Event Title | COLT102 - Teaching Online Courses |
Location | moodle.learnnc.org |
Sponsor | LEARN NC - COLT102_THORSON_0514 |
Date/Time | 05/07/2014 - 06/10/2014 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM | Event Price |
Take your teaching into a new realm—the online classroom. You’ll learn the pedagogy of online courses, experience the realities and complexities of online learning, and discover specific techniques for successfully building an online learning community.
Have you ever thought about taking your teaching into a new realm—the online classroom? With more and more schools using online courses to offer advanced or specialized coursework to their students, as well as an integrated professional development solution, online teachers are in demand. This course prepares educators interested in teaching online courses for the virtual classroom. It is also a great overview for administrators interested in implementing online courses into their K-12 or professional development offerings.
This course examines online pedagogy and practical strategies for the online teaching/learning environment. The course includes information about preparing to teach online and managing an online course including teaching techniques for promoting critical thinking, group interaction and collaboration, and good online communication. Participants are expected to actively engage in a variety of activities and readings to facilitate learning how to be a successful online instructor.
Note: While there are many types of online courses including tutorials and independent studies, this course focuses on discussion-based online learning and collaboration. To facilitate interaction between learners and facilitators, we believe that it is essential to create a strong learning community. Students will discover strategies to create an environment that supports communication, cooperation, and collaboration. They will read, discuss, and engage in activities throughout the course that will help to demonstrate strategies to build a learning community.
To prepare participants to become effective online instructors by discussing, experiencing, and practicing skills needed to teach and learn in an online environment and by applying effective practices and strategies for teaching in an online environment.
This course divided into five sections that correspond to five weeks:
Don’t allow yourself to get behind! With each new week, a new set of tasks is assigned, each building on lessons from the previous week. Feedback will not be provided on work posted late.
To be considered in attendance during an online week, you must post to the assigned discussions and meet your group posting commitments. You must be in attendance for all five weeks.
Full participation is very important online and is required for this course. You will be expected to meet the required postings each week.
Quantity and quality are both important considerations when it comes to participation. Quantity is discussed above. Quality means adding something of substance to the discussion — your perspectives and ideas, examples from your work or life experience, questions, etc. A message that says simply, “I agree,” for example, would not constitute participation since it does not add anything of substance to the discussion. You will find it much easier to keep up with an online class and of greater value to you, if you are logging in and participating daily.
You will be working in learning groups and discovering what it takes to function well in a group setting. This first-hand experience will help you understand the positives and negatives of group activities. You will be encouraged to reflect on strategies to create collaborative online group activities. While I will not actively participate in the group activities, I will monitor each group.
You will engage in a small group activity in weeks three and four. I will set up these groups prior to week three and post them on the announcement board and in the assignment. You will be required to complete a learning group agreement to determine how your group will function in week three. The actual assignment will take place and be completed in week four.
Please refer to the rubric(s) provided in the lesson.
Communication among learning team members will take place exclusively in the group discussion forums, wikis, or chats.
In general, no late assignments will be accepted. Exceptions may be made if extenuating circumstances arise, you are current on all assignments, and you request permission via messages. Extenuating circumstances do not include your workload at home or at work, vacations, and lack of access to the Internet. If needed, Internet access is available at your public library.
Academic honesty is highly valued at LEARN NC. If any words or ideas are used that do not represent the student’s original words or ideas, please indicate the relevant source.
You are encouraged to share your personal and professional experiences as a means to integrate the knowledge through reflecting on its application. However, it is important to note that we all are bound by confidentiality in this class. In order to assure that we can have a free and open discussion in which you may elect to discuss your work and personal experiences as they apply to the course material, I expect each person to respect the confidentiality of what your classmates are willing to share.
Each week, your instructor will provide feedback on participation and assignments within three to five days. You will receive feedback via eMail. Notification of feedback will be placed in Announcements. If you do not receive your feedback, please contact your instructor right away via email.