Learning Management Systems, Open Educational Resources, and My Newsletter Design

Learning Management Systems

My experience with online learning started in college. Throughout my K-12 experience, I never personally participated in virtual school, but I did have a number of friends that did. They all had great experiences with virtual school because it fit their schedule and accommodated for them better than their neighborhood school could. When I entered college, I had the opportunity to sign up for my first online class and I fell in love with the flexibility and accessibility of course materials. All of the online courses that I have taken in college have been asynchronous. I find this to be the best part of online classes because it allows for students to learn on their schedule. The fact of the matter is that life is hectic, so having the ability to make your education work for your schedule is very empowering.

An important term to know in the online learning community is Learning Management System (LMS). An LMS is the system that serves as the online dashboard/meeting place for everyone in the class to go and receive the material for the course. The online learning experience can be made or broken just by the LMS that was used for the class. If the LMS is disorganized and hard to follow, then the experience will not be very good for the learner. However, if the LMS is organized and put together well, then the experience will be very enjoyable for the learner. In my personal experience all of my online courses have used the Canvas LMS. Canvas is very easy to follow and make sit easy to communicate with classmates and the instructor, so I have had a great online learning experience. This positive experience has flipped my perspective from preferring in-person classes far more than online classes to an even mindset on both types of classrooms.

Open Educational Resources

My definition of open educational resources (OER) is that they are online learning tools that are available for anyone to access. Don Watkins wrote an article on statements made by David Usinski, a professor at SUNY, about OER content. Usinski talked about the difference in performance of students who could and could not afford expensive course material. He then went on to talk about how important it is that free OER content should be made for everyone in the education field. This would make it so that all learners, regardless of financial ability, will have the tools necessary to learn effectively. If you would lake to take a look at the article, follow this link https://opensource.com/article/18/2/open-educational-resources-drive-teaching-renaissance. I really like what this article said because I believe that education is a right and all should be able to access  quality education regardless of background.

My Newsletter Design

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to make my first newsletter on Microsoft Word. I got to experiment and learn things about Microsoft Word that I never knew about. Here is my newsletter design:
I have learned a lot through making this newsletter. I will be able to use this skill in my future career very effectively because I will know the rules of font types, size, and color coordination, which can be used in various applications and programs. I like the color coordination of the newsletter a lot. As far as what I would do differently, I would learn how to shade the middle article better so it doesn't look as choppy as it does in the example. 

I commented on Morgan Geiss and Olivia Maihan's blog posts.

Comments

  1. Zhongrui (Ray) YaoFebruary 4, 2020 at 7:32 PM

    Hi, Jacob

    You made a good point that having the ability to make your education work for your schedule is very empowering.

    ReplyDelete

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