8.1 Reflection: iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching

 Prompt:

1. Think about your OBT Certification experience.
2. Read the iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching.
3. Assess your readiness for quality online teaching in relation to each Standard.
4. Write a personalized reflection that focuses on your areas of strength and your areas for growth relative to each of the iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching.
5. Support your reflection with specific examples from the Teacher Knowledge and Understanding or Teacher Abilities sections.

Here's the link to my self-assessment of my readiness.

Discussion of my strengths and weaknesses:

Standard A: The online teacher knows the primary concepts and structures of effective online instruction and is able to create learning experiences to enable student success.

• Strengths: I have a few years of taking courses online, as well as teaching in the blended environment. I have learned to be flexible, open-minded, and put forth my best effort to adapt to the needs of the students.

• Areas for Growth:With the implementation of Common Core Standards, I struggle to align California World Languages Framework with CCSS since there is not CCSS for World Langauges. I will continue to attend workshops and collaborate with my colleagues to gain a better understanding in aligning those two standards.

Standard B: The online teacher understands and is able to use a range of technologies, both existing and emerging, that effectively support student learning and engagement in the online environment.

• Strengths: Since I flipped my teaching, I have always been exploring and trying out new technologies. I feel that I am strong in my ability to use a wide variety of online tools to support and engage students in my curriculum. I am also quite comfortable helping students trouble-shoot technical problems.

• Areas for Growth: While I am comfortable with my skills in using technology, I will need to work on using technology for a strictly "online" environment. That means I need to spend a bit more time and be more thorough in my use of the various tools. I will not have the option of modifying on the spot as in my classroom.

Standard C: The online teacher plans, designs, and incorporates strategies to encourage active learning, application, interaction, participation, and collaboration in the online environment.

• Strengths: Since I teach a blended course, I already have some experience incorporating activities to encourage active learning, interaction, participation, and collaboration in the online environment.

• Areas for Growth: Since I have never taught an online-only class, I must think through and also design more activities to create that sense of community, making sure the students feel supported, and providing more opportunities for interaction, participation, and collaboration.
  
  I also need to be more aware of the student backgrounds in order to better serve their needs. The ability to differentiate instructions and facilitate in an online environment is something I need to work on.

Standard D: The online teacher promotes student success through clear expectations, prompt responses, and regular feedback.

• Strengths: In the last few years, I have been developing my class handbook, making my expectations and procedures very clear. I am confident that I can provide clear expectations for some areas, such as outcomes, behavior, and assessment.
  
  I make an effort to respond within 48 hours during the week, and I usually respond much quicker than that, so I am comfortable with my ability to respond promptly.
  
  I have been making progress in providing feedback quickly and regularly. For example, I use a Google script Doctopus to distribute grading rubric to my students after each test, as well as giving feedback in real time whenever possible. I am also very conscientious with how I give feedback and how much I ask the students to focus on. For example, I have learned, throughout the years, it is best to have students focus and work on a few grammar structures that the student is having most difficulty with, instead of having them work on all of the ones with errors.

• Areas for Growth: I would need to work on providing clear expectations for discussions and participation in an online-only environment. I will need to develop guidelines that will work with all types of interactions online.
  
  Being in an online environment means not everything is done synchronously. That means I will not always be able to go over expectations or provide feedback in real time. It requires me to be even more aware of the need to be clear with my expectations for all online activities. I will need to explore options and strategies on how to best support student in an online environment. This can be done through taking online courses and observe other teachers, joining online communities, reading articles and blogs, etc.

Standard E: The online teacher models, guides, and encourages legal, ethical, and safe behavior related to technology use.

• Strengths: Academic integrity and copyright have been two very big topics at my school, so I have some resources that I can use to help the student understand what they are and how to act properly.

• Areas for Growth: I will need to design activities to model for the students, and help them practice the skills needed to behave appropriately and legally in the online environment.

Standard F: The online teacher is cognizant of the diversity of student academic needs and incorporates accommodations into the online environment.

• Strengths: I have tried to make sure I keep students' different learning needs in mind when designing my curriculum. I believe I can incorporate my experience in designing an online course.

• Areas for Improvement: I need to work on making my curriculum much more accessible according to the guideline from the Americans with Disabilities Act. I still need to practice adding captions and transcripts to my instructional videos.
  
  I hope to learn more about how to make appropriate accommodations to students with needs in an online environment.

Standard G: The online teacher demonstrates competencies in creating and implementing assessments in online learning environments in ways that ensure validity and reliability of the instruments and procedures.

• Strengths: I have been using a variety of online assessment tools that allows me to obtain valid data from different sources. This course also introduces me to new tools and/or new ways to use tools that I already use/know.

• Areas for Growth: While I can gather good data about student's listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking, and paragraph-typing skills in Chinese, I need to find a way to gather data on the student's character-writing skills.

Standard H: The online teacher develops and delivers assessments, projects, and assignments that meet standards-based learning goals and assesses learning progress by measuring student achievement of the learning goals.

• Strengths: I think regardless of what kind of environment we are in, having a variety of assessment options, projects, and assignments are important in providing students opportunities to demonstrate their growth. Since one of my current course is also a Career-Tech Education course, some of the projects are meant to help students develop real-world skills. Over the years, I have collected and developed a good portfolio of assignments, projects, assessment, and rubrics.

• Areas for Growth: I will need to examine my portfolio and make sure that they are well-suited for an online environment.

Standard I: The online teacher demonstrates competency in using data from assessments and other data sources to modify content and to guide student learning.

• Strengths: Educators are very data-driven, so I have had quite a few years experience using both qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate and modify curriculum and teaching strategies. With an online course, I have additional source of data, such as online participation and discussion.

• Areas for Growth: This is an on-going process. I also need to keep up with the new development in the Education field in order to continue to support and guide students.

Standard J: The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues, parents, and other members of the community to support students’ success.

• Strengths: I am a self-directed learning who is constantly looking forward to learning through formal and informal professional development opportunities. I also enjoy collaborate and share with my colleagues from all subject areas.

• Areas for Improvement: I am not quite sure how to best engage parents in an online environment. I can definitely be more active in contacting the parents.

Standard K: The online teacher arranges media and content to help students and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively in the online environment.

• Strengths: I have some experience flipping my class and deliver curriculum through media, I will be able to leverage my experience when designing an online course.

•  Areas for Improvement: I don't have any experience designing an online-only course. I only have experience as an online-only student. I will need to use what I have learned in this course, as well as seek help from experts when designing an online course.

Three questions to address in my reflection:

• How have you changed as a learner and an instructor through this process?

Through this course, I have learned about the factors one must consider when designing an online course. I have also gain a better understanding of the difference between an online teacher and a classroom teacher. As a student, I never really thought about what the online course teacher has to do when designing my learning experience; hence, I never appreciated the behind-the-scene work that the teacher had to put in. After this course, I am much more aware of how the learning experience is affected by the clarity of the expectations, the various learning activities, the interactions with my fellow students, and the assessment. I feel better prepared as someone who is interested in designing an online course.

• What is your action plan for implementing changes in your teaching practice as a result of new learning?

Even though I am not going to be teaching an online course any time soon, I plan to incorporate what I have learned in this course and apply them to the online component of my blended classroom. For example, I want to eventually add captions and transcripts to all of my lecture videos. I also want to create more online discussions and online collaborative projects to increase student's online interactions.

• How do you plan to continue your learning about online teaching?

There are quite a few options for me to continue my learning: 

1. I can take online courses and be mindful about the various aspects of the course's design, 
2. I can also participating in PLNs and conferences, such as twitter chats, Facebook groups, Edmodo groups, and follow blogs,
3. I will reflect on my learning and my teaching, review the iNACOL standards, in order to continue to grow.

7.3 Reflection: Personal Learning Plan for Online Coaching

I never really think about the different roles a teacher plays in an online classroom environment. I probably just assumed it would be more or less the same as the roles a teacher plays in a traditional classroom.

After this unit, my view has changed somewhat, but not completely. It seems like the roles are all about the same, but the weight we put on each one is different. For example, I feel that I am good at creating a positive classroom environment and deliver positive messages to foster student confidence. However, it will take more effort in an online environment. I have to find ways to make better connections with the students both as a group and individually.


I also feel that, as an online teacher, I might not be able to interact with my colleagues as frequently as when I am working in a traditional classroom. Even though people say teaching is a very lonely profession, I think it is still easier to reach out to other teachers when you are all at the same place during the same period of time. For online teachers, one must make even more of an effort to connect with other online teachers in order to get feedback and inputs.

In terms of technical skills, I think the only thing I need to work on is anticipating more of the student questions and create better and more how-to videos or detail instructions.

In terms of the instructor role, I think I just need to start seeing myself more as a facilitator than a lecturer. Fortunately, I have been flipping my class for the last few years, and I have been transitioning and I actually don't lecture in class much any more. Instead, I am more of a facilitator who manages the class and the activities that takes place in class. 

Four Roles from Weakest to Strongest	Skills I Need to Gain or Strengthen	How I Will Gain The Skills?
Program manager	Creating a cohesive unit plan Be patient	Looking at other people’s unit plans Review my unit plans regularly Provide a wider time frame
Social director	Creating activities that foster the sense of community for the students. Creating opportunities where students can come together in real time to interact in real time. Provide positive feedback and foster positive environment regularly.	taking online courses and see what activities are effective, Participating in online communities myself to seek input from other teachers, Be more active in giving positive feedback regularly.
Technical assistant	Become familiar with the LMS and all the necessary tech tools.	Taking a class in the LMS and try out the tech tools, and create How-To videos or notes from the student’s perspective.. Test out a mock class in the LMS with a small group of participants to familiarize myself as a teacher.
Instructor	Anticipate potential problems when design activities for online classes. Create thought-provoking questions for discussions. Be concise with the objectives. Be accessible to the students.	Test out the activities with a small group of participants before launching them. Get input or feedback from other teachers. Review the objectives regularly. Creating office hours in addition to being available through emails.

6.3 Reflection: Assessment

• What are some of the factors you need to consider as you think about how you will implement formative and summative assessments in the online and blended environments?

Working on the unit plan for 6.2 really forced me to take a in-depth examination at how I plan my activities and what purposes these activities serve, if any.

As I start to reflect on my experience, I realize there are many factors to consider as I implement formative and summative assessments.

Here's a list that I come up with for my blended environment:

• Purpose: Why am I using this activity? What purpose does it serve? Does it support the learning objectives? Does it help students learn? If so, how?
• Set-up Time: How much time does this activity take? Is it a good use of my instructional time as well as student's homework/study time?
• Instructions: Are the instructions easy to deliver, easy to follow, and/or easy to set up? How much of my in-class instructional time will it take up for set up or for delivering instructions? Will the students be able to remember the instructions after the first two or three times or must I explain it every time? If the activity is to be done online and at home, can the students figure out how to complete the activity by following the given instructions?
• Frequency: How frequently should I have these activities?
• Turn around time: How soon can I give feedback?
• Follow up and follow through: How do I follow up with the students who needs individual help? How do I make sure students use the feedback to learn? In the blended environment, I also need to think about how this might impact my pacing.
• Variety: How many activities should I have in my tool bag so I keep the students interested?
• Fun factor: For high school students, I think "fun" should be a factor that we consider when we are designing and/or choosing activities. Not all activities will be fun, but adding in a bit of fun will help keeping the students interested. Fun can mean a lot of things, such as music, competition, or visual.
• What is being assessed and design accordingly: I also need to think about what skills or knowledge are being assessed. For example, if I am assessing reading comprehension ability, then the questions should be in English, not Chinese.
• Connection to the Real World: Since I teach a World Language, I also like to think of summative assessments that connect to the real world. One question I like to ask myself is "what other/real world skills can the students develop with this project?"
• Rubrics: In order to help students understand the expectation and to give good and usable feedback, rubrics must be set up in the beginning. 
• Sample work: I debate about whether to provide sample work. The advantage is that the students will have a clearer idea on the quality of work expected for different scores. However, it might also limit the students' creativity. 

 I wonder how different the list will be if I am delivering only through online LMS only.

It would be interesting to see what other teachers' lists and compare.

5 Reflection on Accessibility Of Material

• How accessible are your current instructional materials?

1. My lecture videos need to be updated with captions and/or transcripts. However, the majority of the content covered is on the powerpoint. What's not on the page are usually additional explanation I provide, and pronunciation of the language. I need to think through what I need to do, and which lecture videos need the additional support of captions and transcripts. The "How-to" videos definitely need those.
2. I am not sure how accessible my handouts are if someone is using a reader. I think it'll be a mix. Some handouts will be easier to read, and some will not be. Perhaps this is something I should spend some time investigating.
3. There are digital workbooks available, but that's additional costs that we do not have. It would be great if we have digital textbooks and workbooks for students. This would be especially helpful for visually impaired students. Right now, our workaround is to prepare large-print textbook and workbook for those students in need.

• Are there elements of your instructional materials that could be revised to make them more accessible?

I'd like to add captions and transcripts to the lecture videos at some point in time. I should also think about how "readable" my handouts are if someone with disability is accessing it online.

Since I use Google drive and Edmodo, I organize my materials into folders. If I were not using Google Drive or Edmodo, I would probably continue to update my Wiki. I did use headings for easy navigation on my Wiki pages. 

• Please share any resources you know or use to make your curriculum and course accessible.

1. I host my videos on Vimeo, but YouTube is a good option as well. When I used to have just slides, I would use SlideShare.
2. I use Quia.com to create exercises that the students can do at home and receive instant feedback. Students can also do these activities as many times as they want/need/like. Students can access them whenever and wherever. This is especially important for listening and reading exercises. 
3. I use GoFormative.com for the higher level students to do their "language (grammar) practice". This saves the students time (instead of writing them out by hand), and we can go over as a class faster as well. We see all the answers simply by pulling up the page, instead of waiting for students to write them on the board. I don't do this for levels 1&2 because they need to practice writing. 
4. Google Drive/Edmodo: I host a variety of resources on Google Drive and Edmodo so they are easily accessible by the students.

4.3 Reflection: Social & Professional Networks

I am most active on two social network: Facebook and Edmodo. I am also on Twitter, but not as active.

Here's a partial list of some of the groups I belong to on Facebook. Some PD groups are in English and some are in Chinese.

Here's a partial list of some of the PD groups I belong to on Edmodo.com

• When does the Internet help your learning?

The internet helps my learning mainly in two ways: 

1. I like to read about what's new with the education field. Being in some professional groups helps to keep me updated.
2. When I learn about a new topic, the Internet is my first go-to place to find additional information. If it's a new tool that I learn about, I can utilize many resources on the Internet to learn the ins-and-outs of using that tools, such as YouTube tutorials, blog posts, and discussion boards.

• When does it distract from good learning for you?

Sometimes there are so many interesting articles to read that I forget what my starting point is. Then I just become overwhelmed and/or lost in the sea of information. Other times, I might have too much information on one particular topic, and it becomes difficult or takes too long for me to digest all the information to be able to apply the knowledge effectively or efficiently.

• How might your answers to these questions be similar to or different from the answers your students might give?

I think my students answers will be similar to mine because they can get overwhelmed with the search results just like I am. However, we deal with the over-information challenge differently. I will always spend time filter and verify the information, or use multiple sources, whereas my students tend to go with the first few they found. Most noticeably, Wikipedia. They also do not seem to verify whether the sources they use are valid or of any academic value.

• How might you support your students in using the Internet as their own personal learning space?

Teaching students the skill to perform better searches, to set up filtering criteria for validating their sources, and to cross reference and double-check their findings, in addition to providing students opportunities to sharpen their critical thinking skills and writing skills can all help our students use the Internet effectively as a personal learning space.

3.3 Reflection: Using Web 2.0 Tools

• Briefly describes an activity you would create.

The activity I would create is called "Explanation Video."

At the end of the lesson, after the students have had time to learn and practice the vocabulary words and grammar structures,  I could assign translation or Q&A questions to each student or student group, and have the student or student group create an "explanation video" on how s/he or the group come up with the answers.

• State how you might minimize possible challenges students and the teacher might have to address.

 Here are some of the challenges that the teacher and students might face:

1. The use of technology to make the video. The teacher must make sure that the students have sufficient equipment and knowledge/skills to create the video. I taught my students how to use Screencastify to make screencasts. I also allow them to use their cell phones to make the video recording. While the qualities are different, I focus more on the result than the cosmetics of the videos.
2.  Hosting the video: Some of the videos are going to be too large for email communication, so the videos might need to be hosted somewhere before they can be shared. I've taught students to upload their videos to Google Drive if the videos are too large. Some other options are YouTube and Vimeo.
   
   It's a good practice to ask ALL students to upload their videos to Google Drive, especially if the video is made on their phones and/or is small enough for direct email. After the students have uploaded the videos to their drive, then they can safely delete the videos from their phones. This way, if the teacher does not receive or can not open the video for any reason, there is always a backup copy.
3. Organization/Collection: Teacher also needs to think about how s/he would like to collect the videos, and stay organized on checking off the students. Emailing the link or the video directly to the teacher is an option. I use Edmodo, so I can create an assignment, and see which student/student group has submitted the assignment. If you use Google Classroom, you can collect and stay organized the same way.
4. Patience & Flexibility: Whenever you use technology, there will always be problems that you can and can not anticipate. It's best to be prepared and be patient, and be flexible.
5. Example: It's best to share the rubrics upfront, and go over an example with the students so they know what the teacher is looking for in terms of quality and length.

• Align your activity to a learning objective that uses verbs from the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
  
  A learning objective for this activity could be: Students will be able to explain how they break down the question and develop the answers by applying the vocabulary and grammar structures they have acquired in this lesson.

2.3 Reflection - Methodologies of the Online Instructor

• Reflecting on the information covered in this module so far, how might your instructional methodologies need to change in an online or blended learning environment?

 Since I flipped part of my instruction, I have been contemplating whether I should flip 100%. The concern has been, and still is, that the students are very passive and don't take charge of their own learning. They don't always watch the videos. I have tried to work with the situation by (1) doing in-class flip, and (2) doing a short-version of the lecture. Because I deliver the instructions on Vocab and Grammar instructions via videos, and I go over the text in person with the whole class. I use that opportunity to do an over all review of the lesson's content, and as a way to hopefully cover some holes for the students who did not watch or did not pay attention to the video instructions.

Because students' reaction to all the in-class practice activities we do are very positive, I really want to make sure we have enough time to do these activities.

I am trying to decide if I should do in-class flip or just train the students to take responsibilities of their own learning so they can best benefit the blended learning environment.

• What skills and strategies might you improve or expand upon in order to best support student learning in a blended or online environment?

I feel that I need to work on training the students to take responsibility and take charge of their own learning in order to really benefit from the blended model. I don't think this concept or the study skill is new, but students who have been in the traditional face-to-face classroom are used to being very passive, so asking them to do the opposite is going to take some time. My concern with this is that training students to function differently is not easily accomplished in a short amount of time.