This evening I offered my first online class ever! Integrating Career Counseling Theory and Practice is a 1.5 quarter unit class at Antioch University Santa Barbara. Six amazing Master's level students chose to take this course, and I am excited to share all that I can with them.
Tonight we went over the syllabus, talked about the required text books, and some of my recommended favorite career books for working with specific client populations, such as religious/spiritual, over 40, "artsy types", etc. The course is offered on a platform called Sakai; I demonstrated how Sakai works, and what the expectations are for the assignments.
Learning to design an online course is a lot of fun, and I am experiencing a very steep learning curve! I met twice with our Technical Educator Katie, but then I had to re-arrange the syllabus because some of the students didn't receive their books yet, and I wanted to accommodate them, rather than have them start off without the tools they need to succeed. It's a little tricky because this decision to adapt to the students' needs came at a late date, and now the site doesn't match the assignments and we all have to readjust. The students are empathetic. Collaborative learning is such a beautiful thing! I am so grateful to all for having patience with me as I learn how to manipulate Sakai.
We ended the class with a few videos featuring John Krumboltz, Ph.D., professor at Stanford University talking about his book Luck is No Accident: Making the Most of Your Life and Career. Krumboltz is well known among scholars for his Social Learning Theory and for his research on "Happenstance" - when your life is a series of unplanned events and you are able to make the most of being in the right place at the right time...you get "lucky". He advocates learning by doing, learning skills on the job, trying new things and taking risks. I wish there was some way I could intern or set up a mentorship with him.
This class is going to be a lot of fun! I am looking forward to giving it my best effort, learning from my mistakes, and becoming better at teaching online classes.
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