Framework for Assessing
My goal is to become an instructor who teaches solely online. So it is extremely important that I am able to find a way to integrate Course Management Systems or CMSs into my pedagogy. CMSs will allow me to set up my course(s) in a way which students are able to engage with one another, ask questions both privately and openly, and provide me with feedback throughout the course through surveys and polls. Surveys are a great way for me to see where my students are, they are like quizzes without the grades, and they also will give my students an opportunity to tell me if there is something they do not quite comprehend. This will then give me the chance to improve upon my own teaching methods.
Giving my students a chance to speak with one another through discussion forums will not only give me some insight as to where they are in their understanding but also view how they engage with one another. Discussion forums will also provide students a chance to learn from and about one another, which is one of my main goals as an instructor. Teaching Religion and Healthcare can be tricky because there are so many varying opinions on how to handle both. If I step back and let students speak with one another, this will give them a chance to learn, inadvertently, about what makes each of them unique. By doing this, they will hopefully come to understand different cultures, backgrounds, religious beliefs, and healthcare views.
Incorporating technology with education is a prime way to give students a chance to use the technology they enjoy outside of learning and enjoy using them during their learning. Through CMSs, students are able to play games, use apps for education, set up their own person profiles, and take part in learning that doesn’t feel like learning because it is enjoyable. One of the CMSs that I believed held the most promise was the one that utilized all of these features was Edmodo. While it wasn’t geared towards the collegiate students I hope to someday instruct, I see how it could be very effective if some of the apps were more advanced and the parental controls were removed.
Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Heath Staker (2013) ask whether or not blending old technology with new technology is a good or bad in their article, “Is K-12 Blended Learning Disruptive?” While the classes I hope to teach would be fully online, I do not believe that adding new technology to the learning process would be any more disruptive than some believe it to already be. According to Christensen, Horn, and Staker (2013), online learning has been showing improvements over the years due to recent innovations and combining old technologies with new technologies. It would only make sense that we should learn to embrace this newer form of education and continue to find ways to improve upon it through the latest technologies and CMSs.
Below is my assessment of three different CMSs that could be used in online learning: Wix, CourseSites by Blackboard, and Edmodo. While Wix and CourseSites by Blackboard may seem to be obvious choices for higher learning, I really took a liking to Edmodo and wished that there was a more advanced version for college level students:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14E-oy1LsHipY0u2SeDWWWXcqk7CEpowBGQayp2_zbBc/edit?usp=sharing
