Jared Pyles

Tag: 522

  • Course Reflection

    What technological knowledge have you learned in this course? What pedagogical knowledge (e.g., knowledge about adult learning theories, instructional design, online learning and teaching) have you learned in this course?

    From a technological vantage point, the biggest takeaway that I can practically apply is best practices in presenting online lectures. Having instructor on screen is important to allow students to make social connection, as well as help with cognitive connection and inflection. And while theory would say that it’s best that the instructor present not in a window but in front of a green screen with the material chroma keyed in behind them. While this is not as likely or accessible for the vast majority of faculty, it is a good target to aim toward. At least having the instructor on screen is a step in the right direction for allowing students to make a better connection to the material. That’s something I can pass on to our faculty and use in any sort of rich media tutorials that I’ll be creating for faculty in the future as part of my instructional design role.

    Pedagogically, the Community of Inquiry is an invaluable theory that I can use as an instructional designer. The majority of my workload is helping develop online courses with faculty members. In the past, we have focused simply on getting content together, building it in a differentiated fashion, and publishing it. We’ve neglected the focus on community and ensuring that the students feel connected to the instructor and each other. The Community of Inquiry model is a great framework that can be applied to this progress. It’s a great way of ensuring there is a stronger student connection to the course instead of just in an academic, content absorbing fashion like what has been in the past.

    Explain how your learning in this course will make an impact on your current or future work. Will any artifacts you created be shared with your students or colleagues?

    I’ve already mentioned some ways in which this course will affect my current work, but there are so many ways of using the material presented in this course. The articles, videos, and text books in the course were the most valuable resources I hav experienced in a course. Almost everything is immediately applicable, which is a credit to the instructor and those putting the course together. I have already mentioned the Community of Inquiry, but the other philosophies surrounding pedagogy and andragogy are truly invaluable. I found myself learning something new and applying it or discussing my team each module. I will be using the attitudes and preferences of adult learners while developing graduate courses in the future.

    As far as using artifacts created in the course, I’ve already used the Rich Media tutorial as an example of a screen-captured lecture. It has been shared and viewed multiple times by faculty as they have been transitioning to remote learning and creating online lectures for their students. I also want to use the design checklist and framework when building courses. We already have one that I think is useful and adequate, but I’m considering adding some elements from the resources from that module to supplement some of the tools that we already use. I also want to use the rubrics for online courses in some capacity but again tailor it toward our own course expectations and requirements.

    Overall, this course was a great experience. I have finished this course with a vast amount of resources and best practices that I will be using to enhance online courses and encourage faculty to improve their courses.

  • Online Course Creation Reflection

    How did you use your understanding of Andragogy or adult learning theory in designing this lesson?

    Adult learners bring a wealth of experiences and knowledge with them when they enter a course. Tailoring an assignment in which they are asked to tap into that resource is valuable (Taylor & Kroth, 2009). In my created course, I asked my students to compose a brief online lecture using screen casting software that they would use in their own teaching. It gave them an easy entry point into the activity. Asking them to learn new content in addition to creating something new can be problematic and stressful.

    They already have the knowledge, which would make it easier to engage in something that could be difficult or awkward to complete. This lesson also gives them skills that they can use immediately, which is key for adult learners, as they need to see the immediacy and application of the content they are learning (Taylor & Kroth, 2009).

    What instructional strategies did you apply and how does your design address the cognitive, instructor and social presence?

    Outside of creating the lecture video, I included discussions and reflection into the lesson. These two instructional strategies are ideal for adult learners in an online environment. Discussions facilitate learner-to-learner interaction as well as increase social and cognitive presence in a course (Stavredes, 2011). Reflection allows learners to develop critical thinking, assess their own progress, and become more independent in their learning (Stavredes, 2011). Reflection also builds cognitive presence in a course as it helps learners construct meaning.

    Overall, what was the most difficult in creating this online lesson? How did you solve problems as they came up?

    By far, the hardest part of building this course was learning Blackboard. I’m an instructional designer that builds a lot of online courses in Canvas. I did experience Blackboard as a college instructor a while back, and I remember that Blackboard can be a little clunky when designing. This experience assured me that Blackboard hasn’t changed, and it’s still pretty clunky. I remedied this issue with a lot of trial and error. Using the provided Blackboard guides were also pretty handy, but they were also pretty clunky and confusing to navigate.

    What are your thoughts on online teaching now that you have created an online lesson? What was the most rewarding thing about this project?

    This project opened up my eyes to the value of peer feedback. I benefit from having two other instructional designers at my work, and we commonly put off reviewing each other’s work due to time. The peer feedback I received during this project was invaluable. They brought issues to my attention that I hadn’t even seen before. It was even more valuable during this time with the COVID-19 quarantine and shifting of daily life. I haven’t been exactly in an academic mindset, so having someone else look at my work was beneficial. Moving forward, I’ll put more value in reviewing my fellow ID’s work and ask them to do the same for mine. This project has opened my eyes to the value of that.

    References

    Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. Jossey-Bass.

    Taylor, B. & Kroth, M. Andragogy’s transition into the future: Meta-analysis of andragogy and its search for a measurable instrument. Journal of Adult Education, (38)1, 1-11.

  • Effective Online Learning: Staying Connected

    Online learning continues to be a growing environment in which higher education students are engaging in instruction and learning through web-based, virtual classrooms. However, there are some online courses that don’t quite hit the mark. Ineffective online courses, while convenient, usually lack the interaction and connectedness of a face-to-face course. This can make those students feel disconnected, which could then lead to students not completing or failing a course. It’s important to keep them socially and cognitively connected so that they end courses feeling successful.

    Stavredes (2011) stresses the instructor being actively present in the online learning environment as an important factor in student success. Not only instructor presence is important, but Stavredes says the variety and frequency of interactions in the course affects the students’ success. If an instructor is timely in responding to emails and messages from students, it will increase the student’s feeling of presence in the course. If the instructor holds weekly web conferencing (virtual “office hours”) and interact with students, they can feel more socially and cognitively connected. Sitting idly by watching the course, and students, go by is simply not an effective way of helping students succeed.

    Another way of increasing student cognitive presence is if the instructor encourages student to student interaction. This can be done through collaborative assignments like group projects, discussions, blogs, and wikis. There are also various Web 2.0 tools that can help with this. One of them is Trello, which allows for different virtual “boards” where students can discuss, build and trade ideas, compile resources (articles, YouTube videos, etc.), or informally interact. Students can also use Trello as a concept map which, as Hsu and Ching (2011, as cited in Hsu, et al., 2014) found, supports students’ “active and focused student interaction, communication, and their achievement of intended learning objectives” (p. 751).

    Above all, it is important for the instructor to be actively involved in the course, facilitating interaction between students while also interacting themselves. This interaction will help those students remain connected and help them succeed. While the presence will not be the same as a face-to-face course, it can assure them that they are not alone and part of a community of learners, wherever they are.

    References

    Hsu, Y.-C., Ching, Y.H., and Grabowski, B.L. (2014). Web 2.0 applications and practices for learning through collaboration. Handbook on Educational Communications and Technology. 747-758. Http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_60

    Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective Online Teaching: Foundations and Strategies for Student Success. Jossey-Bass.

  • Adult Online Learning: Definition and Assumptions

    Online education is growing. In fact, a study done by Allen, Seaman, Poulin, and Straut (2016) found that as of 2014, 2.8 million people are taking only online education courses. This total is continuing to trend upward as well. As technology advances, high speed internet becomes more available to more places, and educational programs continue to improve, there is a definite chance that online education will grow even more over this new decade.

    What is online education?

    It is difficult to pinpoint a definition of online education because of its growth. It is also dynamic and ever-changing as technology improves. There are also different major factors that create different types of online education. Some schools offer distance education, which is solely online. Others will offer distance as well as blended, or hybrid, courses in which students still meet in a face-to-face environment but some materials, assignments, and discussions take place online. Other factors determining the online education include whether the course is synchronous or asynchronous, self-paced or directed by an instructor. Regardless of type or style, online education is marked by, as Ko and Rossen (2017) put it, collaboration, discussion, and usage of online resources. Another major factor in online education is the changing role of the instructor. The instructor is no longer seen as the driving force that delivers content but is instead seen as a facilitator and guide (Ko and Rossen, 2017).

    How does this apply to adult learners?

    Malcolm Knowles famously discussed six assumptions about adult learners for the purpose of helping instructors and administrators create effective and authentic content and instruction:

    1. Self-concept – the adult learner, as they mature, becomes more self-directed and less dependent upon others. In fact, they prefer working independently.
    2. Experience – adult education should be formulated in a way that the adult learner’s accumulated experience has a major role in instruction, assignments, and discussion.
    3. Readiness to learn– the adult learner’s willingness to engage the content is connected to their own social role and how they value the subject matter.
    4. Orientation to learn – in order for the adult learner to connect fully to the content of the course, they must see the relevance of the content to their daily lives. They need to see that they can use the received knowledge to solve an immediate problem that they may face.
    5. Motivation to learn– the adult learner is already internally motivated to achieve success in education. They are goal driven.
    6. The need to know – Much like assumption 4, adult learners need to see the relevancy of the material and its value. Once they see its value, they will fully buy in.

    When Knowles first discussed these assumptions, online education wasn’t a consideration. However, when the factors that make up online education are brought in alignment with Knowles’ assumptions, they blend well. Adult learners are self-driven, and ready to learn, so the self-directed nature of online education fits well. Collaboration and discussion are already crucial factors of online education. Giving adult learners the opportunity to discuss their experiences and to collaborate with others makes it relevant and timely for them. The most crucial factor that does not seem a given as others is the relevancy of the content. Instructors, designers, and administrators of online courses must make sure the content in adult online courses is relevant for their students. But for the majority of Knowles’ assumptions, online education is a great fit for adult learners.

    References

    Online Report Card: Tracking Online Education in the United States

    Ko, Susan, and Steve Rossen. Teaching Online: a Practical Guide. Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.