Oscar Ragus

Module 3 (Week 15) - A Reflective Letter to a Newbie Teacher

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:43:00 +0000

Dear Newbie, =)

Welcome to the exciting world of teaching! This will be a chance for you not only to impart yourself to others but also to learn more about yourself and your fields of specialization. Do not be afraid to commit mistakes, to ask others for help, and to share your knowledge and experience with colleagues.

Teaching effectively is not synonymous to merely covering all of the topics in your course outline during your lectures. It is also not about students being able to memorize materials. Rather, teaching effectively means that students acquire something that they can use or appreciate. Think also in terms of what they will need to be successful in the workforce. I particularly like sharing newspaper articles to show real-life instances of our topics in class. When you give examples during your lectures, give those that your students can related to--and not necessarily the ones in textbooks that are more suited for those in North America or Europe.

Students learn in different ways, so the way that you learn may not necessarily be the same way that your students learn. For example, seeing a demonstration may suffice for some students, but others may need to be working with their hands. In addition, some students might be able to understand from reading, but others may need to hear words or to associate things with pictures. Furthermore, some students will study on their own while others may need some prodding. In short, a teaching strategy that works with or an activity that is liked by a group of students might have different results with other groups. Be sensitive also to possible differences between you and your students because of culture, gender and age.

You cannot possibly cover everything during all of your class periods, so you would have to inculcate in them the desire and ability to be lifelong learners. Besides, in many fields such as IT, the knowledge and skills they would learn can easily become obsolete in a few years. Many of the students these days are digital natives, so consider how you can use the latest technologies as tools, but not as ends in themselves. For instance, be creative in employing Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, social networking, etc.) and in iPad/iPhone applications.

As the old saying goes, “no man is an island”. Students will invariably have to interact with other people, whether in work, family or social settings. In other words, students must also develop teamwork and communication skills. As they can also learn from one another, try collaborative learning.

Assessments must be fair and must match your learning objectives. Whether you are giving exams, projects, research papers or other assessments, the contents must have a purpose other than being a source of marks that you can enter into the grade book. Use assessments for learning, especially by giving timely feedback on what they did wrong or inadequately. Also, have clearly defined marking criteria or rubrics, so that grading assessments would not be entirely subjective.

Lastly, be open-minded, flexible, and able to learn new things. You will reap what you had sown, so diligence and hard work in teaching would pay off.

Wishing you and your students all the best…

Oscar

Module 3 (Week 14) - Effectiveness of the Teaching Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:05:00 +0000

I believe the deliberate method was effective in teaching my accounting class as the students had many account skills to masters, such as journalizing, posting, and preparing worksheets and financial statements. In class we did concentrate on problem-solving, discussion and group work. We went all the way up to the Analyzing level, especially when we discussed accounting errors, but I wish we had more time to do more what-if questions and application-type questions.

We had six assessments (practical & theory) and a comprehensive final exam. Sixty percent got an A or A- for the final exam, so I saw that most of them did remember things from the beginning of the semester. It also seemed that students were not fond of lectures and would rather be doing something with their hands.

Meanwhile, the take-home (graded) review that I gave my students contained several case studies, so they had to do a lot of analysis. That many of them did not do well on it showed that merely memorizing things will not be sufficient to pass the system-wide assessment. So, we went over their mistakes, and I gave them additional (non-graded) practices.

I have seen my female students’ results of the system-wide assessment. Basing my conjecture on the marks I gave to scripts from other campuses, I believe many of my students were at or above par the system average. (The office assessment figures for different campuses are yet to be released.) Two sections of my female students (68% & 66% average) did a lot better than the single section of their counterparts at the men’s campus (59% average); the last section was problematic with their academic rigor and managed only 45% average.

While I may have spent considerable time preparing my ITEC 399 students for the standardized test, I also gave them an open-ended group project (encompassing project scope, time and cost management) where they would propose a solution to a given business/IT scenario. So, the focus was not just studying and memorizing, but also on using what they have learned.

Module 3 (Week 13) - Trying New Teaching Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:54:00 +0000

Unknowingly, I have actually been using the deliberate method for my BMAC 200 (Financial Accounting) class, which I taught for the first time this semester. To begin with, I was faced with the task of teaching accounting principles to IT students who do not have accounting knowledge, who have limited business background, and who are probably not so keen in learning accounting. Moreover, I was faced with a busy schedule as I was teaching overtime (24 contact hours per week), and I also had a System Wide Assessment (HCT’s standardized tests for selected courses) to prepare my students for.

Given that I had limited time to cover what was prescribed in the official course outline, I decided to concentrate first on doing problems and exercises in class. Of course, I gave out several in-class work and assignments to make them practice their accounting skills. Also, we did cover the theoretical part, but mostly in the context of while doing the problems and exercises. There were even 2 chapters that I did not do lectures on. I was satisfied that my students had no problem with Understanding and Remembering, but I saw that they struggled somewhat with Applying when problems and exercises were dissimilar from what they had done previously. I hope that that whatever we did in class would suffice for vertical transfer if they were to take additional accounting or finance courses.

I was also teaching 3 sections of ITEC 399 (ITEC 399), which was one of the courses identified for HCT’s System-Wide Assessments. So that students would take my practice sessions more seriously, I decided to assign a grading percentage for the review exercises, albeit a very small one (5% of course work). I have seen weaker students ask others on how to do several tasks, especially in preparation for exams. And I do encourage group studies. Anyway, I gave my first four marked reviews in-class, but for a change, I gave the last one (which was most comprehensive and more challenge) as a take-home assignment. The marks for the last one was lower compared to the first four, but I did see students with similar answers. I hope they tried figuring out the answer together instead of just copying the answer from one who has finished….One thing I should have tried is to ask students to create their own questions.

Module 3 (Week 11) - Teaching strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:47:00 +0000

Let me try to comment on the different group projects.

Collaborative Learning

As the name implies, collaborative learning involves two or more people to learn something together, which should in turn help each member in the Understanding cognitive level as he or she interacts with others. Differences among the individuals could also broaden possibilities for the Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating levels.

Learning should correlate with the level of collaboration, so individual students have their own responsibility for the learning process. As there is a group to work with, feedback comes not only from the instructor but from other students as well.

Project-Based Learning

PBL involves long-term learning activities, so it is basically self-directed learning which should hopefully develop the student towards being an independent thinker, problem solver and decision maker depending on his/her motivation level. This teaching strategy would fall in the Evaluating cognitive level and Organizing affective level as the students decide which subject matter they want to do in-depth investigation in. In other words, PBL should help students develop critical, analytic and creative thinking skills…and there is a greater possibility of far, high road and vertical transfers.

PBL also lends itself to collaborative learning as a student may wish to pursue a subject matter together with others with similar interests. In addition, self-evaluation should be inherent in PBL as the student measures his/her progress.

Direct Instruction

Direct instruction appears to be the traditional way of doing things with the usual lectures and demonstrations. Clearly, this teaching strategy should be in the Remembering and Understanding cognitive levels, and in the Receiving and Responding affective levels. It would be perfect for sciences, mathematics, engineering, IT, and vocational trades where near, low road, and lateral transfers are clear training objectives; cases and creative problems could attempt to induce far and high road transfers. Also, labs and exercises should increase the extent of transfer as students practice and do thing repetitively.

Learning in the higher levels should not be possible without learning in the lower levels, so there is a place for direct instruction, but it probably should not be used alone. A possible twist in this teaching strategy is for the students themselves to later try to teach and demonstrate what the instructor has covered. At the end of each class period, the students could also try to write a short report or journal entry as to what they learned and how they can apply their new knowledge.

For students who are genuinely interested in the subject matter, direct instruction may lead them to self-directed and lifelong learning as they seek to gain more skills and knowledge. I can easily see this with my computer students who are into multimedia and who wish to be able to do more than what’s covered in class.

Interactive Lecturing

Interactive lecturing goes a step further over direct instruction in that students are able to participate. In choosing to interact, students would operate at a minimum of the Understanding level and perhaps as high as the Evaluating level if they were to seek the validity and applicability of the lecture. That is, participating students are likely to use and develop analytical skills. Moreover, negative transfer would be minimized as the students evaluate their understanding.

Responsibility for learning falls more on the student, depending on how much he or she chooses to interact. A student who participates also gets immediate feedback from the instructor and other students.

Module 3 (Week 07) - Aligning goals with the course

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:12:00 +0000

All the courses in the new academic catalog have learning outcomes that are already defined, and I believe the curriculum developer employed verbs that can easily correspond to Bloom's Taxonomy. For CIS 1003 (Information Systems in Organizations and Society), this is how I map the specified learning outcomes to Bloom's Taxonomy:

No.	Learning Outcome	Bloom's Taxonomy
1	Recognize the importance of information and how information technology and information systems help manage and share this crucial resource;	remembering (cognitive); valuing (affective)
	define an information system's components; and	remembering (cognitive); receiving (affective)
	explain how these components work together to achieve common business objectives.	understanding (cognitive); responding (affective)
2	Describe the impact of information communications technology (ICT) on organizations and society; and	remembering (cognitive); valuing (affective)
2	discuss the role of computer and mobile networks in the digital age	understanding (cognitive); responding (affective)
3	Analyze how different types of information systems support decision-making and enable improvements in communication, quality, efficiency and effectiveness in different types of organizations	analyzing (cognitive); organizing (affective)
4	Discuss current and future trends in information technology and information systems	understanding (cognitive); valuing (affective)

In addition, the assessment strategy is also prescribed, so I am constrained with how I can assess the students:

Item	Description	%
Final Assessment - Written Examination	The assessment is developed in accordance with the CSA specification approved by the DAT.	30%
Coursework - Quiz	Quizzes (20%): Two quizzes through the semester Timed Tasks/Activities (10%): On-going through the semester including WileyPlus tasks.	30%
Coursework - Simulation Performance	Students are given a business scenario where they need to analyze client requirements and produce a solution using an appropriate application software.	30%
Coursework - Project Output	Report (20%): A group research project focusing on emerging technologies. Presentation (10%): Individual assessment related to the group research project.	20%

The final assessment has a common specification whereby the types of questions and corresponding cognitive levels are explicitly mentioned. While there are no specifications for quizzes, I have the challenge of constructing questions so that they do not all fall into the Remember level. I scheduled the final assessment on the second-to-the-last day of classes, so that I can return marked exams on the last day and give feedback.

There were no specific details for Timed Tasks/Activities, but I chose to have students answer questions from the textbook after my lectures and demonstrations. For one, I was hoping it would encourage them to actually read the textbook and not just rely on the PowerPoint presentations. Second, it was meant to help them remember what they should have learned, and to also prepare for their quizzes and exams. I will be teaching the course again next semester, but I think I can try to be more creative with the tasks/activities. I will try to look into using various educational software or games to help them remember theory (particularly definitions). I might even try asking the students to construct their own essay-type, short-answer, and multiple-choice questions.

Our course team (which is made up of instructors from different campuses teaching the same subject) had two options: 1) make students analyze information systems in existing businesses; 2) have students think of a business situation where they can use Excel or Access to solve a problem. I choose for my students to undertake an Excel project--I was targeting more of the Apply level for most of the students, but I was expecting the Create level for the top students.

The project output is research paper to be presented. I was busy this semester, so I stuck with having students do PowerPoint presentations. The next time I teach the course, I would consider allowing other means of presentation, but I will have to adjust the marking criteria.

Module 3 (Week 06) - 100 Ideas for Assessment

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:48:00 +0000

Here were some ideas given by others:

Game-based assessment (Adnan)

I like the idea of “edutainment” which aims to make learning fun. Game show formats and computer games would probably work with any subject area. Quiz shows lend themselves to learning theory. In business, I have come across simulations/games on investing and production.

Students write their own questions (Munther)

Several students would probably write questions that require the same answer. It would then be interesting to discuss which questions is the best. Also, it would be a challenge for students to write essay-type questions and to provide answer keys.

Furthermore, the subject matter covered by the questions could possibly indicate what topics the students understand and/or find important. I recall that I used to have a professor that would require us to submit outlines for each chapter of the textbook. That was probably his way of making sure we at least open the required materials, but it could have also been used as a gauge to see what we students find to be important.

Investigative reports on real-life problems (Amer)

One idea that comes to my mind is for students to play TV reporters when they go on field trips or workshops. One group member can use his/her mobile phone or tablet to take a video, while one or more other members report on what’s happening and what they have learned. For business students, they can easily visit actual shops and write reports on customer service- and marketing-related topics.

Discussion boards (Bara’a)

This should not be limited to only being among classmates. I would even recommend that students join mailing lists and Internet groups for specific topics. They can then try to start threads, contribute to existing discussions, and/or report on what different users are saying. For computer students, a related exercise would be to give students a problem or set of problems, and then require them to find answers from or through Internet discussion boards.

Peer-to-peer assessment (Annie)

This should not be limited to students preparing worksheets to be answered by others. Students can also give comments on other’s presentations or even research papers. Or if there are class debates, then the student audience can be asked for their opinions on as to which group wins the argument.

Inductive and deductive reasoning (Manal)

We would have to first teach students about logic. Perhaps a simple exercise for students would be to make them try to come up with analogies or metaphors. Problem-solving games might fall into this category. We could even ask students to answer multiple-choice questions, and then require them to explain why the other answers are wrong.

Module 3 (Week 04) - What about my students?

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:23:00 +0000

Ideally, I would say that the learners are the ones who can use/connect what they know and what they can do to real-life situations, but that would be difficult to observe and measure. On the surface, I would consider those who do well on the exam as the learners. However, I would be impressed with those who can remember course material weeks after the exam not only as it may mean they have good memory but also as it may mean that they actually learned something…and not just studied to do well on an exam.

I believe there are various reasons why my students learn or what makes them make the effort:

go to college, be with friends, and hopefully learn something on the side
get a degree that will help them land a job or get higher salary
earn good grades and try to do better than classmates
know more about something—this would be especially true for those who have an idea about their major (e.g., networking, multimedia, applications development, etc.)
be prepared for work after graduation

At HCT, all courses are designed to include learning outcome. In the past, even sub-outcomes were included, but I think they have now been removed to give instructors leeway on what topics to cover. Furthermore, the HCT curricula are designed to reflect graduate outcomes:

communications and information literacy
critical and creative thinking
global awareness and citizenship
technological literacy
self-management and independent learning
teamwork and leadership
vocational competencies
mathematical literacy

The main ways that students learn are through lectures, demonstrations, group work, presentations, field trips, reading assignment, and competitions. There is definitely a lot of memorization (and hopefully understanding), but there are also many hands-on work for students:

installing software, hardware and networks
creating databases, Web pages, computer programs, and multimedia files
using various application software to produce documents and other course work

On the other hand, projects, research papers and case studies often require synthesis and analysis.

Lastly, IT students often demonstrate what they have learned through finished products:

configured software, hardware and network
computer code that works
finished Web page, program, video file, audio file and image file
diagrams and flowcharts
project plans, etc.

In addition they have a set of measurable software skills to master and theory to know. Quizzes and exams would definitely not suffice. Presentations and interviews are essential to ascertain if students really learned or did something, especially in group work.

Module 2 (Week 02) - Technologies for the Project

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:22:00 +0000

I think I'd like to use a combination of different education technologies:

electronic portfolio

Microsoft OneNote

smart boards

Module 2 (Week 02) - Personal Learning Network

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:17:00 +0000

I think one of the things I would need to completely overcome is the shame of asking for help, and this could partly be cultural and personal. First of all, my upbringing is to be self-reliant and independent. Second, I generally do not wish to appear ignorant or weak. So, there's a lot of room for improving and expanding my personal learning network (PLN) or professional development network (PDN).

Mailing Lists and Groups

During my college years in the early 1990s, I often subscribed to various mailing lists usually through Listserv and Majordomo as a way to keep abreast on different subject matters. If you remember, this was the time when the Web was still developing and growing in popularity. (I was actually using Gopher a lot.) Right now, I am just subscribed to one mailing list, Tomorrow's Professor. I actually don't participate or read the posts much, but I'm keeping my subscription just in case I have more free time and am later able to mine information I might find useful.

As the World Wide Web grew, mailing lists metamorphosed into groups, and I had joined several ones in Yahoo! and MSN. I have since unsubscribed from several groups, but I might once again join those in Business & Finance and Computers & Internet.

Electronic Newsletters

Since I also teach business courses even if I'm in the IT department, I have subscribed to the e‑newsletter of the American Management Association. I would say that this is akin to reading about the latest trends and theories in Harvard Business Review.

Employment Web Sites

I visit job sites to see what IT and business skills & knowledge are currently needed in the market. That then gives me an idea on which areas I need to improve on or what new things I have to learn. In jobstreet.com, I have signed up to get good job matches by email.

RSS Feeds and Bookmarks

Since I use Microsoft products extensively, I have employed RSS feeds to become aware of various tips and tricks. I keep in Outlook the messages which serve as bookmarks to articles that I want to keep track of as references.

I also do bookmark sites that I often use as references.

Online Reference Materials

Although I have a thesaurus and dictionary on my desk, I more often use webster.com for the convenience. I used to enjoy Reader's Digest's Word Power, so I also subscribed to Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day. (At least I get to build my vocabulary one word and one day at a time!) Of course, I also visit Wikipedia as a starting point for information on many things.

FAQs and Downloadable Manuals

I often visit company Web sites to get more information about their products. More specifically, I visit FAQs and download product manuals. For instance, I wanted to learn more about the education technology hardware inside our new classrooms, so I searched for and downloaded the manual for the switcher.

Colleagues

Finally (and most importantly), my co-workers are a big part of my personal learning network. In my old workstation where I was for 6 years, I sat near non-IT teachers so I inevitably became their immediate tech support. I had invariably learned from their many computer-related questions and problems,

Moreover, hardware and networking are not exactly my forte, so I was glad that other IT teachers in my department were open to sharing thoughts, ideas, references, and class materials (BBVista stuff, exercises, assessments, etc.) It was somewhat easy for me to ask help from them as we had built some rapport as we had worked together in various committees and events.

Module 2 (Week 01) - Course for the Project

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:24:00 +0000

This semester, I am currently teaching two courses:

Business Essentials II [BUSI 1250] — Diploma-level; 2 sections, 48 students
Information Systems in Organizations and Society [CIS 1003] — Bachelor-level; 3 sections, 65 students

I'm choosing CIS 1003 for my project for these main reasons:

it's an IT course, so it looks very fitting to implement various education technology
it's more of a theoretical class (as opposed to hands-on), so education technology should help make it more interesting and/or interactive
there are more students taking it, so the project would impact a greater number of learners

Module 2 (Week 01) - Introduction and Educational Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:52:00 +0000

I’ve been caught up in many things, so it’s only now during the spring break that I can finally concentrate on Module 2…

Introduction

Anyway, my official title says that I am a Business faculty member at Al Ain Women’s College (AAWC) campus of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), but I work under the Computer and Information Science Department. I’ve been teaching business and IT courses at the women’s campus for more than 6 years, and I also taught an IT course at the men’s campus for the first time last semester.

Classroom Hardware

Practically all classrooms in Al Ain Colleges (i.e., both the men’s and women’s campuses) are equipped with a teacher’s computer (either a laptop or desktop PC), smart boards, document cameras (a.k.a. visualizers) and video projectors that I have all used extensively. The setup also allows us to easily plug in our laptops, so that we can use our own computers and easily access our files & programs.

Before working for the HCT, I had been accustomed to creating transparencies and using the low-tech overhead projector. So, I found the document cameras a novelty and a welcome change. Now, I could just directly place my notes or even a book under the document camera, and presto! An image of the paper or book is projected on the smart board. I have also used the camera to show images of various objects, such as computer hardware and cables.

As for the smart boards, they allow me to much more easily give software demonstrations and PowerPoint presentations, and this directly relates to Reason #2 ("depth of understanding"). For one, the smart board becomes like a large tablet and the students can follow my hand as I point and click. And when giving PowerPoint presentations, I can simply tap on the smart board to advance the slides, so there's no need to click on the mouse or use a remote control. In addition, I can use the smart board interface to write on the screen.

BlackBoard Vista and WileyPlus eBook

I have used BlackBoard Vista extensively for several subjects; WileyPlus, for a single computer course. They have both exemplified/personified Reason #1 ("expansion of time and place"), Reason #7 ("individual pacing and sequence"), Reason #8 ("weight"), and Reason #10 ("lower cost").

When materials and assessments are online, students can do more things outside the classroom: study at their own pace, submit work at their convenience, and take diagnostic tests at any time. It also means that that there is less need for paper and better book inventory management, thereby reducing costs.

...

With so many education technology available, my main concern is being able to keep up with developments, especially when it comes to finding the time to evaluate them and to learn new things.

Module 1 (Week 02) - My Most Memorable Learning Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:08:00 +0000

My most memorable learning experience would have to be when I took the COBOL programming class with Dr. Mel Franz at Central Missouri State University (now known as the University of Central Missouri). At the beginning of the semester, he made sure that we took the time to get to know at least the name of our classmates. His rationale was that we should care enough about knowing colleagues whom we may need to turn to for help in the future. It was my introduction to the importance of networking with people.

Back in the 1990s, it was already a common practice of our professors to place copies of their old exams in the Reserve Section of the library. That meant that they would pretty much have to create new assessments every semester as they cannot simply recycle old assessments. Of course, I often took advantage of looking at previous exams, and I thought it was great that:

we could see the assessment style of our teachers
have an idea of what kind of questions to expect and what subject matter to concentrate on

So, in short, there was no secrecy and there were hardly any surprises when it came to taking exams.

What set Dr. Franz apart was that his exams were "open books, open notes"...and we were even allowed to bring in pre-typed computer code that we can cut, paste, and modify as part of answers to his exam questions. Of course, if we did not understand a topic, it would not help being able to look at our book or notes as we would simply run out of time digesting material instead of answering questions.

I thought that taking Dr. Franz's exam was like tackling real-life situations in a business environment. For example, at work, people are not be expected to remember everything. That's why we have reference materials that we can consult. (This goes back to the "open books, open notes" part.) Also, when it comes to solving problems, it does not make sense to re-invent the wheel. We can take existing knowledge and resources and adapt it to our current situtions. (And this goes back to the part where we came to exams with pre-typed computer code that we used as needed.)

Moreover, Dr. Franz's programming assignments were similar to the real-life situation of having programmers needing to be in close contact with their clients, so as to be able to meet all of the software specifications. We are given a set of input that we are supposed to turn into some form of output based on the instructions given. In many cases, the information we had were either ambiguous or incomplete. We were expected to communicate with our professor for clarification such that there was a constant need for us to check our e-mail regularly for updates that may have impact on how we write our computer code.

As the process of coding programs was time-consuming, we had to learn how to manage our time wisely. (The computer labs were open from 8am to midnight, but we could dial in for mainframe access 24/7 if we had our own computer and modem.) We also needed to be sensitive to detail as a single misplaced period could change the programming logic completely. And in order to produce the desired results (output), we had to analyze our problem/assignment at hand from different angles, so that we will not miss any important detail.

Even if I did not get an A in the class, I was nevertheless satisfied with what I experienced and with what I learned.

lynda.com

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:27:00 +0000

I've heard things about lynda.com, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I just completed completed my registration today....

An Introduction (Part 2 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:13:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have no formal training in education. So, in these studies, I hope to be exposed to theories, best practices and technological use pertaining to that subject matter. For instance, I am glad that one of the course requirements is to maintain a blog. I have been meaning to start one, but I have never gotten into it until now, since I need it for the PGCTHE! =)

I hope to bring into the group the perspective of one coming from a combination of business and IT backgrounds. It would be interesting to interact with those teaching other subject matters, such as Liberal Arts courses.

I started using computers as a little boy in the early 1980s when my mother bought a Commodore 64 with an external tape recorder. I was also first exposed to the Internet during my college years in the early 1990s. I recall using a text-based browser in monochrome mainframe terminals, and the early incarnations of the Mosaic Web browser in IBM compatibles. I used the gopher, telnet and ftp protocols, and I also subscribed to several mailing lists through Listserv and Majordomo....In other words, I expect to enjoy and easily get the hang of whatever technological tools we may use or learn about in this certificate program.

I have been exposed to collaborative learning when I was taking up my graduate studies. There were instances that our professors were more of facilitators and/or advisors. So, I look forward to both contributing to our collective knowledge, and learning from my team members and facilitators.

An Introduction (Part 1 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Oscar Ragus) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:19:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog spot!

My academic background includes a master degree in Business Management, a bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems, and associate degrees in both Data Processing and Accounting. I have no formal training in education, so I thought pursuing the Post-Graduate Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education would help me in my career path, especially since I am currently teaching college students full-time.

For six years, I have been handling business- and IT-related courses at the Al Ain Women's College (AAWC) campus of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT). This academic year, I began teaching an IT course at the Al Ain Men's College (AAMC) campus, too. Before becoming part of the HCT family, I had also taught business and IT courses at a community college in the Republic of Palau and at several post-secondary institutions in my native country, the Philippines.

My experience with online learning includes creating and administering Blackboard Vista courses here at HCT, and I often use Respondus 4.0 to make quizzes. For two summers now, I have taught International Computer Driving License (ICDL) classes to high school students, and we used for practice the online exam simulations created by Litmus Learning. (We had scratch cards that gave login and password information that are good for 20 hours of exam practice per card.)

In addition, this academic year our Computer and Information Science Division started implementing ebook solutions from both Pearson and Wiley. I was fortunate to begin using Wiley Plus for the Information Systems in Organizations and Society course (CIS1003) that I am teaching at both AAWC and AAMC. As for using online learning for my personal growth, I have taken NetG courses that were once available in our HCT portal. I have also been visiting the free online tutorials of w3schools, so that I can brush up on my HTML and CSS knowledge.

(to be continued...)