Would you want you as a student in your course?

Would you do well as a student in the online course you are teaching? I have decided I could well be a poor online student and a teacher’s nightmare, even though I enjoy teaching online and am very familiar with the tools of courses I design.


This week I started a course featuring online learning techniques. Because the course is taught using ANGEL as a platform I decided to enroll in order to gain experience with a delivery system different than the one I have taught with for 10 years – eCollege. I was invited to participate free of charge because I was told my experience as a online teacher would be seen as helpful for those new to online teaching. I also like tossing myself into new learning experiences, just to gain a fresh perspective – this time as a student with no experience working with a new delivery system.

Wow, I found that ANGEL was more new to me than I expected. I began to ask some of the same basic questions my own students ask of me. I had seen the questions before, but this time I was the one asking them. First, I really did not understand how to access the course, and the password I was sent did not work for me. Frustration! Second, I could not understand the Help Directory directions as to what to do next. Frustration intensified! Third, I wrote the administrator and the instructor and was sent a new password that never arrived. I had no idea at the time, but my own server was having problems with attacks and nothing was coming through to my computers as email. Frustrated and confused and then some! Finally, I called for help. and a patient administrator took me step by step through the process of signing into the course after even another new password was provided. Then I had access. Great! Oh, but then I read that the password was only temporary , and I would need to change it, which led me to even more confusion, and more frustration.

Administrators and the instructor all were always very nice, which is what one wants, but I was so very lost. The experience sure has given me a new perspective as to what students go through in trying to access a course.

Once in the course I will say that the newness to me of ANGEL continued to confuse me. I find some of the tools similar to what I currently know through eCollege, but many are not and it has taken me several hours to understand how to use them. I am thankful that there were useful tutorials available.

All in all, my objective to totally confuse myself has been a success. I will also add that I now see the value of a very good orientation. I also see the value of letting students test drive the course, using the same tools they will use in the course and offering the orientation weeks ahead of the course start. I am glad also that I am the teacher and not my own student.