Confirming my institution's e-learing model and guidlines. I am reviewing my roles as an instructor and making adjustments. In particular, to the current online only dleivery platform we are all experiencing.
It's mportant to learn the CMS. As an online instuctor ther are many ways to interact wiht students. Good communiction with students is essential.
This module gives an excellent overview as to how online courses should be structured and administered. Having completed my Masters Degree online at University of Phoenix, I'm very familiar with being a student in an online class environment over a long period of time (2 years). Over time, it became easy to spot the professors that were not familiar with using the University of Phoenix CMS and / or administering a particular class or program module.
Support from our professors for students in that graduate level online environment (in our case, all of the students were full time teachers) was very important. Factors that complicated and / or impeded our progress were ongoing changes to the course syllabus being made by the different professors who administered a particular online class or program module and a constant steam of new (first time online professors) who were not familiar with the latest changes to the class syllabus, or how to administer the University of Phoenix CMS system. The result of all this was a lot of student confusion and frustration and the quality of each class experience could vary widely, depending on which online professor administered / taught your class.
The instructor should be well versed with the CMS and course structure. The course should be laid out by modules and then broken down accordingly. Navigation should be easy along with a well-planned time frame for work.
It is very important to learn and understand all the features of our system's CMS. This will make us more effective in using the CMS as an actual instructional platform as opposed to just a repository of worksheets. Course structure is also very important to maintain student engagement and involvement
To me the biggest standout in this module is the importance of providing both learning and technical support. I believe that most teachers are comfortable with creating and implementing learning support structures in an e-learning environment as many of them can be implemented from traditional classroom environments. However, I believe that technical support can easily be looked over as we often see current students as "tech experts" that do not need technical support. Often times we may assume that e-learning assignments that are incomplete or not submitted are results of lack of effort or forgetfulness, when the reason could easily be a lack of technical support and a fear of "asking for trivial help".
I will apply what I have learned in this module by providing students with access to technical support (i.e. documents and videos for navigating the CMS). This technical support would be offered as a section in the CMS at the beginning of the course, and in the form of a follow-along walkthrough guide. This would ensure students have access to technical support at any time, and would eliminate any fear of seeking it out. I believe coupling this with set office hours would ensure technical support was properly provided.
I am not a natural online learner so I was nervous about becoming an online instructor.
I now understand how important is for me to familiarize myself with the CMS and all aspects of the online learning environment so I can help my students be as comfortable as possible in the online class.
Learned that being organized will bring success to the students and instructors.
It is important to be supportive of our students. Some may have technology challenges and we need to be able to guide them to success.
I need to give consideration to the aspects that might be outside the content instruction:
1. technical and system difficulties that require me to have technical support readily available to solve problems or answer questions related to the course availability or delivery.
2. questions regarding the course boundaries that require me to discuss and get clarifications from the course author.
3. understanding the roles and responsibilities of the guest lecturers and informing them of the expectations.
Understanding the components of the CMS is critical when working in the DOC. Instructors should be able to provide academic and structural support with some knowledge of technical support. Our students will not have access to live support. As a result, instructors and administrators will need to be knowledgeable of all levels of support for our users to be successful.
To appropriately relate content and subject matter to the student learner, it is incumbent that I have have a comprehensive and current understanding of using learning systems to facilitate the conveying information to the student.
By Marilyn Renfroe
I am new to this type of learing environment. However, there are similarities between this type of learning platform and the traditional classroom model. Communication, knowledge of materials, building tech skills are essential in either platform. However, building relationships on a tech platform might be a bit more difficult since it appears to be somewhat impersonal.
In order to be successful, you must take into account lots of variables. The questions at the end of this module helped me understand that everything must be clear and concise, no room for error or interpretation.
I hav elearned that as an online instructor not only does the teacher need to be very prepared but also the school!
to be familiar with the course and help the students understand it, in my diferent ways of teaching it
The key thing is to be familiar with the CMS, both from the teacher and student perspective. Some light IT skills, to help students, will be useful as well.
To be an effective Online instructor, it is vital to undertand that online instruction should be interactive and students must actively engaged in the learning process. They must be encouraged to exercise a significant amount of mental effort while learning. It is imperative that the instructor can efficiently and effectively navigate the Course Managemet System that will allow them to provide the much needed support required to deliver the course.
Classroom management in an e-learning environment takes on a whole new dynamic as compared to the traditional classroom environment. I think the best approach would be to have knowledge of the course management system and to be familiar with your institution's code of conduct. One way to be proactive in preventing inappropriate online behavior is to have a thorough understanding of course expectations and class rules. A student's personal biography can give clues to their learning styles. Make sure that students are aware of the classroom rules and course expectations.
