Blog post1 online learning tools

In the new era of learning, technology tools play a significant role in the processes of teaching and learning.  I began to have a comprehensive understanding of how online courses works and how instructors apply different web tool to organize the courses as well as the basic course structure, and the useful online tools for different modalities of online learning after reading chapter 4 in the web book, “Teaching Online: A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice”, written by Claire Major. The most two attractive tools for me were the Moodle learning management system and online discussion forums.

“The Moodle learning management system” is a system used by instructor Lisa lane of the Mira Costa Community College, US. She uses in her course of “Classification for Modern Western Civilization”.  “The Moodle system allows the main page of the course to be organized like a syllabus, with blocks for each week’s activities and smaller information blocks on each side of the screen” (Major, 2015, p.88). In this course, the instructor uses Moodle to help her organize how she communicate with her classmates. She normally posts the initial primary source. Students will have one week to reply with their own primary source. On the following night, she creates an extensive post, reply on their sources and “providing guidance for what to do for the rest of the week” (Major, 2015, p.88). This model can be customised in any way and tailored to individual needs. Also, it is easily integrate everything needed for the course. It can be using a variety range of built-in features, including external collaborative tools such as forums, voices, lectures, and blogs. Overall, it is a very well-designed tool that creates a rich experience for both the instructor and the students.

Another example of web tool was “An Open Introductory Computer Science Course” taught by Professor David Evans. He uses online discussion forums a lot as he teaches the class. Because of the variety of backgrounds students, online discussion enriches the conversation to each other. Also, he uses online text discussion, and recorded weekly video “office hours” where he “select questions from the forums, based on student votes and interest, and post a video discussion” (Major, 2015, p.104). It is an effective tool to use.

In conclusion, online teaching is not a single method anymore, it can be delivered in many modalitiesand the different digital web tools support different modalities of online learning in many ways.

                           References

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching online: A guide to theory, research, and practice. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.

.