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Describe the ways in which your introductory post should have enhanced social presence in a course that you teach and identify at least one improvement that you might make in light of what you know about social presence since completing your first post.
I now see that I can include some learning objectives in my introduction post that can highlight my own understanding of the topic, as well as my background, to help facilitate student engagement right from the beginning.
Describe how your thinking about social presence has changed since your first post.
I really appreciated the thought that creating a shared sense of purpose initially is more powerful at the beginning of the course rather than the social interactions piece. My focus has often been ‘getting to know one another’ instead of ‘getting to know why we are all here’ right out of the gate, so this gives me a reason to revisit this approach. Also emphasizing that this is a shared learning experience between myself and the students will lend to the overall objective.
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Post 1 – Getting started
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Integration
What are 2-3 of the most important ideas that you have studied during this course?
1) Effective feedback, vs some of the potentially ineffective feedback that I have been providing, really stood out for me. Practicing the use of constructive feedback is the next thing I would like to explore, while modelling that constructive feedback is safe amongst fellow learners, along with providing ways that the student can improve in receiving and providing constructive feedback while reviewing the goals.
2) Teaching presence is also something that had me reflecting on the ideas learned in this course in terms of how to help support the students to transition into subsequent learning phases.
What are 2-3 questions that you have as a result of this course? Identify ways that you can begin to answer those questions.
1) I still have more curiosity of student engagement in a course, and other ways that an instructor can be focusing on this for them in their courses, depend on their level of investment in the course content. The ability to meet them where they are at, and to hopeful spark more engagement esp. if they are just in it for the grades, etc, could be a starting place.
2) The other concept that I would actually like to explore more too are the assessments and how to know specifically which ones might be more compatible with the specific learning objectives. Perhaps some more research on this or reaching out to an advisor might be the next best step here.
Identify 2-3 specific goals that you would like to achieve in light of what you have learned about cognitive presence, approaches to learning, and feedback.
1) more alignment of assessments with specific learning objectives
2) facilitating more student engagement with students and the course content, no matter what their investment in the course content is
3) facilitating more constructive feedback from everyone within the learning cohort
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Offering Feedback
Are there any gaps between your practice of offering feedback to students and what Hattie recommends?
Yes, I would say I focus a lot on just one level of the feedback that is directed to the self. Which as stated, does not actually enhance learning. My desire was to give some positive reinforcement and compliments, I guess supporting their ego needs as described, but now I see that there is so much more that I could be providing them.
In what ways can you improve the effectiveness of the feedback that you provide for your students?
For providing feedback in the future, I will try to reduce the use of the fourth (self) style of feedback and instead, focus more of a healthy mix. Thinking about where the student is right now and where they are meant to be, and addressing them using the 3 questions which Hattie provided will be a great starting place. I can see that this will time more of an investment in time on my part but now that I see the rewards of this investment, I believe it will be worth it. In the past I have provided I believe, over detailed feedback that likely lost the student and let to both our our frustration. I can see how to approve in that approach as well.
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Constructive Alignment
What are the intended learning outcomes of the course? Do the learning outcomes reflect high-level cognitive skills or low-level skills (pay attention to the verbs)?
The course I chose in the area of my experience, Veterinary Medicine, offered more low level skills in their learning outcomes. In their outcomes, the use of the following verbs was emphasized, such as: name, state, list, identify – implying to me that lower level skills are being asked of the students here.
How is student learning assessed in the course (essays, quizzes, journals, machine-gradable tests, portfolios)?
Main assessments are made through check sheet assignment submissions, other written assignments, quizzes, exams as well as video demonstrations.
In what ways are the intended learning outcomes and the assessments aligned or not?
The discrepancy I see here is that most of the outcomes as well as assessments involve low level skills, except when it comes to their video demonstrations. Those in my opinion involve more high level cognitive skills (the ability to apply their learned skills into a physical performance of the skills, often times with unpredictable variables involved which requires them to trouble shoot and adapt quite quicky in a real time scenario). Their learning outcomes however do not allow for any higher level thinking in order to properly prepare for these video demonstrations, often times resulting in the the objectives of these submissions not being met.
Identify 2-3 items or assessments that are worded in such a way that they limit students to a unistructural or multistructural response at best and re-write them so that they require a relational response at worst and include the results in your post.
1) List and describe the steps in a complete dental prophylaxis.
-Develop a system that allows for the descriptin of the steps included in a complete dental prophylaxis.
2) State the deciduous and adult dental formulas for the dog and cat.
-Create a handout that shows the deciduous and adult dental formulas for dog and cat
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Cognitive Presence
Create a new post and explore a couple of the following questions in relation to the idea of cognitive presence and quality learning experiences in higher education (please be concise):
What do you know now that you did not know prior to starting the course?
I liked the practical inquiry model and its breakdown which allowed for me to clearly see the steps in the process in a more understandable way. I also now see that it’s not just about the ‘engagement’ in the material itself but also this is just one step in the overall, larger, process.
What questions would you like to explore on the topic of cognitive presence?
The difference between process vs the product is something that I would like to explore more, as well as the concepts of discussions and specifically comparing the in-class vs online class discussions.
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Introduction
Hello my name is Vanessa. I have decided to answer the following 3 questions:
- What is the most important characteristic of high quality online learning environments and why it is important?
Open and clear communication, as well as accessibility to the instructor, are an important place to start. Students need to know that you will be there to help guide them and answer any questions, especially navigation and technical issues, that they come up against. I also think it is important to make no assumptions. It is very hard to determine based on sometimes limited communication with a student where they are at or what their needs might be. Striving for as much communication as you can facilitate is so important in these situations.
- What is one thing that you have learned about teaching online (or face-to-face if you haven’t taught online) in the last year and how has it impacted your practice?
You will have students from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of their comfort, capability, anxiety, and experience about being in an online learning environment. You need to adapt and learn to meet where the students are at, individually, in order to be most effective for them.
- What questions do you have about online teaching and learning?
I would really like to explore different avenues that can help with student overall engagement in the class conversations as well as how to facilitate better compliance with engagement with the course content itself. Becoming proficient in the Moodle technology being a specific focus here.
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