Activity Reflection (week 2)

What?
I created one case study scenario for my online course. This case has questions aimed at gauging how much the student has learned the material related to connecting assessments to learning objectives. I am planning on having a whole lesson on how to build assessments and activities. We presented a model for learning objectives and assessments related to those objectives (supposedly) and we ask the students if the assessment actually supports the objectives and if not, what would they change? This case is from courses we have run here at UF, later on new improvements to the assessments were added based on reviews on the objectives, so they are real cases.

So what?

1. Describe why you did what you did. What are your feelings about what you did?
   The best way I can describe it is by explaining that I got the idea from a couple of papers that studied online courses in the health sciences area. They definitely showed that case studies as activity materials were more effective than textbook exercises in supporting learning. I feel that this approach is very effective because you can model these case studies in a way like what Dan Pink showed with the candle problem: something that would encourage creativity and non-conventional solutions.
2. How will this help you?
   This is going to help me design more activities that I can use in my discussion forums. I think meaningful questions that invite the student to conduct research, analyze the findings, and finally coming up with a new solution are more effective activities in this online course than any multiple choice assessment I could come up with.
3. What did you learn from the experience?
   I learned from this activity that the best way to help students learn in the online environment is to provide the tools for them to go and create something freely, that I can trust that they will come up with something that is going to amaze me.

What now?
I will continue developing more case studies and then will dive into creating questions as discussion topics. I think the best way I can start this whole process is by developing this “rapport” this lesson talks about. If I cannot gain the trust and respect from my students through this type of communication, I really doubt I will succeed in the classroom if we were in a face-to-face setting.

1. What changes did you make?
   One of the first things I will be changing in these activities is the way I will be giving feedback to the students. I tend to be critical and a bit negative when giving feedback. Now I understand that sometimes I will have to just thank them for the presentation on their projects and then give some feedback that asks meaningful questions about the project, but I will not suggest that they go another route that I believe would be more convenient. It is certainly important to let the student know that you respect the work they are developing.
2. What will you do differently in the future?
   I will start by creating introductory material where they can see examples from previous classes (I will have to borrow that from somewhere during the first run of the course), they get to know who I am and what I have done as an online instructors. I think it is very important to lay out what is expected of them and how to conduct themselves in the forums, I want the students to understand that respect to one another is crucial to their success in the course.
3. What do you still have to learn?
   I think I need to work more on my discussion questions, I want the students to analyze and respond to the class questions, but the actual mechanism to accomplish that is something I am still working on.