The Challenge

A course for students at Northern Illinois University who plan to become teachers (preservice teachers) combines principles of assessment and principles of educational technology. It is a challenge to find one instructor capable of teaching both topics effectively and co-teaching is not always an option.

The Solution

I redesigned this four-credit hybrid course to allow for either clear co-teaching or so an instructor adept in assessment (but not necessarily technology) could effectively teach the course in my absence. I accomplished this by:
– Aligning course objectives, state standards, course projects, and course topics
– Organizing content into 20 discrete topics with objectives, resources, and evidence of learning for each – half of which would be taught in-person and half fully online (see example topic outline below)
– Curating resources to be used for the various course sections/student populations (elementary education, middle level education, secondary social studies, secondary mathematics, and music)
– Creating screencasts, discussion guides, quizzes, and more
– Converting the course to Blackboard Ultra

The Result

Students performed well in the class and commented that they enjoyed it. A self-report survey indicated that 90-100% of students felt they were ‘almost there’ or were ‘good’ with each of the six course objectives.
With 9 of 13 students responding, I earned a rating of 4.67/5 on instructor effectiveness in the spring of 2023.
On course evaluations, students commented “Good structure and function for course assignments and projects” and “structure of the course…helped demonstrate the effectiveness of her methods (and) helped clearly demonstrate concepts.”
A new topic on Artificial Intelligence in Education was added with recent article readings and a general discussion guide in response to student interest.