This should be easy! Yeah, right!
My first fully online course for 251 was created in 2015 with the help of OIT. So, transitioning a 5-week course into a full-semester course for 2021 should have been easy! Everything was already there! Little did I know... |
I suppose some background history on the evolution of the online 251 course is needed. I’ve been incorporating technology into this course for quite some time. In 2009, I received a Faculty First grant to enhance my 251 course with online learning tools. Working with the OIT staff, I developed several materials including a coded close reading with pop-up windows and color enhancements. You can view them at the following link: oithost.utk.edu/modules/maccartey/. In 2018, I received another OIT grant to develop more close reading materials. You can view that here: volweb.utk.edu/~kmaccart/Sonnetproject/index.html These interactive learning tools are consistently met with much enthusiasm as they give students the ability to review the information at their own pace.
In 2015, I participated in the Summer Program for Flipped and Hybrid Teaching. I wanted to explore developing videos and online tutorials as the next phase of my enhancement of the class. I discovered through the OIT workshops and the program’s group activities that the class would be effective in a fully-online format because its current organization and approach is akin to online methods. Just participating in the program, where several assignments, quizzes, blogs, discussions, and even meetings took place online, enabled me to experience the online classroom from the perspective of a student. In other words, even by 2015, shifting the current in-class model of 251 to an online version now made perfect sense.
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How did this compare to the in-class experience? Using Flipgrid and Discussion Boards |
In the summer of 2020, I started with transitioning my 5-week 251 course to the Fall semester-long Canvas course since I had everything I needed for the class. Just move each day to its assigned Tuesday or Thursday, change the dates, alter a few Word documents and I'd be done! Bring on the summer (or at least the next course I had to do!) Because I had always only conceived of the online version of 251 as a 5-week summer class, I hadn't really considered all of the necessary changes I'd have to make for it to function well for nearly 3 times as long. I was very used to teaching the in-class version since I had been assigned to teach it nearly every semester since 2006! So, the marriage of the two should have been bliss. But, from the start it hit some rocks.
First, I had to reorganize all of the lessons on a TR schedule for 14 weeks. I got so confused that I had to hand-write the calendar and then copy and paste the information from the Canvas pages into new ones. This wasn't complicated, just very laborious and stress-inducing. I didn't want deadlines all on top of each other, nor did I want weeks where there wasn't much they were producing for homework activities. It was a balancing act. The discussion boards were the hardest I think. In the summer course, the initial post was due on a Tuesday and the two response posts by Friday. That schedule was the same every week. But, on a TR schedule during the regular semester, having only Wednesday and Thursday to finish reading posts and responding didn't seem fair. So, I struggled with adjusting the days. When I'd move it to the following week, another deadline would be on that day. Could I have two things due? What if the other assignment was a minor close reading or a 250-word journal post rather than a formal 1200-word essay? What would I do during a "normal" semester? Well, those online discussions would be done IN CLASS. Nothing for them to type, read, respond to. Nothing for me to schedule, read, grade. I wanted a bit more interaction since the students were going to be isolated from me and from each other more than ever. The course was not only running during the university shutdown, but I was also offering it asynchronously. I had heard about Flipgrid, a relatively new platform for discussion boards where participants left video posts and replies rather than typed responses within Canvas. This sounded perfect. Students would see each other, they wouldn't have to sit and type everything out, they could interact more in the responses, and I could see their faces too. And setting it up wasn't that hard. The following is an example of Flipgrid. I am becoming the student myself by having to post my own vlog, much like what the students had to do to answer their homework question in the assignment board. I have no idea how I'll feel doing this. Hence, the experiment to help me describe and understand what went on. I'm also flipping the classroom in the sense that I have to teach myself these tools and concepts before I am able to use them for activities in this project. To access the topic posts, use the password: SoTL2021
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