MOOCS Report 2

 

Online teaching has evolved so much that the benefits of it are endless. It provides the opportunity of having digital libraries and resources like on Sakai, multimedia resources, interactive simulations and virtual labs.

The Massive Open Online Course is an avenue for which one can find a vast range of courses to choose from and on which one can enroll in any course, all from the comfort of any location that the student finds himself.

This report is on my very first MOOCs experience.

·            The background to your MOOC selection- I started working in education in January, 2021 from a finance background. A lot of things I have learnt in my line of work these three years have been very interesting to especially the broad spectrum of special needs children I have met. The preschool I manage is not an inclusive institution, however, we had to admit an autistic child who had two of his siblings already in our school. He is an enigma to me and I am determined to make his stay with us the very best.

This led me to participate in an online course with the University of Cape Town called Disability Inclusion in Education: Building Systems of Support. The course is being spearheaded by Judith McKenzie, an Associate Professor at the University.

·         Major learning outcomes-

o    To use disability inclusion principles to describe the support needs of learners with disabilities.

o    To identify the systemic support structures available to teachers within the education system.

o    To recognise the impairment specific support needs of learners with disabilities.

Unfortunately, due to how strenuously the Sandwich Masters in Education was, I was only able to participate in the introductory Module of the course.

 

·         The learning materials used (eg., readings, videos, audios, websites, etc)- The course uses a lot of video in conveying the course. There is a notes option which helps the students to capture parts of the video or highlight parts of the transcript of the video and save. The types of videos are different such as conceptual, research, and direct experiences of teachers and people with disabilities.

 

§  The specific assignments, quizzes and projects you participated in- Week 1 had three quizzes; two 30-miniutes practice quizzes and ended with a 45-minute quiz.  I did not feel adequately prepared enough to try the practice questions.

Unfortunately, because I was unable to fully commit to the course and finish it due to the other learning processes I had going one. So I would be unable to do an analysis of the Iron Triangle.

The Learning Outcomes for the course will definitely be achieved as we have completed our second exams cycle. This is a course I am particularly interested in and I intended to finish it.