Virtual Teacher Specialization Course #1 - Course #5

Virtual Teacher Specialization. Develop the skills to teach online

• Open Science Resources

https://www.coursera.org/learn/k-12-education/supplement/9WSnL/open-science-resources

• Open English Languge Arts  Resources

https://www.coursera.org/learn/k-12-education/supplement/nHRyL/open-english-language-arts-resources

• Open Math Resources

https://www.coursera.org/learn/k-12-education/supplement/XWVxu/open-math-resources

Course #1: Foundations of Virtual Instruction 

Offered by UCI (University of California, Irvine), Division of Continuing Education

Things I learn

• Reluctance may come from students as Students see it sort of violating that unspoken contract in the classroom which is I'm gonna sit here and I won't bother you if you stand up there and talk and don't bother me.
• The flipped classroom. A lot of people think of it as a technology but it's not. It's a pedagogy, which is a way of teaching. 
• The instructor faces a shift from being a content provider to a content facilitator.The instructor becomes more of a facilitator than a provider of direct instruction.
• learning management systems: Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, and Schoology. An LMS may also be referred to as a course management system (CMS), education management system (EMS), or virtual learning environment (VLE). 

ttps://www.coursera.org/specializations/virtual-teacher

The courses are designed for teachers working with K-12 students, instructors working with further education, community college or vocational students, continuing education or in-service facilitators 

supporting teachers and faculty, and educators interested in educational technology an/or online instruction. No prior teaching experience is necessary. 

• COURSE 1 Foundations of Virtual Instruction
• COURSE 2 Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom
• COURSE 3 Advanced Instructional Strategies in the Virtual Classroom
• COURSE 4 Performance Assessment in the Virtual Classroom
• COURSE 5 Virtual Teacher Final Project

It is recommended that students start with the first course of the series and follow the order listed, however, it is not mandatory.

Course Learning Objectives

• Craft virtual learning experiences that align with your student's needs. 
• Set up a learning environment to get to know your students, and they get to know each other.
• Use a variety of online tools to provide feedback and personalize the learning experience.
• Identify at-risk students and employ effective strategies for teaching them.
• Compare and contrast online and face-to-face learning communities.
• Apply strategies to make virtual courses more human.

Textbooks are optional: 

Ko, S. & Rossen, S. (2017). Teaching Online: A Practical Guide.

Rice, K. (2020). Making the Move to K-12 Online Teaching.

terms “online learning,” “virtual education and instruction,” “e-learning,” and “cyberlearning” are used interchangeably

correspondence courses

• Common platforms for synchronous live sessions include Zoom, Adobe Connect, and Blackboard Collaborate.
• Chat:Google Chat or Microsoft Teams 
• VOIP/Phone: Google Voice or Skype

Course #2 Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom

Start on June, 8, 2021

This course is focused on emerging trends and technologies, specifically for K-12 instructors. Most of the content will be aimed at high school-aged students in the U.S., or ages 13-18 in other countries. Due to the nature of some of the internet-based technologies, young students are required to be 13 or older to participate.

virtual education lends itself readily to this style of learning—self-paced, adaptive, and constructivist. This approach is in stark contrast to conventional educational thinking, which instead of mastery has embraced academic terms, pacing geared for the “middle” student, and seat time as indicators of academic achievement.

• learning management systems,  LMS platforms include Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Buzz
• communication/collaboration tools, Nearpod, Peardeck, Kahoot, Explain Everything, Remind,  Google Suite
• assessment tools (including gaming), Quizlet, Kahoot, and Google Form

This module focuses on the role of educational technology in K-12 virtual education and addresses three topics:

• The role of educational technology in the K-12 virtual classroom
• Major categories of technologies available for K-12 virtual education
• Recommended processes for both evaluating and implementing technology in K-12 virtual education

virtual classrooms must at a minimum support three levels of student engagement:

• Connection and engagement with the content
• Connection and engagement with the teacher
• Connection and engagement with peers

Common Features of Learning Management Systems

• Enrollment/Registration Features
• Communication Tools
• Parent or Guardian Accounts
• Settings and Notifications
• Mobile Friendly 
• Organization and Storage of Digital Content (The content is organized by units or modules and consists of presentations/readings, assignments, discussions, and assessments.) 
• Student Collaboration Tools (breakout rooms)
• Grading and Feedback Tools (includes adding rubrics, applying proficiency scales, tagging, matching, and tracking standards, and providing timely, robust feedback.)
• Robust Gradebooks and Learning Mastery Tools
• Assessment Tools (Computer-scored assessments; Project-based courses)
• Data and Analytics Tools
• Student Privacy Issues 

https://edtech.worlded.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TTALE-Rubric-2.26.pdf

open educational resources (OERs) in K-12 virtual education.

 

OER’s are free and usually available under Creative Commons licensing. This means you can use them in your own teaching by linking to the content, embedding them in your learning management system, and in most cases adapting them without needing to worry about copyright issues

In 1998, David Wiley began promoting the idea of open content. In 2001, David Wiley’s ideas evolved into the founding of Creative Commons. Around the same time, MIT announced its OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative.

In 2002, the concept of open educational resources (OERs) was formally defined. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) helped organize this as an effort to bring education to countries that didn’t have access to the same kinds of experts or research institutions as those in developed countries. In 2008, the OpenCourseWare Consortium was founded as an independent nonprofit organization focused on sharing open resources throughout the world in a very easy-to-use and transparent way. (This organization is now called Open Education Global.) 

 Open Education Movement

In higher education, two providers of MOOCs are Coursera and edX. Canvas Network, Cognitive Class, Kadenze, and Udacity. Khan Academy provide MOOCs for the K-12 market

MIT OpenCourseWare: The collection includes not only content used in MIT courses, but videos and self-contained courses that teachers can incorporate into their own lessons, as well.

Open Education Global (known previously as the OpenCourseWare Consortium and then the Open Education Consortium): OE Global provides a variety of open education resources and an organizational structure for promoting the use of OERs around the world.

MERLOT: Initiated in 1997 by the California State University Center for Distributed Learning, MERLOT provides a curated source of learning objects organized and tagged by lesson outcomes. This is a good, broad source of resources appropriate for both young students (K-12) and adult learners.

OpenStax CNX: OpenStax and OpenStax CNX (Connections) provide open-source textbooks and related resources on a wide variety of topics suitable for high school and university courses. Note that OpenStax CNX is being retired but textbooks will continue to be available through the OpenStax website. The origins idea behind Connections was that learning objects need to be surrounded by a context such as a complete lesson plan, which allows teachers to share entire courses along with relevant teaching methodologies.

Course #3 Advanced Instructional Strategies in the Virtual Classroom

The below textbooks are optional:

• Stephens, M. (2013). Teaching in Zero.
• Pacansky-Brock, M. (2013). Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies.

Tools that Support Direct Instruction

https://www.coursera.org/learn/teaching-strategies/supplement/u2TTW/tools-that-support-direct-instruction

• Nearpod
• Google Suite
• Adobe Captivate
• Camtasia 

Building Relationships with Students include Expectations, log, grade, etc. https://www.coursera.org/learn/teaching-strategies/supplement/t0g4b/building-relationships-with-students https://www.coursera.org/learn/teaching-strategies/supplement/Xc9Fj/technology-for-personalized-learning

prescriptive learning. This approach literally provides a prescription of what students need to know to master a particular topic. It is similar to a mastery path except that it allows students to test out of or bypass subject areas they have already mastered. Finally, student motivation and performance hinges on engagement. At every step of the way in the virtual classroom, students must be engaged at three levels: students must engage with their teacher; students must engage with their peers; and students must engage with the content.

Course #4  Performance Assessment in the Virtual Classroom