Dr. Gill is still recording the welcome video. In about three minutes, he'll walk you through the rhythm of the semester and close with his standing advice for teachers who are trying to take a graduate methods course while running a full classroom.
Work through these in order, and budget about an hour for the whole sequence.
Put two hours on your calendar at the same time twice a week, and treat them like a class period you wouldn't skip on your students. Teachers in online graduate courses tend to fall behind when their coursework gets squeezed between teaching, grading, and parenting. If you set a recurring block of time and schedule your other obligations around it, your coursework won't get pushed aside week after week.
In most of the assignments in this course, you'll apply theory to the students in your classroom, and I give more credit for specific details from your teaching than for invented scenarios. You'll also work faster with a lesson you've already taught, a student on your roster (with the name changed when you submit), and an assessment already in your gradebook, since you won't have to make up the details.
When you set up your Canvas profile, turn on email and push notifications. Announcements, grade postings, and assignment changes all come through Canvas notifications, and students who miss a notification often miss a deadline. With the Canvas mobile app, you'll still get notifications after you've closed the browser tab and walked away from your desk.
Read every assignment prompt on the first day of the module, then close the tab and think about the question for two days while you teach. By the end of those two days, you'll have most of an answer worked out, and the first draft will go faster because you're writing down ideas you've already thought through.
Email: gilld@uncw.edu
Put "SEC 507" in the subject line. I try to return emails within 24 hours on weekdays. If you haven't heard back by then, send a follow-up.
Canvas Inbox: I don't use Canvas email, so please write to my UNCW address instead.