This year, I decided to take a break from teaching a class in the evening. I have so much going on with my full-time job as the director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Leadership that I thought it might be best to focus on that and give myself a break from juggling so many different activities. I also took a break from some of my personal volunteer activities with church and with boy scouts, too.
I miss teaching and I am so happy when some of my former students stop by for a visit and an update on their educational journeys and progress towards a career. I miss the opportunity to try a new teaching technique, but I have really enjoy the time to focus all of my thoughts and efforts on my full-time job and my family.
Last semester one of the deans suggested that I take an online class on digital photography. She thought I would really enjoy it. So I signed up. Our college provides six hours of classes for free as a benefit to employees and spouses. What a great benefit and so far, just a few weeks into the semester, I have learned a lot that will assist me with being more effective as a teacher and as a faculty developer.
Here's the list of experiences that will impact how I support faculty in their professional development.
1. I had to get help signing up for a class. Honestly, it was a little embarrassing because I have advised students before and worked with them but for some reason I just couldn't get signed up. Here's what I learned, at our college, you have to be registered in a semester to sign up for a course. Before a student can sign up for an online course, they have to complete the online orientation. I was admitted for the spring semester, but the orientation I needed to take was in the fall so someone had to manually enroll me. It wasn't a huge issue but I'm sure many "real" students hit this roadblock. Maybe there will be an opportunity to adjust this.
2. Be clear about the textbook and required tools. I watched the class schedule to see what is required for the class and nothing was posted. Once the class stared, I saw that the syllabus talked about a text book so I went to the book store to buy it. There wasn't a spot on the shelves for it so I asked at information and they lady said that no one ever buys the book so she hadn't ordered any. She said she would order them and the book would arrive in a couple of weeks. Also, in order to complete assignments for the class we need a special piece of software which I don't have at home. You can go to campus and use the software, but I had planned to complete the class at home on the weekends. I wonder what true distance learning students do to get access to the software? For now, I'm trying an online version. I hope it works.
3. Tables with a list of due dates are really helpful. One of the classmates created a beautiful color coded project list. What a great example of what students really need! This is a reminder to me that faculty need more support related to the syllabus.
4. The first day of class I was so excited to get started. I went to post the first assignment and the discussion board wasn't ready. That was a bummer! This is reminder that faculty need to have items on the Learning Management System up and ready to go.
5. It's also frustrating when links don't work and files can't be opened because they aren't .pdfs Faculty need to be reminded to check these.
Please don't think I am directing any of this towards the individual faculty member. My thoughts are strickly from a personal point of view in thinking about how to support faculty.
I have enjoyed the class and I have learned a lot. I find the videos are very useful and it is so nice to be able to watch them again or stop and start as needed. The assignments are great and the rubrics are very helpful!
No comments:
Post a Comment