Online Teaching Journal

Source: Google Image  After receiving the feedback, it is imperative to use self-reflection tools to improve online teaching and online course development skills. Self-reflection will be done by doing an e-learning project retrospective (Slade, 2017) and using MOOBRIC. (Northcote & Seddon, 2011)  First, celebrate the successes in terms of what worked and then what didn't work and specify things that can be revised or improved in the future.  Feedback # 2

Source: Google Image Quality Assurance of the Online Teaching Module      Having another set of eyes review your course or contents is always a good idea. This will act as a quality assurance to check if there are things that were missed.  In my opinion, feedback is very essential as it brings out the best in your abilities.  Any kind of feedback should be equally receptive; positive feedback reinforces that the things you are doing are correct and make you more confident. Negative feedback makes you wonder that there is still room for improvement, work on your mistakes and learn from the mistakes to avoid repeating it. (Power, 2015)   After preparing the blueprint, the next steps were to add the contents on the Canvas and then making sure all the links were working. Peer review will be provided by fellow students to make sure course design and other materials follow the quality assurance standards by using this rubric. (Northcote & Seddon, 2011)

Source: Google Image Learning About Accessibility      During my in-person teaching in classrooms for the last few years, accessibility for online teaching and learning was never considered. During week 11,  insight was provided about the accessibility standards that could be implemented in the online courses. Specifically using built-in headings, ALT description of images, the transcript for the recordings for the videos and colour contrast ratios. Learning about these tools will allow online instructors to have their courses easily accessible by all the potential learners and by following accessibility standards. While increasing social, teacher and cognitive presence, we need to ensure that online learning tools and contents  are accessible by all potential learners. (Traxler, 2016) During these sessions, accessibility tools kits for online teaching and learning were shared.  One of the resources The World Wide Web Consortium that develops open standards...

  Cognitive load (Source: Google Image) Students and Cognitive load      When teaching online, reducing students' cognitive load is essential. ( Guyan, 2013)   This will assist in an easier understanding retaining of the information provided. When students come to the class and as instructors, we shouldn't assume that the information we provide them will be absorbed by them easily. Students are taking another 3-4 courses besides your course. Adding more information will add to the cognitive load. As an instructor, we need to design strategies that will allow reducing the cognitive load. These strategies could reduce the amount of content to be shared and how it is being disseminated.  Instructors need to be aware of the basics of the cognitive load theory. What cognitive load theory is that instructions or information should be provided in a manner that doesn't profuse the learner's mental capacity. If the information is given at once, then it will hav...

Community of Inquiry (Source: Google image) Creative Commons      This was the session where we got an insight into using Creative Commons (CC) (2017). CC is a non-profit organization that provides copyright licenses to share their work across various platforms and provides guidance on how this can be attributed. This is an interesting platform where media such as video, images and other sources can be accessed through Flickr, 500px, The New York Public library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Perez, 2017), If planning to use any images, a beta search engine is available here .      Learning about creative commons was helpful. Adding image and media, e.g. audio or video in the lecture notes or other contents, searching through creative commons will find CC licences images and other media types.

  Reflection on the creation of the Module Outline Course outline      Before creating the storyboard or blueprint, creating a course outline is essential. This will provide the blueprint layout of all the elements that should be included in the course outline. The course outline will acts as a guide when designing any course. It will be beneficial to students and instructors. It is a central document with few essential elements, e.g. course description, learning objectives, course readings and text, course schedule, assignment details and evaluations. Other supporting elements can be added depending on the course and your organization's resources. (Teaching essentials, 2020) The following can also be included: technical requirements, student support, academic integrity, feedback surveys, and accessibility services.  Providing a course outline to the students at the beginning of the course will increase student engagement. Students will be clear of the...

  Source: Google Image Creating Course outline      The course outline was created for the course 'CBLG 699- Social factors in drug development'. The following elements were added to the course outline: course description, course objectives, text, readings, lecture schedule, university policies, and academic integrity guidelines from the organization's home page. Links were added, and details about the zoom classroom link were created on the zoom account.  Creating a course outline for the online teaching module was a learning experience as this provided guidance and help in the planning for the course. Some of the elements that have me thinking is how to design my course was, e.g. what exactly going to happen, what students expectations will be, what evaluation should or shouldn't be included, compilations of course readings, which course text would be best when students will submit the assignment, will there be a group project for student collaborations, addin...

    Source: Google image Course Description      Once a drug has been discovered, there are many factors that influence whether it is marketed. This course will explore the societal issues that affect pharmaceutical and biotech companies as they develop new compounds. After an introduction to the Canadian and U.S. regulatory process, students will discuss topics such as laboratory animal welfare, ethics in clinical research, drug reimbursement and other pressures drug companies face to provide a drug or take it off the market. From a variety of perspectives, students will learn how decisions we make as a society impact our ability to cure and treat disease. (Ryerson University, 2020)

Getting into the Readings      This is the first time I am teaching online in Fall 2020 as all of our classroom-based courses were moved to online. All summer, I was involved in the virtualization of my course. During this process and learning about various theories discussed here made me wonder about working three presences (Social, Teaching and Cognitive) in our course. (Garrison, et al, 2000) It makes sense that for students to have the best learning experience, all these three presences are important, and an instructor can create that. Adding breakout rooms or having 1:1 chat with students at different time zones or just reaching out through various platforms, e.g. discussion forums, Twitter and inviting students to collaborate on various topics by posting articles or searching for articles. To reduce the transactional distance in my course, I have used various other approaches, e.g. adding various activities in the synchronous class where students don’t feel isolate...

  First-class EDUC 5199 G For teachers or learners, first class is always nerve-wracking. The course name is Learn to teach in an online world. I have started my course this fall and will be teaching online for the first time. Of course, virtualizing my course was done during the summer. Lots of learning happened, and more details can be found in my other blog,  Preparation for Virtualization, 2020 . Source: Google Image First Class Introductions       During our first class, we learned about each other. School teachers and other educators are in this class, and there will be opportunities to learn from each other.  The class has about 30 students and will be in two sections. I had to opt for the second section as due to my work schedule, it will be hectic to attend the class starting at 6 pm.