This is a blog post for my Week 4 in my POT Course which stands for Program for Online Teaching. What intrigues me most about the course is a) even though it is free I can get a certificate if I stick with it to the end and b) the whole course is created in Google.

My primary goal in the course is to “think” backwards and rethink “how” I could design courses to meet personalized needs of students.

Part of my focus this week, was breaking personal habits- I am  actually going through all of the content, let it sink in, reflect, then write a  blog post. I also spent time creating a “brainstorming” plan of how I “could” design a course using google docs (as opposed to my usual learn while I am in the middle of doing). If I spend some extra time on the brainstorming and design, I’m hoping that I can more clearly articulate my pedagogical intentions through my first drafts.

This week we have had a huge amount of content to go through, so I have written a huge blogpost. The readings motivated me to think “how” I am coaching others when helping them create their own online courses as well as encouraging me to rethink design in my own High School open courses.

The Chapter 3 Readings from Ko and Rossen extensively went into detail about how to set up interactive and engaging modules. I especially enjoyed the Mary Jane Clerkin’s asynchronous Speech class and the three types of “review” (interaction and feedback) self-review, peer-review and instructor emails. I also appreciated the description about creating quiz/test questions that promote reverse reasoning skills.  (If there is any mention of backwards anything I tend to pick up on it….)

IMPLEMENTING THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES: Technology as Lever (Chickering & Ehrmann)

Main Points:

1. Encourage interaction between student and faculty (This point reminds me of Anderson’s Chapter on Toward A Theory of Online Learning – with emphasis on balance in “types” of interactions)

Things that the article made me think about: Good Practice Communicates High Expectations – I am often criticized for having “too” high of expectations because I am focused on Good Practice Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning. I have issues with static unchanging online courses that meet select needs. To be sustainable – I’m still trying to figure out ways to communicate high expectations while still meeting variety of ways of teaching.

Video Tours:

I really appreciated looking over the courses. I liked comparing how the courses were set up – literally the design features – content all in the middle, links on the side – just like we saw in the handouts in Week 3. I have created a video of one of my courses – based on some of my thoughts of how I could “rethink” my design for future courses.

Overall – a great week of reflecting, thinking and slowing down to break habits. I now look forward to spending some time going over what my peers had to say about the course content on their blogs. I am especially curious about their thoughts on those great video overviews.

Verena