ILP #2 Participation: MOOC "Introduction to Family Engagement in Education"

          I learned a lot from participating in a MOOC. This MOOC was called, "Introduction to Family Engagement in Education". It was definitely very different being in an online class setting versus a regular class setting. The syllabus for the class, as well as all the lesson plans and assignments were all there for me, but there was no teacher to physically walk me through the steps of the course and to help teach the curriculum.
           It makes you feel like you are all alone with the course material, and at first I felt lost. But once i navigated the syllabus and course calendar as well as the lesson plans and assignments, it slowly became manageable and I slowly became comfortable with the idea of an online class. Once I viewed the lesson plans, read the readings, answered the discussion questions, etc.
          I actually learned a lot. It seems scary learning in a class without a teacher, but it actually was comforting to know that it is possible to take part in an online class and succeed. When it comes to the material itself, I thought it was very interesting. I was able to learn about how parents and teachers need to be equally engaged in their child's/ students' education.
          This balance gives students the greatest chance to be the best student they can be, inside and outside of the classroom. Often times parents believe that they are not important in this process, and the teachers need to engage with the parents to explain that they are a very integral part of their child's learning process.
          This class also talked about the different types of engagement between teachers, students, and parents based on age/ grade levels. This course also talks about how important engagement is, and how teachers, parents, and students can increase how much they engage with one another.
          I liked the fact that after each video or reading during a specific lesson, there were questions that were asked to make sure we understood what we learned. I also liked the balance between readings and videos, because every good class always has an even balance. I also liked how we were surveyed before and after the class, to see why we joined the class, what we learned from it, how it was ran, etc. and if we would take it again, almost like a review after the class.
          These online courses are very organized and they allow for a large amount of people to take a course at the same time. IT was interesting to me ti see that certain classes were self paced, meaning all the material was there from the start and accessible, while other classes were regulated by the professor themselves, putting up specific lectures, assignments, etc. at a time based off of the specific lesson being taught at the time, to regulate the learning of the students. The course I participated in was self paced.
          Below are some examples of review questions I was asked after a video lecture or a reading, examples of readings that were assigned in the class, some of the shorter videos that were used in the lesson plan, as well as the survey that had to be taken before I began the course, and some of the pages of notes I took during the lessons I attended.