Excited! This is the word that best describes my feelings when watching the videos and reading the articles about course design this week. My innovation plan is to implement a Blended learning and project based learning into the classroom on my campus. While I feel very confident that the project-based learning component will be extremely engaging and beneficial to students’ overall learning experiences, I still have some concerns about the online learning component. Because I will not be in the same physical space as students when they complete the online home lecture activities, a big focus of my plan has been how to construct and conduct an online learning component “that is engaging, promotes interaction, motivates learners, and above all facilitates learning” (Morrison, 2013). Therefore, receiving this wealth of detailed information this week regarding how to set up a quality online course that benefits both students and teachers has made me extremely excited to get started on this aspect of my flipped learning project.
Before I can do anything else, I will first need to determine the learning objectives and overall goals I want my students to achieve. Using the backwards planning model is key in making this happen because it can guide me in effectively creating an online course that is focused on learners obtaining the desired learning goals and outcomes. By knowing where I want my students to go, I can then plan resources, lessons, and activities to get them there. The blended learning model can also help me with teaching approaches. With the online learning component, I know that student behavior with the online learning activities and technology is going to be a major factor in their success with gaining and maintaining knowledge of the content. Therefore, I have decided that I want to create a backwards plan for student online learning behavior as well. In addition to learning outcomes, there are certain behavior goals such as consistency in active participation, group collaboration, meaningful discussion, and turning in assignments on time that I would like students to accomplish weekly. By understanding that these are the online behavior outcomes and goals I would like students to reach, I can determine the teaching approaches that will be most effective to use in effort to help students succeed in achieving these desired behaviors which, in turn, will help them have a more successful learning experience while working remotely.
With my blended learning classroom project-based learning component, my main goal for any of the activities we do is for students to use the knowledge and skills acquired via the home-based learning component and transfer them to real-world situations (projects) that will help them develop greater understanding of the concepts taught. Therefore, it was easy to see that a constructivist approach would be the best to use for the classroom component. When it comes to the online lecture activities, engaging with the information presented in the readings and videos this week (as well as determining my desired online behavior outcomes stated earlier), I have been able to confirm that I will more than likely benefit from utilizing both behaviorist and connectivist practices for various aspects of the online component. Because behaviorism is focused on eliciting a desired response from the learner who is presented with a target stimulus (Dabbagh,2002), I will be using this particular practice for student participation and feedback. During my course introduction video and posted on the learning management system, I will provide learners with information such as a course overview, weekly learning objectives and outcomes, resources, weekly modules, calendars, assignments, deadlines, communication information and guidelines, and course expectations (OSCQR, n.d.). By doing this, I am providing learners with 24/7 access to all of the necessary information needed to succeed in the course and providing them with a constant reminder of their learning destinations and expectations. Therefore, during the online component, I can apply behaviorist concepts like positive reinforcement when students complete behaviors outlined in the introduction video and on the learning management system such as active participation in online discussions, working collaboratively with other classmates, and completing online assignments by the deadline to encourage the continuance of this behavior. Also, the growth mindset principle of praising the process can be used as a way to encourage students to produce their best work on assignments. The connectivist approach will be included in the actual content of the online, home lecture component. According to National Standards for Quality Online Learning (2011), instructional resources for flipped classrooms should include digital content, resources, and tools to expand and enhance the curriculum and content. Therefore, my online course content will include activities that allow students opportunities to use technology to explore topics in further detail as well as showcase their learning. Right now I am thinking of posing research- type questions to students on the discussion board in order to encourage web navigation. I am also considering having students choose a type of media (i.e. song, video, blog writing, art, etc.) from a list to display their learning and then post it to the class website for other students to review. In addition to the class discussion board, this will provide another way for students to learn from one another and understand how the internet is a resource for sharing learning.
Comentarios