End of Part 1

Online learning is a great opportunity for all whom have the capability to participate. Although every university have their own style and guidelines in teaching, yet all have a primary website that guides the students.

Unit 1

Blackboard is a main website that is utilized nation wide to successfully accomplish learning online, one must learn how to navigate around this site. The course is setup on Blackboard and the student’s can open up each link. For example the assignments and lesson plans will illustrate what to do and where to find the data.  The syllabus and orientation links gives a basic understanding what the class will entail. The schedule and announcement is also in the first block and frequent updates are placed in the announcement category. The announcements will keep the students informed of upcoming engagements. Which I feel is essential in the learning process especially if questions or explanations of lessons plans need clarification.

Communication is vital and available for the instructor and students via email and discussion board. Students have an opportunity to express their views on the discussion board and answer questions from the lesson plans. This gives them the opportunity to collaborate ideas and understand others point of views. The key expectations are to learn how to collaborate with others and discover in what way to use technology effectively.  Acquiring specific skills will come automatically when engage in completing the classroom lesson plans. The student will become confident and knowledgeable regarding that subject.  

Participating in online discussions can also occur with the live chat tool called Blackboard IM or with the collaborative room. The collaborative room is a great way to see and hear the classmates as everyone synchronizes a time and topic to elaborate on. Remember when discussing topics and responding to issues netiquette standards is important for online classes, which will create a feasible culture.  Individuals interrupt conversations by the way they are expressed, i.e. all caps means shouting, sharp short comments is belittling and rudeness, which can create adversarial relationships. Overall in order for me to succeed requires staying on line at least 3-4 times a week, and verbally keeping in contact with my peers. This will help me to complete the class and prepare for the next level.

Unit 2

In reviewing the class agenda the topic on “strategies for individualize learning from high touch in high tech” I found interesting. The following approaches were successful for online instructors in securing the environment for students in online learning.  Reassurance is the key concept for establishing a base line for learning. The support systems consist of providing available resources, collaborating with peers and instructors, which will help students, gain the knowledge base that is needed. They will trust in the system and the whole idea of online learning. Personally this is how I became comfortable with online learning.  Fear of the unknown is real and will go viral if unpleasant occurrences come about. Establishing goals on the agenda will help the student understand what is required and help promote their independent learning style and give them wisdom to give constructive feedback.  

            A constructivism theoretical framework speaks on how knowledge is acquired from the traditional way.  Subjective knowledge is encouraged with elaborating on one’s thoughts and experiences. The learner will construct their thoughts and process it in a way conducive to there learning styles.  The approach focuses on a wide variation of learning like discussion boards, collaborative classrooms and navigating the website. All of these methods will enhance the experience and learning styles for online classes. This has enhanced my ability to interact with others and develop my technical skills with critical thinking.  Therefore, objectively I have gained a method to advance my online learning as well as understanding the system for teaching in the 21^st century.

Unit 3

Online classes also are distinguished as a hybrid class or a fully online class.  Prior to registering, the students will know which class is offered. Personally, I like the hybrid classes, which consists of some face-to-face sessions on campus. The class is divided up to meet certain requirements to satisfy the online section and in class for presentations. The majority of my nursing DNP classes were hybrid. This helped to create an atmosphere of unity and everyone knew each other. The online section was for discussion board only and valuable time is not wasted. This is one of the strengths of a hybrid class.

            There is always controversies established around online classes, looking at the pro’s and cons to learning. What exactly is the strength to learning online? The number one strength is a student can access the class via Internet anywhere in the world. Students have the advantage to go online at anytime of the day or night as long as they meet the deadlines. There is a continuous process of communication in which resources are available with peers and instructors. The discrimination process concerning race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation is not brought into the conversation unless the student reveals this. Total obscurity measures are in place to learn free of outside bias. The entire virtual classroom is design to complement the student and instructor to design an environment that is different but enhance the learning styles. Online also have some weaknesses that can discourage students from taking these classes. The number one weakness is computer literacy in which students must know how to navigate the Websites and understand the basic technology tools to survive. Time is also a factor students must show some form of discipline and participate with online discussions. The facilitator and curriculum must be organized for success eliminating the traditional style of lecturing.

Overall, I feel Online classes is a great way to learn especially for the 21^st century with high technology. This system is forcing students to get on board and learn.  I would continue to challenge the process of web enhancing by producing creative sites. Have students create blogs and response to each other. Encourage collaborative sessions so students become familiar with the technology in accessing the system together as a group.

Unit 4

            Often individuals express different ways in which they learn. One in particular is visualizing the material and remembers from remote memory. There are many different types of learning styles and there is no right or wrong way. Often people use a mix of learning styles to complete the task. When one understands their unique style of learning they can enhance the speed and quality by working with different techniques. Here is a couple of learning styles, “visual, aural, verbal, kinesthetic, and logical. People can prefer to learn alone which is called intrapersonal or work in a group called interpersonal. Personally I prefer to work alone but occasional I like to work in groups because the work is divided up between everyone and a different perspective is noted. Two of my most favorite styles is read/write and kinesthetic. I like to read and write it down and repeat it out loud. Touching and physically return demonstrations is a strong point; which has helped my clinical career.  I have very keen senses especially my smell because in nursing one learns how to smell different diseases and problems, like blood, infections etc. The theory of VARK has helped elaborate on the many different learning styles.

            Online learning can help influence learning styles with the unique style of accessibility. Often students have disabilities therefore the question is how can these individuals learn online? The deaf can see therefore reading and responding is without problems but the collaborative live class will be a problem unless the instructor type all the comments or the high tech computers will type it for them. The blind also have problems this is when online classes have to be prepared and have a learning plan for theses students.

The learning styles and strategies will help students to advance for example active and reflective learners; how do they learn? Active learners often reach out and apply their knowledge and they will retain the knowledge when they do something with it. Yet, the reflective learner prefer to self sustain and think about it prior to acting. These concepts are helpful to the learner if they stop and think about what they have just learned. Reflect on the content or elaborate on the material with other classmates.  I feel all of this is essential to success with the learning styles.

Unit 5

            Teaching styles is also fundamental to how one learns. There are several teaching styles such as an “expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator and delegator”. Expert instructors have a persona of advance knowledge, skills and professorship.  The facilitator style of teaching really guides the students to explore other options. They work with students to gain the independency they need to move on to achieve the online skills required. The last one is delegator in which this teaching style is there for learners. The delegator dictates the work and is there to guide and help them. Personally I see myself as a facilitator and an expert in my chosen field of nursing.  I say facilitator because I guide and instruct the students and give them one on one treatment. They appreciate it verbally and with the production of their work.
            When teaching the instructor has to be careful because all teaching styles is not conducive to one’s learning style. A delegator will not work with a person who learns off kinesthetic; because they cannot self teach they need some directions. Therefore every teaching style cannot be paired up with any learning style. Evaluations on teaching styles should be required after each session so the instructor have some insight of what the students are looking for. Teaching styles and presentation of information is key to succeeding in passing on the knowledge in a formal way to the students.  One instructor I had would not allow anybody in the class to asked questions. I could not believe my ears; questions were allowed after class. She felt this interfered with the flow of her thought process and time was a big factor.

            Whenever one is ready to teach online they should seek out different advice from other knowledgeable instructors; to view their perspectives on what helped them to succeed.  One key advice is to always have an alterative plan for a class incase something goes wrong with the original plan. Accessibility is also important because students often need to reach out to the instructor therefore emails, or office hours will help if they return messages in a timely fashion.  Last of all evaluation of class and instructors are important for future growth.