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I think I spent the entire weekend last week playing around in Moodle, learning how things worked, and trying to set up my basic module outline. Once I got the hang of it, I kinda like it. I find with technology that it just takes time and patience (not my forte) to really grasp it. I don't think computer skills of any kind can be learned from a book alone; it needs to be hands on learning.

I completely agree! I am a very hands on and visual person, I need to INTERACT with the material in real life or else it's just text on a page.

Very. I found myself not wanting to step away from the computer, even to eat. Eventually, I got hungry enough and forced a break.

Yes! The faculty on the SLN website even said that online teaching is an addiction!

The two other online courses that I took were both on Blackboard. I've never actually taken a course in Moodle. I have no idea what my course will look like when I'm done, but I'm very curious.

Took me a while as well, but now I feel more comfortable with my posts. I wasn't doing enough research. Once I started doing that, I felt like I was contributing something to the whole class.

I had the same thought. I only hope that the computer lab is open during my class time.

Your sticky notes are usually "floating" so I never know what you're commenting on. Can you make them stationery?

I wonder the same thing...this applies to several blogs ago. I guess we need to add a date or title.

i am really glad you did NOT drop the course!!! : ) me

: ) seriously teacher-centric...

LOVE the new theme Kim! looks great!

I, like the others in this course, understand. It's a lot of work, but the finished product will be worth it, I'm sure.

Two thumbs up!

I too had made this mistake with some short writing assignments that I was going to have my students write. It was Alex's suggestion to have them blog it that really made sense. This way they could read each others blog entries and leave comments as well.

So glad I'm not alone. I keep logging in as well, looking to change something. Over the past 3-4 days I've definitely made changes, but I'm getting to the point now that I'm wondering if I should just leave it alone. I'm the same way about large writing project...always looking to edit. Thinking it might be time for me to step back from the computer.

I thought done, done, done is at the end...aren't we going to have peer feedback next module?

CONGRATULATIONS! I'll finish in December as well. It's been a long journey, and as much as I've enjoyed it, I'm ready to have my weekends back :-)

:)

congratulations kim!!!!

I'm glad you said this, because I've been thinking it for several weeks now. I really want a chance to teach it, but I'm afraid of getting a chance to teach it. I'm not a teacher by profession, so I think I have more fear than most that I won't be able to facilitate my course properly. For instance, how do I open modules, are grades recorded automatically or do I manually put them in, how do I get them to show for each individual student, etc. I've put so much time and effort into building this course, I want a chance to teach it, but having never taught at the college level, I don't know that I'll get the opportunity. I will still give it my best shot as soon as I graduate in December. If SUNY isn't interested, I'll try other avenues.

"live students" when you do teach live students you will discover kinks you never saw...this semester I had a great activity that 18 of 19 students loved! The discussions were full of every presence. The I discovered that my student from China was so lost and overwhelmed. Now I am rethinking cultural sensitivity in my activities...how do I balance a activity that engages 99% of my students 110%, but looses one student because of a cultural difference...still thinking on this.

I don't know if I should have done this, but I actually have 2 evaluation/feedback areas. One is the generic resource right in Moodle. I tried to write my own questions, but when I "viewed" the forum, my questions were replaced with the generic questions. So, I created a document with my own questions and I am having students download the document into a word processor, add their answers and then post to a forum.

Can you teach it elsewhere? As we have learned in this class, online learning is up and coming. It might be worth looking into.

Failures maybe because the facilitators did not "know" and "do" what "you" know...convince him to try your course as an experiment...because this is the future of education...This summer I taught one online course and had a student from China, several from the west coast, and only two within driving distance in a class of 20!

I'll be taking the course in September...how was it? I had hoped that it was just a very long research paper...any such luck? It's my last course for my degree.

I think you're probably right, but I think it's turning a corner. At a time when institutions are scrambling for money, online learning costs them very little. They pay an instructor and that's about it. We don't need a classroom or any campus resources other than student access to the library for research if they need it.

Do you mean the background or theme of the course, because I'd love to know how to change that.

I am almost three times that....almost :)

My dissertation chair gave me wonderful advice...Enough is enough! If we recognize that we are always evolving, growing, expanding, deepening our understanding...then we understand that a "project" is just a snap shot of one time in our progress.

I'm going to include a student project that also has them create and work within a Wiki. It looks to be the perfect environment for collaboration on a single document (a short story).

We are already learning this through our use of "self assessment." I would imagine it takes a few runs through the course to work out all the kinks, and if it's a subject like science or technology where the information changes constantly, it's ever-evolving.

In the wake of new technology, the role of the student is changing very quickly to one of self-directed learning.

Ah this is a philosophical stand. Many times we teach by the way we learn; however, this may not be the best for our students.

That's an interesting idea, especially when there are too many discussions going on.

I was going to have my students do the same, however, I just noticed that the course shell has an option for a Wiki...did anybody else see that? Anybody know how it works? I have since decided to give my students a choice other than to "write" a short story in small groups within a Wikispace. I'm going to allow them to recreate or interpret a short story in a multi-media fashion. Howard Gardner influenced. :-)

I think they will surprise you!

Very good idea, because you're right...it seems like a very large amount of information that you're trying to cover. Case studies might work better.

Perhaps you can assign one particular article, and then actually provide them with the links to 1-3 other article they might find of interest.

Have you gone through the learning activities for each module and guesstimated how long it would take them to do? That might give you a better idea of whether it's too much. Just a suggestion.