What can I do Now that I couldn't do last year?

 

       COVID 19 have impacted our lives in all sorts of ways, but I decided to construct my future even better and take positive turns in this crises. In this post I will be talking about the things that I can do now that I couldn't do last year. 

       1- Improve my Self Confidence: When I decided I want to continue teaching diploma, I was anxious about the thoughts of " I hope this major is not too hard" or " I don't know if I can make it to be a teacher" . Those fears are slowly disappearing, as my knowledge is increasing on how to be a successful teacher; weather, constructing exams and evaluation, portfolios in the Assessment and evaluation course, learning very interesting tools, websites, and applications that I would use as a teacher later on and gave me a wide horizon on how technology affects and highly improve the educational process. With my role model Dr. Amal Farhat, as well as the philosophical approaches in education, and most importantly, how to really manage a Classroom successfully. This have changed a lot of thinks and made things clearer to making me a better teacher in the future, as well as on the personal level.

      2- Higher order skills: As all students, throughout my entire education at school and at university, I was never trained to perform critical thinking and analysis, as well as how to construct and smoothly join the ideas of several chapters to a clear essay. I now have the critical thinking skills that I didn't acquire before, because it was not practiced. It also boosted my creativity in many things. 

    3- Time management: This skill have been always mastered by Me; however, last year was tough, and I had fell of the wagon, but with the continuation of my education, I regained this important skill to be able to study and live my life in a better and more organized way. 

                                                                                                                          - Dana Molla- 

Challenges in Online Learning

  

    

        COVID 19 have tremendously affected our lives both positively and negatively. It also made a revolution of online education; however, it was not easy to adapt to this kind of change immediately and have raised some disadvantages for both the students and teachers. I will be discussing some challenges that I personally faced with online learning. 

      1- Less Focused : In many courses, it was hard for me to stay focused during the lecture, due to the system of students explaining the material and not the teacher. The way that students present keeps it hard to stay focused, this is because of their tone of voice, pronunciation, and articulation of their voices when presenting, dull PowerPoints with no interest or action in them, using too much words in the slides. Luckily there is the concept of recorded lectures that helps me be more focused on the lecture and get the best out of it at my own pace. Although, I am usually not focused in other lectures, because of the pedagogy being used, I am highly focused and enthusiastic in Media and technology since everything done is applied and we are highly engaged in the classroom activities and all of us are on-task in this class because Dr. Amal uses a very nice approach in teaching, her instructions are very clear, her activities and assignment are solved enthusiastically, and I am lucky to take this course with such a great Dr.

    2- Internet Problems: Internet connection problems happen all over the world, and the more people are using the server, t) he slower the internet connection is, this is bad from the teacher's side because the students will not understand the material being explained if the voice is too lagging and even if they want to repeat the session from the recording it will not help understand the lecture.

     Let us look at some solutions Regarding this issue:

          A- Working on a different network : It makes it faster since only 1 person is using this network only, it wouldn't necessarily be perfect but it can help. 

           B- Use a UPS: UPS is a large battery that can serve as an alternative during the electricity is cut off until it comes back.

           C- Have Back up plans : For students, losing the internet connection does not tremendously affect things; however, if teachers lose their internet it is a big problem for the students. Therefore, a teacher should always have a backup plan when it comes to online teaching (example: Have mobile internet service... etc. ) 

    3- Using new Applications : At first, I had some trouble joining the class when using Zoom, this is not due to lack of computer skills rather than it is a professional meeting application that I never practically used, whereas using Google meet was easier since I have encountered it previously. Thankfully, with Dr. Amal's Help I can now use Zoom easily and proficiently. 

   4- No Student-Teacher Interaction: I, myself am a very social person; however, not seeing my classmates even on camera made me a little bit shy to even greet them without feeling anxious and my heart pounding, this is due to the fact that there isn't any real interaction with the students between each other. I feel like I am studying just listening to the lecture as a voice note, rather than engaging with my classmates like I would in university campus. In addition, not all teachers turn on their camera when giving the lecture, and this makes it a little bit hard to get interactive with the teacher. The fact of talking to each other like robots behind the screen is frustrating. Thankfully, when Dr. Amal turns on her camera, I am very enthusiastic and very happy to see her; whereas other instructors just talk from behind the screen, I just know how they look like from their pictures, but I wish they would turn on their camera to know them and meet them. Unfortunately, we have lost the student-teacher interaction during online learning, but this is a choice and teachers can show themselves or not while talking, this makes it more engaging like in reality. 

     In conclusion, Online learning difficulties can be categorized into technical issues or Pedagogical issues, and with this new revolution that brought up a lot of advantages, including opportunities to join Classes internationally and at the comfort of their home, it promoted higher order skills more, and it allows the students to repeat the lecture at their own pace; however, not to mention the disadvantages encountered during online teaching which can easily be prevented and improved.  

                                                                                                                           -Dana Molla- 

Essentials for Online Teaching

 

     COVID 19 Pandemic Have Changed the Lives of Many in all directions. The Era of Learning Online has been introduced and Implemented more than ever. Both Teachers and Students had a hard time adapting to this change but nothing is Impossible because the word itself says "I'm Possible". All we need is some patience and to actually teach our students the essential things when it comes to online teaching. So what are the things that we need to teach our students to prevent the troubles of Studying Online?

 Let us think what are some troubles that students face when studying Online?

     1- Internet Connection Problems: This actually wastes a lot of time from the online session and Sometimes the material explained is not very clear when the teacher's voice is lagging. Solution? Make sure to have a good internet Connection for an efficient session.

    2- Chaotic Environment: Many of the students tend to lose interest in the class when it is very chaotic and no organization is made in class. Solution? Introduce and explain to the students the expected rules and regulations such as raising their hands when they want to ask a question or when they want to speak. But if as teachers we are presenting we cannot look who is raising their hand. Solution?  Sign in from another device as well to see who is raising their hands. 

   3- Too Much Distractors: Students tend to Join the class and just go on Facebook and other social media platforms as well as just go to the kitchen to grab some food and doesn't really focus on the lesson. Or maybe the Parents are fighting in the house! This affects the performance of the student. So here, the solution is to advise the student to sit in a Room that is not very noisy to focus more on the class as well as to keep the students on task to prevent them from using Social media platforms.

    4- Poor computer skills: There are many students who are not aware of how to use the platform they are using to study online ex: Zoom, Google meet, Teams... Etc. Students should be taught on how they can submit their assignments using the platform, how they are supposed to join, where are the assignments posted... etc. So, Students should know how to use the online tools and provide them with clear Instructions on what they are supposed to do. 

   5-Teaching students Respect: This is to avoid Cyber bullying, students should be taught that everything they do , they are being watched for it and anyone who mis-uses the internet will be suffering the consequences.

   6 -Avoiding Plagiarism : Students should also be taught on which websites are credible to take the information from as well as How to avoid Plagiarizing their assignments.  

   7- Time management: Due to the fact that the material is being taught online, the students should do double the effort in the sense that they should prepare the material ahead of time to get the most benefits of the session and to teach the students how they can organize their time between studying and resting at home even if no one is seeing them.  

   In conclusion, everything needs time to be adapted to and in fact online teaching is improving the higher order skills in the curriculum due to the fact that the type of exams being used are related to the analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels to avoid cheating and the darkness of online teaching.  

                                                                                                                         - Dana Molla - 

Tools that Can be used in Online Assessment

     What is Assessment? It is the Procedures or  Techniques that are used to know if the student have reached the learning outcome or not. There are 3 main Concepts when we say assessment; first it starts with determining the learning objectives, second is to monitor the progress of the student towards the learning objective, and finally to assess the students if the learning outcome was reached at the end of the course as expected or not. It is a continuous process and authentic (Valid), It comes in different types wither the Paper-Pencil Type of Assessment or Performance Assessment. Keep In mind that each have their limitations as well. Assessment can be either formal or informal; There are different types of assessment that are used in classrooms, Placement Assessment, Formative Assessment, Diagnostic Assessment, and the Summative Assessment. Let us look Briefly of the usage of each type

                        

              1- Placement Assessment: Usually done at the beginning of a course to know the level of the students to be able to plan the lesson correctly, and to group students according to the learning styles , multiple intelligence, or Their level according to bloom's Taxonomy 

             2- Formative Assessment: Is Used to Monitor the student Progress towards reaching the learning outcome and is used for us as teachers to know if we continue to the next concept or not. 

             3- Diagnostic Assessment: Is done when 3-4 formative assessments are done and there is still a problem you should do the Diagnostic Assessment to know where the problem is

             4- Summative Assessment: Is done at the end of a term and it indicates how much of the learning objectives were reached.

      Keep in Mind that assessment is not just about putting a Grade, but rather it is used to determine the weaknesses and the strengths of certain skills to improve the developmental process through teaching. Not everyone is perfect and we always need a mentor to develop our skills. A grade doesn't determine our success or our failures rather than it detects what point shall I work on to improve and be better at it?   

      How can we Do the Assessment of Students Online during the Online teaching? Luckily Some tools can help achieve this; therefore, technology these days have a solution for everything. Now, how can we assess the students who are studying online? Let us see some really nice applications and tools that helps us achieve this. We will divide the tools based on the type of assessment.                           

                                                             

  1-  Formative Assessment

        A- Poll Everywhere: This can be used to get feedback from the students and see if they understand the objective or not , and if you continue to the next concept or not. In Poll Everywhere it can be used during a presentation for example to see the understanding of the students. 

         B- Padlet : Padlet can be used in a very effective way in which we ask the student to fill in a table of KWL chart which is used to know what the students already know, what they want to know, and what they have learned . This can give a feedback to the teacher of how much the students understood About a certain concept and where are the things that are not yet understood?

         C- Jamboard: Jamboard can be used to see the Response of the students and their feedback about a topic they are asked about and they can work in the same time. We can also use Microsoft PowerPoint to make a certain design and post it on Jamboard

     D-No Hands Name Picker : Just like the informal assessment done in class when asking oral Questions, we can use this tool to ask oral questions about a concept and by randomly picking the names of the students. This technique leaves the student more focused waiting for their name and more engaged in the activity being done.

     E- Google forms : In google forms it can be used to make a quiz for example about a concept because as we said that formative assessment can also be graded as well, so using Google forms, can help create a quiz and in order to ensure no cheating is done, then we have to make the Questions shuffled and set a timer. This does not eliminate the chance of cheating rather than it just decreases it. We can also make it controlled in a way that we don't allow students to submit more than 1 response, thus decreasing chances of cheating even more.

       F- Word wall : This is a website that is used to Create certain games which in turn can tell us how much the students know about a concept before moving to the next topic. This Game integration is very important because we can assess the students in a fun way and let them more engaged in the Classroom activities and there is a leaderboard, so when there is a challenge, it makes them motivated and want to be the first in the game and this will show us the maximum performance of the students. Therefore, in this case we are actually assessing the students indirectly without making them notice it. 

      G- Google Classroom: Using Google Classroom, as teachers you can post assignments, set a due date, post questions as participation as well as Sharing exams with the students and they also have the chance to post a question if they have any question and allow them to share with the classroom about something that they found interesting. This all Contributes to informal assessment, because maybe you can see what topic are they most interested in and sharing information about then as a teacher will spend more time on it and much more things can be interpreted through this. 

       H- Google Documents: Doing an assignment on Google documents allows us to know the writing skills of the student for example and it also helps with the fact that we can leave a remark or a comment on the student's answer or telling them what they should be careful about for the next time for example. 

        2- Summative Assessment 

       Google Documents: Using Google documents, it allows us to create an exam and share it with the coordinator for making updates if necessary. It is also a good way to share things because you know exactly what each student have made.

       What about Placement Assessment?

     Before starting a course we can use Google forms to assess how much the students have of the pre-requisites needed for the Course by simply asking them to fill in a survey and we get instant statistics using Google forms, this can give us a hint of where we are at before starting. It is also helpful to make a survey regarding the learning styles of the students to know which is the best Technique to use in teaching, or we can simply do an English placement exam to know where the students are at for example. 

      But how can we Apply the Performance Assessment Online?

       A- Breakout Rooms : Using the breakout rooms it puts the students together in a team so you can assess the student's team work skills for example when putting them in a group to do a certain project.

    B- Preparing a Presentation: Yes, it is not completely a performance assessment because the missing thing is that you are not actually seeing the Body language of the student during presentation but making presentations allows us as teachers to See the Performance of the student like the presentation skills and how the student can explain his concept, and the way that the student CREATES a Power Point and How efficient is his skills in the organization, content, and if the student can make a creative Power Point or not. This is a part of Performance assessment  and we shall put a self Assessment rubric and explain to the student to fill it in after the presentation and that they will be assessed according to this rubric.

     C- Performing at Home Experiment: You can tell the students to Apply what they learned by doing a certain experiment at home and make a video Showing every step of how they were doing the steps and finally ask them for a report about the experiment and ask them to Analyze why the results were as such thus you are making students think about the experiment and understand the concept behind it not just perform it. Again, Rubric is a must to ensure a valid assessment when it comes to performance assessment 

     In Conclusion, weather Online or in Classrooms, assessment is a vital process when it comes to learning and luckily, using technology and certain tools we can make an authentic assessment even in Online Teaching.