The Importance of What I am Learning (Or how I learned the Hard Way)

Up till now I thought I understood what we learning and I never really consider the whys and what would happen if we didn’t follow through. I know now, boy do I know. I learned the hard way; I designed and am teaching an online course without applying everything I had learned so far. I can use the excuse that I hadn’t yet learned to design the course, but really that’s only part of the problem. I omitted some of the most basic, yet important things necessary for a well run course. You should also know that I work with everyone in the course, which causes other unique problems.

Were to start? Week 1, this week will set the tone for the whole course. This is when the basics are explained to the students, this is when you establish a sense of community. I missed the boat on that one; I thought that since everyone worked together there would already be a sense of community. Wrong, always plan the course with the assumption that the students didn’t even know that the rest of the students in the class existed until they appeared in the class. Make sure that they know what the course is about and what is to be expected. I didn’t because we had an f2f orientation session that I thought would take the place of the online orientation week. Nobody paid attention because at that point they didn’t care. They didn’t care until we actually started the course. Make sure the deadlines are clearly spelled out or they will think they you are arbitrarily picking deadlines each week. Oh, and don’t forget the netiquette like I did. First day I had someone making rude comments to another person.

What else have I learned? We had a discussion about the importance of having everything planned and done before the course started versus having the first several weeks done. Have everything done, don’t try to stay one step ahead. Once the course has started there is no time to stay ahead. There are discussion threads to be monitored, grading to be done, questions to be answered as well as everything else that is going on in your life. Also, make sure everything is consistent from week to week and if something is not working fix it before you offer the course. I know, it sounds wrong waiting to fix things but I know from experience that by changing things as the course is in progress just makes you look like you don’t know what you are doing. They will be wondering why you are teaching the course and whether you are actually qualified. I am speaking from experience so I know. Because I see everyone in the class on a daily basis, they have told us to let them know when we get our act together. There are also comments among themselves (they think we are deaf) that there are other people who could be teaching the course.

This is also key to the success of the course; when you are coming up with directions or explanations write as though you are explaining the slowest learner in the course. What about those who don’t need that much information or detailed of instruction? Be honest when was the last time you heard students say, “I really wish the directions were harder.” They don’t, what we hear is “I don’t understand how to do this, the directions didn’t make sense.” We even hear “I don’t understand what this has to do with what we are learning.” We need to explain why they are going to reading the resources, how they fit the subject. When we give directions on how to do things, (in my course create accounts for different technologies or add components to their blogs) we need to think of everything. I thought giving them the link to the website was enough, for example when they created their blogs I assumed that they would remember their usernames and passwords. But because I didn’t specifically say write this down, they didn’t. I think I have at least one student who has never been able to find their blog again. So, what lesson did I learn: never, ever assume anything, ever.

These are some of the most important lessons I have learned and that I will never forget. I am already starting to revise the course for this summer and I will be applying everything that we are learning. Right now I am just trying to survive the course I am teaching and using it as a learning experience of what not to do.