In collaboration with my colleagues Bret and Brianne we have come to the end of designing our blended online course. The experience of collaboration, peer reflection and self evaluation has been a success. The final goal, a finished product that is usable in our teaching whether it be in a typical face to face classroom, a blended classroom or strictly an online version. Through the use of Google Classroom as our LMS we believe that we have developed a course that is simple to follow for both students and colleagues. Our course focuses on the outcomes and indicators in the Grade 8 Life Science Saskatchewan Curriculum – Cells, Tissues and Organ Systems. If you would like to join our classroom in the previous listed link you can login into google classroom with a gmail account and use this code (hyclltn) to become a student in our course.
Designing the Course – A Team Effort
Bret, Brianne and myself decided to collaborate on this course because as the saying goes “two heads are better than one” – so let’s just make it three. We selected the grade 8 science area because Bret and Brianne are currently teaching this in their classrooms and wanted to work on a project that could be implemented into their learning spaces. When designing a course together we had to be aware of our individual teaching styles, personal strengths and weaknesses and be willing to make accommodations. We believe that together as a team we have done a good job of creating an engaging course for students at Harbour Landing Elementary. Our first step in the whole process was to create the big picture and make the course profile. Next, we looked into the curriculum and divided up the outcomes so that each of our modules contained certain outcomes and indicators. We tried to make sure that our course had good flow within our modules so that students weren’t missing any key learning concepts. Lastly, we choose to keep a consistent theme for our slides so it would be less confusing for our students. However, we did decide that it would be okay to not worry about having identical teaching methods because the variation within our modules would provide engagement for all of our learners’ needs.
During this semester of class we had several informative conversations about creating online communities, the importance of making an online course accessible by all and explaining in our words the purpose of school. All of the conversations provided helpful insight into how we should continue to design our course shell to ensure that it became a valuable learning platform for everyone. At the halfway mark it was time to let others take a peek at our work and complete a peer review. What were they going to say? Would they think we were creating a useful course or would they think we were completely off track? Despite our nerves getting the best of us our reviewers provided us with some useful criticism and plenty of positive feedback.
Course Overview – Google Classroom
Together we developed a google classroom that allows students to be active participants in our course whether they be at home or in the classroom with us. In our google classroom we have set up an easy framework for our students to follow. Within the classwork section there are different categories the students can access. For example we have the general course information category – where they can find our contact information, a you-tube video on how to use google classroom, and a detailed outline of the course. There is also a section for each module that has been developed. Currently this course covers 3 of the 4 outcomes from the Saskatchewan Curriculum, if a teacher was planning to use the course they would likely need to complete a few more modules in order to fully complete the outcomes of the grade 8 science curriculum.
We have designed six modules that have a good flow of content knowledge from one to the next. In the first and second modules we focus on the history of the cell and its structures. In the third and fourth modules we move onto how the cell makes tissue and how tissues make organs. Finally in the fifth and sixth modules we make the connections between organs and organ systems and how they function to make a healthy human body. Throughout our modules we use a variety of different teaching methods, interactive digital tools and provide students with written and viewing learning opportunities. The modules all contain a summative or formative style of assessment where students complete a self reflection activity, a google form test, or an assignment with a provided rubric. We have attempted to find ways to ensure that there are relationship building opportunities between students and with their teacher by using a variety of digital tools and group activities to enhance the classroom community feel.
In order to create a course that we believe could be accessible to all we designed the following course profile. In our course profile you will find a more comprehensive plan for the specifics of our course. In our course profile we go into greater detail about our target audience, the course LMS and digital tool box, our course communication options, assignments, materials and assessments to be used. Overall we were attempting to create a course that provided an education that is relevant and concurrent with the pace and needs of our digital world. We want to provide students with the opportunity to learn in a variety of ways, by learning through and with technology hopefully we can prepare them to be digitally literate.
A true pleasure to collaborate and work with great like minded professionals. Thanks Brianne and Bret, until the next time we get to work together!
An experience in the peer review process. This past week Brianne, Bret and I had our course reviewed by our peers in EC&I 834. We all appreciated this experience as it provided us with valuable suggestions on how to improve our course as well as it gave us positive feedback about the work that we had already completed.
Positive Feedback
Let’s start here. Thank-you to all of our reviewers that noted that our course shell was incredibly organized. The three of us all take pride in our ability to maintain an organized, well thought out classroom whether it be in person or online. We are of a similar belief that if the teacher is well organized then the students will be less confused. We also appreciate the feedback that was noted around the time we put into our work. We as teachers often work very hard behind the scenes to make engaging lessons for our students and don’t necessarily receive the recognition, so thank-you for your honesty. For any of the reviewer’s who stated you would like to have our course we would gladly share, it makes us feel proud that others would want to use our work!
Course Prototype and Course Shell
In general our reviewers were very pleased with the layout of our course and stated that it was well thought out. They felt that the LMS choice of google classroom was an appropriate choice for the grade 8 grade level. Several good suggestions were made for us and we will certainly use them to improve upon our course. The following are some overall thoughts from our reviewers.
Provide more student instruction on how to use google classroom
Provide more student instruction for each module (pre recorded videos of the lecture)
Provide contact information of teachers (email, phone, etc.)
Provide more opportunities to have student to student interactions
Course Rational and Concerns appeared to be missing
Keep the titles of the modules consistent
A Personal Look into our Modules
Bret (Module 1 and 2)
Thank you to Chris W and Jacquie V for taking the time to check out my module and provide me with positive feedback as well as some constructive criticism – it is greatly appreciated! I was nervous to read the feedback, as I wasn’t really sure how much to include or what format to use. I am always a bit nervous when presenting any sort of material to colleagues. Once I was brave enough to dive into the feedback, I was pleasantly surprised with the positive thoughts as well as some very constructive ideas that will help improve the module. Some of the positive feedback that I received for my module 1 was:
I was thrilled one of my reviewers noted the difficulty in creating an opening lesson for a unit and how difficult it could be; they later mentioned that this was an outstanding way to start a unit.
The YouTube video I selected (The Grand Cell Tour) was very thorough and the purpose of choosing that video was evident.
Utilizing textboxes and a simple “edit” prompt so that students know they have a question to respond to or answer.
The flexibility of this module; being able to be easily used as a synchronous or asynchronous lesson.
Along with the positives came some constructive comments about the module:
Provide more instructions for students to complete the cell organelle graphic organizer. Have students work in partners and use the internet to research each organelle.
Accessibility for those with technology or bandwidth issues; paper copies, come to the school earlier, etc.
Include an overview video or instruction slide for the students so they are aware of what they are expected to complete. There was an instruction slide in the module, but perhaps could be formatted differently or placed in a better spot for students to see earlier.
As with any sort of feedback, I am always more interested in constructive feedback (I like the positives too), but the constructive criticism is what is going to make the content better for our students. The feedback that was given throughout the process is very much appreciated and has already been implemented in the planning of my next module!
Brianne (Module 3 and 4)
I was very nervous to let my colleagues review my work and receive feedback. This was a new experience for me and I was unsure of how my expectations for myself compared to others. Thank you to Corrin C and Lindsey A for taking the time to review and give feedback that I can put to use.
I was given plenty of positive feedback and some constructive criticism as well. Let’s start with the positive feedback:
The amount of content is appropriate and the students will not be overwhelmed
The response to nonfiction graphic organizer was a great way to synthesize new information
321 exit slip is revealing for grade 8 and is good tool to help guide teaching
There are many engagement pieces such as JamBoard, responding to nonfiction, 321 exit slip, and a self assessment
Outcomes and I Can Statements make it clear for the student what we are trying to achieve
The module is easy to use at home or at school
I was also given constructive criticism:
Consider adding voice instruction for students who have difficulty reading or are not reading at grade level
Add the Outcome at the bottom of the self assessment
Consider using the rubric function in Google Classroom (why didn’t I think of that!)
Add a tool such Google ReadWrite for students who need support reading and responding
I am grateful for the positive feedback but even more so for the constructive criticism as I can apply this to what I have already created. This is such a simple way to assess and I ignored it. I will definitely use this for my next module as their perspective was different and showed me what I might have overlooked.
Leona (Module 5 and 6)
Thank-you to Leigh T and Dalton D for the positive feedback and constructive criticism that was noted in the reviews of my module 5. I appreciate the positive feedback about my content knowledge and the overall organization of my modules. I was pleased to read that my reviewers thought that my modules were not overwhelming and simple to follow along with. Online learning seems to be confusing at times so my goal is to make it more streamlined for my students, I often think “less is more”. I am so glad that one of the reviewers commented on the note taking sheet. I find that note taking has become something students are not very good at anymore. I like to create note taking sheets to help them develop better skills in that area and then eventually have them create notes of their own. Each reviewer provided me with useful ways in which I could improve my module and I certainly will be adjusting my module 5 and implementing those ideas into my module 6. Some of the suggestions made were as follows:
Using the classwork tab over stream tab ( I added a small video in the course section on how to navigate google classroom a bit better, also added a youtube video about using google classroom)
Provide more student instructions – In each of my modules I now have two slides – one for teacher instructions if I have a substitute deliver my lesson and a student instruction sheet. In module 6 I have added a short video overview of the lesson)
Student to Student Interactions – It was suggested that I had several teacher – student interactions but maybe was missing the student to student interaction. In module six the final project is working with a group to develop a google site about two systems of the body and how they interact to make a healthy person.
Private Links – In the beginning I forgot to open all the links up – I have now made sure that they are public – Well I sure hope I have.
Once again thank-you for the feedback. I do believe that peer review is a valuable process. Albeit sometimes difficult to potentially accept, however so often we are incredibly kind towards each other and that is certainly how I felt after this round of reviews.
Accessibility and Equity within our Course
Demographics and Learnings Styles
Not all students are the same, everyone has different learning styles, needs and adaptations that allow them to be successful in their own way. As teachers it is certainly a challenging job to ensure that all needs are being met. When designing a course it is difficult to plan for every consideration, however it is likely reasonable to plan for those that we are aware of will occur in our learning spaces. Before embarking on planning a course it is incredibly valuable to know more about the students that will be in your learning space. When you know what you are dealing with it is much easier to be more prepared. As Bates outlines in Chapter 9.2.1, student demographics, learning style and accessibility are crucial pieces of information that teachers need to understand to be able to know exactly who is in their classrooms.
Demographic information is very valuable when designing a class and you as a teacher are trying to decide what type of technology or media to use or not. For example if there are EAL, LRT, Hard of Hearing or Blind students in your class you would work towards making your module fit all needs. In some scenarios you might need to make worksheets that are adjusted reading levels, you might need to ensure that you have access to google read and write, there might be a need to develop slides that are easily read by a reader. It would be best practice to develop the course based on the needs of the students and not use an incredible amount of your time prepping for possible situations that may not occur. Through the use of student demographic sheets teachers should take a comprehensive inventory of any disabilities or learning needs that students might require. This will allow teachers to plan accordingly and support students in the best that they can.
Accessibility
Accessibility is another aspect that teachers must be aware of when they are designing their online course work. This works very closely with student demographics and most often, teachers will be able to identify students’ access to technology, media or bandwidth by understanding their student demographic which makes up their classroom. Bates again outlines in Chapter 9.2.1 two sets of questions that teachers need to answer before finalizing a course. The first set of questions surrounds the teacher’s use of technology for the purpose of teaching.
The second set of questions outlined by Bates, surrounds the expectations if students are to supply their own devices.
Bates goes on to further outline that for both teachers and students to answer these questions, teachers must be clear with why and how they intend to use technology. There is no point in requiring students to provide their own technology if you are uncertain if you will in fact be utilizing it in your class. This requires some more foreplanning by the teacher to ensure that there is not an unwarranted expense to the student families. Teachers must answer the following when making concrete decisions surrounding technology or media in their class.
As we continue to learn and develop our awareness of blended online learning it becomes obvious that it is complicated. There are numerous aspects to consider and there is no real perfect method. One of the key concepts that we continue to think about is that blended online learning requires you to be “Flexible” in order to help students succeed. Although complicated, Bates outlines that teaching and learning online can provide students more opportunities to learn while at the same time accommodating student differences more easily. With that said, it becomes apparent that the first step a teacher needs to take with incorporating technology or media is to know their students, the similarities, the differences, what digital skills they possess and what kind of access to technology is available to them.
Bret, Brianne and myself have been working away at creating a course for a grade 8 life science topic. We are focusing on the cells, tissues, organs and system outcomes and indicators from the Saskatchewan Curriculum. At this point in time we have all created 1 module each and have chosen to focus on synchronous delivery of our modules. Our next round of modules will have an asynchronous approach to the delivery of the modules. All of our modules are made through google slides and can be accessed in our google classroom.
