Challenges of Implementation
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This document discusses the challenges of implementing online courses at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica. It notes that while the university provides a Moodle platform, it is underutilized by many professors who are hesitant to use educational technologies. The first challenge is training language teachers to use the learning management system and understand virtual learning environments. The second major challenge is getting full assistance from the education technologies department to actually implement a virtual course, as not all professors attend training sessions and online education is not fully embraced by peers yet. With help from the IT and education technologies departments, the author believes some online courses could be successfully launched.
![Challenges of Implementation 2
Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano
better to wait for a while and straighten up details to ensure a favorable
outcome.
In this post, I intend to explore how online courses are delivered at my
institution. My experience, along with other professor’s experience that can be
traced on the web, can help the new instructor to consider potential issues that
can arise along course implementation.
I also intend to identify resources that will support students’ preparation to take
the online course I was developing at the university where I work.
I also analyze challenges that any instructor or content designer may face when
implementing the online course being developed.
At Universidad Latina in Costa Rica, most of –if not all- courses are taught F2F with
some hybrid learning twists that some of us, faculty members, have done to be fully
working with digital learners, who need to be learning not only inside the classroom but
autonomously outside the classroom as well.
At Ulatina, as we commonly call our university, we are provided with a Moodle
platform that has most of the plentiful features that can be used to empower students
with their learning. From my personal point of view, I think Moodle is a great tool that
not many of the faculty members are exploiting at its full potential. I also think there is
some sort of reluctance towards its use by many professors who are slightly behind the
use of education technologies. But in my personal case, nn my language courses at
Ulatina, I tend to always furnish my virtual space with lots of information, prezis, pdfs,
links to webpages, learning tasks, research and paper submission, discussion forums, etc.
to help students learn what it is required from them [based on the course objectives and
content].](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/challengesofimplementation-150501120427-conversion-gate01/85/Challenges-of-Implementation-2-320.jpg)
Challenges of Implementation
- 1. RUNNING HEAD: Challenges of Implementation 1 Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano Challenges of Implementation By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano Saturday, May 2, 2015 Twitter: @jonacuso Post 160 Antecedents As the quotation explains, good design does not necessarily ensure a successful course; there are other factors that must also be considered to ensure success. As one’s online course transitions to the implementation phase, it is essential to consider which tools and resources need to be in place for students to successfully experience one’s course. If the pieces are not in their place, it is
- 2. Challenges of Implementation 2 Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano better to wait for a while and straighten up details to ensure a favorable outcome. In this post, I intend to explore how online courses are delivered at my institution. My experience, along with other professor’s experience that can be traced on the web, can help the new instructor to consider potential issues that can arise along course implementation. I also intend to identify resources that will support students’ preparation to take the online course I was developing at the university where I work. I also analyze challenges that any instructor or content designer may face when implementing the online course being developed. At Universidad Latina in Costa Rica, most of –if not all- courses are taught F2F with some hybrid learning twists that some of us, faculty members, have done to be fully working with digital learners, who need to be learning not only inside the classroom but autonomously outside the classroom as well. At Ulatina, as we commonly call our university, we are provided with a Moodle platform that has most of the plentiful features that can be used to empower students with their learning. From my personal point of view, I think Moodle is a great tool that not many of the faculty members are exploiting at its full potential. I also think there is some sort of reluctance towards its use by many professors who are slightly behind the use of education technologies. But in my personal case, nn my language courses at Ulatina, I tend to always furnish my virtual space with lots of information, prezis, pdfs, links to webpages, learning tasks, research and paper submission, discussion forums, etc. to help students learn what it is required from them [based on the course objectives and content].
- 3. Challenges of Implementation 3 Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano Considering my English School partners, the very first challenge that will be encountered is training these other prospective instructors for a Materials Design course like the one I used to teach before. Based on what was explained above, I do not have to worry about having students take the course since most of them are digital learners, but what about other teachers? Can teaching personnel in any higher education institution be labelled as digital learners? If I were to train a body of language teachers, I would definitely need the assistance of the IT Department to train them on what to do while using our Moodle LMS. Additionally, our faculty members will need to be trained on the philosophy of VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) to comprehend the scope of action for them (the instructors) and for our students. But if these two issues were taken care of from the very beginning, nothing would guarantee the success of some sort of virtual learning for pupils. The second big challenge that I visualize is getting real assistance from our Education Technologies Department to really implement a virtual course. Though I am certain that they work hard on this area by trying to take teaching personal into attending training sessions, not all professors show up for training adducing all kinds of excuses. I have talked about this several times with university authorities, and although Laureate endorses this kind of virtual and hybrid education, it looks like at our university the idea is not well-accepted yet by peers. That is probably why most of our courses –if not all- are F2F and our Moodle platform is not fully exploited. But if I got their help, I am sure that we could start some sort of “revolution” in the way we have been providing instruction to our students in Costa Rica and at Ulatina.