ITEC 7480: Introduction to Online Learning

I was somewhat apprehensive about this course at the beginning. Knowing that the virtual schools I was familiar with did not offer courses for the elementary level, I was unsure how online learning and teaching would work for my circumstances. Additionally, being a performing arts class, I wasn't sure how I was going to facilitate student performance in an online setting. However, I quickly began to realize that it is completely feasible! I also began to realize that many of the requirements for quality online instructional design are similar to those of traditional teaching. After all, quality teaching is the same in any platform! The major class assignments - creating a syllabus for a online course, creating a unit plan for an online course, and creating a sample online learning module - all helped tremendously in applying the knowledge I gained about quality online learning and quality online courses and putting them into practice. As the saying goes, "Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand." This was certainly true for me in this course. I was also able to measure my growing competence for online and blended teaching throughout the course thanks to the iNACOL pre-, mid-, and post-assessments. The results from these assessments show that both my competence and confidence in myself grew throughout the course. While I recognize that there are still many things to learn in order to become a completely effective online instructional designer, instructor, and learning coach, I know now that I at least have the preliminary skills, knowledge, and dispositions towards that goal.