DO I LOOK LIKE I’M INTERESTED IN HEARING SOME POSITIVE CRITICISM?

DO I LOOK LIKE I’M INTERESTED IN HEARING SOME POSITIVE CRITICISM?

Why Feedback is important?

The term ‘feedback’ is used to describe the helpful information or criticism about prior action or behavior from an individual, communicated to another individual (or a group) who can use that information to adjust and improve current and future actions and behaviors (DeFranzo, 2015). Feedback is an essential part of effective learning as well. It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to improve their learning. Bellon et al, state 'academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior...this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting.' Feedback can improve a student's confidence, self-awareness, and enthusiasm for learning. Feedback is an important part of the assessment process. It has a significant effect on student learning and has been described as “the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement” (Hattie, 1999). To benefit student learning, feedback needs to be: Constructive, timely and meaningful. Feedback is valuable when it is received, understood and acted on. How students analyze, discuss and act on feedback is as important as the quality of the feedback itself (Nicol, 2010).

The reviewer of my work was very generous and kind to me (Looks like he was not from my in-law's clan). He did a clear and detailed review of my work and gave me a very positive feedback that is going to help me make improvement in my course. I literally missed mentioning the purpose and scope, along with goal settings of my training in the “Readme first” document.  I will be updating my doc in a day or so. He mentioned in the review that he doesn’t see any assessment of the learning. I guess he missed reading about the “Pre-Assessment” quiz in the first module. The daily online meetings and discussions will help the instructor evaluate his students’ learning as Q&As are mandatory in this session. Moreover, every day’s blog reflections and reply to other’s blogs would also reflect that learning is happening. The course will end with a post-test survey and hopefully, the outcome of that would change the behavior of the participants in favor of the residents of the city of Karachi landfill. The reviewer's suggestions are well taken and I will modify my coursework as per his recommendations.

Presently, I am up to date on preparing the course material and only a few changes need to be done. UNT courses LTEC-52010 and 5510 have been quite helpful in developing this course and the instructional design documents. I sincerely hope that my education will help me in my future endeavors.

The CANVAS and Poor Khan

The incorporation of technology in the educational field, students and teachers interact with each other via online forums, threaded discussions, video conferencing and emails. When all of these features are combined together on one platform, functions like course documentation, class administration, students ‘evaluation, the Learning Management System (LMS) provides that portal to the educators and learners. Among many LMS used in the education field, CANVAS stands quite tall with its robust features for both ends of learning era. For educators, CANVAS LMS offers a platform with which they can create the learning environment they want for their learners. Teachers can offer feedback, merge videos, blogs, wikis, and other channels of education while watching their students’ progress. Whereas for the students, CANVAS LMS helps them to obtain notifications, submit paperwork, and interact with the learning materials given to them on the gadgets they use. They can also combine their CANVAS LMS account with their social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.

Creating a course on the CANVAS was easier than I thought. From the beginning of this class, our professor Dr. Robin gave us very clear instructions on how to set up an account with CANVAS and create a class. After developing the contents of Module-1, I could upload and publish them to my CANVAS class, but I have not been able to view it in the student view. I guess I need to read more instructions on this feature of CANVAS. Presently I am working on developing the rest of the modules and things are going well. I do have an issue though, CANVAS does not seem to have a quiz/test builder. If that feature was included, then this LMS would have been second to none in the market.

The Poor Course Developer

The Poor Course Developer

With the rapid growth and ease of getting an online education, online course developers are the silent contributors to the field of learning. They are not the teachers who are at the front end to deliver the course, but in actual practice,  they may be filling the positions of subject matter expert, instructional designer, media specialist, or even content editor.  To be a course developer, one should understand the cognitive and learning theories as his course would be a tool to invoke learning a new concept. Learners are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in a course when they consider that the content can meet their personal and professional needs. The content developer must recognize the psychological needs of the learner. He has to keep in mind that the course is motivational enough to encourage participation, curiosity, openness, and confidence. The belongingness and relatedness of the topic, promote self-actualization and develops self-esteem in the student, making learning pleasant in an effective learning environment.

Developing a corporate training on the usage of a Municipal Solid Waste to Energy facility is quite a task for me. Being a mechanical engineer, and having field experience in industrial plant commissioning, the concept and working of such a plant is easy for me. I am familiar with the different sections, components, processes of incineration, conversion of thermal energy to mechanical and then electrical energy, but putting all of it together as a course is a tedious and cumbersome process. I can design engineering plants, draw their components, do engineering calculations, but putting it all together as a training is difficult. I am glad that I took a course in Instructional Design earlier, but I am a not naturally gifted writer at all. I have to force myself to write and to be realistic, I am not very successful at it.

The course development started with an ID development document. The technical content is being written and I have to keep in mind the technical and intellectual knowledge of my audience. My students would be comprised of highly qualified engineers, rich businessmen, elected city officials, and bureaucrats. They all are professionals in their respective fields, but very unlikely to be knowledgeable in others. I should develop this training at a level that would promote learning in all of my students, and of course, keeping it interesting for them at the same time. I am glad that my colleague and reviewer is an English teacher. She was very kind and precise on finding mistakes in my writing and suggested corrections to make the material up to standard. 

The CANVAS learning management system is very robust and easy to use not only to instructors but to students as well.  Canvas LMS offers a platform with which I can generate an effective and easy learning atmosphere that I want for my learners. Reviewing the features, I learned that the CANVAS LMS can provide feedback, merge videos, blogs, and other channels of education while tracking students’ progress. The flexibility and customization capabilities of this LMS would make my job easier. The best part is that the students can interact with their teacher by uploading audio and video files.

I am still learning to use the features of this great LMS and hopefully, I would be able to develop a good course for my class.