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Here is a video that I created for this post but will also use for my new on-line course which is a course on the psychology of resilience. It’s an introductory video so that my students can get to know me a bit more personally. Please click on the following link: IMG_0125
Alternatively, you can view it via YouTube at: https://youtu.be/ftSA4h0eh6U
Here is the link to my newly created (with 3 posts) Learning Activities Portfolio:
http://jrourke.trubox.ca/category/learning-activities-portfolio/
Although students receive a welcome/introduction letter from the university as soon as they register in my course, I think it’s important for them to receive one specifically from me as well.
In terms of my teaching style, I like to get to know my students and have a bit of personal interaction with them – this is one way to get that ball rolling.
Next steps: I’m going to create a video to post on our course website so that I can repeat a bit of this letter in a way that lets them see me and hear me (put a face to the name sort of thing).
No links for this – I simply included a bit of information about myself, and tried to include some details to clarify course requirements/expectations.
Below is the letter I email to them:
“Hello *insert student name*!
Welcome to *insert course name/number* – I look forward to learning about resilience with you! Please take the time to read through this email – it contains information that will help you successfully complete this course. I’m sending this to your personal email rather than through Moodle because there are some documents I wanted to attach and I cannot do that through Moodle.
A bit about me: I enjoy all aspects of social psychology; however, my main area of research is forgiveness, and I have studied it from both the victim and perpetrator perspectives. I obtained my degrees in Social-Personality Psychology and in addition to teaching on-line at TRU, I teach at the University of Victoria and Camosun College, and I work at Restorative Justice Victoria.
The best way to reach me is via email. If you’d prefer to speak to me over the phone you are of course welcome to call and leave me a voice mail message (insert phone number), HOWEVER, my preference would be for you to email me a request for a time for us to chat, that way, we don’t waste any time playing phone-tag. When you email me, please make sure to include your full name and student number.
Also, please note that under the “General Forums” tab on our course website, you’ll have access to two discussion boards that you might find useful when you have a question. The Student Café Forum is where you can chat with others in the course about matters of mutual interest regarding your studies and professional development. The Resilience Room Forum is an informal place to post any questions or comments you might have about the course (readings, concepts, etc.) and to exchange ideas with others in the course. Although I might pop in and comment from time-to-time, you are not graded for any posts submitted to either of these two forums – they’re simply a way for you to connect with others in the course.
Attached to this email are a document containing definitions of concepts that are key to doing well in this course, a document listing what you’ll need to include in essays that you submit (Part B of your assignments and for your Final Project Exam), and a Cliff Notes version of the APA 6th edition manual that I have a created for you – it contains all the information (and more!) you’ll need to know about APA for your assignments in this course.
The course is divided into four Modules and a Final Project Exam (check out the Final Project tab for information about your Final Project Exam). There are readings associated with each Module that you must complete to do the assignments. You can find the list of readings by clicking on the Overview tab for each Module (in the overview section you’ll also find the learning objectives for that module).
When you click on the Module tab, you’ll then see that it’s further divided into topics (e.g., Module 1 has four topics) and that each topic has several activities associated with it (e.g., Module 1, Topic 1, has two activities). I recommend taking a quick glance at each of the activities in the topics for the module you’re completing before you begin any readings – it will help you know what sort of information to focus on as you complete the readings and will let you know if you need to read the entire article. For instance, for Module 1, Topic 1, Activity 2, What is Psychology? you only need to read certain sections of the assigned reading/website.
As you work through this course, make sure that in addition to completing the required assignments, you also complete the assigned web discussion postings – they are worth 10% of your final grade! Check out the Assignments Overview tab for information about each of your assignments and your web discussions. I look forward to reading your first web discussion and learning more about you!
I’m here to support you as you progress through this course – please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, or for help to work through any course-related struggles you might encounter.
I hope you enjoy the course!
All the best,
Jessica“
This isn’t a particularly exciting activity, but I think it is an essential one. In order to successfully complete this course (i.e., assignments), students must grasp some core concepts. Below is a bit of a glossary or some of these concepts. I encourage them to contact me and also to post (and respond to posts) any thoughts/questions that they may have about these concepts.
In terms of my teaching practice, I want my students to do well and I want to make the tools for doing well readily available to them. Because there is no textbook, a glossary such as this one can come in handy.
I have no links for this activity – textbooks/articles, and the lovely teacher who is teaching the other half of this course! were the creators of this list.
“Hello Students:
Below you’ll find a brief review of some of the key concepts/terms you’ll be exposed to in this course. To do well in this course, you must have a good understanding of these concepts. Please contact me with any questions you may have. I also encourage you to post any questions you may have and to comment on others’ questions if you have something you think would help them in their understanding of the concept.
Review of Key Concepts
• Resilience factor: A moderator variable (i.e., interactive variable) that reduces adverse outcomes (i.e., improves outcomes) in an at-risk group. It affects the strength of the relationship between predictor (risk factor) and outcome (what the researchers are measuring).
In this course, we are looking at resilience which means we are always focusing on an at-risk group.
**When you are locating (resilience) studies (i.e., for assignments), make sure that the subject sample is an at-risk group! How do you know if the subjects are an at-risk group? The criterion that the researchers used for subject selection (e.g., children of divorce; foster children, survivors of natural disaster, etc.) defines the risk factor.
E.g., foster children (at-risk group/risk factor) who have high self-esteem (resilience factor) have reduced rates of depression (outcome).
For a study to be a “resilience” study, three central variables are required (remember these when selecting studies for assignments!):
1) risk factor/at-risk group
2) outcome measure
3) resilience factor
• Risk factor: The variable that is typically used for subject selection, and defines the “at-risk” group (subject sample).
Caution: Things can get a bit confusing because authors sometimes incorrectly refer to vulnerability factors or mediator variables as risk factors (see below for an explanation of vulnerability factors and mediator variables).
• Resource factor: A variable (additive variable) that reduces adverse outcomes/improves outcomes in everyone (entire population) regardless of risk status.
E.g., children (entire population of children, whether at-risk or not) who have high self-esteem have lower rates of depression. Here there is a direct correlation between self-esteem (predictor) and depression (outcome) because risk status is not included in this research design (i.e., they looked at the entire population).
Although it’s important to understand this concept, in this course, we are not focusing on resource factors.
• Vulnerability factor: A moderator variable (i.e., interactive variable) that increases adverse outcomes in an at-risk group. This is the opposite of a resilience factor and is not the focus of this course.
E.g., foster children (subject sample; risk factor) who are found to have low self-esteem (vulnerability factor) have increased rates of depression (adverse outcome).
• Mediator: A variable that explains the relationship between a predictor variable and an outcome variable.
E.g., low socio-economic status (SES; predictor variable) leads to poor parenting practices (outcome variable). Parental stress (correlated with low SES) is the reason why low SES leads to poor parenting practices; it is an intervening variable that is responsible for/accounts for the relationship between predictor and outcome.
Mediators are also not the focus of this course, however, you are likely to come across them in the studies you read and as such, should understand them.”
This activity entails learners watching a fun (in my opinion!) video which explores some of the key concepts in the course. The link to this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN1dD0K0NoM
Following this, I encourage them to post their thoughts on how some of these concepts relate to their own lives and invite them to comment on others’ posts.
This activity fits in with my teaching style because I’ve found that my students quite enjoy quick and somewhat humorous videos related to course content – they say that it helps them recall the information more than if they just read about it.
I don’t have any helpful resources or links…I simply google my topic and then spend some time browsing through various videos until I find one that I find useful. My advice would be to try and have it be slightly humorous (clips from popular movies and TV shows are often a hit) and make sure it’s not too long…if it goes longer than 10 minutes, my students don’t usually watch it.
Here is how I would present the activity to my students:
“One thing you should know about me…I’m a huge Harry Potter fan! You can imagine my excitement when I came across this video about resilience which uses Harry Potter characters and experiences to explain some key course concepts (e.g., risk factors, protective factors). The video is 7 minutes long and can be accessed through this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN1dD0K0NoM
I’d love it if after watching it you post a response: Think of a time you were resilient; what protective factors helped you get through? Feel free to comment on others’ posts as well!”
Looking back at my very first post (OTL101 Post 1), I first notice that although I did use a greeting (“Hello!”) it was not a cohesive response (e.g., “Hello Everyone!”).
I did give away a bit of personal information (interpersonal communication) but did not have any sort of closure (a bit of a rude way to end my post…abruptly!)
In this first post, we were not asked to make reference to others’ posts, however, in the times that I have responded to others’ posts, although I haven’t referred to them by name (e.g., “John – what a great suggestion you’ve made!” That would tie into open communication. Instead, I have been saying things like, “that’s a great suggestion!”), I have asked clarifying questions (open communication).
So…clearly some work to be done on my part for having more social presence, but I’d say the stepping stones are already there…
We were asked to create a video or an audio and upload an image…I went for all 3 options 🙂
Brief bio:
I enjoy all aspects of social psychology; however, my main area of research is forgiveness, and I have studied it from both the victim and perpetrator perspectives. I obtained my degrees in Social-Personality Psychology and in addition to teaching on-line at TRU, I teach at the University of Victoria and Camosun College, and I work at Restorative Justice Victoria.
Link to my audio: https://soundcloud.com/user-988855023/audio-for-post-1-otl201
Link to my video: https://youtu.be/GXnqat_AZhE
I’ve chosen to showcase Post 2 because the idea of students as facilitators of their own learning really struck a chord with me.
The various levels of learning and levels of feedback were really useful to explore. I was aware that there were different ways to learn and different types of feedback to give, but had never contemplated a formalized typography.
As a result of the OTL101 course, I have a number of questions! I want to know how I can help my students reach a higher level of thinking/learning – specifically, how I can best guide them into the integration and resolution phases of the Practical Inquiry Model. I’m also wondering how I can best create a safe and comfortable environment so that my students feel at ease sharing their opinions and giving answers to questions even when they aren’t confident of their answer. I liked the idea in the feedback article that we learn best from our errors.
In terms of goals, I want to revamp my learning objectives in my course outlines so that they reflect a higher level of learning, and I want to tweak my assignments and classroom activities so that they are also reflective of a higher level of learning.
I have always considered feedback to students as vitally important to their current level of learning and the level of learning that they wish to attend. I spend a great deal of time providing feedback to students on their assignments, and believe I do a good job of attaining the various levels of feedback described in the article. Students often thank me for the detailed feedback that I give them on assignments. I was happy to read that level 4 (the self) isn’t a hugely effective level of feedback because I don’t typically generate feedback at this level yet I’ve often felt like perhaps I should – now I know it’s okay not to!
Something I learned from reading the article was that feedback isn’t just through comments on assignments. I hadn’t thought about the value of students making errors while answering questions in class and I will certainly aim to create a classroom environment which fosters a feeling of comfort and safety so that students can be at ease answering questions even when they don’t fully know the answer.
1. What are the intended learning outcomes of the course? Do the learning outcomes reflect high-level cognitive skills or low-level skills?
The learning outcomes for my course (Psychology of Resilience) are:
After you have completed the work in this course, you should be able to:
a. Define “resilience” as it relates to psychology.
b. Describe protective and risk factors at the levels of the individual, the family, and the community.
c. Explain how individual, family, and community protective factors can increase resilience (i.e., act as buffers) in at-risk individuals and populations.
d. Describe some of the practical applications or interventions suggested by the research on human resilience.
e. Critically assess research studies on human resilience to identify and discuss the findings and the limitations of the research as well as areas where future research is needed.
I believe learning outcome “e” is reflective of high-level cognitive skills – asking students to critically assess the material and to reflect on and hypothesize about ideas for future research requires the use of relational thinking that can be applied to different situations.
That being said, I believe that learning outcomes “a – d” are more reflective of surface level understanding. This is the higher, multistructural level, but surface nonetheless. Having students describe and explain is good because it leads to students identifying more than one relevant aspect of an idea, but it does not necessarily generate understanding or an ability to create a coherent relational model of these ideas (as depicted in the SOLO model).
2 & 3. How is student learning assessed in the course? In what ways are the intended learning outcomes and the assessments aligned or not?
Students are required to submit 4 assignments, post a series of web-based discussions, and complete a final project exam. Each of the 4 assignments is divided into sections.
Part A asks questions with a pre-formed correct answer (e.g., defining and describing terms and suggestions made by the authors of the papers assigned as course material). Although it’s important for students to understand the key concepts of the course, this is reflective of surface learning. However, it does relate to the learning outcomes, specifically outcomes “a – d.” In addition, there are a number of questions in each Part A that asks students to apply concepts on a broader scale than what they’ve read in the assigned readings. For instance, having them imagine a certain scenario and then asking them which concept (e.g., “x, y, or z”) would apply and why, and asking them to make links to other concepts. This is reflective of learning outcome “e” (i.e., deep learning) because it asks them to reflect on aspects of a number of concepts and hypothesize/theorize about the application of these concepts to a new domain.
Part B of each assignment, well as the Final project is essay-format. These essays are most reflective of learning outcome “e” (i.e., deep learning) because they ask students to connect concepts/topics, to reflect on them with by suggesting their own ideas, and to critically analyze statements that are made.
The web-based discussions, seem to me, to be reflective of learning outcome “e” (i.e., deep learning) because students are asked to connect their ideas to those posted by other students – to reflect their own thoughts, to critically analyze what others have posted, and to make connections and new suggestions based on the relationship between concepts posted.
4. Re-word some of the learning outcomes to reflect deeper learning:
“After you have completed the work in this course, you should be able to: Define “resilience” as it relates to psychology.”
Re-wording: “After you have completed the work in this course, you should be able to: Have an integrated understanding of resilience and be able to critically analyze its application to various topics within psychology.”
“After you have completed the work in this course, you should be able to: Describe some of the practical applications or interventions suggested by the research on human resilience.”
Re-wording: “After you have completed the work in this course, you should be able to: Compare and contrast some of the practical applications or interventions suggested by the research on human resilience as well as generate your own ideas for interventions that would be worthy of research.”