Instructional Design Hat

OK, stepping out of student mode to ID mode for a minute...

Right now I am:

• student in 2 online courses
• online facilitator-in- training in 2 different settings - one with students in a developmental college and one working with faculty

So one of my learning goals is to find out more experientially about online learning design and facilitation

What am I learning? - important to find balance of interaction, rigor, activity in design - otherwise it is too much to process... what is too much?

• OK, we are reading several texts and responding using different discussion strategies each week.
• So we are responding in writing to the text - then we are responding to each other on the same text - that means reading all the postings and replying more

Thought - break us up into groups - so that we have less to keep up with in individual posts - and gives us more space/time to think about those postings and respond meaningfully - we can still read and post to others if we want to...

• we are also doing 1-2 activities that ask us to apply the reading in some way or further process it - post those and comment again
• we are thinking ahead to papers and projects that are coming up...

So, where is this working/breaking down for me?

Seems like too much to process with reading everyone's postings, projects, and activities - run out of steam and mental space to process anything - I think fewer posts/activities to read and respond to others would be better - groupings might help - switch groups every few weeks to get to know more people? - same amount of reading and activities, but fewer peer responses to process...

What's missing in terms of facilitator interaction? For me - the voice of the person with more experience, drawing us out, drawing us further through targeted questions and challenges - feedback on assignments in a timely, meaningful, individualized way - where are we getting it - where are the gaps?