I've spent the better part of the past two weeks developing my OLE for my Strategies for Online Teaching and Learning class. What has amazed me about preparing an OLE is the amount of work involved in developing instructions so that the learners can easily navigate through the site understanding the expectations placed on them. It makes me think of a discussion assignment I had last semester in my Instructional Design class where we were asked to choose a procedural analysis and explain how doing the task analysis impacted our instruction. I chose to imagine I was teaching one of my children how to wash a load of clothes. As I began to think about all of the steps involved and all of the things I needed to teach before they even put their first item of clothing in the washing machine, I was blown away.
I had the same feeling this week. Before the students can even be expected to learn about figurative language (which is the topic of my OLE), they need to know how the website is set up, what they are expected to know before and after completing each learning module, how to navigate through the website, how to locate the discussion board, how to log in to Glogster, how to use a Google Spreadsheet, how to open up an attachment, etc. So much of my work so far as been “prep work.”
It is important to complete this prep work well in order for an online class to run smoothly. I knew there was a lot involved, but I took a lot of it for granted. I have a new level of respect for online teachers.
I am probably 75% of the way done with my prep work and am looking forward to finally putting my metaphorical “load of clothes in the washing machine.” I am excited about the content I have found to include in my OLE. I only wish I had a group of students I could test it out on. Until that time comes, I will continue to admire and strive to emulate the effective online teachers I have been blessed with in the past year here at The University of Akron.
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