When I registered for my first class in the online teaching certification sequence I was excited. I have taken many online classes and found them both challenging and interesting.
The Online Teaching Certificate will take me one step closer toward my goal to teach Psychology in traditional and online classrooms. I hope this class will make me more marketable in the limited job market our economy is experiencing. I am attracted to teaching online for the same reasons I enjoy learning online. I find the medium both flexible and informative. I expect the time commitment and workload to be higher in online teaching, because I have found this to be the case as an online student. I think this class will prove to be invaluable to my goals because it combines the experience of online education from a students perspective, while learning the necessary skills of educating effectively in an online environment.
Then class began. Although I am still looking forward to the class, I became overwhelmed. I began to worry about my schedule and the amount of work required. I wondered if I could handle the demands of learning new computer skills. In addition, I was concerned if I could write a blog, when I have never read one. Late one night, nearing panic mode I asked myself why I went back to school.
That is when I knew I needed to get a grip. I know why I went back to school, and how fortunate I am to have this opportunity. I realized that I often feel overwhelmed when I look at the big picture. I am more successful when I take things one step at a time. It is daunting to worry about if I can accomplish everything required to succeed in this course. However, I do feel confident I can do what is required today.
I realize that I must stay organized and need to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to this course. But I know from past courses, that if I break the work into smaller chunks I will be less stressed. Basically, I need to stop being anxious, move forward and jump into the blog.
I checked out the tips for successful online learning. It suggests logging on to course every single day, and I can do that. It says to be polite and respectful. I always try to do that, but I will go over the netiquette information knowing that things can be misconstrued in an online environment. I browsed that Pedagogy and Learning links and find them helpful.
I notice in this course and in application of teaching online, there is a huge amount of resources available to students and educators. It seems that the amount of information available could be a blessing and a challenge simultaneously.
But there I go again trying to tackle too much at once and getting stressed. For today, all I have to do is finish some reading and my blog. I think I can do this.
