TEACHING AND LEARNING IN AN ONLINE OR BLENDED CLASS

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Learning Outcomes

Learn how to be a successful online student in this class.
Understand the nature of competency-based learning, including digital open badges, and how it will be used in this course.

How to Learn Effectively

In this lesson, we will introduce you to the goals and procedures of the course so you can have a successful learning experience. We know it's tempting to multitask when viewing online videos, or to skip them entirely. Please resist this temptation! Online and blended classes (like this one) rely on videos to communicate effectively with students, so brushing off videos can lead to unnecessary struggles. Every semester we have students who struggle in the class or on assignments simply because they do not view the videos, read the material, or pay attention to our class announcements. We'll try to keep this material short, so be sure to pay attention!

Devotionals

The first aim of a BYU education is to be spiritually strengthening. We learn best when we learn in an environment where the Holy Ghost is present, and we invite the Holy Ghost by prayer and by turning our minds and thoughts to Christ and His doctrine. Spencer W. Kimball said that we should keep our subject matters "bathed in the light and color of the restored Gospel" (Spencer W. Kimball, "Education for Eternity," Preschool Address to BYU Faculty and Staff, 12 September 1967, p. 11). There is a great deal that the scriptures and modern prophets can teach us about our use of technology.

Competency-Based Learning & Open Badges

Our class is a competency-based class. That means that

You are graded on how well you master the material.
If you do not master the material, you are allowed to keep trying until you do (within reason).

Please watch this short video that explains a bit more about competency-based learning, but in the context of a K-12 school that has adopted this approach:

Because BYU is not a competency-based institution (most universities aren’t), we’ll still use a traditional grading framework (i.e., A-E Grades), but my goal is for each of you to master the competencies.

One important aspect of competency-based learning is that you need a way of proving you have developed a competency. Grades aren’t very good at this, because grades represent a lot of things including effort, competency, attendance, etc.—over a whole semester. What if you earned a B+ in a class? Does that mean you mastered EVERY competency in the class? Maybe you did, and just lost points for attendance. Maybe you aced everything in the class except one thing—and you bombed that one thing. To an employer, that B+ grade doesn’t actually tell very much about what your real competencies are.

Open badges provide a better way to recognize what competencies a learner has actually developed. Please view this video, which explains what badges are, and why they can be a better credential for learning:

In our class, you will earn a grade—so you can graduate from BYU. But we will also give you the opportunity to earn badges—so you can show others what you really know!

This course integrates with Badgr, an open badges issuing platform. All of the badges (which ARE the rubrics for our major class assignments) are available on our Badgeschool issuer page found on Badgr.io. Badgr is also where you can view your earned badges, download them to post on a digital portfolio, or share them directly on social media. If you're interested in using badges as a teacher in your own classroom, you can also explore Badgr's FREE issuing capabilities.

While you are in this course, you can also access most of your badges from the Badges menu in Canvas. But since you will not have access to this portal after the course ends, we highly recommend setting up your own Badgr account at Badgr.io, sometime before the end of this semester. Be sure to use the same email address that you use to login to Canvas in order to see all the badges you have earned in this course.

Link

Note: The badges we offer are for technology that you can access for free on a full or trial basis. You are never required to pay for any feature. Companies are constantly updating their programs, so if a feature that is required for a badge is behind a paywall, contact your instructor.

Who cares about badges? It's still a new technology, but growing in popularity. Following are organizations and school districts locally that already are using badges with their teachers, or are thinking about doing so:

Davis School District
Provo School District
Park City School District
Duchesne School District
Utah Department of Education
U.S. Department of Education
ISTE and AECT, national organizations for teacher technology integration standards
Many other school districts outside of Utah!

Introduction to IP&T 371

Now that you know a bit about competency-based learning and badges, we would like to explain how this class will work, along with the other IP&T educational technology courses.

To complete this part of the lesson, do the following:

Become familiar with the course schedule. The best place to reference the course schedule is on the Canvas calendar. Please view it, bookmark it, print it, add it to your own calendar feed - whatever you need to do to keep track of it and learn effectively!
Read the syllabus here in Canvas as well as all the information for April 30.
Complete all required assignments associated with Module 1.1, Teaching and Learning in an Online or Blended Class.
After completing the above, if you have any questions about the class, we would be happy to meet with you in person. Feel free to email your instructor or TA with any questions you may have.

Using Canvas for this Course

Navigating Canvas should be pretty easy, but there are a couple of things that we want to make you aware of:

We strongly recommend that you view the course primarily from the home page, so that you are sure to see the content and instruction before the assignments and discussions.
Please adjust your notification settings so that class announcements are emailed to you immediately. These announcements will often have important information for completing assignments.
Readings in this course are assigned numbers (e.g., 1.1, 1.2) while assignments to complete are assigned a letter with the number (e.g., 1.A, 2.B).
Please view all embedded content. Some content in this course is merely linked, that is, there is blue text indicating that clicking on it will take you to an external page. Unless you are explicitly directed to open it, linked material generally represents supplemental material that you may view if you wish to enrich your learning, or material that is linked for your convenience in navigating the course. Embedded material is something you can view or interact with without leaving the Canvas page (e.g., a video that allows you to play it without going to an external page; a comprehension quiz you can play on the page), You should always view or participate in embedded materials as part of your "reading."

Class Expectations

It is expected that students engage in class activities and discussions, and seek to apply the principles they learn into their future careers as educators. Engaging in an online or blended class can be different than engaging in a traditional setting. In this course, it is expected that students will

contribute to online class discussions by answering discussion prompts, asking relevant questions, and providing original ideas and thoughts. In other words, you cannot simply make “drive-by" postings of “Me too!” or “I like your point here.” The most important discussion posts you can make will apply the class topics to your own future teaching and subject area.
complete the assignments by the assigned due date.
be willing to try new things, including skills and computer programs.
maintain a positive attitude in the pursuit of new knowledge and competencies.

Getting Assistance

We will provide many ways for you to get help in learning the competencies in this course.

First, you should definitely begin each assignment by reading the material we have for you. We will also provide some tutorials. We will not create tutorials for every step in an assignment, but for the things that are most problematic for students. All the tutorials we create will be housed on our Tutorials Site.

Second, you can find many tutorials yourself online. I typically just google, “How do I _________ (task) in __________ (tool)” and typically find my answer pretty easily. It is also a good idea to look at the help documents provided by the company who created the tool. Google, for example, has excellent help documents for doing anything you need to with their tools. Many others provide short tutorials on their own YouTube channels. If you cannot find a tutorial you need, email your instructor or T.A. for help. If we cannot find a tutorial for your problem, and if there is sufficient demand, we will make tutorials and post them on our Tutorials Site.

Third, we will offer a series of “open labs” in this course that are open for any student from any section of this course, whether online or not, to attend. It is often helpful to email the instructor for the lab ahead of time to let them know your problem, so they can be prepared to answer it.

Fourth, if after attending an open lab you are still struggling, please schedule a meeting with me, your instructor, or the teaching assistant for the course. We want you to be successful!

Assignments

Complete all assignments and readings associated with Module 1.1 from the Canvas Home Page for this course.