Pedagogical decisions:
- When designing your online course, make sure that you love the course content and have a strong desire to share this content with others. For my course, it was easy to work with the mythology content and find ways for students to collaborate and share their ideas with each other since mythology is an engaging subject for all ages.
- Use a clear set of guidelines to make sure that you are meeting the needs of your students in the best possible way. I used the NEA Guide to Online High School Courses and focused on three key areas of this rubric: curriculum, instructional design and student role.
- Build your course around specific content standards. For my course, I used the ISTE technology standards for students and the Common Core standards for language arts for grades 9-12. I created a "big picture map" of the units for my online class, the standards for each unit and the creative projects for each unit.
Design decisions:
- I tend to be too wordy when designing and delivering curriculum, so I remind myself to use the principles found in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck by Chip and Dan Heath as well as their article "Teaching That Sticks" to help me decide which pieces of content fit their 6 principles of SUCCESS: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories.
- I looked at a variety of LMS providers, then chose Haiku LMS for the ease of use and aesthetic qualities. Make sure that you look through a number of LMS providers so that you can choose the one that matches the design of your course.
- Get feedback on your course from other people--educators, students, family members, etc. It helps for "fresh eyes" to look at your course and see what will meet students' needs in the most effective and aesthetic way.
Pitfalls to avoid along the way:
- "Biting off more than you can chew" is a common mistake for educators and students alike. It is important to narrow the focus of the course so that it isn't overwhelming for you or your students. This was difficult for me, since the subject of mythology encompasses all cultures in this world throughout human existence on our planet....It helped me to focus on 5 cultures and allow the students to choose a culture to research for the final unit. The "big picture map" of the units for my online class helped me to stay focused on specific standards and ways that students could synthesize specific information in creative ways.
- Procrastination-- We always forget about this pitfall until the last minute...right? Especially when you are juggling a lot of responsibilities in your life, make sure that you stick to a schedule of "small steps and goals to accomplish" so that you don't get buried under a pile of work on the night before your project is due. Make sure that your course has a clear weekly schedule for students to follow so that they don't procrastinate and fall behind in their work. This weekly schedule will allow you to provide feedback at regular intervals along the way.
