Second time around ONTL 652

Here I am again enrolled in the third certificate course for the second time. This time with a determination to move forward in a timely manner and to complete the course! The previous two courses for the online teaching certificate were completely different and let me explain why.

In the first course, I remember gaining a lot of information about different theories concerning the online environment. I obtained a lot of knowledge that helped me in the traditional classroom setting as an adjunct professor. For example, a few of the most beneficial topics dealt directly with different teaching styles and student learning styles. There were a host of activities and articles that address these two topics. Additionally there were assignments given that exposed me to some hands on experiences with creating online activities based on a students learning style. Oh and I must mention that there were a substantial amount of time given to working as teams in the online environment. Something I had never done before. But I must say the first class was very informative and the instructor did an awesome job with feedback and encouragement throughout the course.

Consequently, the second class focused more on learning how to facilitate an online class. The instructor gave each student in the class the opportunity to facilitate one class. Not only did we get to facilitate a class we also were able to obtain more student to student feedback. Again the hands on experiences were great with learning in this course as well. Both courses were great and have helped me gain a sufficient amount of knowledge about the online environment.

I am looking forward to learning more about designing courses in this class. As I stated before I started out once before and was not able to move forward and keep up. This time I am looking forward to staying on task and learning more about the development of online courses. One thing that is going to be very different in this class will be the weekly student feedback that we will be getting and giving as the class starts to work in the design teams. I am truly looking forward to learning how to design a course in this class.

ONTL 652 Reflection One

I would have never thought about designing a course before and yet here I am enrolled in a design course. Not just enrolled in it for the knowledge but I truly have a desire to design an online course. Now is it reality? Yes, I believe it is. I also believe that now is the time for this to happen for me. This course is going to be the means in how I get it all started.
In the past I have taught an f2f workshop before and enjoyed doing it. Now I hope that some of the activities that were created in the workshop can be designed for an online course. I expect the design process to be different for online courses simply because it is set up with more projects to work on independently. There is also more student to student contact involved in the design course.

The two previous courses have helped me with learning how to work with different learning styles and teaching techniques for the f2f workshop. Both courses have given me a host of information that will help me in many other areas as well. When I think about the different learning styles it amazes me and makes me as an instructor more conscience of created activities that are adaptable to everyone.

One thing I must state is, after completing the first week of the design class I am really looking forward to moving forward with completing the upcoming assignments. I feel that there is going to be a lot of great information shared in this course.