Learning Objects
What learning objects have you created and how does that serve as a workload management strategy?
Dale and Phyllis,
Thanks for continuing the conversation. Keep your ideas coming!
All of my courses are "written" so I have little room for academic freedom. I do enjoy the "lecture" format of the live chats; lets me bring in anecdotal experiennce
Phyllis,
I am well aware of your methodology, and it works great. Many of my students over the years have commented on how much they enjoy your classes. It is a pleasure working with you.
The courses I teach have already been designed, and I can not change the content. However I do have the ability to do a few things.
1. I can add supplemental information such as web links videos, or journal articles.
2. At the end of the course, I complete a course evaluation survey. It is here were I can make recommendations to change or update the content.
The courses I teach at the school that has me in this session does not allow for me to make any updates. It is already complete. I do add scaffolds, videos, tips and tools, etc in order to add additional value to the course.
Kimberley,
Good job. Providing students with examples of good responses and other details to help them be more successful is a great thing. Thanks!
Stephanie,
Supplementing with additional resources is helpful to many students. Make sure you don't supplement with too many resources as this can become confusing as well. Thanks!
As most others have indicated, the curriculum in the courses I teach is pretty much set, but I like to supplement with additional resources-external web links to helpful resources on key topics, or videos to break down a concept better than the book might present it. Depending on how the material is delivered in the course, I try to vary what I add to the course. If the material is dry or not very visually appealing, I try to find information to make it so. I hold onto those same resources so I can use them in consecutive terms.
Stephanie
I have created assignment explanations that supplement the assignments that my student must complete. In these explanations their are examples of good responses and outlines of what the student needs to include in their answers to earn top marks on the assignments. These learning objects help me save time when answering questions about the assignments. They also assist the students in understanding the assignment questions successfully and this gets them to turn in their work on time.
Thank you.
Scott,
Multimedia support helps those visual and auditory learners especially. Thanks!
UI add a lot of additional multimedia into my classes to support the text and assignments as I find there is not enough that applies directly to the assignments.
Lisa,
Right! Things we can use over and over each semester. Designing these will save us time. Thanks for your input.
An example of a learning object used in my classes would be "games" developed for students to learn a concept of the curriculum. These would be similar to a "scavenger" type of research so the student learns what resources are available to them when they need to find answers to their class assignments.
samia,
I'm thrilled you have this opportunity. It should be a team effort and not just a one way street. Thanks for sharing.
samia,
When you state your learning objectives are "in place," do you mean they are provided to you by the institution? Just wondering. Thanks!
Monica, luckilly we have the opportunity, through the course surveys, to share our feedback and supplemental material with the leads, course managers, and Program chairs. I have noted that these surveys are taken into consideration.
Although the learning objectives for my courses are 'in place', the ability to add related and up-to-date- learning material is a great venue as a workload management strategy for me.
Live chat polls are good tools to use for student/course feedback as well as good data gathering sources for formative revisions.
Christina,
The rubric does allow for that identification of class wide trouble spots and that's when I think carefully about editing the project and/or rubric and/or asking students where the confusion came about. It's a great point to start the revision process. Thanks!
Grading rubrics for each assignment in the course are critical to my teaching strategy. This is for several reasons. It does provide a great time management tool, but also as a way to assess how effective my learning objects are to student learning.
In terms of time management, after a few courses one starts to notice that students often are missing the same elements of the assignment. Having a rubric cuts down on the instructors re-write time. But it is important to still individually address the student and point out their strengths on the assignment.
In terms of learning object assessment, if students are all having the same problem this means that some instructions or learning are not coming through in the course material. The grading rubric allows me to identify class wide trouble spots and adjust the course to help the students succeed.
