 Articles, Ideas, and Innovations in online teaching and learning |
I have been an Instructional Designer for a few years, and this summer I was offered the opportunity to teach the 3 week Online Faculty Training Program for IDEAL. Looking back now, I can say that it was a fantastic experience in which the participants and I grew in our understanding of sound online teaching and learning. My students were eager to learn and I was happy to facilitate. The first day discussion assignment filled up the forum quickly. Reading through everyone's responses gave me a solid understanding to the people behind each post. The energy in the course was high and I felt like the class had moved well beyond the boundaries of what was required. By the second week of class, I found myself spending more time interacting on the discussion board. With every new post, I found myself being drawn into the position of an online instructor. I looked for opportunities to branch current discussions into new topics. I researched and introduced new technologies in online learning into the course. The third and final week, things started to slow down as the class spent most of the time finishing their group assignments. The groups presented their materials and really synthesized the important concepts of the course. The class members finished strong and I feel that we all left the course with a better understanding of what it takes to be a better online instructor.
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