Jen Boisvert’s Blog

Well, I have to say to honestly answer this question; I am a bit overwhelmed and off (keep reading to find out what I mean) this week. I completely overlooked the course checklist assignment that was due yesterday. I read everything in the module, but for some reason I missed the July 27^th due date (which is on everything!) and blocked it out of my mind. I was so focused on developing my own course and I associated the checklist with being completely done with the course, that I didn’t submit it. I thought it was due August 3^rd. I should have known yesterday when I woke up with an “off” feeling that the whole day was going to be a bear. If I only could have started the day over again, I would have. I totally blocked out a presentation that I had to give (Showed up to work dressed down when I should have been dressed up. We have dress down during the summer.) at work.

After reviewing the course checklist, I realized that I still have a good amount of work to complete.

I have been working every day on my course and some days I feel like I am making more progress than others. Sometimes I get hung up on something and instead of just letting it go or going back to it later, I ponder on it. I don’t like to leave things unfinished, so I try to stick with it until I figure it out or complete it. I have learned that sometimes it is appropriate to move on and go back and visit it later. One particular area that I got hung up on was the discussion questions. I still have not figured out two, but I have decided to re-visit them later on.

The checklist is quite helpful as it really points out things that I may have missed. I plan on using this checklist for my job as it will help me out. I am in the process of developing a course for work and this checklist will help keep me on task.

The next couple of days will be a bit stressful, but I know I can get through them. I just need to keep staying focused and take one thing at a time. (3)

Very interesting question. I have been pondering on this question and here is what I came up with….I guess I am many things in relation to others, I am a student, employee, learner (as my dad calls me a perpetual student), sister, daughter, niece, cousin, and sister-in-law. I am a type of person who loves challenges, very detailed, doesn’t like to give up, always tries my hardest to succeed, dedicated, can be a perfectionist at times (OK, maybe a good amount of time), and loves to learn. I love deep conversations with friends and colleagues about education. I love to be surrounded by friends and family. I like to travel and explore other countries (going away next month, woohoo!!). I also like to stay on-top of technology. I am also the type of person who always thinks from the student perspective, which leads me into this course/my course.

While taking this course and designing my own course, I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned that it is challenging to be an instructor and that developing content from scratch is a bit tough. I am going on my learned knowledge from my courses and my experiences. I am constantly brainstorming and asking myself questions (from student perspective) like “Would I want to learn this? What am I going to get out of this course? Would I be able to complete the allotted work during the time frames I have provided?” I am constantly reflecting on my experiences as a student and the things that I liked and disliked in my courses. I always try and think from a student point of view, as they are the ones who are going to be enrolling in my course. I also have been in their shoes, so I know what it is like to be a student. This is a first for me as I have never designed a course before or taught. Seeing that I have no teaching experience, it has been a struggle to come up with everything from scratch. But, I am enjoying it and it is a wonderful learning experience.

I have two challenges so far in designing my course, one being still trying to come up with discussion questions that are engaging, interesting, and that really tie in the content and the other dealing with the slowness of Moodle (I try to be patient, but sometimes it just drives me crazy). But, I know I am not in this alone. These two challenges are a part of the process.

I have enjoyed communicating with Alex on Seesmic. It has been fun and Alex has been really helpful in brainstorming and conducting research on how I can incorporate this software into my course. After chatting with her a few times, I have decided to add Seesmic to my course as one of my learning activities. I am going to add this into the module on Preparing for the Interview. I am going to have students generate questions and practice role playing with each other. It will allow students to be able to respond at their (but keeping it within the timeframe), communicate with students in another form of communication, and allow them to gain experience as being an interviewer/interviewee.

It has been an interesting past two weeks and I look forward to the upcoming weeks in designing the rest of my course. Good night!

(3)

So far, what has challenged me the most in this course is designing the learning activities for my course, Interviewing. Seeing that I have not taught previously (traditional or non-traditional) and only have experience as being a student, I have been having some trouble developing the learning activities. Designing the discussion topics has been the biggest struggle. From a student perspective, I have learned from my own experiences what I like best and least about discussion posts. Depending on the course and the topics presented to us, sometimes I learn a lot from them, while other times I don’t learn from them. I am visual and hands on learner. I get more out of applying information (well actually performing a task) than I do just reading. My mind tends to wonder. Keeping this in the back of my mind, I need to connect to all different types of learners as an instructor. I want to make my discussion posts meaningful and related to the content, but yet fun to learn.

One of Alex’s comments on my course design is to make sure that my discussion questions relate to the articles/textbook information. I have a few of my discussion posts done, but I am still have a few that I am having some trouble coming up with such as resumes and cover and thank you letters.

I am in the process of designing my rubric. I have created a few rubrics in the past for past courses so I am hoping to take some off the information off of them as well as come up with some new information. Creating a rubric will be extremely helpful when it comes to grading my students work. Having them done ahead of time will prevent a headache in the future. It will also allow my students to see what I will be looking for in a post or learning activity. I personally love when my instructors provide me with a rubric. Before I create the learning activity/assignment, I glance at the rubric to see what they are looking for. Once I complete the learning activity/assignment, I revert back to the rubric and make sure that my work falls under each category. From here, I at least have a sense of where I can expect my grade to be.

I am having fun designing my own course, but it is definitely a lot of work. Trying to design my course as well as complete the coursework is a bit challenging. I give developers and instructors a lot of credit. I didn’t realize how much work goes into designing a course from scratch. As this being the first course I have ever developed, I am learning and developing at the same time. Developing other courses will be easier as I will have had experience from this course.

(3)

After completing the learning activities for this module’s assignments, I really appreciated all of the work that goes into designing a course from scratch. I only had 9 modules, but it seemed like a lot more than that. Trying to get everything to tie into together was a bit of a struggle, but after awhile I got the hang of it. I still have some work to do with creating the discussion questions and learning activities. I have been thinking about them but can’t come up with a couple of them. I didn’t just want to throw anything down on paper, so I decided that I will brainstorm some more and come back to them. Once I start developing my modules in more detail, it will be easier to develop the discussion questions. I have an idea of what I want to do for the learning activities, but I want to consult with some friends and colleagues. Like any other instructor or course designer, I want to make sure that my activities and discussion questions allow for critical thinking, tie in the content, and engage the student.

A difficult challenge for me this module was creating the learning activity and participating in the discussion question. At first, I did understand either and finally a light went off. Viewing Alex’s examples were extremely helpful. But, participating in the discussion questions, developing my course, and viewing the content really gets me excited about becoming an educator. The more involved I get and the more I read about education, the more I am learning about myself and that education is my niche. I can remember a few years back not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I was so nervous and stressed about not having a passion. Now that I found my passion, it is like an addiction. I love talking to colleagues who share the same interests as we connect on many levels. This course not only is challenging me, but it is allowing me to connect to past experiences as well as new experiences. I am able to connect an area of interest with my passion, working in higher education, being a course designer, and paving my way to becoming an instructor. Lately, I have been finding myself reading articles located on The Chronicle of Higher Education and E-Campus News. If you like higher education, these two resources are fantastic and they have a daily e-mail service that you can sign up for.

When viewing the Breeze Presentation on Keys to Success, I could really identify with the content that Alex provided. I found myself really pondering on some of the Lessons Learned. One in particular was number 5, about adding too much technology can take away from the course content. Sometimes we have to ask ourselves are we trying to show off and teach technology or are we teaching the student about content. At work while developing a simulation, this question constantly is being asked and thought of. Sometimes technology with all of the bells and whistles is not appropriate and it can cause students to drift away from what we really want them to obtain. We have to keep in mind when adding technology that not everyone is tech savy and that putting content in an application such as PowerPoint, movie file, or other forms can be overwhelming. Keeping it simple sometimes is the best solution. Depending on the content of the course and level of learner can depend on the technology that is incorporated into the course.

(3)

The Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy was a great eye-opener for me. Not having a teaching background, it helped steer me in a direction. This is the first course that I have taken, that we have had to change the subject of the discussion posts. I think this is an excellent idea. It makes a student think and it is a lot easier to find a post. Reading through 20 or so posts a week can get confusing and at times overwhelming. I can’t tell you how many times in my other classes that I have started to read something and had to stop in my tracks. Trying to go back and find the post was a nightmare. Now, I can easily recall a previous discussion message. It is much easier to look at the title of something rather than click inside each discussion thread/post to find what you were looking for or to pick up where you left off. I love the idea that Pelz shares with instructors about spending 30-45 minutes a day reading their students discussion posts (Pelz, 2004). By doing this on a daily basis, it makes reading discussion posts manageable.

One area I am not too sure of is having students grade their own work or others. I am not sure how effective this is. I tend to be hard on myself, plus I don’t want my classmates/instructor to think that I am always giving myself high grades, so I tend to grade lower. I also have a hard time grading others as I always feel bad. Unfortunately, I always feel bad in a situation where I have to rate/critique others. Don’t get me wrong, I am not afraid to speak my mind sometimes. When I am anonymous, I tend to maybe critique a little more, but I still have that guilt feeling. I guess it is just my personality.

The other day I decided to “Google” Managing Discussion Posts for Instructors and I found a great article. The article is called Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions. I found the tips to be quite helpful. Some of the tips are the same that we read in different articles, but there were a few new things. I think I may include the questions that are under Words of Wisdom.

(3)