Online Learning for Iowa Educators (OLLIE) is a foundational five-course sequence to help
individuals become online instructors, whether at the post-graduate level, for professional development, or at the K-12 level. For more information on OLLIE and the sequence, please visit http://www.aeapdonline.org/p/ollie.html
In 2013, we introduced More Online Learning for Iowa Educators (MOLLIE), a simple name to describe our secondary layer of professional development aimed to help current online instructors looking to improve their practice. MOLLIE features a set of electives in specific aspects of online teaching and learning to be explored more closely.
OLLIE: Introduction to the Online Learner (1 credit)
In his book, Disrupting Class, Clayton Christensen boldly predicts that half of 9-12 grade instruction will be online by 2019. But what is online instruction? How does learning take place online? What do students need to be successful?
This course helps educators understand what online learning is like from the student perspective. It gives a firm foundation for the different type of activities that constitute online learning, as well as a solid pedagogical base for what students need in order to be successful.
This course is intended for all educators, including those who will teach online or those individuals who are not planning on teaching but wish to understand online learning from the student perspective.
Dates and Registration Links
July 9 - July 29 Register here.
OLLIE: Technology for Online Instruction (2 credits)
With the demand for online instruction rising, both in K-12 and for professional development, instructors need support in understanding the available tools and their appropriate pedagogical use.
This course will help teachers feel comfortable using Moodle for a host of different purposes, including online courses, hybrid courses, web portals, and online communities. Participants will develop content in the Moodle platform, including activities, forums, lessons, and assessments. Skills and concepts will be analyzed in context of the Iowa Online Teaching Standards and Online Course Standards. The course is delivered online, in an asynchronous delivery (participants work at their own time and place).
Dates and Registration Links
OLLIE: Instructional Design (2 credits)
This course introduces educators to the core principles of online instructional design. Participants will experience and discuss how to create student outcomes, assessments, and lessons for an online asynchronous format. They also will have exposure to existing online technologies, including web 2.0 tools, as well as online resources and repositories. Participants will create two instructional units, with lessons and assessments, and will practice their understanding with work in small groups. All content and activities created by participants will be able to be used after class is completed.
Dates and Registration Links
OLLIE: Online Facilitation (2 credits)
Teaching online is not the same as teaching face-to-face. There are many differences between the two, and a quality online instructor will understand strategies that they use in an online format.
This course gives instructors an understanding of the important differences to teaching online. The course pays particular attention to the biggest challenges that beginning teachers face, such as how often to provide response to students, how to overcome the barrier of no face-to-face communication, and how to ensure academic integrity. And most importantly, this course focuses on the current research and best practices in establishing an online community among students.
Dates and Registration Links
MOLLIE: Blended Learning (2 credits)
The US Department of Education, with its landmark study "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning" (2008), found blended learning to be more effective than either face-to-face or fully online learning, concurring with many other studies performed at the higher education level. Blended learning offers much potential to bring the best of technology infused practices and flexibility found in the online format with the direct personal contact of a face-to-face classroom.
The downside is that many teachers are not prepared to implement blended learning in their classroom. This course gives an introduction to teachers on what makes blended learning, and what are the best practices for a blended learning classroom. Participants will look at several different models of blended learning, spanning age levels and curriculum areas, and will develop their own plan to bring blended learning to their classroom.
Dates and Registration Links
MOLLIE: Designing Online Lessons (including Soft Chalk) (2 credits)
An online instructor faces a unique challenge when designing lessons. While online lessons need to keep the rigor and higher-order thinking that a face-to-face lesson contains, they must do so in a flexible format that allows a student to choose their own time, place, and pace.
This course focuses on the design process for online lessons, both text-based as well as spoken. Special attention is spent on attributes (such as hypertext, pullouts, manipulatives, and embedded activities) that bring interaction to a lesson. This course will also give the participant training in the Soft Chalk platform, a tool for Iowa educators to build online content.
Dates and Registration Links
MOLLIE: Online Teaching Best Practices (2 credits)
More and more people are choosing to learn online. In order to ensure that they are getting the most out of their online learning experiences, it is becoming increasingly important to that course designers and/or instructors are engaging in best practices for online learning.
This course will ask participants to explore online teaching standards, examine exemplars in sample online classes, and seek ways to apply these standards in an effort to improve their own practice.
Dates and Registration Links
July 16 - Aug 19 Register here.
