Reflection - Lesson Seven

Of the four roles in my coaching plan, I recognize that the area of greatest need is program manager. It seems that the program manager must know the ins and outs of the learning management system (LMS), know how to embed and organize tools, effectively communicate, as well as grade and organize student learning. Though I use my LMS currently for assignments, written explanations, communication, readings, and gathering/grading student work, there is still so much that has not been explored. For example, I do not know how to take Web 2.0 tools and embed them in the LMS (I read about how to embed VoiceThread but have not tried it) and I am unsure how to set up discussions and use the grading tools as effectively as possible. I believe this is a time consuming portion of planning for online instruction and will require dedication to learn. Thankfully, our college provides support in this area.

The area of next greatest need is technical assistant. To troubleshoot for students and know what the technical problems may be, I need to become more familiar with the Web 2.0 tools that I will be using as well as the potential issues with the LMS. These are things that can only be learned by exploration and time spent learning hands-on. Of course, there is also on-the-spot learning that comes from experience.

Moving into easier territory are both the social director and instructor roles. I feel that maintaining online community, though potentially a challenge, is not as worrisome as the other technical aspects of the coaching role. I am intuitive when it comes to people and enjoy creating opportunities for discussion. Directing activities and engaging people in interactions is not a threatening task. Also, I have experience intervening many times in face-to-face settings to redirect unwanted student behavior, so this will be a skill I can transfer to online settings. The instructor role is one I feel most confident about and I can use my current skills in planning instruction to organize learning in new and exciting ways using the many of the new tools in which I have become familiar.

Needless to say, there is much to learn in order to be an effective coach, though I believe that in my coaching plan I have identified ways that I can meet the needs and gain the knowledge. I am looking forward to the opportunity to prepare for teaching a blended or online course.

Reflection - Lesson Six

This past learning has involved reading and exploring formative and summative assessments for online and blended learning. I can tell you, I have learned a lot. To begin, assessment for online learning requires that the instructor regularly gather purposeful samples of student responses to be able to monitor and diagnose students' levels of learning. As we read, Tuttle has written recommendations for how to use assessments and recommends not only a diagnosis, but also that the instructor provide feedback to student so that the student can make changes and apply the new knowledge to their learning in order to gain mastery. Of course, this is formative in nature since it not only provides the instructor information about student learning, but also provides the student valuable information about their own learning. As we know, this is critical for students to regulate and adjust their learning in order to succeed.

Beyond the Tuttle stages of assessment, this unit also covered recommendation for comprehensive assessment and provided examples of appropriate summative assessment. In making my own student sample, I realized that I can overestimate the criteria for an online assignment. After I made my video sample, I then created a rubric and had to adjust my expectations. What I originally was asking students to do, would have taken much longer than needed. In the future, I will take the time to make a sample to know exactly what difficulties I can anticipate students to deal with as well as to monitor my criteria (e.g., length, focus, content) to make it achievable. Also, in the planning of the unit, it was important to have the end in mind and backwards plan to make sure that the learning goals were being assessed and that the objectives of the unit were being met. I also wanted to make sure that the final assignment was interesting, creative, and performance-based. By making the assignment more symbolic and visual, it required much higher order thinking and reflection over the learning of the unit. Though it seems like an "easy" project, it will require much thought, just as it did for me as I began my sample.

Overall, I found this to be a stimulating unit with an emphasis on assessment and creating a unit that reflected appropriate online assessment. I believe that I now have the tools to use Web 2.0 tools to create assessments and vary the type of feedback and evaluation of student learning.