October 2015 blog publications by jonacuso

Reflective Online Teaching October 2015 Blog Publications http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/

Prof. Jonathan Acu単a Solano Twitter @jonacuso

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Blog Entry #

Title

Page

190

Voice Recordings & Screen Captures in Action

191

Asynchronous Tools: Online Trends and Advanced Tools

192

Portal Docente: Especialización y Aprendizaje para la

Educación 193

The Meaning of Ethics: What is it?

194

Understanding the Meaning of Competency-Based Learning

195

Initial Thoughts on Competency-Based Learning

196

Best Practices for Designing Learning Competencies

197

Challenges in Learning Competency Design

198

Competency-Based Assessment: Some thoughts

199

Experiences in Learning and Assessment: When

competency-based learning was not used 200

Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency

201

Self- Regulation of Learning

202

Asynchronous Tools in Online/Hybrid Teaching

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Voice Recordings & Screen Captures in Action By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Saturday, October 3, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 190

The teaching of sounds of a different language is no easy task for learners nor for instructors. People develop different techniques to enroot segment proficiency, what I personally call the ability to produce sounds in the target language. Some students, whose ears are more “sensitive” to changes in sound quality can easily grasp differences in segments. On the other hand, there are other pupils whose strength is connected to visual learning, and the use of videos or flashcards is transcendental. Being an English Language instructor at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica, mostly working with English Language Teaching students, I have come across with some difficulties in trying to teach them how to make a real difference when pronouncing certain vowels sounds such as the schwa [/ǝ/]. To have my students see the difference in articulation and jaw opening, I created the video that can be reproduced below entitled “Contrastive Words” (Acuña, 2015). To sum up, videos as part of “all forms of modelinggiving” (Underhill, 2005) are enriched ways to strongly introduce visual differences in sound articulation.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

The creation of this video connected to the schwa production implied the use of different types of voice and screen capturing tools: a) Gimp for picture modification 2, b) Wave Pad to edit audio, c) Video Pad to stage one’s video, and d) mp3Gain to increase volume quality. The video is hosted in my personal Youtube Channel to be given the chance of an embedding code to have it in the university’s Moodle LMS and to be embedded in my pronunciation class blog.

3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkWuL9WwvuM My pronunciation class at the university is not an online class but a F2F one. To sort of moving into a hybrid learning atmosphere, I designed a pronunciation blog where I have included basically all that is covered in the 15-week course. This video is part of week 6, and it aims at visually presenting the student how the schwa differentiates from other English sounds and what position it takes within the vowel chart. The pronunciation student can either see this video at home directly from the class blog or on our Moodle LMS anytime it is needed. However, they are first introduced to it in class. The main challenge in using voice recording along with screen captures is in terms of its simplicity. What Skye MacLeod –a former Language Fellow from the American Embassy in Costa Rica back in 2011- explained to me was that in order to create either a podcast or a vodcast, some steps need to be met:

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

1. A format needs to be chosen to guarantee its briefness but also its focus; 2. A script is required to guarantee the recording’s quality; 3. The recording edition is vital to ensure good quality in sound and video; and 4. The file format needs to be compatible with the hosting system so viewers will not experience any difficulty. By following these simple steps we can mitigate challenges for the students or ulterior implications in use. “We’ve all heard the old adage ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ Learning to read those pictures gives us advantages in both work and life” (Toledo Art Museum, n.d.). Visual Literacy is now a term currently used in language learning to train students to observe and go beyond an initial response, but to go deeper into the analysis of what it is being observed, like the pronunciation of sounds within one’s mouth.

References Acuña, J. (2015, February 22). Contrastive Words. [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TUfX-9N8TaE Toledo Art Museum. (n.d.). Visual Literay. Retrieved from Why Visual Literacy?: http://www.vislit.org/visual-literacy/ Underhill, A. (2005). Sound Foundations, Learning and Teaching Pronunciation (3rd Edtion ed.). Oxford: Macmillan Education.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Asynchronous Tools Online Trends and Advanced Tools By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 4, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 191

As part of online learning, it is necessary to use asynchronous tools that can allow students to comply with coursework tasks based on their own schedule and with ample time to reflect upon the subject-matter. Flexibility in their schedule and enough time for reflections can guarantee some more in-depth response when one gets to remove the time constraint provided in a F2F teaching environment. For these three essential reasons in hybrid learning and teaching, I have constantly employed blogs and wikis to help students achieve course objectives and some sort of work-readiness training in language teaching. For these reasons, since “there are a number of technologies that can be used with online instruction to facilitate communication among students and the instructor” (West Virginia University, n.d.), knowing some characteristics of these tools such as wikis

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

and blogs, “enables an instructor to adopt the best tool for his or her purpose” (West Virginia University, n.d.).

Common Tool Chart (West Virginia University, n.d.) As most of us know, blogs and wikis can be used to account for a lot of different learning tasks with one’s students. Though most teachers may be employing blogs to share information with learners, I actually have students create their own blogs for reflection and for posting coursework. Because of the many different features a platform like blogger.com, or weebly.com, provides users, their projects can turn more interactive and creative than a simple static printed page on bond paper. They have found the training in this tool useful considering that in language teaching they can also use this asynchronous tool to work with their future students. A blog can also be used as “an online journal that can be made public or private. Students can use blogs to create an online portfolio, post reflections, turn in projects or assignments and receive feedback from the instructor” or their peers (Angelo State University, n.d.). Blogs can have indeed many uses within our online, blended or hybrid teaching scenarios. On the other hand, wikis are another interactive and different way to have students work on projects and submit coursework. “Wikis are similar to other types of online communication tools, such as blogs and threaded discussions, in that these are all asynchronous forms of communication” (West & West, 2009). As a language professor teaching the potential uses of technology in English language teaching (ELT), I like Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2015

students to sample a bit of what a wiki can do for them as instructors or as learners. Wikis can become a good substitute of an LMS at a small scale when you have just a limited number of students in the classroom. They can be used to share information in various formats (video, pdf, mp3, you name it), and they can be used to have students post their homework to be graded. In terms of work-readiness, by the time they finish our teaching program, their technological is superior to students in other local universities. The possibilities in the use of asynchronous tools is endless. We just need to assess what needs to be achieved in a course to find the tools that can be used to have students efficiently achieve course learning goals. At the beginning, the use of these tools can be a bit difficult, but with a pinch of patience and another pinch of desire to have students learn, lots can be achieved in a hybrid or online course.

References Angelo State University. (n.d.). Online Learning Tools: Asynchronous Communication Tools. Retrieved from ASU e-Learning: https://www.angelo.edu/services/elearning/faculty_resources/Online_Teaching/section_31.php West Virginia University. (n.d.). WVU Online and Extended Campus. Retrieved from Tips of Teaching Online: http://online.wvu.edu/Faculty/Resources/TeachingOnline/ West, J., & West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Prof. Jonathan AcuĂąa Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

8 The following account intends to explain the reasons why “el Portal Docente” (Faculty Development) is a good option to find best practices in sister and higher educational institutions across the globe. It also provides a brief account on networking, one of the best benefits of the online courses and a great way to get in touch with other colleagues working somewhere else in the world. Finally, it mentions some reasons on how influential “el Portal Docente” has been in my current teaching practices. A veces con el trajín de nuestras actividades docentes nos quedamos un poco rezagados en nuestro propio desarrollo como profesionales, nuestro deseo de aprender a trasmitir nuestro saber y así contribuir con la creación del conocimiento y destrezas de nuestros estudiantes. Los cursos del Portal Docente de Laureate, cuyos temas educativos y calidad, promueven el aprendizaje en el profesor y le proveen con ideas, estrategias, y destrezas que nos pueden ayudar a modificar nuestro modelo instruccional y creencias educativas.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

“¿Qué se pretende lograr a través del Portal Docente?”, se puede preguntar cualquier instructor universitario. Como docente de la Universidad Latina, quien ahora está conectado con muchos colegas de la Red Laureate, el Portal busca la homogenización de las mejores prácticas y enfoques educativos que han probado ser exitosos en muchos contextos universitarios alrededor del mundo. El Portal Docente, como profesor universitario, me ofreció analizar y profundizar en teorías que han formado mis destrezas como instructor virtual, bimodal y presencial del Siglo XXI; todo esto en un solo lugar. La exposición a otras teorías educacionales me ha permitido la creación de competencias que ahora están entronizadas en el concepto de aprendizaje profundo en

los educandos universitarios.

¿Qué ha sido lo mejor de los cursos virtuales con o sin la guía de un instructor? Desde mi óptica, muy personal –desde luego-, una experiencia única de los cursos del Portal Docente es la oportunidad de networking (conexiones académicas dentro de las universidades Laureate) con colegas de muchas áreas de estudio en múltiples lugares del orbe. Este networking, aún hoy, me permite compartir prácticas andragógicas con otros docentes en otras latitudes e inclusive experiencias, material en línea, etc. Hemos compartido puntos de vista de forma interdisciplinaria que enriquecen nuestras perspectivas como educadores. Y toda esta exposición a nuevas perspectivas promueven Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

la autocrítica y, por ende, nuestro desarrollo profesional en nuestros campos de acción como instructores.

¿Cómo ha cambiado mi práctica docente desde mi vinculación al Portal Docente? Mi experiencia ha sido muy beneficiosa para mis estudiantes y en lo personal, desde luego. Los cursos que he tomado en el Portal Docente me han hecho girar en un ángulo de 180° en mi forma de enseñar. La temática tratada en los cursos del Portal Docente han hecho que mi práctica profesional esté más alineada con la tendencias educativas del Siglo XXI con prácticas bimodales de aprendizaje, con proyectos en mis cursos, y siempre pensando en el estudiante adulto trabajador actual. El Portal Docente no es un MOOC que trata de incluir docentes de muchos niveles educativos (primaria, secundaria, comercial, universitaria, etc.); es una ventana hacia la internacionalidad y el intercambio de prácticas educativas con colegas universitarios dentro de la familia Laurte. El fin último de Laureate es promover el aprendizaje de destrezas entre los miembros de nuestras facultades para mejorar nuestro desempeño como docentes y la calidad de aprendizaje entre nuestros estudiantes. Desarrollémonos profesionalmente y alcancemos todos, la satisfacción de guiar a nuestros estudiantes en su aprendizaje y de crear profesionales altamente competentes con todas las destrezas necesarias en este Siglo XXI. Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

The Meaning of Ethics: What is it? By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 11, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 193

The question of what ethics is is one that has been on the academic scene for a very long time. Still it has not been properly defined and what it is ascribed to it. And if thought in the teaching practice and practicum, faculty members or regular teachers may not be fully certain of what they are talking about. Velasquez, Andre, Thomas Shanks, and Meyer (2010) came up with a very important review of what ethics is not. The authors state the fact that ethics “is clearly not a matter of following one’s feelings,” “nor should one identify ethics with religion,” and is “not the same as following the law.” In addition to these ideas, they also specify that ethics “is not the same as doing whatever society accepts” either. Then, what is ethics and how does it relate to one’s teaching? The same cohort of authors agree that “ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do” (Velasquez, Andre, Thomas Shanks, & Meyer, 2010). And then, ethics is “the study of one’s ethical standards” (Velasquez, Andre, Thomas

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Shanks, & Meyer, 2010). However, though the authors mention what ethics is not by our constant exposure to society and its imminent social conditioning. In the end, ethics becomes a science of the self in which individuals analyze and pounder their decisions based on one’s moral beliefs and our moral conduct. If ethics “prescribe what humans ought to do” (Velasquez, Andre, Thomas Shanks, & Meyer, 2010), how does this apply to faculty members or teachers in general? “Ethics is a critical element in teaching and plays an important role in a teacher’s personal and professional life. A teacher’s ethical stance will govern how he or she instructs and assesses students” (The Ethics of Teaching, n.d.). Bearing in mind that “ethics is more than just a code of ethics which does no more than codify a set of principles and rules which serve aspirational and/or disciplinary purposes” (Clark, 2004) and what Velasquez, Andre, Thomas Shanks,and Meyer (2010) state about what ethics is not, ethics for educators should imply that it is not about following our feelings when teaching, dealing with students, or grading their work; ethics is something that is not meant to be connected to one’s religious beliefs or simply following the code of ethics of one’s school. One’s ethics stance does not necessarily have to be linked to whatever is expected from us in school, because at times one has to ethically behave differently from what school accepts. In fairness of what ethics should be for educators, teacher-student relationships must be governed by moral principles. “Respect for persons, impartiality, inequality, trust, privacy, confidentiality, cooperation and competition” (Clark, 2004) need to be present in any relationship where the instructor holds certain power over students’ grades and disciplinary punishment. “At the heart of a strong and effective teaching profession is a commitment to students and their learning” (Ethical Standards, n.d.); any other difference that may arise in the course of teaching should not be taken into account when grading or assessing learners.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

As a conclusion, ethics can be defined as the science of the self (me, the teacher, as an individual) pertaining to what is right or wrong. It cannot be attached to one’s feelings, religious creed, country’s laws or school’s regulations, or to whatever society (or other school officials) considers OK. Ethics is something that does not deviate from standards of virtues and the rights linked to those virtues.

References Clark, J. (2004). The Ethics of Teaching and the Teaching of Ethics. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, Volume 1(Issue 2), 80-84. Retrieved from http://www.teacherswork.ac.nz/journal/volume1_issue2/clark.pdf

Ethical Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved from Ontario College of Teachers: http://www.oct.ca/public/professional-standards/ethical-standards

13 The Ethics of Teaching. (n.d.). Retrieved from Pennsylvania Department of Education: https://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/unit_1__the_ethical_teacher/21081/the_ethics_of_teaching/1237587

Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Thomas Shanks, T., & Meyer, M. (2010). What is Ethics? Retrieved from Markkula Center for Applied Ethics: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Understanding the Meaning of CompetencyBased Learning By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 11, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 194

What is competency-based learning? Though CBL can be defined as the “demonstration of skills and knowledge in required subject areas through a series of carefully designed assessments” (Competency Based Learning, n.d.), it still lacks the core of its real essence. “The competency-based education (CBE) approach allows students to advance based on their ability to master a skill or competency at their own pace regardless of environment” (Competency-Based Education, n.d.), but still no real definition is fully provided here. The real meaning of CBL is still elusive. Competency-Based Learning, from a neophyte’s stance, is the development of competences in a learner. Thus, a competence must be understood as “the quality of being competent of performing an allotted function” and “the quality or condition of being Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

legally qualified to perform an act” (Competence, n.d.). Based on these two denotations of competence, it is important to state here that competency-based learning is an instructional approach that intends to provide learners with knowledge aiming at producing in them a skill. However, being skillful is not enough to be legally entitled to perform a given working task; that skills, -whatever it is-, must then be transformed into a competence, a quality that will allow students to perform competently at work. As pointed out by Laureate Education (An Overview of Competency Based Learning, 2013), “due to the nature of this model and its widespread use in everything from formal academic settings to workplace trainings, little consensus exists on how to formally define competency based learning.” And when my personal definition of CBL is compared to Laureate’s, I sense a lot of discrepancies but more similarities on what I believe. Our main difference is in the fact that “competencies are met or achieved when students demonstrate mastery of content through a valid and reliable assessment” (An Overview of Competency Based Learning, 2013), yet the chronological sequence to test this “mastery of content” is not visualized in the acquisition of knowledge, the subsequent development of skills, and the ulterior creation of competencies. No matter what definition of CBL is held, the traditional model of learning in higher education is miles away. As Laureate Education posits (An Overview of Competency Based Learning, 2013), “With a traditional learning model, students are essentially given knowledge; teachers tell students what they need to know. With the competency based learning model, teachers provide active learning opportunities so students can create their own transferrable knowledge.” In the traditional style of teaching, instructors are “essentially” conveyors or transmitters of knowledge but with no end purpose; learners are just told what they need to “learn” for a test, not how to apply it in meaningful contexts for their field of study. CBL is a door to produce deep learning among students and a way to move away from surface learning or mere memorization of facts that will not guide learners towards the development of competencies.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Trying to visualize the transition between the traditional way of teaching at my workplace and a real competency-based learning environment, I see reluctance in the horizon. Traditional teaching does not imply much planning for an instructor; they just show up to class and basically follow the metaphor of the granny feeding her hens, some of them will approach to get their corn, but others will stay away and get just a few ears. But there will be some who will simply not get near and will not profit from the instruction provided by the faculty member and consequently will not develop neither skills nor competencies. Learners must be empowered with their learning but giving them chances to apply the theory the professor is providing them. “The one problem with this curricular orientation [the traditional way] is that though the purposes are praiseworthy, nothing guarantees that autonomy in learning can be attained by every single individual who has been exposed to it” (Acuña, 2015). Learners are meant to work at their own pace and learning styles, to be engaged and motivated into what they are studying, to apply what they are learning in real-life situations, to acquire teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, and to be prepared to function competently in their current or future workplaces. All of these can be attained by means of competency-based learning.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

References Acuña, J. (2015, January). The Academic Rationalism: A Curriculum Model. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1swpuomb22dt5t/The%20Academic%20Rationalis m%20Model.docx?dl=0

An Overview of Competency Based Learning. (2013). Retrieved from Faculty Development Laureate Education: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1/FD/APSK/LPS1.F DEV.APSK.CBLE.EN.ON.V1.MASTER/readings/LNPS_APSK_CBLE_EN_Unit01_anO verviewOfCompetencyBasedLearning.pdf

Competence. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2015, from Dictionary.Com: http://dictionary.reference.com/cite.html?qh=competence&ia=ahsmd

Competency Based Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from Western Governors University: http://www.wgu.edu/why_WGU/competency_based_approach

Competency-Based Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from Educause: http://www.educause.edu/library/competency-based-education-cbe

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Initial Thoughts on Competency-Based Learning By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Monday, October 12, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 195

“The most important characteristic of competency-based education is that it measures learning rather than time. Students progress by demonstrating their competence, which means they prove that they have mastered the knowledge and skills (called competencies) required for a particular course, regardless of how long it takes” (Mendenhall, 2012). Based on Mendenhall’s characterization of Competency-Based Learning (CBL), I have been modifying my teaching in such a way that learners can demonstrate what they have been learning by means of projects, research tasks, and cooperative learning practices. At Universidad Latina in Costa Rica, I am certain that lots of Faculty Members do use CBL in class and in various subjects and programs, but I cannot for sure tell whether it is the vast majority. In language learning, which is my area of work and expertise, I have been developing all sorts of small-scale projects to foster the consolidation of Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

knowledge and skills into competencies that learners can use at work. Several of my colleagues do work similarly to me, yet others are more traditional in their teaching. To have all Faculty Members at Universidad Latina hold on to CBL, all of us must bear in minad that, as stated by the College Affordability Guide, “competency-based education’s results-oriented format allows students to use prior learning, open educational resources and whatever learning methods work well for them, as long as they can prove mastery of the material” (Competency-Based Education: Why MOOCs and Independent Learning are Tomorrow’s Course Credits, n.d.). This will no doubt result in more deep learning for all our college students. My personal experiences with Competency-Based Learning has made me shift 180° in my teaching approach nowadays. As Everhart posits (2014), CBL is meant to be “learner-centric,” “outcome based” and, “differentiated.” My particular experience with CBL gravitates around student production and research (learner-centric) by providing students with tasks where they can demonstrate understanding and use of knowledge to consolidate a project for learning. The idea is to help learners “develop skills at their own pace” (Everhart, 2014). My current teaching practices aim at working on an “outcome based” fashion. That is, bearing the end product in mind and the competencies needed to be developed, students with assessment experiences carefully planned and graded with rubrics created for that only purpose. Finally, my CBL practice is “differentiated” for my pupils. My idea behind learning outcomes and objectives, as explained by Everhart (2014) is to “recognize and adjust” my teaching “to meet the needs of individual learners.” Initially, I must admit, I was rather skeptical to give this approach a try. When I came to understand what Kaplan University points out, “the classroom –onsite, online, or a combination of both- is the environment best suited for students to acquire competencies; it is where they learn, practice applying what they learn, and demonstrate mastery that translates to a work-related setting” (Competency-Based Education, n.d.). Why to wait for students to go on a professional practicum to have them realize what the needed competencies are? Isn’t it better to start training them in the classrooms from Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

the very start of their majors? The answer for these questions are the pathway to follow to provide learners with deep learning opportunities to have them create the competencies needed to be functional at work.

References

Competency-Based Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from Kaplan University: http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/student-experience/competency-basededucation.aspx

Competency-Based Education: Why MOOCs and Independent Learning are Tomorrow’s Course Credits. (n.d.). Retrieved from College Affordabilty Guide: http://www.collegeaffordabilityguide.org/blog/competency-based-education-whymoocs-and-independent-learning-are-tomorrows-course-credits/

Everhart, D. (2 de October de 2014). 3 Key Characteristics of Competency Based Learning. Obtenido de Blog.Blackboard.Com: http://blog.blackboard.com/3-keycharacteristics-of-competency-based-learning/

Mendenhall, R. (2012, May 9). What Is Competency-Based Education? Retrieved from Huffingtonpost.Com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-robertmendenhall/competency-based-learning-_b_1855374.html

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

Best Practices for Designing Learning Competencies By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 18, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 196

“Quality learning competencies are important for successful competency based learning experiences. When first transitioning from a traditional model of learning to the competency based model of learning, designing quality competencies can often be a challenging task” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). To decrease the level of anxiety one may experiment with the designing of competencies, it is a good idea to follow some best practices in their development. Two of the suggested best practices by Laureate Education, Inc. experts (2013) are: 1) “Competencies should prepare learners for the next level” and 2) “Competencies

should

aligned

learning

objectives

and

assessments.”

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

“Competencies should prepare learners for the next level” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). Competencies are meant to aid the student to move to the next level of comprehension needed to progress in class, in higher studies, or while being at work. Within the class context of instruction, the development of competencies prepares learners to face the next piece of instruction they must master, which is meant to help them to be better prepared for their current or future working environment. In the long run, what pupils will be demonstrating is what skills they have acquired for themselves and for their performance in class, while getting a higher degree, or while having to use in their workplaces. The instructor then is meant to provide activities such as projects along with formative feedback to help learners develop their competencies. “Competencies should be aligned to learning objectives and assessments” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). A competency is like the end product of instruction; that is, it is what learners get form one’s class to succeed in the real working world. Courses are designed and developed bearing in mind specific learning objectives in their course outlines. These objectives must be translated into measurable objectives that need to be tested while students demonstrate theory and practice comprehension.

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

As a literature professor at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica, these two best practices have a powerful impact in my hybrid/blended classes. From a mere constructivist learning stance, whatever is done prior the beginning of a new thematic unit helps build student understanding. Yet, whatever is being practiced with pupils and then demonstrated by them must be aligned with the learning goals stated in the course outline one is following. This is basically what I intend to do in my Literary Criticism class where prior knowledge becomes crucial in the creation on new knowledge in the mind of learners, who will transform these pieces of knowledge into literary analysis skills and competencies to be used in the understanding of poesies, narratives, and dramas. Let us know pay attention to an example of literary criticism in action. Learners in this class are meant to comprehend that hermeneutics is not the only way

interpret

literature.

Students

are

explained

that

“literal

interpretation asserts that a […] text is to be interpreted according to the ‘plain meaning’ conveyed by its grammatical construction and historical context” (Hermeneutics, n.d.). Then, students are confronted with other way of make meaning out of a literary text beyond the hermeneutical domain that simply allows you to come up with only one correct interpretation. Antecedent – Behavior – Condition Competency Formulation A = Using the Reader Response way of literary interpretation, B = Learners will be able to analyze [a piece of poetry, drama or narrative] C = correctly by providing their personal points of view in an essay

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

To ensure that a competency like the one stated above, certain steps must be followed. If it can be noticed, it a competency that is specific (Reader Response to literary analysis, clear (use of a Bloom’s taxonomy verbs such as analyze), and measurable (a given product is produced, being in this case an essay, and checked with a rubric). Students will also be able to apply their recently-acquired knowledge on Reader Response to solve a problem they are provided with, the understanding of a piece of literary creation, in which they have to apply their inner emotions, personal feelings, and life experiences, normally used by writers in their literary creation. Finally, a competency like this aims at working with any level of competency or learning preferences.

References

Hermeneutics. (n.d.). Obtenido de Enclyclopaedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/topic/hermeneutics-principles-of-biblicalinterpretation

Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Best Practices for Designing Learning Competencies. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/

Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

(Three Trends That Will Influence Learning and Teaching in 2015, 2014)

Challenges in Learning Competency Design By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 18, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 197

From writing competencies to aligning them with learning objectives and assessments, the task of designing learning competencies can be challenging. When transitioning to the competency based model of learning, you must identify and overcome potential design challenges to ensure successful learning experiences for students. A welldesigned, quality competency might be the difference between an engaged and motivated student and one who is discouraged and overwhelmed by course expectations. (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.) Competency-based learning seems to be a great way to embark one’s students into real deep learning, and a nice way to abandon any kind of surface learning practice

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in teaching and learning. CBL comprises lots of nice ways of having students develop their working competencies prior their setting their feet in a company. But there are certain things we educators must keep in the lookout to avoid standardizing competency evaluation, the use of CBL in licensure programs, and the wrong conceptualization of what CBL entails. Standardization of competencies must be avoided. “According to Ralph Wolff, president of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, institutions must guard themselves

from

standardizing

the

mechanisms

which

competencies

are

demonstrated” (Gibson, 2013). In the case that a faculty member wants to start using competencies to guide his/her planning and teaching, it is indispensable that these practices are carried out only within his/her course. Unless two colleagues agree on working together and assessing learners with the same competency instruments (tasks and rubrics), the use of similar performance demonstrations to verify student understanding should be avoided, especially if learners do not cover the same content and experience the same in the classroom or in an online platform. Competencies need to be avoided in licensure programs. “A CBL model is an effective approach to both education and practice. However, academic programs that require professional licensure may be slow to embrace competency programs divorced from any observable measures of contact hours” (Gibson, 2013). Basically what Gibson is stating, and which I agree with 100%, is that certain program such as the ones in medical school (medicine, optometry, nursing, ophthalmology, etc.) are not exactly ready “to embrace” the use of competencies to demonstrate content understanding. A surgery is not the same kind of project if compared to a mock up building in architecture or in civil engineering. In terms of monitoring and the amount of time used to grasp the contents for the creation of a project like this will take time, and not same lapse for an engineer or for a doctor.

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The correct conceptualization of what CBL entails must be guaranteed for student learning and the right application of this teaching approach. How long does it take an instructor to fully understand the domain of CBL? The answer is not clear, especially if CBL theory is applied to it. “Students,” as well as faculty members learning how to use CBL, “will enter […] at various levels of competency and with diverse learning style preferences” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). Somehow instructors must be quite sure that their understanding how CBL works must be ensure prior its use in a course continuum. The right application of competency-based learning may take some time to sink in, and it would also be a good idea that professors have a chance to discuss their competency-developing projects with other colleagues to guarantee that they are not offtrack. The use of CBL in a higher education institution is a great idea. “By focusing on

what you know rather than how much time you spend learning competency-based education puts you in charge of your education as never before” (Competency-Based Education: What It Is, How It’s Different, and Why It Matters to You, 2014). This is what the instructor must always bear in mind and transmit the very same idea to his/her students. CBL allows learners to be in charge of their learning and the demonstration of what they are really learning in a course, not exactly inside the classroom.

References Competency-Based Education: What It Is, How It’s Different, and Why It Matters to You. (2014, January 24). Retrieved from University of Wisconsin: http://flex.wisconsin.edu/blog/competency-based-education-what-it-is-how-itsdifferent-and-why-it-matters-to-you/

Gibson, C. (2013, August 2). Competency-Based Learning: Four Challenges and Impediments. Retrieved from The Evolllution:

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http://evolllution.com/opinions/competency-based-learning-challengesimpediments/

Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Best Practices for Designing Learning Competencies. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1

Laureate Education, Inc. (n.d.). Journal 2: Challenges in Learning Competency Design. Retrieved from Faculty Development: http://global3.laureate.net/#/home/faculty

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Competency-Based Assessment Some thoughts By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Saturday, October 24, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 198

“In traditional classrooms, teachers use a variety of assessment methods to measure student knowledge of a particular skill or concept. While this knowledge is important, in competency based classrooms, an understanding of content is insufficient” (Assessment Methods, n.d.). Students must demonstrate that they are able to comprehend and use theoretical concepts explained to them on specific tasks such as case studies, essays, journals, observations, oral presentations, portfolios, simulations, tests, and so on. As stated by Laureate Education, “assessment must also measure a student’s ability to demonstrate and apply the knowledge to real world experiences” (Assessment Methods, n.d.).

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In a previous post, a competency on literary analysis based on the reader response was provided. Students taking a course such as Literary Criticism, where they have to study different approaches to get a better understanding of literary pieces, are exposed to a great array of approaches used in literature to make sense of literary creations. The ultimate idea behind this course on Literary Criticism dealing with analyses and approaches is to train learners to read literature for their own enjoyment, comprehend it better for further explanations, and become prepared to be using these methods for literary analysis when they become the language instructors in a school or university.

Antecedent – Behavior – Condition Competency Formulation A = Using the Reader Response way of literary interpretation, B = Learners will be able to analyze the poem A Dialogue Between the Soul and the

Body by Andrew Marvell C = by providing their personal points of view in an APA-format essay that must include an introduction, three developmental paragraphs, and a conclusion As it can be seen here, the literary competency above is based on the antecedent, behavior, condition method. It is rather self-explanatory, but what really matter here is how this competency is going to be measured to guarantee that learners can prove the mastery of how the Reader Response rationale for literary analysis is used. As it can also be seen in the formulation of the competency for a Literary Criticism course, an essay is a good way to test student competency development. “Essays allow students to demonstrate knowledge of competencies, communication skills, and analytical skills through writing” (Laureate Education, 2013). According to the formulation of the

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learning outcome phrased as a competence, learners need to demonstrate mastery in the production of APA-format essays. Essays do imply the planning of writing to meet communication standards to make one’s point clear to a reader, and they also imply the deeper analysis of literary productions based on a very specific literary approach such as the Reader Response or any other that can be studied in a course like this. A literary competency like the one outlined above does include some degree of challenge in its implementation. To start with, the instructor must be certain that learners are fully acquainted with the writing of essays, its structure, its implications in citing sources, the APA format, etc. This is something that needs to be tested prior having students produce an essay based on a competency-based learning outcome. The writing of an essay is a sub-skill in this competency that the instructor must ensure for its success, and a way of testing learner understanding of APA writing is to have some writing task to verify comprehension. In addition to essay writing, the correct application of the literary approach has to be also tested, practiced, scaffolded, and reviewed as many times as necessary before a student is sent to write a paper. If by any chance the learner fails to understand how a given literary approach is used, the product that is going be produced is far away from the demonstration of the mastery of a given concept. Once again, the monitoring and observation of learners while applying the approach in in-class literary analyses is crucial. As stated by Laureate Education (2013), we teachers must “measure mastery of skills, knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes students need to display in a content area, profession, field, or workplace.” If all these is not met, we are somehow going back to just the traditional way of summatively assessing students by providing them with a grade that does not necessarily show proof of mastery of a concept. Instructors must “assess student ability to demonstrate a competency rather than just know it” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013).

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References

Assessment Methods. (n.d.). Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?c ourse_id=_84966_1&content_id=_142444_1&mode=reset

Laureate Education, I. (2013). Assessment Methods. Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1/FD/APSK/LPS1.F DEV.APSK.CBLE.EN.ON.V1.MASTER/readings/LNPS_APSK_CBLE_EN_Unit03_com petencyBasedAssessment.pdf

Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Best Practices for Designing Learning Competencies. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1/FD/APSK/LPS1.F DEV.APSK.CBLE.EN.ON.V1.MASTER/readings/LNPS_APSK_CBLE_EN_Unit02_best PracticesForDesigningLearningCompetencies.pdf

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Experiences in Learning and Assessment When competency-based learning was not used By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Saturday, October 24, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 199

“Schools need to put more effort into evaluating what makes effective teaching, and ensure that discredited practices are rooted out form classrooms” (Adams, 2014). And the panorama does not seem to change much when one gets to higher education institutions. From my personal experience, as a learner who had to survive 11 years of schooling and some five more years of college studies to get a BA, educational experiences in my learning and assessment were not exactly like the dual education model used in Germany. If sarcasm was read correctly by my reader, life would have been much easier for people in my generation if one had been trained to function in the real world when being taught with competencies. Based on Adams (2014), “some schools and teachers continue using methods that cause little or no improvement in student progress, and instead rely on anecdotal

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evidence.” Adams’s account is quite similar to my experiences back in my school and college days. Though at the university I had several types of professors, many of them were just interested in this “anecdotal evidence” rather than having us develop any competence related to what was being studied in class. Deep learning was something that was not exactly encouraged in many of the courses I took being a student, and we learners had to rely a lot on our memory to survive testing weeks. In terms of assessment, most of us were just happy with a grade rather than being able to do something competently with what we had learned in class or by the time a course was over. For instance, at some point of our essay writing training, we were more content with getting a good grade that really understanding how important was to write academically for the sake of our future lives as faculty members or schooling workers.

34 How might our experiences have differed if we had been taught through competency-based learning and assessment? As far as I remember my years back in the university, I cannot say that several of our professors somehow toyed with the idea of competencies to teach. What needs to be understood here is that I cannot assure that they were aware of what competences were and how these academic constructs could have permeated the course program they had to follow; perhaps, the process they followed was somehow connected with the development of a competency. But in those times, at least at the university I studied at, the end product was what really counted for some of the courses I have in my mind now. If we had been taught to function in the real academic world, like in my very personal case –especially now that I am a university professor-, life –at the beginning- could have been much easier in the workplace. If projects for courses had been carefully planned bearing in mind what was expected from us in academic working settings, professors (and even high school teaching professionals)

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could have taught us to be functional in that working ambience. Education at the time I was a college students could have been customized in pace; that is one may have worked “as quickly or as slowly as [one] like[s] within the time constraints of the program” (What is Competency-Based Learning?, n.d.). But that did not happen. And most importantly, one would have learned workplace skills, and not wait to start work to develop those needed competencies that we continue to polish at this point of our careers. At this point of my teaching career at the university level, my experiences, though they were not what I wish I had had, pay off today in my teaching. One of the very first things I said to myself when I was to become a teacher was that I did not want to be like the educators I had faced along my many years of schooling and university studies. Just a few of them left an imprint in my actual teaching that I do not want to overlook because they gave me a solid ground to grow professionally. That is the reason why I have tried and continue to try several different methodologies and teaching/learning approaches to improve student learning and competency development. As an educator I want to facilitate learning and knowledge to be used in course tasks that can produce some good competency development that can be fully functional in the real working world.

References Adams, R. (2014, October 31). Education study finds in favour of traditional teaching styles. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/31/education-traditionalteaching-versus-progressive

What is Competency-Based Learning? (n.d.). Obtenido de eLearners.Com: http://www.elearners.com/online-education-resources/online-learning/what-iscompetency-based-learning/

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Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 25, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 200

“Teachers in competency based classrooms must recognize that students enter at various levels of competency and acquire knowledge at different rates” (Blog 4: Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency, n.d.). No single human being is to learn the very same way in which a peer does; all of us have different ways of learning and of processing information provided in a classroom setting. The way the knowledge is grasped and consequently used in learning tasks varies from individual to individual. Faculty members “must be committed to facilitating learning at all levels by utilizing strategies to support learning of individual students without lowering expectations” (Blog 4: Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency, n.d.). To make competency-based instruction work within one’s classroom, strategies must be used. “In competency-based settings, teachers are encouraged to minimize direct instruction and focus on facilitating student learning” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). And the facilitation of student learning is definitely done by means of strategies

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that need to be carefully envisioned and understood by the instructor. Let’s take the case of the Literary Criticism class where the following competency for literary analysis is meant to be met by learners: Antecedent – Behavior – Condition Competency Formulation A = Using the Reader Response way of literary interpretation, B = Learners will be able to analyze the poem A Dialogue Between the Soul and the

Body by Andrew Marvell C = by providing their personal interpretations regarding emotions, feelings and ideas discussed by the poet in an APA-format essay that must include an introduction, three developmental paragraphs, and a conclusion What strategies can be used to help learners become competent literary analysts within the Reader Response approach connected to Jacques Lacan’s mirror metaphor for literature?

The provision of a “stimulating environment” for learning and the development of competencies is needed. The instructor must be able to create the right conditions to foster deep learning among students. In addition, the teacher has to “establish an environment that encourages exploration and allows student to take risks, make mistakes, and find ways to improve their own learning” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). Learners are moved from a mere receptive state of information to a real engagement in the construction of their own knowledge and competencies. In my Literary Criticism course at the university, my students are provided with learning tasks that move them beyond the classroom setting with bits of online independent learning and research and Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Reflective Online Teaching / Summary of Blog Publications – October 2015

project-based learning works whose end product is the production of the essay stated in the competency formulation. The selection of appropriate learning resources is another strategy to be used in competency-based learning settings. The idea behind the selection of resources aligns with the idea that “teachers must support students as they work to acquire skills, knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes that can be transferred to a higher level of education and/or the workplace” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). After the careful evaluation of resources that can help learners develop their research projects in the Literary Criticism class, they are provided with handouts, diagrams, case studies, worksheets, videos, demonstration, and essays by means of the university’s Moodle platform. The idea is then to provide them with the minimum required to carry out a learning tasks and prompt them into the search of new information on their own; this is a simple way to promote independent and long-lasting learning that can eventually be used in their future or

current jobs. If possible, the personalization of learning is a requisite for competency-based education. This strategy allows the instructor to “provide tasks that are relevant and connected to the students’ lives and the work they will do in the future” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). In my literature class, this means that my learners are provided with small-scale projects that are relevant for literary comprehension and analysis linked to their personal and future professional lives as language instructors. Professors using this strategy must also comprehend that all pupils have “unique skills, backgrounds, and interests” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). The exploitation of learners’ skills, backgrounds, and interests is a priority in literary analyses because it helps them to achieve goals and competencies in their own personal way; learning cannot be homogenized in any sense since every individual construct knowledge differently. To concluded, any educator transitioning from mere traditional teaching/learning scenarios must keep this idea in their minds all the time: “The Competency-based Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

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education (CBE) approach allows students to advance based on their ability to master a skill or competency at their own pace regardless of environment” (Competency-Based Education (CBE), n.d.). CBE allows instructors to create more engaging learning tasks aligned with competences that are required from students when they become part of the labor force in their countries or overseas. And as Educase puts it, “this method is tailored to meet different learning abilities and can lead to more efficient student outcomes” (Competency-Based Education (CBE), n.d.) if used correctly. The results of the teaching/learning process can be more rewarding than simply getting a good mark on a test or term paper.

References Blog 4: Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency. (n.d.). Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?c ourse_id=_84966_1&content_id=_142450_1&mode=reset

Competency-Based Education (CBE). (n.d.). Retrieved from Educase.Com: http://www.educause.edu/library/competency-based-education-cbe Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Supporting Student Learning in Competency Based Settings. Laureate International Universities.

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Self- Regulation of Learning By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Sunday, October 25, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 201

“Self-Regulation is the ability to monitor and control our own behavior, emotions, or thoughts, altering them in accordance with the demands of the situation” (Cook & Cook, 2014). Self-regulation of one’s learning is an important step all students must take to take control of their own development of their knowledge. As Cook & Cook (2014) state, our pupils must be able to control their “behavior, emotions, and thoughts” to profit from instruction, research, homework, assignments, presentations, projects, and the like. As it can be seen, self-regulation plays an important part in one’s learning letting us take control of it mindfully. How can I have my learners profit from self-regulation when being in a competency-based setting? Well, self-regulation “includes the abilities to inhibit first responses, to resist interference from irrelevant stimulation, and to persist on relevant tasks even when we don’t enjoy them” (Cook & Cook, 2014). When learners are being transitioned to a competency-based course, they will be challenged by the instructor to

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take control of their learning, and this will imply that they need to “inhibit first responses” such as “I don’t like this,” “This is not what I want from a course,” or “What’s the point in doing things in this way?” If students were taught with more traditional ways of learning where a grade was more important than learning, resistance to change will be faced. When moving to work independently online or with electronic materials, learners must cope with the “interference from irrelevant stimulation” such as the one coming from their social media. And needless to mention that importance of persisting on “relevant tasks” though they may not like them much or at all. Learning is fun, but there are students who do not find any taste in sampling the milk of being competent.

41 Being a bit mindful concerning my own learning experiences, especially when dealing with a master’s program on education (which I recently finished), the role of selfregulation was transcendental to achieve success. Comprehending that self-regulation “is the method or procedure that learners use to manage and organize their thoughts and convert them into skills used for learning” (Self-Regulation, n.d.), as a learner I saw myself managing and organizing my thoughts to deal with all the information I was being provided and the amount of projects that needed to be submitted. Mindfully, I tried to convert all those pieces of information into skills I wanted to use to learn the novelties in education and language learning. Was I successful? Sure! But self-regulation of learning has also made me think whether my partners were into regulating their learning processes.

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Having been there, where my university students are right now, craving for knowledge and, most importantly, to develop competencies they can use at work, what am I to do to help them? Somehow I want to follow Zimmerman’s ideas (1990) regarding self-regulation in learning: use of self-regulated learning strategies, responsiveness to self-oriented feedback about learning effectiveness, and interdepent motivational processes. “Self-regulated students select and use self-regulated learning strategies to achieve desired academic outcomes on the basis of feedback about learning effectiveness and skill” (Zimmerman, 1990). If my students can become self-regulated, they can selfdiscover and use learning strategies that can help them achieve their academic goals for a course or a whole major. If my students can turn into self-regulated learners, they can then provide themselves –mindfully speaking- self-oriented feedback about how effective they are with their own learning, making them really take control of their construction of of their own knowledge. And if my pupils can really become self-regulated learners, they can guide or lead their interdepent motivational processes to get to really develop competencies that can really help them develop their academic life and eventually their competent professional life. “Because theories of self-regulated learning seek to explain students’ personal initiative in acquiring knowledge and skill, they all treat students’ motivational processes as interdependent with learning processes” (Zimmerman, 1990). Educators, faculty members, teachers in general must look for ways to incentivate the use of these student strategies to become mindful deep learners who can really achieve their academic goals and who can become really competent professionals. Before an instructor decides to start using a competency-based course program, it is a good idea that s/he thinks of the following: “Self-regulation is a social enterprise that involves a learner and a knowledgeable individual who can guide the learner through the process of acquiring selfregulatory skills” (Bembenutty, White, & Vélez, 2015). If an instructor is not ready yet to venture into Comptency-Based Learning, which requires self-regulation from the learner and the instructor, it is a good idea to become more confident before the launching of a

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class setting where students will be in control of their learning and development of competences.

References Bembenutty, H., White, M., & Vélez, M. (2015). Developing Self-Regulation of Learning and Teaching Skills Among Teacher Candidates. New York: Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg. Cook, J., & Cook, G. (2014, April 30). Self-Regulation. Retrieved from Education.Com: http://www.education.com/reference/article/self-regulation-development-skill/

Self-Regulation. (n.d.). Retrieved from University of Nebraska at Lincoln: http://cehs.unl.edu/secd/self-regulation/ Zimmerman, B. (1990). Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 3-17.

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Asynchronous Tools in Online/Hybrid Teaching By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Saturday, October 31, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 202

As pointed out by Laureate Education, Inc. (2013), “Asynchronous tools are tools that can be used by different people, at different places, at different times to contribute to a shared discussion, document, or activity.” And these asynchronous tools can indeed be utilized not only for communication but also for collaboration. And as professionals, we are likely to use some asynchronous tools on our jobs; we send e-mail and text messages on a regular basis; we get to watch YouTube, Vimeo, or TeacherTube videos to find appropriate material for our classes, and so on. But one tool that has been there long to signal as a great tool is the use of blogs for educational purposes. As language teaching professional, I have created numerous blogs to satisfy student learning needs and to plan teacher-led instruction for my current or even future students. Furthermore, after taking a course on how to use case studies as part of one’s instruction in class, I decided to create a blog for one of my course where I wanted my

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students to be exposed to this learning theory and to really get to use their critical thinking skill beyond the boundaries of our books and classroom; I wanted to leave my students with something that could perfectly be used in their professional practicum as well as in their day-to-day lives: How to use case studies.

Since “blogs can be used by instructors or students as a way to share information and comment on the contributions of others” (Laureate Education, 2013), my initial goal was to create a space that asynchronously linked to class and where students could feel free to drop by any time they wished. This blog, which I christened BIN-10 –the course code for Oral Communication and Pronunciation III-, intends to gap the bridge between what is studied in my language class and the number of credits it has. That is, I really wanted my learners to stick to the number of hours of independent study that is linked to those credits by having this blog and by using a number of Moodle tools present in the university’s LMS. Blog Address: http://bin-10.blogspot.com/ Case Study URL: http://bin-10.blogspot.com/search/label/Case%203

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The sample case I wrote for my students based on course content and objectives, along with their textbook content and scope and sequence is CASE #3: Forgetfulness and Types of Memory, which is aligned with the course unit on memory. On this page, learners will find two different activities for them to perform: One that intends to make students reflect on the kind of personality they have linked to their memory capabilities, and one that has students critically reflect on a situation where a person, in some sort of dilemma or turning point, needs to be given assertive answers to questions surrounding his/her present psychological or physical well-being. Additionally, they are provided with a case

study form to fill in and bring to class to further discuss the situation with partners and teacher. As part of my online/hybrid teaching, these collections of case studies have worked quite nicely with students though they get some trouble with the first one. As soon as they are familiarized with the procedure for analysis, they usually come up with great and practical solutions for the cases provided. And due to the fact that learners must give short speeches where they are confronted with current events, social and educational issues, and even ethical decisions, the rationale behind the use of case studies permeates their work allowing them to design and develop more quality presentations with lots of reflection and critical thinking.

Reference Laureate Education, I. (2013). Asynchronous Tools. Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development.

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