Online Orientation

I was doing pretty well last week, actually, but this week the wheels fell off.  I did some work (go me!), but because I had put so much into the course last week, I decided that my focus this week should be learning from others and interacting with other course pages. Here are a few things I learned this week: With the Flipgrid information, I switched out my classroom introduction exercise from VoiceThread to Flipgrid.  I like how that works a little better, and I think it is a really nice way to say a few things in a different format that what we would then use for discussion on VoiceThread. I did refresh my memory on making videos and saving them to YouTube...something I got pretty good at during my last Masters program.  So you might see a new added introductory video of me on my class page.   I don't want to have my face on the screen all the time.  To do this, I discovered Screencast-O-Matic, which I really enjoyed exploring.  Took me a few tries to figure out

Well. This may be just a tiny overexaggeration, but wow, this online course creation is no joke. I've been using Moodle for 5 years now for both Thrive (formerly FYF) and FDN 111 (formerly FYF).  Because both of these courses are designed to be a students' first look at Trinity, I have always been very conscious about the appearance and thoroughness of what I put on Moodle.  In fact, I've always added extra links, PDFs, and supports to connect students from Moodle to places on Trollweb or the Trinity webpage that they should be familiar with. But now as I try to think about taking FDN 111 from F2F and into an OL format, the details just keep piling up!  And, perfectionist that I am, I keep thinking of how something should or could be done better, or more clearly, or more visually appealling.  However, due to limited time in taking this course and the desire NOT to double up on work, I've given the class a halfway done, partially complete, and somewhat there idea of

After taking the self-assessment, it appears that on paper, I'm ready to teach an online course. I mean, I went through an entire Masters program that was completely online and had plenty of experience seeing both well- and poorly- done versions. I thought I had kind of figured out how to develop relationships with my classmates and figure out how to engage from a distance.  But...  I think what I knew deep down but have now become SO aware of is how much time, effort, and intentionality it is going to take to really create an effective online course! And I'm becoming more aware through this week that in all reality, creating an oline program for transfer students is an even bigger challenge. I think it can be done, but I'm going to have to listen carefully to everyone in this class to learn and gain some really solid ideas for finding ways to keep students engaged while getting them to connect to each other and to Trinity. In looking back, I realize that I found w