Week 5 - Reflection

As the course I am writing my flipped classroom is in fact 100% online, the face-to-face session is challenging me more than it might have in a physical classroom setting. I am trying to work out how to get students to collaborate in small breakout groups online, my main concern is how I will be able to visit each group when they are most at need of my assistance and making sure they are all feeling confident and engaged in the challenge. 

I am uploading my recordings to youtube right now! The webinar in week 3 and the reading material from week 4 plus a tutorial with Dario helped me refine my recorded content. My original plan was for one long video but I now see how monotonous that would be! I have also added simple challenges at the end of each section to help the students put into practice the skills demonstrated. 3 of my videos are 5min but one crept up to 10min, but I think that was necessary for the content. 

Talking with Dario helped reassure me that the structure of my live session can work, I now need to create the tools that the students will use in the active part of the workshop. Each group will get a kit of parts to create a layout, using the techniques shown in the recorded material. It needs to be simple, so that they can focus on making decisions on layout rather than what image they could use. I will need to prepare the students ahead of the session so that they have the right software open (one student will be the hands and screenshare, with the other students suggesting placement and design direction) so that there isn't too much faffing in the session itself. 

My FC has been designed to help give the students skills that they will need in the coming weeks. They need to produce a designed pdf book of their CRJ, and the majority of the students have little/no prior experience in this type of design. I found out their skill levels through a quiz and a workshop challenge. The prerecorded material will be useful for future classes, as it isn't specific to this group. Within this module, the students have had a first attempt at type & layout in week 3, this workshop will be in week 6, and there will be a more in depth week dedicated to type & layout in week 10. So this will be a good time within the module for them to learn a few of the basics. 

I have refined the content of my recorded material to actively challenge and engage with the students, adding in questions at the end of each section that will get them to think about the content. I’ve also taken advice and split the recorded content into four sections to make it more manageable and engaging.

On the whole, I am pleased with how my recorded sessions have been made – I have watched them back and think that the content is clear and easy to follow. I spoke articulately and described what I was doing and why throughout. I signposted what I was going to cover at the beginning of each of the videos, and summarised at the end of each. I then let them know what this new knowledge would add to their skillset.