I remember when I was in high school that we were told to write for our audience. I really tried to do that in my online course. But for this blog post, all I know about my audience is that you might be starting to write an online course for the first time. Instead of me writing strictly for the audience, let me say that I am a secondary math teacher with a strong technology background who created a course for Algebra II students in a rural school district. This colored my experience, mostly in a positive way. However, if you simply follow my advice and teach a drastically different subject area or grade level you can expect drastically different results.
My professors at MSU for CEP 820 made sure that this course could be useful in our every day practice. My first concern was deciding what unit to create a course around. As I have started differentiating instruction in my Algebra II class, teaching a trigonometry unit while reviewing Algebra 1 with a second group of students I decided a unit on one of these topics would be most helpful. My second consideration was that many of my students do now have access to a computer or Internet at home. This necessitated a hybrid course. Deciding on a hybrid course actually freed me up to concentrate on instruction with my online course. While assessments are certainly a big idea and remain a big idea in my online course, I know I can supplement assessments with bell ringers and exit slips in my actual classroom. Similarly, I spent less time considering a course communication policy than a teacher who would be teaching strictly online.
I worry about the quality of instruction when my students are not with a qualified teacher. I probably actually worry more than necessary. That said, my goal was very much to make sure the material was strong and well rounded for my students. I used Jing for Screencasting lectures. I used GeoGebra, dynamic geometry software, for labs. I used the students textbook. I incorporated my usual vocabulary graphic organizer. I found additional resources online, especially YouTube lectures. Like my usual classroom routine, lectures were organized, technology was used, color is incorporated along with visual and audio clues. That said, my online course actually had more types of instruction and more student interaction. Not only can students control the pace and repeat lectures, they can manipulate applets and use technology to better understand the material. The goal of an online class should not be to simply record a lecture that students can than watch anywhere, the goal should be to have students use tools that are better than what can be used in a normal classroom.
While I had a reasonable plan for my online module and believe I interested up with a few interesting and high quality components, I did struggle at times and my course module could still use more polish. I used Moodle as my district and intermediate school district are moving toward Moodle. Moodle clearly supports a great number of functions, is free and open and I was able to install it on my own website which gave me full control. I studied computer science as an undergraduate and while my Moodle ended up being reasonable and passable, I was surprised by the learning curve of Moodle. I usually try and learn a software package. I usually just play with it and end up learning the software. This is a mistake with Moodle. I needed to actually contact my ISD person when I got stuck. I should have been reading about Moodle, reading Moodle documentation and watching videos on setting up a Moodle website on YouTube. Not only would this have saved me time in the long run, I would have ended up with a website with more polish and a better course. My biggest recommendation for Moodle users would be to learn how to use Moodle before putting your course together.
Have fun!
Eric Fitton
PS: You can currently look at my moodle as a guest: moodle.efitton.net
