Helpful course

I posted my thoughts about OL 101 on the feedback doc re: ways to improve the course, and I don't want to repeat myself.  Here are some highlights:

I thought the course was very well designed.  The Smith textbook was great.  The learning guides were useful.  The intro. video for each module was helpful.  The F2F sessions were nice.  Whether a faculty member is teaching summer school, taking time off for vacation, or working on other projects, it could be difficult to keep up with all required assignments.  Not that I’m complaining because Rick was very understanding about my own situation, and the course was not taken for a grade, but I think it could be a challenge to do everything as well as it ought to be done and some might drop out.  That would be too bad because it’s a very beneficial course.  It modeled good online teaching.  

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to taking a five-week course, but I'm glad I did.  (Even though I wasn't able to do all that I would have liked to have done.)  I enjoyed the collaborative assignment.  Thanks for helping me out with the F2F's, Leah and Dave.  Kudos to Rick and best wishes to everyone!

     

Group Project Thoughts

It was interesting to work on the group project.  It gave me an opportunity to get to know John, Cesar, and Pat a little better.  I can see the value of group projects in fostering a sense of community that otherwise could be missing in an online course.  Of course, it forced us to look closely at another online course, which gives us another role model for our own courses (now or down the road). 

To make it genuinely collaborative is a challenge, though.  We divided up the material, which made sense, but the collaboration was then limited to communication and reviewing the conclusions our colleagues reached.  It may be tough to get more collaborative than that while maintaining efficiency and timeliness.  The project was time well spent, I think.

Making me rethink

I continue to appreciate the Smith text.  I'm teaching a course this fall that will include some distance ed participation by Trinity students.  I don't have an online course on my plate right now although I might like to offer something down the road.  OL 101 is yielding a more immediate payoff through the book.  It's making me rethink my approach to my F2F classes. 

There's a lot of good stuff in chapters 3 and 4.  For example, I like the question about what if my students were tested 6 mos. from now and I were held legally liable for any portion they don't remember.  Would I reduce the amount of material covered? (p. 38)  It gets at the fundamental question, "What is it I am trying to teach the students?" (p. 36) and is related to the need to be realistic and prioritize. 

The sentence, "It is better to understand new material than simply to memorize it by rote," also struck me (p. 59).  I know this and I incorporate the philosophy into my course design to some extent, but I think I can do better.  Partly I'm teaching too much to the test, I think, which gets it backward.  Also, perhaps I'm too wedded to the texts, which cover a lot of material but don't necessarily provide adequate depth for the handful of most important points.  It's hard to put this into words but I think the Smith book is helping to bring about a paradigm-shift for me as a teacher (classroom or online).

Someday

I hope to put these ideas into practice.  My previous experience with teaching an online course was relatively modest--a one-credit class that I co-taught.  I think I'm picking up some very useful ideas should I someday teach something on a larger scale.  For my practice modules, I'm using content that could become an online course.  I'm drawing on a course that I created for Jacksonville State University a couple years ago.

Good to see everyone

Our first F2F was nice yesterday.  Leah and I enjoyed seeing the class, and also talking between ourselves as we figured things out.

I liked chapter 2 of the text.  It makes sense.  The author is giving us lots of practical advice. 

Good book

I found the first chapter of the Smith textbook helpful.  Theoretical but not pie-in-the-sky.  I also like the fact that the book is short, which means it cuts to the chase and doesn't clutter things up with a bunch of secondary and tertiary information.  Good choice, Dr. Snoeyink!