Course Reflection 713Z

Through this course, I have grown as a connected educator, largely through the development on one cohesive unit. That was the most valuable thing in this course, for me. Getting feedback from other teachers, improving upon lessons, and getting outside my comfort zone have all helped me understand the complete process of writing and carrying out e-learning units. I appreciated how the learning in this course all revolved around one cohesive unit. For me, learning about the bits and pieces of teaching with technology is helpful, but being able to put it all together has been the most useful for me. I have a finished product that I'll for sure be able to use with my students this year.

The article that stuck with me the most was the one entitled: Assessing Online Learning, from Online Classroom in Module 3.  I love how one of the authors (Patti Shank) talks about how you should not expect a bell curve with this kind of teaching. If your course is set up right, your students are prepared for the expectations, and far more students will achieve mastery. I think this is the right model for teaching, especially online teaching. I also really liked the section by Rob Kelly on having students self-assess. I've always done this, to a small degree, but I think I can incorporate more of it with online learning.

Our online discussions were also helpful, even when teachers didn't have usable suggestions, as when I was having trouble with Google Docs vs. MS Word. Sometimes it helps to know that others have struggled with the same thing, and to see the things they've tried. I got some solid feedback on my assessment, and some ideas about working with students who have different learning styles than my own.

Overall, I learned more during this course than I had thought possible. This was my first entirely online course. Typically, I tend to learn more in a face to face class where I can have discussions with classmates about what we're doing. However, the online format ended up going better for me than I had thought it would. I learned a lot and have lessons ready to implement right away.