Month: July 2016

otl201 – Post 6

Herein, I would like share with you an updated version of my Learning Activities Portfolio:

It is essential to set the climate from the beginning of a course. In online courses, I would like to provide engaging opportunities for students to introduce themselves to me and their classmates. My suggestions include:

  1. A discussion forum where each student makes an introductory post and reply.
  2. A collaborative Google slide presentation where each student takes a slide to introduce themselves with text, images and/or video.

I believe maintaining regular communication with learners is key. Emailing my students on a weekly-basis provides connections, offers tips/suggestions, point to exemplary student work, and encourage students to interact. Communication is a two-way street. Thus, as a teacher, I should also encourage students to maintain a conversation that supports learning process. Students will find that increasing their participation level also increases their motivation, which is likely to contribute to success in the course. My other suggestions in the content of learning activities which promote engagement and motivation include:

  1. Providing opportunities for collaboration, such as group projects and team discussions that ask students to explore the world around them.
  2. Encouraging students to use the course discussion forums and/or blogs to communicate with classmates and teacher.
  3. Asking students to read all course communication thoroughly so they don’t miss out on important announcements/information.
  4. Another interesting option, in my opinion, is providing an opportunity for students to find out if any of their classmates live in their area. This way students can voluntarily meet up in certain occasions. This opportunity would support effective student-student interactions if students are properly guided and encouraged to do certain group projects.

otl201 – Post 5

I believe the content of the course otl201 is by far the most important of all the topics discussed so far in these series of lessons.  In an online course, applying the principles of social presence helps participants establish a community of learning by projecting their personal characteristics into the discussion. As discussed in the lesson, the goal is to further different types of interaction including student-student, teacher-student and student-content.

Firstly, during this lesson, I realized that effective communication is key in distance education. Welcoming students to the course helps to establish an online persona, add to belongingness, and helps to build a social presence in the community and is also beneficial for introducing the students to the setup of the course. In the light of what I have learned in this lesson, I am going to send a one-minute video message to my new students and welcome them to my virtual classrooms. I think this will be much more effective than just a text-based message.

Secondly, this lesson helped me understand that implementation of videos, audio files and podcasts are also useful methods of addressing diverse learning styles in the online and distance education. Additionally, audio and video files can also be a way of capturing course content that would otherwise be difficult to explain in a textual format. During this lesson, I researched several methods and software including screen streaming and audio/video capturing software for making and editing digital contents.

Thirdly, a community (I am so obsessed with this word since I heard it in this context!) works well when there are a variety of activities and experiences. Online courses can be more enjoyable and effective when students have the opportunity to brainstorm and work through concepts and assignments with either one or two or more fellow students. Based on my experience so far, this is an area in which there is still room for improvement. We, as educator should better encourage our students to work with their peers. I agree with the fact that some students work and learn best on their own. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the educators to provide options and opportunities for students to both work together and individually.

Finally, I believe for many educators, student engagement is the key factor in creating, designing and implementing interesting course material. The growth of technology and e-learning options has further strengthened engagement. In our technologically enhanced world, educators can use a diverse range of technologies and innovative solutions for engaging students. We are so lucky that we live in this era!

otl201 – Post 3

After reading the content of this lesson, it seems to me that social presence is the most important concept in distance education. Here are some ways that I apply in promoting social presence in my online courses:

  1. I always write a personalized welcome letter rather than sending a typical email using the suggested template. I think it is helpful to send a special welcome letter to each and every one of my students. This will make students in my online courses feel welcome and sense the faculty’s virtual presence from the very beginning of the course.
  1. In my personalized letter, I try to send them a short bio about myself. As teachers, we all know that it is important to raise students’ interests and engagement in the course. I believe I can increase students’ interests in the course with a short story displaying my professional career, fun aspect of my job and humorous personality. With the insights I obtained during this lesson, I am now determined to take this practice to the next level by adding a picture, an audio clip, or a video clip to add a human touch to my online courses.
  1. I always make good use of email. I attach images to my emails for many situations such as answering individual questions, providing feedback on assignments, motivating students to learn, and following up with students for special situations. I encourage students to do the same. They can write down their thoughts or questions on a piece of paper, take a picture of that and send that picture to me. This way both avoid writing lengthy messages and text-based communication.
  1. Using discussion board can be an effective technique for promoting social presence and increasing student-teacher and student-student interactions. Many educators in online courses use the discussion board. It is important to encourage students to get involved in the discussion and engaged in the conversation and guiding their learning. The challenge is that not all of us are active in participation. I hope that I have the chance to write more about this challenge in my next posts.

otl201 – Post 2

My first post of this course was brief and simple. After a quick introduction about myself, I read a haiku and used a picture of nature to set the stage for the short poem. I think that introductory post should effectively work in favor of social presence and supporting open communication. What can be more open than a haiku which doesn’t include any metaphors? I personally like this method as the teacher tries to set the stage for open yet respectful communication.

Two improvements that I might make in light of what I know about social presence since completing your first post is adding more information about myself and using humour in my speech. I learned in this post that two indicators of effective interpersonal communication are self-disclosure and use of humour.

I think adding a short story or bio representing details of personal life outside of class will be a good strategy to start an online course. Furthermore, as noted in the course, having a sense of humour can be useful and provides a more welcoming atmosphere among the members of learning community.

I believe the incorporation of various aspects of social presence in online and distance education can effectively increase both student-student and teacher-student interactions and will have a positive effect on the learning process. Additionally, open communication not only sets the stage for a good start but also helps in facilitating attention, motivation, and engagement.

We all know the rapport established between the teacher and the student is a key to effective teaching. I often see in my students’ evaluation that students describe successful teachers as enthusiastic. I think a strong sense of humor can play a major role in developing this enthusiasm. Besides, use appropriate humor will enhance a sense of community and learning effectiveness. When used appropriately, humor has the ability to trigger students’ engagement and improve the ability to learn.

otl201 – Post 1

My name is Javad. Passionate Educator is my blog’s name. I am teaching chemistry. Besides, chemistry and sciences, I love literature and poem. In this post, I would like to share with you a haiku that I like a lot. I hope you enjoy it too.

20160715_204929

An old silent pond…
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

– Matsuo Bashō

JM2016

Thank you for visiting my blog.

JM

 

otl101 – Post 5: Reflections

In this post, I will discuss the following items:

  • Take a look back through your previous posts and apply the ‘Showcase’ category to your best work.
    • Write a few words about why you think that post or those posts stand out.
    • If you would like, add a widget to your sidebar or footer to display posts in the ‘Showcase’ category.
    • What are 2-3 of the most important ideas that you have studied during this course?
    • What are 2-3 questions that you have as a result of this course? Identify ways that you can begin to answer those questions.
    • Identify 2-3 specific goals that you would like to achieve in light of what you have learned about cognitive presence, approaches to learning, and feedback;
    • identify strategies you intend to use in order to meet your goals.

 

Part 1:

The one post of mine that I think it will showcase my teaching philosophy best is otl-post 4. In this post, I have discussed my practical experience in using a series of formative assessments in my classrooms. My teaching style is based on a philosophy that believes learning is a journey, and is more than rote memorization and dry application with many challenges for students. By providing constructive assessments to my students, I try to act as a motivating force to students to be engaged in every moment of their learning journey. In addition, students are challenged constantly to create, collaboratively where possible, and provide written reflections based on their understandings.

 

Parts 2 & 3:

The two most import ideas that I liked during this course are the concept of Community of Inquiry (CoI) and the value of feed up and feed forward along with feedback. I think that unlike face-to-face setting, where the responsibilities are ranked with emphasis on teaching then learning, for the online courses the emphasis is on learning then teaching.

CoI model of learning and teaching appears to be a suitable platform for today’s online and blended education. From my experience in both settings, I have realized that for online courses students and teacher are partners in the learning process. Partnership makes the success faster, less expensive, and easier to achieve. CoI is a great model in presenting this concept of shared responsibilities between learners and teachers. There is great opportunity in putting this concept into the hands of teachers and supporting their change in thinking with exposure to excellent mentoring. Therefore the contents of the CoI model are not only useful to teachers, but also to students as community members without any separation.

I believe in providing continual feedback to students on their performance using various strategies. As a result of this course, my attention was also drawn to providing feed up and feed forward. Feedback focuses on current performance and challenges; feed forward, on the other hand, looks ahead to the next tasks and offers constructive guidance on how to improve. A combination of feedback and feed forward ensures that assessments have an effective developmental impact on learning. These new concepts in providing learning support to students tell me the importance and role of teaching presence and the distinction between facilitation and direction. I think a perfect teacher must consider the dual role of both facilitating and shaping the direction as both seem essential for a successful community of inquiry.

 

Last part:

I would like to share two goals that I am going to achieve in light of what I have learned in this course. Firstly, in order to improve my feedback to students, I will focus at least half of my comments both on correction and giving direction by December 2016. My second goal is to improve my teaching skills by completing these three learning and teaching modules by the end of August 2016 leading to more students evaluating quality of instruction as excellent on the overall rating.

For the online courses that I am teaching, I am dedicated to ensuring that I am fully accessible to students. This includes encouraging students to be in touch with me and being readily available by email and phone. From my teaching experiences I have become a skilled educator, however, I always endeavor to continually improve my abilities by incorporating new techniques and personal competencies into my teaching practice.

 

 

otl101- post 4

Herein, I reflect on the following questions about offering feedback to my students:

Are there any gaps between your practice of offering feedback to students and what Hattie recommends?

In what ways can you improve the effectiveness of the feedback that you provide for your students?

Providing students with feedback whether in classrooms or on their assignment paper and exams can, at times, seems a daunting task. However, I know, both from my experiences and from research like the one conducted by Hattie, that feedback is essential. Therefore, I always see feedback as integral part of my teaching philosophy and formative assessments. First of all, I make sure that I am fully accessible to my students and they can ask for help as much as they want. Secondly, I strive to provide timely, relevant, and action-oriented feedback.

Thirdly, I frequently use technology in providing feedback. In addition to written comments and feedback, I provide my students with visual and audio feedback as well. Instead of texts, I often sketch a drawing or capture an image. That would allow me and my students to annotate and use screenshots. This ability can work for students too as they can capture images of their work and reflect on it.

Contentwise, however, with the knowledge that I acquired from Hattie’s research on feedback, my feedback which is now mainly focused on fixing students’ problems should be shifted further to collaboration with students and promoting forward learning (Feed up and feed forward types). In order to do so, I should create a culture of feedback based on the process and self-regulation models of feedback through which feed my students’ interests. In my opinion, implementing the following strategies should improve the effectiveness of my feedback to students in online courses:

  • Encouraging reflection, so students could go back to revisit their assignments and refine their work;
  • encouraging self and peer evaluation using formats such as blogs and discussion forums;
  • enabling learners to exchange messages using commentary boxes and audio notes;
  • giving instant feedback through auto-scoring computer quizzes;
  • enabling learners to access archives of their work to see and value their progress;
  • supporting learners to set goals by making their learning visible to them;
  • providing learners with data to review targets and identify focus areas.

otl101 – Post 3

Herein, I would like to share my thoughts and methods in providing constructive assessments in alignment with clear and measurable learning outcomes of the course. The following is based on teaching a first-year chemistry course:

Course: Introduction to organic chemistry (first-year course)

Lesson: Nucleophilic substitution reactions

Learning outcomes

After listening to the lecture and responding to practice questions and writing one graded quiz, students will be able to:

  • Identify different types of alkyl halides and their electrophilic and leaving group centers
  • Analyze the nucleophilic substitution reactions and their two major mechanisms, namely SN1 and SN2

These learning outcomes reflect high-level cognitive skills in which students not only identify the primary concepts and categories but also analyze different mechanisms and apply their knowledge to new cases.

Assessment plans and alignment with learning outcomes

I would divide my plans for assessing students’ progress on these given objectives into two major parts: 1) during-lecture assessments and 2) post-lecture assessments.  The First part, during-lecture assessments includes multiple-choice questions which are going to be presented via i-clicker while I am delivering my lecture. I have two important reasons to use these multiple-choice questions. First I am trying to draw the students’ attentions to main ideas as I am transferring the knowledge to them and at the same time showing them how to use the knowledge in a practice question. So in this case the assessment is for learning and not necessarily of learning.

As a powerful assessment tool, i-clicker is also very beneficial to keep the students engaged in the learning process as they are required to participate in the problem-solving task (there will be a participation mark). They will practice each key topic right after it is delivered to them. In this way, not only they will test their understanding of the topic and they can also correct themselves by listening to feedback and standard instructions that they will receive immediately after each question.

The second rationale for using these in-class questioning, is more for me to understand areas in which students need further clarifications during lecture or there is a need for extra practice questions later as homework assignments. Moreover, I would be able to find deficiencies in my teaching plan and strategies and revise them accordingly. Therefore, formative in-class assessments are very essential from both students’ and teacher’s perspective and the attainment of learning outcomes.

The post-lecture assessments consist of practice questions and one graded quiz from what we have just covered in the class. There are three main benefits in these post-lecture assessments. First of all, at this point I will use other types of questions other than i-clicker multiple-choice which help students apply their fresh knowledge directly to a question which the answer needs one or a series of molecular structures. It is worth noting here that in the majority of first- or second-year chemistry courses questions involve drawings of molecules and compounds using conventional atomic bonding and molecular structures. This is a basic and common practice yet very essential for students in introductory courses in chemistry where essay type questions are almost obsolete.

There are three main benefits of this type of assignment for students. Firstly, they can check their knowledge about the topic by applying it to a more challenging question. Secondly, then they can receive immediate feedback about their performance. I, as the teacher, will try to reinforce their understanding at this point and correct their current and potential errors.  The third and last benefit is coming from the graded quiz. This is quiz will be in a one- or two-question format with slightly higher level of difficulty than question problems with greater emphasis on analyzing the question and applying the former and new knowledge to solve the question. Right after the quiz, I will show the correct answer and detailed solution on a PowerPoint slide and I will ask students to mark their own quiz based on the grading scheme provided. In this way students not only understands the underlying concept of the question through this self-assessment but also know more about marking and my expectation by actually doing this self-marking activity.

Through this self-assessment, student can reinforce their strengths and I can correct common errors and help students improve. Students who have specific problems are very welcome to come to my office during the office hours for further personalized guide and feedback. All the assessment incorporated in the class time and office hours are formative assessments and are intended to help students internalize the knowledge discussed in each lesson and give them extra guide for independent application of the obtained knowledge in real-world problems. Even the graded quiz although has a mark, I would consider it as formative assessment with the benefits discussed above. The associated mark is very low percentage of the overall mark and the purpose of the grade is to make students take the quiz seriously.

Further summative assessment in forms of homework assignments (online practice questions) and midterms and final exams obviously help students test their understanding and reinforce knowledge.

Similar to the example provided in the video presented in the lesson about memorization of formula in physics, there are certain things in chemistry courses that student will choose to memorize. For example, student can memorize a list of potential nucleophile in reactions. The following is an example of how changing the format of a question can improve the quality of a constructive assessment and further learning of students to a deeper level of understanding

Which of the following anions are nucleophiles? (Assessing only uni-structural or multi-structural learning outcomes)

Which of the following anions are nucleophile in a protic solvent (e.g. in water)? (Assessing relational learning outcomes and promoting generalization and extension of knowledge)

otl101 – Post 2

Herein, I would like to share my opinions about the following questions:

  • What do you know now that you did not know prior to starting the course?

What I found very interesting when I was working on this course and throughout reading this article and I didn’t know before was the concept and definition of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) in blended learning environments. The CoI framework in its core highlights the role of collaborative learning as well as individual learning and cognitive independence. After starting this course, I also get to know better about shared responsibilities of learners and teacher in establishing meaningful discussions and critical discourse for achieving desired learning outcomes.

  • What gaps or discrepancies do you notice between your ideas in post 1 and what you have learned since then in Lesson 1?

My ideas in post 1 are mainly related to the challenges of online learning due to the lack physical presence and synchronous face-to-face communication. However, with the insights that I learned from reading this article and reflecting on my own experiences, it is clear to me now that despite the lack of face-to-face presence, there is a need for reinforcing the cognitive presence and promoting a sense of exploration  through interaction and communication among the community of learners in an effective distance education.

  • What questions would you like to explore on the topic of cognitive presence?

Now that I know more about the importance of cognitive presence in forms of continual reflection and construction of meaning, how should a teacher provide a learning environment in support of cognitive presence?

How should learners be engaged in constructive discussion without the fear of being judged about what they say?