Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

When I hear people talk about online instruction, I often hear how they love the ability to access content whenever they want, wherever they want. This is usually followed by, "but I don't like not being able to interact with my instructor and peers in person." This is fair. Even so, there are many ways to build community in an online course. This is by in large the responsibility of the instructor.  In humanized online courses, a phrase developed by Michelle Pacansky-Brock , students who experience a positive instructor-student relationship feel safe and trusted, allowing them to focus on absorbing information in a way that leads to real understanding. There are four principles Pacansky-Brock states, that lead to learning: trust, awareness, empathy, and presence. Her highly popular infographic, includes  8 elements she suggests instructors apply to their online courses to help humanize it. Below, see the elements and how I incorporate these into my online instruction to...

Orienting students to online learning helps set the stage for success. By designing a "Start Here" or "Course Overview" module, your students see that you are invested in their learning. This 3-page document has ideas for items that can be included. https://bit.ly/OnlineOrientationIdeas

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 3 of 8.  In this workshop I spent time thinking about how I create presence for students in my online graduate courses. We expect our students to make a commitment to engage in our courses- we need to make a commitment to them, as well, to be present even when we aren't face-to-face.  The overarching theme of this workshop centers on the Community of Inquiry framework which states that effective online courses contain three types of entangled interactions: Social Presence- how students connect with the class community. Cognitive Presence- how students are able to construct and infer meaning from course content 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 1 of 8.  The second workshop I participated in was EYCD- Evaluating Your Course Design. This workshop was a two-day synchronous session (the first workshop was an asynchronous weeklong commitment). The audience was very small- only three participants. This was both slightly awkward but also an advantage. Having such a small group meant we had the opportunity to ask detailed questions of the facilitator. It also forced me to pay attention the entire time! Often, its very easy to become distracted when there is a larger crowd and your camera can be off.  An additional bonus was the use of a new video conferencing p...

 Recently in my role as Director of Distance Learning I shared an infographic that I made for adult learners: How to Succeed in Online Courses . It's been well-received, and I plan to expand on this in the future.