W200 Week 4 - 5

This semester, I am working with very closely with my mentee, Verily, on teaching. I feel I always learn something from her every week. In these two weeks, one thing I learned from her is to use sticky notes (note pad) of different colors to ask students for thing they like, how we (as W200 team) can improve, and one concern. It works out pretty great. The nice thing about this is the visual representation of how the students are feeling about the course. That is something I would like to try for next week. Thank you Verily for sharing :)

I am responsible for week 5, and I have reduced the number of PPT. That works better than previous semesters for me. One thing I did different this semester for the mini case scenario is to have students present the technology options they found and share that in front of the whole class. Then we went over each of them. We discuss why some options are not closely related to the needs of the teacher. That greatly helped my students to understand the relationship between step 1 and step 2.

One awesome tool from Canvas is the audio comment feature. I have used this feature to provide students with detailed feedback. It is a great example of enhancing (making impossible possible), and efficient (I usually leave a comment of about 1 minute). The feedback are very specific. From my students' improved class prep, I can see that it works pretty well. It would be better if there is a screencast option. I feel it would be more useful than the video comment feature, which I never used. We are commenting on students' assignments. It would be so much helpful if students can see what we are commenting on at the same time.

W200 Week 1 - 3 Reflection

This is week 3 of W200. This semester, labor day is in week 2. So our week 2 class is online. I used Adobe Connect to record the class. But since it is only week 2, my students are overwhelmed with all things they should remember. In week 3, I created a "W200 When, Where, and How" guidance handout for them to check where to find information. This is something shared by Verily Tan. I think it worked very well. So next semester, I am going to provide the guidance document from week 1.

Also if I have to move one class online, I will try to make it a quick Q&A synchronous session for the students to get ask questions. I should also have a better use of text as a guidance. For example, underneath the lecture video recording, I can add a list of resources they would need, and the deliverable from the activity. If possible, example projects should also be provided.

One thing that I am really proud of is that I have a better collaboration with my ULAs. We walked around the classroom while students were discussing NEST-T standards. We asked them questions, and helped them to come up with examples. As a result, we have great discussions.