Week 10 - Classroom Management and Facilitation

Hi everyone. I am back and refreshed after an emotional week. Nothing is better than to have a good night sleep and family dinner. Now, back to work. As I mentioned previously I am a Web Novice in using CMS/LMS for online classroom at college level. As a result initially, I would use the CMS/LMS adopted by the college/university. Hopefully, I will have a mentor or a tutorial class to help me select the best tools/elements from the CMS/LMS or other online tools, that can provide the adequate environment for the students. As the week went by I decided to learn more about a specific LMS, the Blackboard. After researching I found an article about pedagogical tips, BlackboardPedagogicalTips. This article post a provocative question that every instructor should ponder about. The question is, "Does the content I place into my course enhance teaching and learning?" For me, the design of the course (organization, presentation, and integration of materials) plays an important role in answering that question.  I see the instructor as the artist of his/her course and being responsible for the:

• objectives and prerequisites established through syllabus, course materials (lectures) and assignments
• presentation of  the content of the material. Instructor should use a varieties of teaching practice that values diverse talents and ways of learning  such as  multiple content formats ( images, sound, animations, graphs, texts, games, video
• student participation by implementing warm up and closure questions, group assignments, online guest speakers, and open forum
• testing using different formats. For math, the use of online self-tests after each main topic is a plus for student to practice and apply concepts.  Real word applications is another way to consolidate student's learning as well as promoting collaboration and discussion among students
• Review and Summary  

Another LMS that I am familiar with is Schoology (Schoology). It is free and it is used in the K- 12 schools and higher education institutions. Even though I did not use this LMS to create, manage, and share the academic content for a course, I can share my opinion about Schoology from a user point of view. Schoology is a straight forward system to navigate. You can easily access and download all the files. You (Student) can submit assignments through Dropbox, watch videos, and take online quizzes/tests with immediate feedback. Finally, you can login into Schoology using any mobile devices.

Whatever you have as a tool you have to adjust to the tool while still keeping in mind that the most important piece is that students are learning.