What I've Learned From Taking OIT's Self-Paced Courses

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 By Kerry Doring, Art Teacher, Glendale Elementary


As a third year Elementary Art teacher, I am still collecting new strategies for my instructional toolbox. Over the past few weeks I decided that I was going to focus on the Self-paced courses from OIT that would help add variety to the way I deliver content to my students. So far, I have participated in the following self-paced courses: WeVideo, Paper to Digital, Engaging Digital Lessons, Google Sites, Google Forms, and Other Google Tools. My favorites were Google Sites and Engaging Digital Lessons, and I look forward to self-paced Wixie.

Because the courses are self-paced and broken down into sections, it was easy for me to complete them on my own timeline, a little bit at a time. In addition to the readings and videos, there are opportunities to try all the strategies for yourself.

I’ve learned about the abundance of tools and resources we have access to, such as virtual field trips or digital templates and examples. We’ve all already learned a lot after teaching virtually, but these courses dive deeper than the surface level uses of our apps, while still breaking them down in a way that is accessible to a beginner. The goal of these courses is to make lessons more interactive, collaborative and engaging.

In Self-paced Google Sites, I explored options like carefully curating an artist research project, creating a blog for families to see what goes on in the art room, or making a virtual art gallery of student work. I am learning how to integrate these digital strategies into my everyday classroom use. In particular, I feel confident that these resources will help me build my students’ visual literacy skills.

I would highly recommend these courses to any teacher that is looking to add variety to their lessons. Whether you are looking to change the way you present information, give students more choice and voice in how they demonstrate their learning, or just build a solid understanding of the tools available to us, you are guaranteed to learn something new that you can apply immediately in your classroom.

Want more information on self-paced courses? See our past blog posts:

Spring Happenings
Want to sign up for a self-paced course? Check out our Smore for Spring 2022 course offerings, or search Unified Talent. 

See one you like? Register on Unified Talent. All course work is completed in Brightspace; please allow 1-2 business days to be enrolled in the course. Once enrolled, the course will be found under your waffle in Brightspace.

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