such as instructors and learners’ personality traits, attitudes towards e-learning, technical and pedagogical knowledge, experience in using online learning, leadership, and support. Moreover, instructors should understand the difference between face to face and online learning instruction. They should understand the differences in various generations and how they perform in higher education classrooms. This knowledge helps them to better understand, educate, and address the needs of the learners. In addition, knowledge of various learning theories helps instructors modify their teaching methods to fit their learners’ needs. This is particularly important when we teach digital natives learners. Furthermore, instructors should understand the challenges that their learners and themselves will face with learning online and learn best practices in online teaching. It is clear that creating a high quality online course is not an easy task. Instructors need several levels of expertise to develop online courses which are content knowledge, technical knowledge, and instructional knowledge. Moreover, they should follow systematic principles of instructional design and develop their course based on the Guideline (CanREGs). This guideline helps them to measure, monitor quality of their online course and create an effective online course. Reflective Questions: How does this fit with your experience? What would you like to emulate from your own successful eLearning experiences? What would you like to improve upon so that your own learners have a more positive experience? Although I have not had an opportunity to teach online, I always like to learn about technologies and use them in my classroom. This course was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn the principles and process of developing an online course. I found that developing an online course that is engaging, promotes interaction, motivates learners, and facilitates learning, needs careful and thoughtful design. During this course, I also realized that teaching online is a lot of work. I have to learn a lot in order to create an effective online course and to be an effective online instructor. I teach statistics. Last semester, I asked my students several questions to know their perceptions about taking this course online. Most of them feel anxious of taking statistics course in an online format. So, I found that I should put my students at ease right from the beginning if I want to transform my face to face course to the online format. They should know that I am online if they need help, and they will receive quick responses to any questions or concerns they have. I will strive to create a supportive online community where students can be free to ask questions, participate in online discussions, and share their ideas. Interpretive Questions: What new insights do you now have? How has your thinking changed around creating effective online courses after taking EDUC 4150? During this course, I completed several assignments and each of them gave me new insights for developing an effective online course. I learned that I should plan and organize my online course carefully. The first assignment, journal entry 1, helps me to understand and appreciate different generations of learners. Analyzing our learners and knowing our students’ characteristics, needs, motivations, and capabilities is the first and most important step in designing an online course. Assessing student needs provides instructors with information necessary to determine instructional goals; identify student- learning objectives; develop the online instructional materials; select appropriate technology; and determine strategies for effective learning ( DuCharme-Hansen & Dupin-Bryant, 2005). Moreover, online discussion on barriers to eLearning motivated me to search and learn more about online learning, the benefits of online learning and challenges that instructors and learners face with learning online. By reviewing learning theories, I found that a constructivist-based design can facilitate development of self-directed learning skills and a sense of community among the learners. In such learning environment, students have an opportunity to interact with one another, actively engage with the content resources to construct their knowledge and learn deeply. It is clear that when students construct their own understanding of scientific ideas within the framework of their existing knowledge, they learn better (Dabbagh & NannaRitland, 2005). Creating a Wiki was one of the engaging, collaborative activities that I completed in this course and helps me learn deeply various e-learning tools. Moreover, reviewing articles about e-portfolio help me learn that this formative learning activity has the potential to foster the deep involvement of learners and to encourage more responsibility for the achievement of educational goals (DiBiase, 2002). The use of an e-Portfolio for the purpose of learning can encourage students to examine and write about their values and the attitudes that underpin their professional practice (Pelliccione & Dixon, 2008). It would seem that using an ePortfolio in the classroom can stimulate students to collect their work, reflect upon strengths and weaknesses, and improve their learning. Moreover, this tool gives instructors a chance to engage and motive their students, to gain deeper insight into their students learning and assessment, to assist their students with the transition to professional employment and to become more involved with their students learning (DiBiase, 2002) In addition, reviewing several articles on Standards for Quality Online Courses help me learn the process of designing an online course. I learned that “instructional design is a systematic process that is employed to develop education and training programs in consistent and reliable fashion” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007). There are various instructional design models. All models provide a framework for designers to create their online courses. The core elements of instructional design include analysis, development, implementation, and evaluation (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007). The first phase which is analysis covers learners’ characteristics, context and instructional goals. In the second phase, the main content and the assessment and instructional strategies will be determined and developed. In the implementation phase, a pilot will be conducted with sample target learner group. Finally, the last phase covers evaluation in both the formative and summative formats. Decisional Questions: How can this new learning be applied in your online course? I will follow the following phases to develop my online course.
I will also use the following strategies to create a quality course for my students.
References Dabbagh. N., & NannaRitland, B. (2005). Online learning: Concepts, strategies and application. New Jersey, NJ: Upper Saddle River. DiBiase, D. (2002). Using e-Portfolios at Penn State to enhance student learning. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/portfolios/e-port_report.doc DuCharme-Hansen, B. A., & Dupin-Bryant, P.A. (2005). Distance education plans: Course planning for online adult learners. TechTrends, 49(2), 31–40. Khan, B. H. (2005). Managing e-learning strategies: Design, delivery, implementation and evaluation. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing. Little, B. (2001). Achieving high performance through e-learning. Industrial and Commercial Training, 33(6), 203-207. Pelliccione, L., Dixon, K., 2008. ePortfolios: beyond assessment to empowerment in the learning landscape. In: Ascilite, Melbourne. Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2007). Trends and issues in instructional technology and design. Urdan, T. A., & Weggen, C. C. (2000). Corporate e-learning: Exploring a new frontier. WR Hambrecht Co.
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