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Create collaborative online units
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The 'Create Collaborative Online Units' course has made learning a deeper and richer experience for my students.
Both assessment data and anecdotal data proves that online collaborative units are the way to move forward. Every time I take one of Richard's units I improve as a teacher. |
Amy Wallis
St Andrews College, Marayong
St Andrews College, Marayong
Course Overview
A quality, 4-month, online, guided learning journey
The focus of the course is on creating quality, online units which promote collaboration and inquiry, based on social learning principles. In order to deliver quality social, online learning units, an exceptional online platform is required. During this self-paced course participants will source videos, learn to create quality videos, deliver videos via ‘the cloud’, create a quality online unit of work, trial it with students and report back on their implementation experience. In other words, this is very much a ‘doing’ course.
The course provides engaged participants with:
- Insight into various types of video suitable for online units of work.
- Guidance in choosing video recording and editing software, both free and paid.
- Skills to produce quality instructional videos using PCs, Mac computers and iPads.
- Several quality instructional videos produced by each participant and shared between participants.
- Examples of collaborative activities which can be incorporated into an online unit of work.
- Examples of quality, online, collaborative units of work.
- Various software tools and techniques useful in creating online units of work.
Have you been frustrated by lost lessons and student absences? Been dabbling with blended learning units but it's all a bit too difficult and messy? Wish there was a better way to have students interact online and utilise social learning principles? A 'yes' to any of these questions, means this course is for you. Create an extra "you" in the classroom with this NESA accredited fifteen hour course.
Course Modules / Syllabus
1. Overview / Getting Started ( 30 min )
Participants are welcomed to the course and 'meet' the presenter/facilitator. The course requirements are explained. Participants introduce themselves via an introductory post.
2. Some important considerations ( 30 min )
Participants explore, reflect and share their thoughts on various types of online units. The link between online units and student-centred-ness is explored, upon which participants reflect and share. The TEAM Leader provides encouragement and support to TEAM members and to ensure no member falls behind. This support from the leader is to continue throughout the remainder of the course.
3. Socially online with Open Learning ( 30 min )
Social learning - What is it? How do we engineer it? What features do we ideally require in an online system/platform in order to create collaborative, social learning units? Participants are guided through these questions, reflect and share their thoughts.
4. Types of videos ( 30 min )
There are 4 main types of videos which teachers can utilise in an online unit. These are explored along with different options for creating videos. Participants absorb and reflect upon this information and share their thoughts. TEAMS discuss the ideas from Modules 2, 3 and 4 relevant to their online unit.
5. Recording & editing videos ( 3 hrs )
This module features numerous tutorials - in addition to links to company-generated tutorials - for creating screen casting videos for PC, Mac, iPads and tablets. Also tips for producing camera/phone videos. The 'case for editing videos' is also made, especially relevant for those creating videos on tablets. Participants work through the tutorials relevant to their needs, gain skills and then start creating videos for their collaborative online unit.
6. Video files, compression, streaming ( 1 hr )
When creating videos for online units participants need to understand video file types, the advantages of compressing videos and the ideal video sharing options via Google Drive, YouTube and Dropbox. It's all easy once you know how. Participants absorb and apply this information to share a video they created with course colleagues. Participants also write a peer review of another participant's video.
7. Facilitation implications which affect design (1.5 hours)
The way in which the online system (in which your online unit is built) requires you to facilitate your students' progress dictates, in part, the design of your unit. This is not obvious to the uninitiated, hence the inclusion of this session now. This includes some tips on how to avoid the facilitator 'email tsunami'. In addition, some exemplary example online units from past participants are shared. Finally, participants share a post re the online platform they are choosing to use. A discussion in TEAMS of modules 5, 6 and 7 occurs along with collaboration and feedback to TEAM members on initial unit plans.
8. Planning and creating online units: Tutorials (3 hrs)
Detailed tutorials for creating an online unit of work are featured. The tutorials are based on the Open Learning system but are applicable to other systems. Points covered include getting started, clever ideas for online units, avoiding ambiguity, creating modules, pages, and activities, arranging course content, the decision re page, pdf or Google Doc, making content easy to find, dealing with images, and more.
9. Course facilitation tutorials (1 hr)
Often the uninitiated do not think about how they will facilitate their online units until the time comes! This module guides participants through the following: the importance of setting up a test student in a test course to see how activities and facilitation appears to students, the implications of certain activities on facilitation, the setting up of comment threads and the administration of students. The Open Learning is used to showcase these strategies, however, the tutorials are also of benefit to those not using Open Learning.
10. Activities which maximise collaboration between students (1 hr)
This module specifically addresses some ideas for collaborative activities. topics include: The nature of social learning, collaborative comment threads and why forums added to units are outmoded, the 'stimulus commenting activity with choice', student-generated video assignments, utilising blogs, chat, groups, collaborative wikis and more. Participants submit 3 posts. TEAM collaboration occurs re the planned use of specific collaboration activities in TEAM members' units.
11. Review, implementations and miscellaneous (2 hrs)
This module includes tips on implementing your online unit, suggestions for surveying your students and some extra related information. Participants submit their implementation report. The TEAM Leader guides TEAM members through collaboration on their implementations and implementation experiences.
12. Course Completion (30 min)
The course completion process including accreditation information, a short survey, staying in touch and options for continued access.
FAQs
Do I need to be confident with technology to cope with this online workshop?
Regarding the online nature of the course - no. The free online platform (Open Learning) used in this course is very user-friendly. However, given that you will be following tutorials on how to create videos and assemble online content into flipped/blended units you will need to be reasonably confident when learning to use new software/apps and be able to multi-task with your device.
Various technologies/software are recommended for Mac, PC, iPads, Android and Tablet PCs. (Note: Mathematics teachers interested in this course need to refer to the more specific ‘Flipped Maths Classroom’ course.)
If you want to use a different online platform, there will be tutorials provided for several platforms.
It says courses commence in March, June, September and December of each year. Can I start at a different time which suits me better?
Usually, yes. Included on the application form is an option to ‘Start now’. If you choose this option, we will contact you to ascertain the best occurrence to place you in.
For Southern Hemisphere teachers - the December occurrence enables you to complete most of the content during the Christmas holidays, allowing you to run your implementations during Term One and complete the course by mid-March.
Is this an accredited professional learning workshop in NSW, Australia?
Yes, it is - it is a 15 hours NESA accredited course designed for secondary or middle school teachers who are keen to supplement their classroom teaching with quality, online components.. Note that if you are from NSW and spend more than 15 hours, you may use the extra time as teacher-identified hours.
All participants will receive a certificate stating 15 hours of participation. Note that this course is equally applicable to non-NSW teachers. (It’s accredited in NSW because we are based in NSW!)
For those in NSW, this course will contribute 15 hours of NESA Registered PD addressing 3.2.2, 3.4.2, 6.3.2, and 6.4.2 from the Australian Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
Should we enrol more than one teacher in this online course?
This course is ideal for individual teachers who want to see significant changes occur in their classroom teaching. However, if you are looking for department-wide change, then the ideal way to achieve this is to enrol all or most of your teachers.
Why would I need to do this course - there’s so much free information online about how to create flipped/blended learning units?
It is true there is an enormous amount of freely available information about creating flipped/blended units, and you can certainly learn how to create videos and blended units from searching the web. However, the difficulty of working it out on your own is that ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’.
On the web, you won’t find someone with 3000+ hours of experience creating videos, online content and online/blended units who is prepared to guide you through this multi-faceted process step by step. Furthermore, the information on the web tends to be ‘one-dimensional’, lacking context.
For example, many free tutorials sing the praises of various platforms in which to create online units but rarely does the information reference the big issues: User-friendliness and the ability of the platform to create student-centred units based on social learning and collaboration.
What are some of the big questions that the course addresses?
- “What is the ideal screen casting app for me to use given my needs are ‘X and Y’?”
- “What does a user-friendly online platform look like compared to one that is user-unfriendly?”
(A vital question as the two are worlds apart!) - “Do I need a platform with social learning capabilities?”
- “What are the pitfalls of using online platforms that are based on Facebook-like feeds?
- ”What are some specific examples of collaborative online activities?
What happens if I don't finish my unit within the four months?
Teachers have hectic lives and sometimes things get in the way of completing a course in the allocated time. Be assured that if this happens to you, but you are keen to complete; we will do enable you to do so.
Will I have to be logged in at specific times?
The course is self paced, and accessible 24/7. There is no requirement to be logged in at a specific time.
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Testimonials
This course was so beneficial - it was one of the best professional development courses I have completed as it really made me utilise the new things that I have learnt. I was hoping to learn about creating and sharing my own videos and I have been able to successfully do that. One of the best aspects of the course is that it is self-paced and I can keep going back over the content when I need it. It was also lovely to have positive feedback and to see what others were working on. Thank you Richard!
Ilsa Gay, St George Girls High School, Create collaborative online units, Oct 2016
Undertake the course as a TEAM
The TEAM approach affords optimum results. What is a TEAM?
A TEAM is a number of teachers from the same school undertaking a course simultaneously. The TEAM approach maximises collaboration and collegial support on site in addition to gaining all the benefits from the online course. The TEAM approach is a great way for school leaders to actively affect pedagogical change within their staff.
For more information on the TEAM approach, click the button below.
A TEAM is a number of teachers from the same school undertaking a course simultaneously. The TEAM approach maximises collaboration and collegial support on site in addition to gaining all the benefits from the online course. The TEAM approach is a great way for school leaders to actively affect pedagogical change within their staff.
For more information on the TEAM approach, click the button below.
What participants can expect from the course
The course provides engaged participants with:
- Insight into various types of video suitable for online units of work.
- Guidance in choosing video recording and editing software, both free and paid.
- Skills to produce quality instructional videos using PCs, Mac computers and iPads.
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Free Tutorial
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Check out the course modules ... |
Check out some implementation reports from past participants ... |
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Video testimonial and example participant-created unit
Additional information
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Free Tutorial
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Info for NSW, Australia
NSW teachers requiring accredited hours will be enrolled through TTA at the same prices.
Completing ‘TEAM - Create collaborative, online units for your students’ will contribute 15 hours of QTC Registered PD addressing 3.2.2, 3.4.2, 6.3.2 and 6.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
Additional hours spent during the course may be logged as teacher identified hours.
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