My Big, but Attainable Goals for Online/Blended Teaching

As a student in online courses I have learned a great deal. I have learned the ways that I love to learn. I have learned what stressed me out! I know the difference between an engaging class and an existing class.

My goals for my students in online or blended courses are for them to all feel welcome and for them to know that they are part of a community of learners (including me!). I thrive from learning from others and do it everyday. I want my students to be excited to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions because they are being heard. I also want my students to feel that the activities are fun, engaging and memorable and worthwhile. If these elements are in place, they will want to login because if they don’t they might be missing something really good going on!

If You Engage Them, They Will Come!

Engaging lessons have always been something I strive for in my weekly planning. I am forever scouring the walls of the internet looking for the latest and greatest creative idea or technology platform to compete with the draws of social media, virtual pocket billiards or whatever distraction suckers are all the rage. Engagement is the name of the game, my friends. How do I intend to engage my students in online courses? First the content needs to be relevant to today and should be able to be applied to the lives of the students in some way. Also, content should be challenging but not overwhelming. Things need to be lively but meaningful. Just like I enjoy learning about the latest and greatest technology tools out there, so do students. I plan on staying one step ahead of them, so that I am still always able to introduce them to interesting ways to do the same old things. Videos are the way in to their brains. Students today live and breathe videos. Youtube is more watched then television at their ages. They learn anything and everything by watching videos and I use them as much as possible both from a learner’s and a teacher’s perspective.

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Cross That Road When You Get to It

The biggest challenges I foresee with online teaching will be in the planning ahead. I am a teacher that like to always be looking for new ideas and am constantly changing my content. I spend many weekend hours looking over my plans from my last sessions, and coming up with bigger better ways to reach the students. With online coursework things must be laid out in advance. Students need due dates and outlines that are pretty much static. There is not much room for last minute edits or changes. The course need to be framed out and planned before it even begins. For a teacher like me who is used to being in a constant state of motion with pulling this out and replacing it with that, I need to be ready to do all that work up front and realize that my edits and adjustments will have to wait until the next session is ready to start.

This challenge could be overcome with dedicating significant time upfront to the planning out every assignment, every week down to the details of each day. I would need to create the master plan up front and then work out all of the details regarding due dates, timing, and having super organized digital folders to upload all content as needed BEFORE the class even begins. The key to taking this all on would be in realizing it is a lot of front loaded work to start but will make monitoring the course much easier as it unfolds and moves along.