Reflection (Week 14)

What was the most difficult aspect of researching this topic?

I was most challenged during this project when I had to think of how to present the information I had found, because without having enough concrete examples to share, I wasn't sure how well my peers would understand what online credit recovery programs really looked like. Each credit recovery program that I researched were built on similar principles, so I wanted to emphasize that the credit recovery models are very different than the interactive, student-student communication that is successful in other online courses we studied. However, it would have been a lot better if I could have found more detailed screenshots of online credit recovery assignments. If I could have had access to an entire curriculum I may have been able to explain my points with more detail.

I think that finding this evidence and also connecting it with research was an additional challenge. The topic on its own has not been widely researched, and I was hoping to find that more programs were varying and experimenting with the credit recovery model. I did not find this except for in Florida Virtual School, where students were not given the chance to test out of particular areas in the curriculum. I like this approach because students are enrolled in actual classes with other students, and for the units of the course that they know well, they would have an even greater opportunity to succeed. This is because since they were previously exposed to the material, they would be able to take a lead role for that chapter and be more active participants.

I tried to develop the presentations in many different formats. However, I didn't want my format to detract from the main points I wanted to make. So this decision ended up being time-consuming even though it really didn't have to do with researching the topic.