Wk 12 - 6105

Well, this is my final post for this course. It has been nice to keep a log of my personal thoughts and learning experiences that I have had in this course. It really has made me reflect on my learning.

Distance Education Evaluation
I've usually viewed DE from a student perspective, so when it came time to review on how to evaluate the effectiveness of distance education all I could think of was the end of course evaluations we do. But it goes a lot deeper than that. I also see the need for more formal evaluations in DE is perhaps more critical than in a f2f environment because you don't get the regular feedback (body language/facial expressions) to adjust your teaching. In teaching math, I rely heavily on facial expressions to determine student understanding.

It was also a good reminder of what I should be doing in my f2f classes. Sometimes I get a little lazy and don't want to do a class end evaluation.

In one of my other classes this semester I created an educational website. I also have to do some kind of usability testing. I used a Google Form for this and it worked out quite nice. This could be one way to have formal evaluations for a DE class. I would prefer this over the postcard idea. (I think the 3rd article was a bit dated)

To wrap things up, I have gained vast amounts of knowledge about the plethora of resources available if I ever get the opportunity to teach a DE class. I hope that if this happens in the future, I will be able to fully utilize what I have learned and properly implement the knowledge I have gained into the DE classroom.

Adios

Wk 12 - 6105

Who knew that iTunes had so much to offer. Especially free!!! I surely didn't. It is so great that the restrictive bounds that have been set on education are being crossed and knowledge is being freely shared over the Internet. Creative Commons is aiding in this endeavor. It is truly a remarkable day we are living in.

One note on last weeks accessibility. I just did a simulation for another class on how it would be to be blind and have to navigate the Web using a screen reader. The simulation had 3 relatively easy questions for me to find the answers to... I couldn't do it. I had to cheat. I hope I can be more conscientious when creating learning modules/activities/websites/etc online to be more accessible to ALL that may use my products.