Assessment in eLearning - Module 5 Reflection

We have turned the corner and now are on the last half of our class which means we are working towards the final project.  Seems like we just finished the mid-term project!  Wait - we just did finish it but since this course is only 8 weeks long we have no choice but to start working on it right way in order to get it completed.  Dr. Erbe posted for us the details of the final project (here is a brief synopsis from his description):

You will need to choose an online course that you are currently teaching or may teach in the future and begin to plan learning objectives, associated activities and the assessment piece and tech tool you could use for assessment.

So within our final project, we need to include well-written objectives, engaging activities, as well as assessments using tools we have learned about in our class.  I think my head is spinning just thinking about it again.  However, I really appreciate how we are actually taking this bit by bit or step by step.

For example, this week's assignments and/or discussion topics could be drawn upon what we are using for our final project if we want.  If we want?!  Considering I can get feedback from my peers to know if I am going in the right direction or am totally out in left field, this is a no brainer for me.  I am going to be using information from my final project for these two items.  Boy am I glad I did use my topic since the feedback I received help me to know I needed to make some changes along the way.

One thing I realized is well-written objectives take time and thought.  These are not something you can simply whip out and hope/pray they work.  Chances are if you did not take the time to think these out you will find your students struggling along the way and you the teacher feeling a sense of frustration due to a lack of proper planning.  It was actually nice to have to think deeper about my objectives for the final project.  I am not saying I throw mine together when working on lessons, but I can certainly tell when I do not devote the proper amount of time necessary to develop well-written ones.  This task certainly opened my eyes once again.  I also discovered I needed to see the "whole picture" when it came to the final project in order to help with not only the objectives but also the activites.

What I ended up doing was create what might look like a mini lesson plan under my taxonmy table.  I had thought of my activities but needed to see these paired up with objectives as well.  So, I wrote these objectives too which was great since these needed to be posted in the discussion board for one of the discussion assignments - 2 things done at one time is great thinking!  Then knowing I needed to have assessments to go along with each activity/objective I created a tentative listing of my assessments.  These will be evaluated to see if any changes need to be made but I feel good about the start I have going and I am certainly starting to see this picture emerge.  As a visual learner, this is something which truly helps - seeing the big picture.

Looks like Week 5 is now over and we are on to Week 6.  Hard to believe only 3 more weeks left in this class.  Until next time - I am signing off for now!