Making progress...slowly

This past week I began to make progress toward my personal learning plan goals....slowly.  Although it felt like I really wasn't getting anywhere, once I began to list things for inclusion in this writing, I realized I really did make some (although not much) progress. 

One thing I’ve learned this week through course work and personal exploration of publications, is that the federal government is beginning to look more closely at whether an online course is truly distance education, or better meets the criteria for a correspondence course.  From what I read in an online article (Link below), the key factor in allowing the designation of correspondence/online is the amount and type of faculty-student interaction.  While Western Governor’s University is the institution of focus right now, competency-based online programs are becoming more popular.  Therefore, this will be a topic to watch as the results of the investigation might affect all online education.

This week, in an effort to achieve my identified goals, I completed some online tutorials on creating a survey tool using Google Forms.  I viewed a tutorial provided by my professor, and this tutorial was found on the online site, Tech Republic.  This was a very clear and easy to read article, and through this article I learned the term “skip logic.”  This was a new term, and it is used when a survey asks If/Then type questions.  Apparently Google Forms cannot do this when you are creating survey tool, but then I also realized that the article’s screen shots look nothing like the Google Forms tool I used.  I then realized that the article was from 2012, which in computer application time is essential decades ago. In fact, I began building my tool during the weekend, and when I began finalizing it the day before I submitted, I was offered to upgrade to an even newer version of the tool.  Nevertheless, despite the age of the article, I did learn some things that were useful, such as when skip logic might be helpful, and to have better clarity on the descriptions of the types of questions available in the survey.  Another strategy to help me learn the tool better was that, as I built a sample tool, I clicked on the “help” icon frequently, reading the instructions for each section and function.  Although I did explore the tool through creating a sample tool, I do think it is a pretty self-explanatory and easy application.  I submitted my sample tool to some classmates for critique and to use the survey to make sure it worked like I wanted, and then created my actual needs assessment.  It was pretty exciting to see results start coming in within a few minutes of emailing the link!  This was much easier than I anticipated, so when my students agreed to use of social media in the classroom as a means of communication, I decided to also query them on preferences through use of another survey tool.  The faculty survey results will help me craft a professional development seminar, and the student survey results will help me meet their learning needs. 

Another learning opportunity I experienced this week was attending a webinar provided by the University System of Georgia (USG).  This seminar was a panel format entitled Successful Practices in Teaching Adult Learners Online.  There was a variety of educators from three different universities, and all have vast experience teaching online.  Some of the points made were as follows:

• · Online learning needs to be affordable, and resources to support learning need to explicit.  Students should not have to waste valuable learning time digging for resources the instructor should provide for course assignments.
• ·         Online learning must be flexible, the job of the instructor is to understand what students really need.  One panel member accomplishes this by providing students an access to a course section prior to beginning the course.  This section includes a survey of the students, and gives them practice navigating the online platform.  Another point made is that truly online programs need to have more entry points rather than requiring students to enroll only at the beginning of defined semesters.
• ·         Online instructors need to assume a role of student advocate, both within individual courses and the institution.  University resources are often not helpful to online learners, especially when they can only be accessed through the home campus.
• ·         Online learning needs to begin consideration of meeting the needs of a learner who can accelerate learning.  This may include consideration of looking to build a competency based classroom that can meet the needs of the learner who can successfully accelerate and meet the course outcomes.

This was a great format to learn, I was able to participate at my desk, even asking questions through the chat feature.  The USG offers webinars frequently, and the list of upcoming topics can be found at http://www.usg.edu/faculty_affairs/workshops/category/academic_year_2015_2016 

Articles read:

Fain, P. (2015). The faculty role online, scrutinized. Inside Higher Ed.  Retrieved January 26, 2016 from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/15/education-departments-inspector-generals-high-stakes-audit-western-governors-u.

Getting Started.....Slowly

A new semester has begun, both as a teacher and a student.  Some days I feel as if I'm meeting goals and deadlines.....other days, not so much.  I've recently joined faculty in a nursing program with a caring curriculum.  During the last semester, I explored what this "caring" curriculum means, again both as a faculty member and learner.  Through other course work, I realize that much of my own personal philosophy aligns well with phenomenology, which I've learned links nicely with caring science.  Through exploration of caring science, one key revelation was the need to reduce the power differential between myself and my students.  While I am the authority in the classroom- designated by the institution- these students will one day soon be my peers in practice.  Thus, I feel the need to acknowledge their worth and value by inviting them to share in the culture of the classroom.

While I may say my schedule is busy, at least I have some flexibility in when I am on campus.  I designate my office hours- even to the point of stating whether students must schedule in advance to meet.  My students don't have that luxury.  Two days per week are given to working on clinical skills, either in the labs or the practicum setting of a clinical agency.  Two days per week are reserved for class.  These students are taking 9 to 15 credit hours each semester, and we tell them to expect to spend two hours working and studying at home for each credit hour.  Many have jobs, families, and other responsibilities, yet we expect them to be present for learning- in class, clinical, and home- for anywhere from 27 to 45 hours each week.  And while I try to be careful in assigning too much to be done at home lest I push them beyond the allotted hours for my courses, I shamefully acknowledge that their work for me likely does exceed what it should.

As a result of my concern for how busy and inflexible the school schedule is, I decided to be a little innovative this semester.  I'm teaching a course I taught in the fall, and I came to realize early in the last semester that the course is designated as a hybrid course.  This means up to 49% can be taught online!  What a revelation that was for me, because previously it was a rare session that was taught truly online.  Thus, my first innovation was to make plans to transition this course to a true hybrid model.  The class is scheduled to meet once each week, for one hour and fifty minutes.  In our 16 week semester, this allow slightly less than 16 hours of content to be delivered online.  While my current plans won't reach that maximum, we are in Georgia, and a few snowflakes could cancel a whole week of class!  I taught this cohort in another class in the fall, and when I broached presenting the course online, they unanimously agreed, offering thanks that I was giving them back a few hours each week that they could be at home.  The other innovation I've introduced, again with my student's agreement, is a contract grading scheme.  This has been quite a bit of work up front- as was promised by all the literature I've read.  However, I feel freed to offer feedback and more holistic assessment and evaluation of student work.  Although we are only two weeks into the semester, one student has already told me that she feels so very less stressed.  While she contracted for an A, she said now she won't receive a 90 and "beat myself up" because it was almost a B.  Instead, she shared, when she receives a grade of A she will simply accept it as being "A" quality rather than wondering how she could have done better.

So, now that I've bitten off possibly more than I can chew, I need to begin exploring technology as a way to support learning within my classrooms.  And I don't want to just have gratuitous technology just to say it is there.  I've played around with narrated PowerPoints, even learning how to convert them into both mP4 and YouTube formats.  I  know how to record myself with the computer's video camera, and I'm minimally able to create a VoiceThread or Jing.  Despite having some knowledge of technology, I want whatever I use to be pedagogically sound.  Some teachers use fancier- and likely more challenging- means of providing content.  Some, I've heard, even use social media as an instructional method.  As I navigate through this semester, I need to not only become more familiar with what is available, but also figure out what works for me, my students, and is supported by evidence or demonstrates best practices.  To help guide me and keep me on task, I've created six goals that I plan to achieve by the end of this current semester.  As I work through each of these goals, I'll update here on my journey.  I can't promise I won't whine a little in protest as I'm challenged to learn even more.  But I can promise I'll share something with each post that might help you a little too.