Instructional+Design+-+5368

When I first began this course, Instructional Design, I briefly wondered how I was going to create and actually implement an online course. It took only minutes to realize how this could be beneficial to me, the staff and the students under our charge. People are quickly realizing the benefits of online education: more cost and time effective than some face-to-face trainings, attendees would have “just in time” 24/7 access to the information which allows them to pace themselves accordingly and the list goes on. For me, as an educational technology facilitator, knowing how to design online courses assures me that I will be able to create a learning environment that has clear and measurable objectives that are aligned with our state standards and aligned with our district and campus goals. I believe that knowing the proper way to design the courses will help me to bring the training that the staff wants/needs in a manner that would be more conducive to proactive learning. I was reading some articles from [|www.ibritt.com]dealing with instructional design and some of the bullet points that they listed in order to have a successful online course were exactly what I was thinking when I designed my course for Schoology. The bullet points are:  Clearly articulated objectives and expectations  An easily navigable web site  A course structure that facilitates collaborative learning  Assignments and activities that facilitate participation and communication among students  Timely feedback for students from the Instructor  An appropriate use of technologies to enhance learning  A discussion space for learners to talk openly about the course (expectations, uncertainty, what they like, dislike, their participation, progress etc.)  []
 * **What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning?**


 * **How will you professionally use your course that you designed?**

As I was going through the Instructional Design course, I began to ponder how I would use this knowledge at my campus. Of course, I thought about designing something for the students since that is who I work with every day. Later, I thought that I would do a professional development course because of the great need for technology education. We have a lot of technology on our campus now, thanks to our new principal; but, most of the teachers are technophobes. Everyone likes what we have but for one reason or another, they have not used it or may have tried once, got frustrated and stopped. My hope for the course that I designed was for teachers to have a self-paced, non-judgmental way to be introduced to some technology while at the same time, building communities of learning to help further their professional development as well as a way to collaborate on ways to increase student achievement. In my course, teachers were supposed to learn about learning communities. Next, they learned about Wiki Spaces and a communication tool called, TokBox. With those lessons completed, they were able to form a learning community online and communicate back and forth on whatever issues they deemed important. My desire is to further develop this course and offer it to the staff at our campus. Now that I have been exposed to course design, I am most definitely going to utilize this in my classroom and with our staff. Our district is currently reviewing online course delivery systems and I have suggested Schoology as a possible option. I have just completed a week long project based learning workshop which has further spurred my interest in online learning for my students. Before this training, I was creating web quests for my students and had them doing computer based activities and small projects. The workshop along with this course I am taking is going to take student engagement to a new level. Adding an actual course or mini-course that students could take would fit perfectly into our current activities. This would also be wonderful for students who may be out sick and need to make up work. For me personally, I obviously will continue my journey of online education to complete my Master’s Degree and possibly further. As I was doing my weekly reading and assignments, I began to wonder how would you monitor or control cheating and plagiarism during an online course. I know there is no full proof way of preventing dishonesty online just like there is no surefire way to prevent it in a traditional face-to-face class, but is still a concern. I am also interested in knowing how to get a more personal and interactive teacher student relationship through an online class. Choosing and maintaining the technology for the course that will best suit the material being delivered as well as ensuring that the access to the course, material and technology are as least restrictive as possible. Lastly, I would like to know a lot more about how to effectively manage an online course. I know that one of the common misconceptions about online education is that it is easy and quick. I happen to know from being on the student end, that this is just not true. Karber (2003) concluded that both teachers and students invested more time and effort in on-line courses as compared with traditional classroom teaching. Karber, D. J. (2003). Comparisons and contrasts in traditional versus on-line teaching in management. Higher Education in Europe, 26: 533-536. With the knowledge that I have acquired over the past five weeks, I plan to continue my study of online learning and course design so that I can better serve my students as well as assist my co-workers in furthering their knowledge through learning communities. I am petitioning now to become a part of the district committee that will review, evaluate and recommend the new platform that will be used to provide the bulk of professional development for teachers and staff. Our district is on the brink of a technology explosion. We have implemented a lot of technology protocols in the district and our campus. The daunting task now is to get the teachers that are stuck in the “20th century” way of teaching into the “21st century” way of teaching. I think I might even design some courses for the new members in my congregation and maybe even the children.
 * **Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer?**
 * **What questions do you still have about online learning?**
 * **What will you do with this new learning?**