Online learning is convenient, but not always easy. Online learning is nice to have the ability to schedule yourself, but it also takes discipline. Sometimes I'm able to read and post right away. Other times I cannot read and post until Wednesday due to other commitments. Again, this is convenient, but sometimes puts a crunch on the amount to accomplish in a shorter time.
I'm fairly sure my stresses of online learning have often been due to my classes being of the 6-week nature. They are the only kind I've taken. I appreciate the ability to learn on my own. I appreciate having the ability to discuss with classmates while saving gas. These are just a couple examples of positive experiences of online learning.
Another positive, I thought at first, was podcasts. Initially, I was thrilled to not have to read another article. Thrilled to relax and just soak in the information. Sadly, this doesn't happen. While I still enjoy the idea of a podcast, they are too long. And honestly, the length may not matter. Taking an online class during the school year, which may not matter either, I find podcasts too easy to 'mind-wander' away. I find myself thinking of what I need to accomplish for anything else in my life, including other assignments in the class.
On occasion, there are additions to a podcast. There are notes or slideshows and both are appreciated because they provide something on which to focus. If my eyes are focused, my brain has a better chance of being so too. More specifically, the slideshows, with podcast, are best. Why? Because the information is often changing.
With accompanying notes, it is still just a page of words, similar to articles, and I still get distracted too easily. (ADD wasn't prevalent when I went to school but I may have been diagnosed with it.) When a slideshow goes along with a podcast, the background, or scenery, changes every minute or so and I am able to stay on task much better.
So, I would take the podcasts and the notes and combine them into screencasts, or videos. Perhaps, sharing or making videos like on Common Craft or using the ShowMe app would be cool. I would explore a way to make these so there is some action, something that changes from time-to-time instead of staring at a blank screen. Doesn't need to be flashy, just something to keep my mind from wondering.
The other items I would consider changing is how the weekly discussions are run. I believe the discussions are organized in a nice way and I get it, but it took a long time to learn where everything was and to know where I needed to post. I wonder if it would be simpler to understand if, instead of having separate categories of information, if the information was separated by week. This way, I know to login to the discussions and find the Week 4 Category vs. a couple different areas with Week 4 labeled inside the assignment. When logging in and clicking on Week 4, I can see the article discussions and the topic discussions. Now, I must go to 2 or 3 different areas to complete all my tasks.
I really have enjoyed the labs much more than anything. One class we had a Twitter lab and I'm now a Twitter junkie ('ish). We also had a Google lab and while I don't often take advantage of that, it was a cool experience and something that can translate to the classroom, either as something for students to experience or for me to find information. Currently, we offered the opportunity to create a final presentation using a screencast tool. I thought this was awesome. It was simple to use and provided a different way to present, which was great since I was out-of-town at a soccer tournament all weekend (we took 2nd out of 12 teams). This tool will also be simple and useful for my students. And that's all I really care about, finding things that are useful in the classroom, and using and experiencing labs and tools are what work for me.
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