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.