I believe that for an online class, formative assessment is very important. Because the teacher is more of a coach and doesn't have the ability to be right there in person to give feedback, it is important to do a formative assessment to see if the students are on track. Formative assessment is a type of assessment that is done along the way throughout the learning. Rather than just a summative assessment at the end of the course to see what information the students have retained, the formative assessment can gather this information while the students are learning and makes it easier for the instructor to make adjustments to the curriculum as needed.
Formative assessments also steer the students in the right direction. If the students get off-track one way or another, a formative assessment can recognize this so a correction can be made. Having the ability to guide students through virtual courses is very important because there is already an additional amount of responsibility placed on them to stay with the course. By providing the formative assessments and results to the students, they will recognize that they are being monitored and that they have support to complete the course successfully.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Designing Effective Instruction
When creating any course, there are certain guidelines most of us follow to make the course effective. An online course is no different, and will actually require perhaps more thought than a traditional course. One reason for this is the media and technology that will be used throughout the course can change the effectiveness completely.
First, you will need to look at the course objectives. You need to know who your audience will be so you can cater the learning material to them. As you realize if you course is just for instruction, or if it something the learners will need to be able to pass on to others, you can decide how to best set up the outline of the course.
Media and technology are things that I feel are incredibly important with learning. They can make the course a lot more effective and make the content much easier to learn by the audience. Providing interactive media in an online course is always something helpful for the learners as well as the Instructional Designer to see what knowledge has actually been gained.
As the course is created, be sure to look back at everything and make sure that your course goals are attainable. The learners need to be able to successfully map through the entire course and use the information in their lives. If they can better relate to the material through whatever methods are provided in the course, it will be a lot more memorable for them.
First, you will need to look at the course objectives. You need to know who your audience will be so you can cater the learning material to them. As you realize if you course is just for instruction, or if it something the learners will need to be able to pass on to others, you can decide how to best set up the outline of the course.
Media and technology are things that I feel are incredibly important with learning. They can make the course a lot more effective and make the content much easier to learn by the audience. Providing interactive media in an online course is always something helpful for the learners as well as the Instructional Designer to see what knowledge has actually been gained.
As the course is created, be sure to look back at everything and make sure that your course goals are attainable. The learners need to be able to successfully map through the entire course and use the information in their lives. If they can better relate to the material through whatever methods are provided in the course, it will be a lot more memorable for them.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Instructional Design Methods
With so many different instructional design methods out there (over 100), it is difficult to say which one I use the most. I think that I use many of them in different situations and I use some of them to a certain degree all the time.
It is no surprise to me that many people use at least some portion of the ADDIE Model. I am no exception to this. I have found with many of my lesson plans that I use this process to improve. For example, I had my students making commercials with the classroom set of iPads. One thing that I noticed was that about 1/4 of the students cropped their videos so that the actor's head was cut off and you could see more of their body than was necessary. From this evaluation, I know that I need to add in a section on the Rule of Thirds so the students can appropriately video any object of person. Because I am constantly improving lesson plans, I like to evaluate how they turn out. After the evaluation, I will go through the process of analysis, design, develop, implement and then evaluate again. This makes things run more smoothly each time. I feel that I am a more effective teacher when I am able to improve my own lesson plans.
I have found in my own learning, that I am able to grasp concepts when I can apply what I am learning to real life. I also learn much more quickly when I can physically interact and use my hands. Merrill's First Principles of Instruction Model focuses on task-centered learning. Because I learn well this way, I try to incorporate task-centered learning into my lesson plans as much as possible. By allowing the students to learn a task, recall previous knowledge, interact with something, use real-life application and then actually integrate what they have learned into their lives, I know that they will remember what they are learning a lot better.
It is no surprise to me that many people use at least some portion of the ADDIE Model. I am no exception to this. I have found with many of my lesson plans that I use this process to improve. For example, I had my students making commercials with the classroom set of iPads. One thing that I noticed was that about 1/4 of the students cropped their videos so that the actor's head was cut off and you could see more of their body than was necessary. From this evaluation, I know that I need to add in a section on the Rule of Thirds so the students can appropriately video any object of person. Because I am constantly improving lesson plans, I like to evaluate how they turn out. After the evaluation, I will go through the process of analysis, design, develop, implement and then evaluate again. This makes things run more smoothly each time. I feel that I am a more effective teacher when I am able to improve my own lesson plans.
I have found in my own learning, that I am able to grasp concepts when I can apply what I am learning to real life. I also learn much more quickly when I can physically interact and use my hands. Merrill's First Principles of Instruction Model focuses on task-centered learning. Because I learn well this way, I try to incorporate task-centered learning into my lesson plans as much as possible. By allowing the students to learn a task, recall previous knowledge, interact with something, use real-life application and then actually integrate what they have learned into their lives, I know that they will remember what they are learning a lot better.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Week 2
My name is Steve Bodell. I have a wife and four children and work at Willowcreek Middle School. There, I work in the CTE Technology and Engineering Department full time. This is my second year of teaching and I really like it a lot. I have been going to colleges/universities for almost ten years and am excited to be on the end stretch. After several career changes, I believe I have found the one. I am able to use a lot of technology in my classes and was able to get a set of iPads for my students to use. I have the ability to enhance the learning environment and utilize e-learning much easier than before.
I want to get to the point where my classes are doing a lot more online learning. I will have a lot of online resources for the students to use and hope to eventually like to have a completely paperless classroom. Although this can be somewhat hard, especially for design, as students are able to draw out their design ideas easier on paper than on the computer.
My grade book that I use at my school doesn't have a lot of features on it. I am excited about this class project so we can learn more about Learning Management Systems. Depending on how this project goes, I might want to invest in having my own LMS for my classroom (aside from my school grade book).
I want to get to the point where my classes are doing a lot more online learning. I will have a lot of online resources for the students to use and hope to eventually like to have a completely paperless classroom. Although this can be somewhat hard, especially for design, as students are able to draw out their design ideas easier on paper than on the computer.
My grade book that I use at my school doesn't have a lot of features on it. I am excited about this class project so we can learn more about Learning Management Systems. Depending on how this project goes, I might want to invest in having my own LMS for my classroom (aside from my school grade book).
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