This is the End...Or Is It?

Well the end is near. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon how you look at the situation, I do still have one course to take for the certificate in Online Teaching and Learning. I look forward to continuing my journey through the technological maze and building skills to enhance my online and hybrid courses.

I Have learned a great deal this semester about using media to create interest and to increase the variety of learning opportunities. Much of what we have learned will help make the courses that I teach accessible to students with a variety of learning styles and to those who may have special needs. I'm excited about where I can go with all that I have learned. Of course, being on faculty at GSU doesn't hurt since I know that Barbara and Jan are only a building away.

This course has been particularly helpful in teaching me about creating links between assignments, discussions, exams and lecture material. Just creating the learning modules was new and so very helpful. Learning about using HTML was a whole new experience and really does make the pages look professional. I also got really excited about adding audio to powerpoint. I use a great deal of powerpoint in classes to supplement readings and to focus discussion. Being able to bullet the powerpoint presentations and then add audio discussion is an exciting media.

I'm looking forward to continuing my learning and "playing" with different media options. One project that I have started for another class will include video, powerpoint and audio. Every year I take a group of occupational therapy students to Ukraine to work with children and adults in the community where we visit. There are no rehabilitation services for these folks and no school for the children. This year we will be video taping the individuals that we work with on our trip in May and then leaving flip video cameras for our non-professional colleagues to video the children through the year sending the videos to us to evaluate and send back suggestions and instructions for activities and modifications to equipment and the environment. We are very excited about this project that will involve our students as they learn pediatric evaluation and intervention. The idea for the project and the skills needed to implement the idea are a direct result of these courses and particularly this class. I will keep you all posted on our success.

Producing Digital Content - Blog 1

I am very excited about this course and the opportunity to learn more about incorporating sound, video and other media into the courses that I teach. The particular course that I will be working on is a management course for entry level master occupational therapy students. They often remind me of the picture here as they are all still so afraid to work independently and to move away from the "pack". The focus is on the development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills for the development of programs and practices in the community. The students currently develop a program/business plan but are limited by time as to how much they can actually do out in the community. By moving this to an fully online course the students will have greater opportunity to gather information and to learn by going to sites with similar programs and to the agencies or institutions they will need to work collaboratively with to develop their ideas. My hope is that the inclusion of more active experiences will excite and motivate the students. Currently there is often a lack of enthusiasm for this course as students do not always see the relevance to their practice. The problem this course presents is to hold the student’s interest and to help them see the importance of this material in their professional development.
The challenge in designing and developing this course is to produce audio and visual materials that encourage entrepreneurial thinking and begin to develop leaders and managers in the profession. As mentioned in previous blog entries, I hope to use leaders in the field to provide some of the stimulus for these activities via WIMBA, video clips and synchronous learning activities. I hope that what I learn in this course will help me to be able to produce quality materials that will enhance and encourage learning for our students.