Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

In my role as the Director of Distance Learning, I am responsible for helping faculty create effective learning experiences for students in hybrid and online courses. Even though my focus is on the adults, it is important for students to be oriented to online learning and determine if this modality is for them. With that in mind, I created a series of flyers to help our community college students determine if online or hybrid learning is right for them. Click on each image below to view the flyers in full size.

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I have reflected on each workshop as I completed them as a way to model metacognition. This post is the final reflection, 8 of 8. I'm fortunate to be at an institution that encourages and values continuous learning. As someone who has taught graduate courses for well known universities for 15 years, I feel I have a solid grasp of online pedagogical practices. Still, part of staying relevant is continuing to grow yourself and reflect on your learning. Having recently completed the workshops, this blog contains my thoughts about the process and content overall. In no specific order, here are my takeaways and tips for anyone considering working toward this credential. Build in space between each workshop. Not knowing an...

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I plan to reflect on each workshop as I complete them as a way to model metacognition. This post is 7 of 8. When I scheduled my QM workshops I chose to take the Gauging Your Technology Skills workshop last. I was confident in my technology skills and thought it might be easier to end on a lighter note. For me, this was a great choice. In this workshop we took some skills self-evaluations to understand where our weaknesses were. While there were no areas of 'weakness,' there are always areas that need additional attention. In my case, that area would be using the internal analytics and features of the Learning Management Systems I use in my work and graduate courses: D2L, Canvas, and Blackboard. While I know how t...

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I plan to reflect on each workshop as I complete them as a way to model metacognition. This post is 6 of 8. In the Evaluating Your Institutional Policies workshop we had the opportunity to explore both public-facing and internal policies our institutions have in place. As someone new to Triton College, this was extremely helpful for me. Many of these policies don’t directly relate to my position as Director of Distance Learning so having a dedicated block of time to explore these will allow me to reflect on suggestions I’d like to make for our online learning programs. Having an opportunity to explore classroom behavior, academic integrity, learner privacy, copyright, and accessibility policies as well as others helped s...

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I plan to reflect on each workshop as I complete them as a way to model metacognition. This post is 5 of 8. This week the focus shifted to assessment. The first conversation revolved around academic honesty- a topic that has been discussed since assignments have been given! We talked about reasons why some students might cheat. One literature review on academic dishonesty cited poor time management, academic pressures, and low-stakes assignments as some of the reasons students go this route. Best practices seem to fall in three buckets: Inform & Educate Protect & Prevent Practice & Support I'm a firm believer in being honest and transparent with my graduate students in hope that they will be honest and t...

This winter I am working toward adding a new credential to my learning: Quality Matter's  Teaching Online Certificate . This well-established and highly respected organization has put together a series of workshops that focuses on best practices of online teaching. I plan to reflect on each workshop as I complete them as a way to model metacognition. This post is 4 of 8. This week the focus shifted to learning theories. Often, learning theories are covered in preservice education and then not touched on regularly once 'in the field.' It was nice to revisit and reflect on these. In a Behaviorism-based classroom information is transferred from the teacher to the student. Students learn through positive reinforcement if a desired response elicits a reward or a punishment and tend to act accordingly. This occurs through observations and the motivation is extrinsic, relying on verbal praise and rewards. In a Cognitive Constructivism classroom  (also referred to as Cognitivism) ...