Online Learning and Blackboard Site Creating

June 10 - June 16

While reading through this weeks articles it made me really stop and think about online classes in general. I have taken several online classes through out my college career included my first Master's program that was done completely online. However, for any student to be successful when taking an online class or classes they have to be fully prepared because online classes can be more difficult or challenging then on campus classes. Students have to be good written communicators since most of the communication is written. If a student is unable to clearly express his or her thoughts in a nonverbal way then they are most likely not going to be successful in an online course. But sometimes students are uncomfortable with communicating nonverbally and can "give up" and become less motivated to do the work that is required of an online class. Another part of being a successful online student is being self-motivated as well as self-disciplined. A student needs to be both committed and discipline when it comes to an online class because they are not sitting in a classroom on a daily or weekly basis so they need to step up and make sure they are checking in to their class every day to see what students might have posted on the discussion board and respond to their fellow classmates or to simply turn in an assignment. Again, this links back to the written communication skills because as a student you want to be able to post a response not only to the question posed by the teacher but reply to what your fellow classmates have posted as well as asking them questions related to their posts. This is going to make the online classroom a more successful one because in order to make an online classroom environment more welcoming and excited the students need to be able to feel safe about what they can post and know that they are not going to be criticized by their fellow classmates. But again this is a good way for students to learn from each other by reading what their classmates have posted to see if they think the same way or to just simply see another individuals way of thinking about the topic that you may not have even thought of. Another important aspect of making a student successful online is knowing how to use the technology that is available to them. If a student does not know how to use the basics of a computer they are not going to be successful in an online learning environment. As teachers we are going to try and make sure that all students are going to be successful in the online learning environment but we can not sit there and show our students how to go about the basics of a computer. This is where the student needs to decide whether online classes are for them or not. Online learning is an amazing opportunity but it can be more challenging then the traditional classroom setting. So as a student you need to think of what is going to help you be a more successful student and if you can't communicate nonverbally, be self-motivated and self-disciplined, be committed, or have the basic knowledge of computer skills then online learning might not be right for you. But that is ok because online learning is not for everyone and there is nothing wrong with that.

We also had to create a Blackboard site. I have to admit that I did not have much fun creating my own site. I tried to watch the tutorial videos that were provided but at first I couldn't see any of the images and when I went to YouTube to watch them a few of the videos I felt did not help me a lot. When I tried to watch the video on how to create a DB post it seemed like the video skipped some important steps and well I just tried my best through playing around on the course site to create my course site. I guess that is how we learn through trial and error. I am just wondering if this course would have been a little bit easier if it was a hybrid course and we could have had a step-by-step guide from our teacher how to create a blackboard site. I guess this links in with the discussion about a successful online learner. Sometimes I feel that certain concepts are better learned if taught in an actual classroom rather then the students having to figure out how to do things by themselves. I have attached a link to an article about Converting Face-To-Face learning to Hybrid Course. I hope you enjoy reading it!

http://flightline.highline.edu/id/online/converting.to.hybrid.pdf