CEP 820: Teaching k-12 Students Online
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Final Reflection
Critical Design Reflections |
PEDAGOGICAL Decisions |
Pitfalls and moving Forward |
From the beginning, I decided to use Moodle because it is an LMS that is frequently used in my district. To my disadvantage, Moodle is not the most user friendly or visually appealing LMS. I wanted to make it look more inviting so I changed the layout to include pictures and added sections that looked more like the D2L interface used for CEP820. On the side of the main navigation page, I also included a Twitter gadget to keep students up to date with the latest information about Chromebooks. Finally, to make the navigation easier for those who have never used Moodle before, I added links at the top and bottom of each page to help users navigate the course. This proved to be a very time consuming task but will help users navigate the course more easily.
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Technology is constantly changing. This is especially true with a device like a Chromebook because it is automatically updated each time a user logs in. For this reason, I primarily integrated internet resources for lecture materials. Along with providing up to date resources, I also wanted to offer multiple means of assessment and reflection. The purpose of the reflection assignments was to help participants understand that integrating a new device into the classroom is a process. By the end of the course, it was not expected that participants understand everything there is to know about using a Chromebook with students. Therefore, the final assessment included a reflection about the next steps the participant will take after this course. Aside from reflections, assessments in this course forced students to apply their knowledge and create something new. By asking participants to create lesson plans using the tools they learned, this forced them to apply the tool and will hopefully help them feel more comfortable with using it with students the future.
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While creating an online course was time consuming, I made several mistakes that prolonged the completion of my course. For example, while creating my course I did not worry about formatting. Pages included various font sizes, similar lessons did not follow the same steps and I not worry about small things such as checking links to ensure they worked. In the end, I spent hours going through the course and reformatting pages to make sure they were consistent. If I could go back, I would have checked these small things along the way! One other mistake I made was that I did not cite any of my sources until the very end. This proved to be an extremely laborious task that could have been much easier if I would have documented citations in a Google Doc along the way. Finally, this course was completely started from scratch. If I could recommend anything, it would be to start with a course that you are currently using in a face to face environment and tweak it to fit the online or blended environment. Having some content already created or considered will be a huge advantage!
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