Reply to Dawn Davies's post:I agree that preparation for online contact takes a lot more time than what's presented. I'd like to hear some best practices in organizing the prep work to avoid spending too much time on prep.
Seth Soronnadi
Learned " That whether learning face-to-face or in an online environment, students have different needs. Some students may have minor cognition problems, developmental issues, or serious learning disabilities. It is very important to recognize those with learning disorders so that the instructor can more effectively deliver content and design learning activities to help all students achieve the learning outcomes."
I loved the analogy of time management as cleaning a closet and I just shared that idea in an email to all of my new students. The idea of decluttering time is a great one and many of my students are likely struggling to manage the new online format and all the changes to their personal time due to Covid-19.
I am also thinking about students who may have learning disabilities - we are a small vocational school and it is likely that more than typical students have some learning challenges. However, we don't have a specific department for learning disabilities so I'm going to look into how we ask about them.
I am an ESE teacher in a middle school setting and I learned how accomodations are used in the online environment. I also can relate to the importance of organizational skills and time management skills for the students and the teacher. Organizational skills can be an ongoing challenge for me.
I liked this quote from the reading: "A student may come to class with a certain degree of motivation, but the instructor's behavior, teaching style, structure of the course, nature of the assignments, and informal interactions with students all have effect on student motivation." I agree with this and will implement this throughout any online courses I teach.
As so in a traditional face-to-face classroom environment, instructors should be prepared to identify learning styles and disabilities in their students. Accomodations are available for the online environment as in the traditional classroom. In orientation we have a learning styles inventory that students to complete. I now see the value in making sure my online students complete it and results are utilized to their benefit as well.
From this module I learned strategies to encourage and support self-motivation in students. As the module shared, online courses require a high degree of self-motivation to successfully complete the course. Form this module I will first evaluate my students to determine which students and intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. With those results I will use the appropriate strategies to encourage continued motivation for my students.
Preparing students for online learning with specific questions as how they learn and if will be the correct choice.
Time managemnt is key for all students of all abilities.
Self-analysis, time management, and organization are the keys to online success.
We went to a paperless delivery method at my school due to the fact that making students take hand written notes became a problem due to the fact that some students write faster than others. So if you were faster, you had to wait for the slower ones to catch up, while if you were slower, then you may start to feel bad due to the rest of the class "waiting on the slow-poke" so to speak. My only problem with this approach is that hand written notes allow you to retain more of what you are taught. This is the challenge I see with online classes.
It's important to realize that motivation on the students' part is very important but also difficult to achieve sometimes. It's tough when an instructor is not face-to-face with students on a daily basis to remind them to complete work and such.
I like the idea of doing a survey of students at the beginning of the couyrse to assess online abilities.
In order to help the students on creating a successful learning environment and to develop their online persona, I as a online instructor must take the following facts in to consideration:
- Perform a student and instructor self-analysis.(following the guidelines)
- Examine the role of motivation in the online classroom.
- Help the students to understand and develop skills on time management in the online classroom.
- We are going to find students with special needs. In these cases we need to follow the principles of the Universal design
We must structure an online course that students will find clear and concise. Every student learns differently and their time management skills will need to improve and used wisely.
Instructors and students need to be aware of their online persona. Barriers such as time managemen, disabilities and techn issues can reduce learning and increase student frustration.
Teaching students to become better planners and how to complete thier work on time. I learned the seven principles of learning.
Once again, I learned how important my syllabus is. I will add specific information about notifying me if accommodations are needed. I already make accommodations often.
Strageies to assist students with Special Needs.
I've noticted that in this class, there is an assitive technology that reads along with the text. I love this idea, and plan to incorporate something similar into my online course.
I never knew that online teaching could accomadate learning disable students. This was a very encourging section.
As an online instructor it is important to help assist in motivation to the student while the student is applying self motivation to themselves. It is my job to give frequent feedback, creat open and positive learning enviroment and help my students feel valued.
