Our summer semester of online courses started this week. I have revamped my Technology in the Classroom course, again. Our college has a movement of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). The Japanese call it the Kaisan Method. The way I implement it, my friend calls it "reinventing the wheel." I have certainly done that with my course this semester. Here are some of the changes my students will find: Create Portfolio Website in Week #1 - I put creating a website in the first week! Although this is a bit more advanced educational technology project, it really makes sense because the students need a place to "house" their blog and portfolio artifacts as they do them each week. Weekly Blog Posts -I added weekly blog posts. The first week and last week's posts are clearly defined as what I want students to write about, but the rest of the weeks are fair game! I have some suggestions of what to put in each of the weeks. Basically, it is to reflect on what they learned (and implemented) during the week. New Grading System - Through one of my daughter's professors, I learned about Specifications Grading. While I saw some definite pitfalls of the grading system, I also thought it would work very well. Each assignment will have criteria to meet a specific outcome. If they meet the outcome, they get the point for "Met Outcome." If they do not, they get a "0" with comments on how to make it meet the outcome and a chance to redo it within a week of the due date. The original Spec Grading System had tokens students needed in order to redo assignments. I felt that would be a tracking nightmare, so I encourage them to choose to redo the assignments within a week, but will accept them throughout the semester if necessary -- I believe in Mastery Learning and that feedback is very important. Choice Board - Well, it isn't exactly a choice board, but I consolidated many assignments into "Artifact suggestions." Students create artifacts for their portfolios in different categories. Some students know what to create to fit into each of these areas, but some are too early in their learning and experience to come up with ideas. So, instead of making them do lots of fun, graded assignments - I give them ideas for their artifacts so they can choose what best fits them. No graded discussions - I felt students were just doing the minimum of work to get the full discussion points when the assignments were graded. So, I am encouraging participation by suggesting they post assignments and share them via the discussion area before submitting them for grading. Comprehensive Project is finished as the last assignment is completed - Previously, I tried to get students to put things into their portfolios at midterm so they were completely done at the end of the semester, but they didn't do that in the way I had the course structured before. This semester I have them do the artifact, place it in their portfolio, and submit the direct link for that assignment to me for grading. That way, the portfolio is viewed and graded throughout the semester instead of just the end. Future Enhancement - Gamification - I took Tony Vincent's Classy Sites Workshop this past semester and he had a "self-awarded" game badge system. I loved it! I found myself looking at what I needed to do to earn that badge. He created gorgeous badges relating to what we accomplished. I particularly liked his feedback badges. I wasn't quite ready to create his very cool, specific-type badges. I found a gamification template by Alice Keeler, that I think I might try to implement. For some people, that is just the motivation they need - especially in this short summer semester! I am definitely going to have badges for starting the week on Monday instead of Sunday night when everything is due. That is really the key to success in online classes. I will write a follow-up post in July when the class is over, reflecting on my changes and what I want to improve for next year. I rely, not only on my observations and what I think might be more effective, but I listen to student feedback. I will continue to do that and probably continue to "kaisen" the course -- hopefully, I'm done with the complete overhaul every semester!