"You may not have realized this yet, but our attempts to teach are much like our attempts to play Tetris. We have plans to maneuver students into just the right places so that they all fit nicely and then disappear. But when we play the game, they show up in all these different sizes and shapes and speeds and get jumbled up and the game is over and we reflect on what happened before trying again." (Jodie Black & Terry Greene) This selection from Patch 15 stuck with me when I first read it.
When working in online education, I think this is an important idea to always have at the front of our minds. When designing for online courses at our institution, much of the course content is static. It's designed and then used for a few years until it's revised and revisited. The instructors and assessments may change from term to term, and maybe some small updates will be flagged by the instructor(s) each time a course is offered, but for the most part a course will run for a few offerings before being revisited again. Thinking about our students and the Tetris game we play as instructors and instructional designers, I'm reminded of the importance of using UDL and designing with every student in mind, especially given our process and the way that online courses run. Students are working at their own pace, which can be challenging in and of itself. Add to this that in any teaching situation, it can be hard to identify students who are struggling for any reason, whether this reason is accessibility, struggles with motivation in the online learning world, or other external situations. I think this can be even more challenging when the student is working at the other end of a screen. It's important that we do whatever we can do, in the design/development phase, to help provide students with opportunities, tools, and resources to be successful right from the start. Our instructors are the people who are taking these "course shells" that we've created and helping to facilitate, guide, and direct students. I think it's important for us to take a step back from our "ID hats" and really think about our students and instructors. What are we doing that is super awesome for these students of different shapes, sizes, and speeds? How are we using the knowledge and reflections of our instructors to help us guide future revisions and course developments? How can we encourage a sharing back of course instructor reflections after they've taught one of our online courses? I may have more questions than answers at this point, but I think that's ok. (I'm being a circle. Don't try to fit me into a square.)
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