The Path to my Masters

As this class progressing, my honest response to the suggested questions posted by Alex is that I am drowning here. I have learned some things, which I will discuss further on or in my second blog entry, but I think the thing that I would like to reflect on in this discussion is the workload and how to figure out an appropriate amount for a course. I imagine that there is some criteria that has to be look at such as standards. I think a lot is dependent on the age group and academic setting. This should be determined in some cases when you are computing who is the target audience for your course. But can it be that simple? I think not.

In my course that I am designing, I am using high school students as my target group. Since I have taught high school and I have participated in delivering some of the ideas in my on-line class previously, I have an idea of what I should expect as a doable workload. But if I work this course out of a high school setting, I am not confident that I would easily assess what is a fair and doable work load.

Also since often in distant learning, you have such a variety of students, how can you know you are challenging some and not burning out others?

For some, our class might not be a hardship, but I am finding that I am not able to keep up. I am trying, but I want to go back and correct or make the improvements suggested, not only to make things better, but because I also want to improve my grade. But I find I am barely able to keep up with the discussions and to get the level of quality to earn a four also seems to daunting to me.

How does a teacher know what is a fair level of work and what is a fair expectation? Do some good students fall by the wayside in frustration? When you design a course, who tells the teacher too hard or too easy, especially if the course is new? In an f2f class, you can gage the pacing from the reaction of the students and change mid course to accommodate with either upping the work or lessening the load. In an on-line course, you are done pretty much when you post and open the course. You set the expectations in the beginning of the course.

Is the outcome of a heavily laden work load also learner-centered course? Since this is a blog, and I am reflecting, I do not think so. I like to research new web sites when I am writing to validate my discussion offerings. Then I am off and running, and yes I am learning, but I often go on to spend time reading the research only to find my limited time taken up with a discovery which may only be reflected by a word in a sentence. I wonder if others in this class find this to be an issue. I spend hours some nights to only come up with a few paragraphs.

My reflection concerns is in formulating a doable work load and assessment that reflects not only the quantitative component, but also the qualitative. A student who has a strong background and experience is also going to bring that into the play in the level of their work. But a student who works as hard or harder because everything is new to them should not be deterred with an unreachable expectation or course work load. Where do you set that bar when you do not know the level of students? I tell my NEO students that even though there are assessments in each of the courses they take, it is not about passing or failing, it is about mastery learning, which “holds achievement constant and lets the time students spend in pursuit of the objectives vary.” (Eric digest, 1995) Can this principal be applied in on-line learning? (4)