Amy’s Blog

Who Holds The Key To My Success? Me!

July 7, 2008

Over the last two weeks I have been pondering what it means to be a successful educator in an online classroom environment.  My philosophy of education is based on a student centered learning environment.  A student centered learning environment to me is a place where students are encouraged to work within an enriching and enjoyable space where they value learning.  It is a place where a community of learners can meet and know that each child’s voice will be heard and appreciated.  This student centered environment will embrace different learning styles because the student will know they are part of a community where each community member is respected.  This positive learning atmosphere will allow students to thrive academically and personally.

As I begin to create the tone and classroom environment for my online course, I am finding that it is difficult to replicate methods of teaching that I use within a face to face classroom and make them as effective in an online course.  I am discovering that creating an online course is more challenging than I expected.  Professor Pickett’s Keys to Success presentation was extremely informative.  Although my passion for teaching is through the roof, I am “re-thinking” and modifying the way I teach to meet the needs of my online students, and my time and commitment are dedicated to creating this course, I am still apprehensive of the format and culminating product.  I think the most difficult part of designing this course, is trying to imagine and consider my audiences perception and responses to the lessons I create, as well as trying to picture each student’s feedback.  But, as we all know even in a face to face classroom, this is a challenge as well. 

In the presentation Keys to Success by Professor Pickett, she discusses her experiences, advice and suggestions for creating an online course.  In one of the slides, Professor Pickett discusses the importance of faculty designing their own courses with the support of a team (librarians, IT’s, instructional designers, etc).  I find this is where I am having the most trouble in my online course formation.  Although I have successfully taken several online courses, creating a course is quite complicated, especially when there is not a face to face support system that is created to assist with creating the course.  In some ways this is frustrating as a course creator when you have ideas and a vision for your course but difficulty executing the plan due to inexperience with the tools. 

Over the past week while creating my course on Moodle, I experienced some trouble with posting my course blocks.  Professor Pickett luckily created a tutorial which walked the class through step by step on how to create links within the Moodle blocks.  The visual aids and verbal directions was just as effective as having Professor Pickett beside me explaining how to complete the task I was struggling with.  I realize this is a learning experience for me, but it is discouraging when I feel like I am at a loss for what I am doing.  On the contrary, it is exciting to see what I have learned and accomplished up to this point, and I can’t wait to see my entire course come together.

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