#howtoteachonline

[homebasedbusinessowner-blog]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIiutzqp5eg)

[desdemina]

What I Learned About How NOT to Run a MOOC

I have decided not to continue with the How To Teach Online MOOC. And it's kind of funny because I am stopping because of so many things I learned from them about how NOT to teach online.

I'm writing about my reasons for stopping not to whine, but to share the problems hoping they will benefit anyone wanting to offer an online course.

#1 - Lack of organization

I'm not saying that every online course has to use an LMS. But LMSs do provide structure. There is no "landing" page for this course that gives you the overview and directs you to the different components. It's a blog, and not just a blog for the instructor, but one that any participant can post to. So when you go to the URL, you see the most recent posts, but no guidance to the course.

#2 - Registration Information

I could not find information on the site as to how to officially register for the course. In order to post to the blog or receive the verification for completing the course, you must register. Clearly, some participants found it, but I still haven't. (Edited to add: I found out that you cannot register once the class started. This is fine, but needs to be communicated.)

#3 - Overload of information

Their argument is that the Internet has way too much information for us to digest, so learning what to pay attention to and what not to is a skill we need to develop. So there are hours of videos and live webinars each week for participants to choose from. But it is overwhelming. Even the introductory video on how to blog is an hour! A better design would present a shorter list of essential information, and then have the rest marked as enhancement options if you want more information. Also, include a mixture of formats, not just videos (which aren't captioned).

#4 - Overwhelming number of participants

Yes, I know what MOOC stands for and that there are often thousands of participants. But they are often subdivided in some way so that when you go to a discussion board, you are not bombarded with thousands of unorganized posts. You are able to join a group that has a similar interest, or lives in your region, or something. Not to mention the blog format of the discussions is not the most conducive. 

#5 - Lack of responsiveness

I have not received responses to repeated requests for help and information. I have received some responses, but they did not address my questions. Even if you had thousands of participants, you need to have a way for participants to get technical support, the general rule being within 24 hours. (Edited to add that I finally did receive answers to my questions, days later.)

Now for the good stuff...

That being said, much of the information offered is very good, and it's clear they put a lot of time into gathering and creating useful information. Unfortunately, it falls down in the presentation. If you don't care about interacting with other participants, getting the completion certificate, and you're not Deaf, I encourage you to go check out their videos.

[desdemina]

How to Teach Online - Intro

How to Teach Online - Week 0

Me in a nutshell -- I'm an Instructional Technologist for a community college system. I oversee the quality assurance for some of our online courses. I am also working on my dissertation in Instructional Technology, with an interest in adult online learning.

So you might think that I wouldn't need a course in How to Teach Online. But I like to see what others have to say, I always learn something new I can pass on, or that will help me in my own work. And I hope that I can share some of my own knowledge and experience.

I think one of the challenges of this MOOC is going to be keeping from being overwhelmed. They admit that they are providing many more materials than anyone can possibly read/watch/listen to. And there are so many participants, there's no way that I can possibly read everyone's blogs and posts. I think it might be easier if the participants were subdivided, maybe by industry (K-12, higher ed, corporate, military, etc.). Although I tend to be very participatory, the number of posts are already overwhelming.

The writing prompt asks us to describe our best and worst teacher. Although I've had a lot of good teachers, the one that stands out is Mr. Purcell, my senior year high school Calculus teacher. He treated us like college students, not high school students. He had high expectations, he didn't hold our hands, expecting us to take responsibility for our own learning, but he was there for us before and after school every day for help when we needed it. More than anyone else, he prepared me for college.

And while I've also had a number of "less ideal" teachers, one sticks out and I will not give his name. But it was an online class and his instructions were vague and confusing. I once asked him for more detail and he said that he left it vague so we had more freedom in how to do the assignment. Yet we scored poorly if we didn't meet his hidden expectations. Feedback on projects was vague and unhelpful, so you didn't know how to improve. And once we got so far behind that our midterm was to write a paper on everything we hadn't had time to cover yet. There are many more examples, but this post is long enough already!

We're asked to come up with 4 "dos" and 4 "do nots", but I always prefer to phrase things positively, so here is my list of "dos".

DO

Have high (but realistic) expectations

Provide clear expectations

Provide detailed, meaningful, and timely feedback

Be there to provide help and support as needed

Create the whole course in advance, but be flexible

Provide clear navigation through the course

Use multiple ways of presenting content and assessing knowledge

Align objectives, content and assessments

Basically, if I had to drill it down to one word, I would say communication. Good, clear, frequent, detailed, helpful and supportive communication.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. 

[desdemina]

Sensemaking Artifacts

How To Teach Online - Week 0

I'm a little behind on this MOOC, which is not surprising given how many others I'm involved with, not to mention my other responsibilities. You'd think I would already know this topic well, since I'm working on my doctorate in Instructional Technology, but I'm always curious to see how others teach it. I always learn something, see something from a different perspective, find something I can pass on.

This course asks us to do create things called  "sensemaking artifacts". I've never heard about this before, but I'm intrigued. See, I told you I learn something even from courses in my discipline! The basic idea is that it's something you create, like a blog post, video, podcast, whatever, that shows how you came to understand something, put two ideas together, connect things through your own understanding. Then you share it with others. And the idea is that they learn from you, they comment, critique, contribute, and through that interaction, your knowledge and understanding, as well as theirs, grows and deepens.

I'm really fascinated by this, and partially fear that I'm late to the game, that this is something everyone knows about except me! I'm creating a course right now where I am requiring a reflection journal, something to help students do some self-reflection on the course, what they've learned, where they see they still need to develop, etc. I'm wondering if I should make them do sensemaking artifacts instead. It's a little late in the development process, and I'm still too new to the concept, to incorporate it this time, I think. But there is great potential and changes can always be made next semester!

This was supposed to be my introductory blog, to help my classmates get to know me better. But I think this is long enough for one entry. I'll introduce myself next time.