From Belief to Blueprint
- May 3
- 3 min read
Every student deserves an educational experience that meets their needs. For many students that means that they first need to learn the skills to be a successful student. In the creation of my ultimate unit and my virtual learning manifesto were both developed from this belief. My ultimate unit creation is focused on meeting one of the needs that I see as an area of concern with my students- executive functioning skills. Every day I see that there are gaps in this area and therefore I focused this unit on how to teach students to “do school” As students work through this unit they will learn about what the skills are as they develop a plan to improve the skills and navigate school successfully.
Many of my virtual students have chosen online learning as they did not thrive in the traditional classroom setting. Students bring varying needs into the classroom and many are neurodiverse and struggle with executive functioning skills. Knowing my students and my belief that a learning topic should be made relatable and help students grow as they learn about themselves, led me to narrow in on my topic and learning objectives. This unit starts with where my students are and gives them the tools to think metacognitively about their strengths, learning and how this can apply to all students regardless of their needs.
As students dive into the unit they are asked to identify their personal strengths and areas of growth within the executive functioning skills as they create an executive functioning plan. My role as a teacher is not to overwhelm them with information but to support them with feedback as they embrace self discovery. To support this feedback I have added in rubrics to make this feedback intentional and specific. Within the virtual classroom students need a teacher to guide them through the unit to help their overall progress. While this unit is currently created in Google Sites, in reality I would use our LMS, Canvas, as a means to provide this direct feedback to students throughout the learning process.
Not only is determining the topic and objectives of a unit a crucial component of online learning, this information needs to be presented in a way that is accessible to them. “The Internet has been built with many inherent barriers that limit the ability to participate” (Jaeger). In order to make this unit more accessible I interwove supports throughout the unit. This was my greatest area of learning throughout the unit creation. As I learned more about accessibility I found that many components that I thought insignificant such as text color and captions can make a larger impact on students' success. I found accessibility is not a checklist but a mindset when it comes to online learning. A student can’t learn from a unit they can not access. The main focus of accessibility is providing a successful scaffold for all students. In order to do this, I have created clear rubrics and templates for students to complete the work independently. This sets up the unit so that students can be successful while they make progress through the unit.
As students are making progress through the unit it is essential that they have autonomy to complete the unit. This can occur by giving students choice. Choice is not just an accommodation but an area to empower students and create buy in, especially for students who have negative experiences with schooling. "A quality course allows for customization and personalization" (Quality Matters). Throughout the unit I have provided the students choice with how they learn about the material via video or slides, how they interact through the learning, and how they demonstrate their overall understanding. This also allows students to have ownership over their work. For students who have experienced educational trauma, choices that may seem insignificant are actually transformative.
Ultimately this unit is focused on the student’s needs and for the student’s success. This unit showcases how intentional design decisions can come together in online learning. Keeping learning experiences student centered helps the online learning environment come alive to meet student needs. It also gives students a chance to reflect on their learning. While this is just one unit it combines many of the elements which create an intentional online learning environment for students that both integrate content and the crucial elements within online learning design.
Jaeger, P. T. (2015). Disability, human rights, and social justice: The ongoing struggle for online accessibility and equality. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i9.6164
Quality Matters. (2025). Specific review standards from the QM K-12 Rubric. Sixth Edition. https://qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsFromTheQMK-12RubricSixthEdition.pdf
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