Keeping Things Organized

As I continue on in developing my virtual learning behaviors course, I must say that I am pretty surprised but pleased with how well it is going. With each passing week, I feel more confident that I am heading in the right direction towards creating a quality course that my students will not only learn from but enjoy as well.

In my discussion post from last week, I discussed in detail the learning activities and assessments I intend to use for my virtual learning behaviors course as well as content changes I may make to better the experience for learners. This week, in alignment with some of the readings and videos presented, my main focus was on organizing. Another way to better the online learning experience for students, having a well-organized LMS helps prevent a learning environment where “the student doesn’t know where to start, is not sure where to find resources, how to interact, or how to learn” (Morrison, 2013). Therefore, when I began adding materials and content into the first three weeks of my course, I decided the “one-stop shop” model would be the best way to make navigating Schoology easy for my 3rd graders and their parents.

My first level of “one-stop shop” implementation can be seen on my Schoology homepage. As soon as learners access the site, they can see all of the major information areas either separated into different pages or different folders. My welcome/introduction and course guidelines and expectations have their own designated pages and each week has its own, different colored folder complete with a description of the learning objective for the week underneath. I also plan to add a link for the Schoology navigation screencast I plan to create for my learners showing them the areas they will need to use specifically for this course. This link will stay on the homepage as a refresher just in case students forget how to get to a particular location. By organizing the homepage in this manner, students are able to easily get an idea of what the course may be like which can, possibly, help lessen any anxiety they or their parents may have about the course because they can see that help and resources are readily available to them when they need it.

My second level of “one-stop shop” organization is within the folders. When students click on the folder for the week, all of the learning activities and discussion board questions for that week are listed. Each activity has its own separate page. Also listed is a page with an activity choice board which allows learners to, within their folder, easily access the requirements for completing and turning in their chosen learning artifact. Having all of these major assignments for the week listed in one contained place lessens confusion by allowing learners to easily see everything that needs to be completed for the week.

My final level of “one-stop shop” organization is within the activity pages. When learners click on an activity page, they will see detailed directions (in steps) for that particular activity as well as links to any resources they may need to complete their activity. Rather than having students go back and forth between pages, I wanted to include everything on one screen so students can easily keep up with their progress and check off steps as they go.

Efficiency is key in any learning environment but I believe this is the case even more in the virtual learning environment that is 100% online like mine will be. With so many more opportunities to get distracted when learning from home, I can’t afford to have my learners waste any time on something as preventable as online navigation issues. Therefore, I am trying my best to be proactive in as many ways as possible in this area. If you have any other ideas, suggestions, or feedback on ways I can improve on what I am planning so far, please feel free to comment below.

REFERENCES

Morrison, D. (2013, May 28). “Start Here “: Instructional Design Models for Online Courses. Retrieved from https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/start-here-instructional-design-models-for-online-courses/