Colleges
and universities use different types of online learning technology as a
resource to teach and communicate with students. Teachers and students alike
must be able to navigate through processing programs, spreadsheets, even
presentation programs. The online
learning technology resources available at my local Community College are: Blackboard,
synergy, web conferencing, media library, LinkedIn, smart boards, and blogs. Others include resources such as live chat
with advisors, and social media applications.
The
basic knowledge and Microsoft Office skills acquired was easily transferable to
other software programs, including Google Drive, importing, exporting, and
embedding web link functions. Social
media such as Facebook and Twitters has also proven to be a worthwhile resource
investment for my institution. Synergy is a powerful grade-book and learning
management interface where educators house everything in one place, the
curriculum, content resources, student work, assessments, performance data, and
more.
Many
educators at my institution use synergy. However, I do not even though I have
considered it. I’m not comfortable using
synergy for teaching and learning because I lack the confidence and experience.
I plan to enroll in a synergy course this summer. The course is being offered July, 2015 to professionals
for development. I will use the knowledge learned to bring everything I need together
to teach and provide my students with support and a collection of resources.
More
adults are returning to college to obtain certifications, or to advance in
current employment (Xu & Jaggars, 2013).
Online learning resources are convenient and accessible. However, learning
online can have a significant negative relationship to both course persistence
and course grade (Xu & Jaggars, 2013). This may be due to the lack of or limited free
resource support available online. As a result, I would recommend free forms of
online resource support to minimize this problem at my institution. A series of
free videos or podcast on a topic, including training, that offers an
additional supply of assistance that is outside or in addition to the scope of
the course syllabus.
Xu, D., & Jaggars, S. S. (2013). Adaptability to Online
Learning: Differences across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas. CCRC
Working Paper No. 54. Community
College Research Center, Columbia University.
Hi Carole,
ReplyDeleteI like your honesty.Our college uses Eagle online as our learning management system. I teach online classes, so I had to undergo the training for it. Trust me, the learning systems are easy to handle. Build up your confidence and you will be fine.
Here is a website that you can start with:
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/
Thanks sumi for the resource. I went to the website and took the virtual tour. You are correct it seems like the learning system is easy to handle. But, as with all my professional development tasks, its easier said than done. I will keep you updated as I pursuit this journey. Thanks again for sharing.
DeleteCarole
Hi Carole,
ReplyDeleteI am not familiar with Synergy either. At least you can recognize that you need training on it and take the initiative to register for the training. There are educators that are very reluctant to do that. Seems like you are on the right path. Good luck with the course and navigating through it.
Jaime