Fifth Blog Reflection, Blended e-Learning

My learning experience with web-based assessment was more positive than I thought it might be following the tedious work of preparing a web safari. Beginning these tasks always appears more daunting at the onset. Evaluating the experience after completing the task is the true test of its difficulty. I need to remember that when I procrastinate!
I believe I made the thought of this exercise more difficult than necessary, because I imagined having to look up additional information on asking the right questions, prepping proper multiple choices, etc., but luckily I was able to recall some of that information we were given in my Instructional Design class. When I combined that material with my experience, by far the biggest job was to determine which questions to use in the assessment and then to find the answers!
That part of the exercise reinforced my admiration for teachers. Making a test is harder than taking a test.
I was also a bit worried about the difficulty of learning yet another piece of software. I have often felt overwhelmed when using software such as Powerpoint and Centra and making the Blog, and even Word sometimes. Seems like by now I would be a pro at all that but I still have a bit of that anxiety. Combining that with the realization that I would be required to link the assessments to my webpage, which had not gone down too easily, I was once again a little stressed. To add even more stress, I had missed the entire week beforehand doing absolutely NO computer work at all, and I was out of my routine that I had just newly created. Oh, yes, and while I am lamenting, I should mention that creating the safari had been extremely frustrating, finding the proper links, preparing the html code, and getting things all linked together was maddening, so the thought of linking this creation from a new piece of software was less than appetizing.
I had no choice but to dive in. I began by deciding which two types of assessment I wanted to do. I chose the jcross and the jmatch just for the heck of it. Then I began gathering my assessment information from the notes I had taken with my Pastor on the confirmation class. I had categorized these into four groups: Church History, People, Missions, and Church Growth. There were more references in the Church History and Missions categories, and the fewest in the Church Growth, so I decided to do ten questions: four on History, three on Missions, two on People and one on church growth, using the same breakdown for both jmatch and jcross. I needed twenty questions and answers. That took some time, but once I had that I was ready to begin with Hot Potatoes. It actually turned out much easier than I thought it would. Except one problem. The jcross was very small (8 letters by 8 letters), and the jmatch only allowed five questions. So I realized that I had prepared twice as much material as I had needed. I really got frustrated with the jcross, because it was maddening trying to assemble the answers in such a way as they would fit. I ended up eliminating questions based on how they fit into the puzzle so my breakdown was moot. When I did the jmatch, I realized that if I was going to have a year as an answer, I would have to have two questions referring to a year, and that limited my ability to follow my breakdown as well. For the five questions, two pairs of questions had either numbers or names for answers and the fifth had the extra word (the list provides six answer possibilities) which would be similar to the answer to maintain the challenge.
That was the biggest part of the exercise, or so I thought. Then it came time to link it all together. I think that sometimes the biggest frustration with getting this degree comes from my lack of strong skills with any given software. Maybe it is because of my age, these young kids seem to pick things up so much faster and remember it so much better. (the old dog/new tricks syndrome I suppose). I tell myself that they don't have the responsibilities I have, my mind is crowded with too many other things, that's why couldn't keep my sanity when I linked my assessments to my lesson home page.
Luckily Dr. Byers helped me to realize that the template I had used in Dreamweaver had been the culprit. Live and learn. The downside is that I might not remember next class!!!
It felt good to get it all done, and get it all assembled. When Dr. Byers showed my Daniel Urbina's assessment page, where he had done more than the required two, it made me want to go back and add more to the assessment, because it really did not feel complete. I hope to do that, and I will add it to my to do list, however just today I realized that my project is due in ONE WEEK!!!