Instructional Design - Week #5

What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?
Our students will be expected to know how to communicate and collaborate in the workforce using skills that have not been the norm for most of their teachers. As we progress through the 21st century, educators must realize that our students will need future skills that are not currently being taught. Our education paradigm needs to shift to include more Web 2.0 and online technology. The ultimate benefit will be having students who will be prepared to communicate and collaborate in today’s global economy. Today’s students are already immersed in technology everyday. Bringing that technology into the classroom will excite and spark the interest of students and will make learning more applicable to their lives. Online learning will also create an atmosphere that will teach students to become more responsible for their own learning. This in turn will prepare them for their future. 

Educators will benefit because they will now be engaged in what motivates today’s students.

Educators will need to restructure lessons and teachings to accommodate an online format. This will challenge educators to adapt to the latest technology and standards in order to come across effectively to students.



How will you professionally use your course that you designed?
Although I found the Schoology website to have some technical and user-related issues, I would still like to implement some parts of the Schoology course that I designed into the classroom. Although students use technology all the time, most are not used to an online course format and will need to adjust slowly to the change. Our district currently does not provide online courses, which puts our students at a disadvantage when it comes to preparing them for college and the 21st century workplace.



I would want to talk to our principal about field-testing the Schoology website on a larger scale than what we did with our course last week. I have already talked briefly to our campus technology specialist about Schoology and some of the features in provides. My primary goal would be to use the online Schoology course for testing and assessment purposes. The online testing format would provide instant feedback to the students and the teachers. It would also cut down on testing expenses, i.e. Scan Trons, as well as providing more efficient grading.




Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?

My goal is to make online learning an integral part of my curriculum. Today’s students will need the knowledge and experience of online communication, so it is something that we should be teaching them in school right now. My goal is to implement an online environment in stages, by first providing online tests and quizzes. After students have become familiar with using the online software, my next goal is to introduce a few assignments and/or projects online per grading period to acclimate the students to accessing and submitting assignments. 



A concern about integrating online learning into my class is the matter of expense. Schoology is a free service, but I have some concerns about using Schoology after using it during this course. Schoology did not provide all of the administrative tools I was hoping for and some parts were glitchy. Our district does not currently pay or subscribe to a fee-based LMS, so I would want to research other free LMS programs that are available and select one that meets the needs of my classroom and functionality I am looking for. Until the district decides to make online learning a priority and pay for a service, I will need to rely upon free LMS programs to serve as my online portal for my students.




What questions do you still have about online learning?


After using the Schoology online course software I have several questions about implementing online curriculum. One of my biggest concerns is how to prevent cheating in a course that is fully online. Obviously, cheating may happen in a traditional setting. However, it appears that using an online environment opens the doors to academic dishonesty. Currently, the class that I teach does not allow for any work to be done outside of the classroom. This policy was in place before I started teaching the course. A main reason for the policy was to ensure that all students did their own work. My experience using the online class environment that we created using Schoology showed me that students have access to assignments 24 hours a day, if they are posted. I asked Schoology if they have system settings in place to restrict usage times and they said they did not. If other LMS programs had more advanced administrative controls, I would be more comfortable implementing the course fully online.



Another question about creating an online learning classroom is that it requires a computer and an Internet connection. I teach a technology course, so I have a computer for each student in my class. However, what about English, science, or math teachers? How do they implement an online curriculum if they only have one or two computers per 25 to 30 students? Our district does not have the budget to provide every student and teacher with a laptop or desktop computer. Some students in our district do not have a computer or Internet access at home. These students are automatically put at a disadvantage academically and socially. 



A third concern about using an online learning environment is that it totally depends on an uninterrupted Internet connection. When we were field testing our Schoology courses, my students could not access the online course due to Internet issues with our campus technology server. If Internet down-time is going to cause accessibility issues, many teachers will be deterred from implementing the LMS into their class setting.




What will you do with this new learning? Reflect on what you have learned in this course by writing an entry on your Internship blog.


I have learned a great deal about online learning simply by being a student for the last 17 months of this graduate program. I understand that an online environment opens opportunities for people to work on classwork in a schedule that fits their lifestyle. It allows for greater flexibility to do homework at times that are convenient for the student. Using an online environment for K-12 students would like provide the exact same opportunities that a college student may have. However, they would have the ability to work on an online course at a time that fits their schedule. I have also learned that because an online course does not provide the daily face-to-face contact that many students are familiar to receiving, and that it takes patience and some adjusting when questions arise. A student in an online course may not get a question answered for a day or two compared to an immediate response in a traditional class setting. In regard to what I will do with this new learning, I plan on implementing online learning in tiers in my own classroom setting. The challenges that I faced will be some of the same challenges my students will face. By implementing online learning progressively, hopefully I will be able to acclimate my students to this new learning environment.