Week 5

The four week pilot ended this past Sunday, and overall I am pretty pleased with how it went. I have a focus group planned for March 10, so I'll be able to see if the participants felt the same way. There are a few changes I plan to make even before speaking with the group. I will:

• change module three to two week long, extending the entire training to 5 weeks + a two week addition to build out the module
• change the writing learning outcomes for a course exercise to focus on learning outcomes for a specific unit within a course to allow learners to get a head start with preparation for the final module which has to be at the unit level
• add a piece explaining the differences, benefits, and drawbacks of formative and summative assessments
• make the purpose of the group project clearer, especially the topic of the project

image credit: http://goo.gl/1Jdkzs

Earlier this week, I met with two colleagues to construct the final project rubric. We produced one that still needs some tweaking but will be sufficient for this final project of the pilot group. Regarding some of the questions I posed last week:

• incentives Not yet resolved
• length of the training -- suggestions for making particular week-long topics into two weeks The four week program will become five weeks
• going forward who will review the final projects The last group to go through the certification will review the next group's final projects; possibility for some of Jayme's graduate students to be co-reviewers as well.
• policies re: who will complete training, priorities, late additions to courses Not yet resolved
• where will the list of certified instructors be located -- who will have access Not yet resolved
• how will it be assessed? A rubric has been developed and I will use the pilot group to determine it's effectiveness.

For next week I will be working on resolving the items in this list that have not been addressed yet or that are currently in the works.

Week 4

So this is the final week of the pilot! I spent this weekend reviewing the submitted rubrics, reading discussions, and developing the content for week 4. This week focuses on designing a module based on backwards design principles. Learners view some example course modules then use a worksheet to begin thinking about the design of their own online course. At the end of this week, learners will have two weeks to create the content and produce a module that will be reviewed using a rubric. If the learner meets the expectations set forth on the rubric, and successfully completes all other course assignments and activities he or she will earn their certification.

The following is a questions list I continue to add to. This list will have to be addressed between now and when the next cohort of faculty begin this certification program:

• incentives
• length of the training -- suggestions for making particular week-long topics into two weeks
• going forward who will review the final projects
• policies re: who will complete training, priorities, late additions to courses
• where will the list of certified instructors be located -- who will have access
• how will it be assessed?

My goals for this week are to continue providing feedback for assignments that have been submitted, schedule some meetings to discuss some of the bulleted points above, and prepare some questions for a debrief/focus group/lunch with the pilot group. I'm very much looking forward to hearing what this group has to offer!

Week 3

Week 2 of the Online Teaching Certification has just ended. Given that there was a little game of football going on Sunday evening, many of the assignments came in yesterday and today which is why I postponed this post. At this point I have looked at and commented on about 80% of what I have received.

The two deliverables for this week were developing learning objectives for an online course and crafting directions for an assessment. For the most part I got what I expected with the learning outcomes assignment. The assessment assignment needs some tweaking as far as directions go. For example, I asked learners to submit a chart online filling in one assessment for one learning objective but everyone in the group completed the entire chart leaving me guessing for which assessment they chose to write directions. I think I will change the original directions asking them to complete the entire chart since it didn't seem to be too much to ask. Additionally, I will ask them to submit the learning outcome their assessment directions is addressing so I don't have to play detective to figure that out on my own.

As far as planning for this current week, I pulled out the articles I had gathered last semester on assessment and after a refresh, I created the content pages for this module. I drafted the assignments for the week and created rubrics for each.

My plans for next week are to finish developing module 4 which is about organizing a course, finalizing a rubric for the group project, and preparing for how I want to receive feedback for the course -- focus group, Google form, open-ended questionnaire.