Real Online Course Design Part IV: A Breakthrough Explosion of Creativity
This morning I awoke feeling unsettled with my upcoming online courses. So, at 6:30am, I got my computer out and opened all of my notes thus far (Part I, Part II, and Part III). I had no idea what to do or how to proceed. All I had was a vague idea that I would find the answer in an article about teaching and learning.
I decided to search the journal New Directions for Teaching and Learning. This is a journal that publishes articles by authors who are career teachers. They emphasize the authority of the practitioner. I hoped that I would find something inspiring that was written by someone with decades of experience trying to facilitate significant learning in their higher ed courses. I read articles about experiential learning, learner-centered teaching, meaningful learning, personal learning, giving up teaching for learning, assessing learning, etc. There were some interesting articles, but nothing clicked. I also read a few referenced articles from Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning.
I opened up my fourth "Planning My Online Courses" document, and began rewriting my learning goals. Stuff like:
What sorts of outcomes would I like students to achieve?
1. Goal-Setting (Career, Personal)
2. Self-knowledge
3. Authenticity/Congruence
4. Personal Responsibility/ Inner locus of control
5. Emotional Intelligence
Strategies for accomplishing them
1. Self-knowledge:
a. Personal Inventories
b. Reflection questions: Career, personality, relationships, goals, worries, problems, strengths, weaknesses, etc.
c. 10-yr plan: Where do you see yourself in 10 years. Be specific.
2. Authenticity/congruence
a. Recognize feelings
b. “I” statements
c. Being a process (not fixed)
3. Personal responsibility
a. Recognizing the impact I make
b. Reflecting on what I learn and how I will change my behavior moving forward
c. Reflecting on mistakes, and how to avoid them
4. Emotional intelligence
a. Reflection questions/worksheets about forgiveness, gratitude, emotional exploration, gratitude journal
I even created tables to plan experiential learning courses (under which I wrote "No").
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