Creating Your First Online Course: An Amateur's Sense of Direction
It was a rewarding experience, yet it was one of the most daunting ones, as well: creating my first online course. Coming from a person who needs to see an example or needs some "idea" that will encourage initiation, even my original "Developer's Notebook" is a far cry from a useful guideline. It was created by someone who "just had no idea" and my doubts and sense of feeling clueless greatly show. Now that it is all said and done, it was a hugely beneficial learning experience and not as challenging as it first seemed to be.
This is how I did it...
DN ENTRY 5 (December 8, 2010)
Rather than completely revising my original entries in my Developer’s Notebook, I added my reflection and what I considered useful knowledge in blue text. Coming from a person who is a visual, and hands-on “show me” learner, I tried to incorporate a final entry that would be helpful to learners like me, and unlike me. I found it difficult to even get started on developing my own online course all on my own, so my final entry is meant to provide a means for a novice to have a point of initiation.
DN Entry 1 (September 19)
Finally, consideration was given to abiding by copyright laws while I was creating the course and blog. Since fair use laws should be a foundation with online learning, I would expect that I model proper usage.
Deciding on which CMS to use was easier said than done. The trial navigation through each CMS that I contemplated led me to choose eFront, but once I attempted to upload eFront, I realized that it required much more technical savvy than I possessed. One of my roommates is an I.T. professional and he stated that even he would have a difficult time uploading eFront onto my computer. I chose to use Moodle rather than eFront since I could have access to it through MSU. Wordpress was also suggested to me, through my roommate and this course, but when I looked at Wordpress, I thought it seemed so similar to creating a website, such as ones I have created through Weebly, that I chose to try something new via Moodle. In the end, I am thankful that I learned Moodle, but thinking that I should have just used Wordpress or created the course through Weebly because now I have access issues to consider once I lose my Moodle rights that are temporarily provided through MSU. In the end, Weebly or Wordpress would have provided me with most of the same elements that I used through Moodle and I would not have to worry about server access and all of the highly technical considerations.
WHAT SURPRISED YOU: I was not surprised by much because I had already made my own decision to go with eFront while I was going through the demo.
WHAT DIDN'T SURPRISE YOU: See above.
WHICH CMS ARE YOU GOING TO USE AND WHY: I am going to go with eFront because of the ease of the interface. There is the visual element with the icons and the organization of this CMS is not daunting. I immediately was drawn to the structure and its simplicity. I like the calendar and scheduling of events; I also like the task/assignment check-off list that creates a nice "Road Map."
WHY IS THIS CMS A GOOD MATCH FOR YOUR COURSE AND CURRICULUM: I do not know how any others would not be good matches, they all offer everything that I would need or use, I just like the visual appeal and ease of eFront. If anything, the simplicity would be more advantageous to a middle-level student. There is no way that I could see a middle level student trying to use ATutor, or even something like ANGEL. eFront is simple and I believe in always keeping it simple so that young students would not be turned off.
WHAT ADDITIONAL TOOLS/FUNCTIONALITY MIGHT YOU NEED BEYOND THE FEATURES AVAILABLE IN THE CMS YOU HAVE CHOSEN: It is difficult to answer this question when I have no experience. For now, I am satisfied with what I have seen in eFront.
WHAT SUPPORT DO YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITH THIS ENDEAVOR: Hard to say at this point. eFront just really looked to be the simplest as far as organizing a course with the additions and editing features. As I was playing around with it, I found myself saying to myself, "OK, this seems easy enough." It seems like I could create an online course for a middle-level student quite effortlessly and with success, so hopefully that remains true and I need little support.
DN Entry 3 (November 7)
At course end, I do not find myself making any revisions to this portion of the development of my online course. I did not utilize every piece that I intended on using for my course, such as the weekly quizzes or a test, and that is due to the fact that I created my course to be a supplement to classroom instruction. My online lessons are brief, but meaningful, with the goal to increase the mastery level of my students with additional support via my online course that is meant to be engaging and fun.
Learning goals for unit: The students will use integer operations and proportional reasoning to solve single-step and multi-step practical problems and use proportional reasoning to determine whether plane figures (quadrilaterals and triangles) are similar and write proportions to express the relationship between corresponding sides of similar figures.
Learning outcomes for unit: The students will use problem solving, mathematical reasoning, connections, and representations to write proportions that represent equivalent relationships between two sets; solve a proportion to find a missing term; apply proportions to convert units of measurement; apply proportions to solve problems that involve percents; apply proportions to solve practical problems (scale drawings/scale models); write proportions to show the relationship between the lengths of corresponding sides of similar figures; determine if quadrilaterals or triangles are similar by examining corresponding angles and sides.
Potential methods of assessment: Similar to the closure at the end of the daily lesson, the students will participate in an online version of our popular “30-Second” game where students have 30 seconds to explain what they learned about the day’s lesson without using “uh,” “um,” “like,” or “you know.” Students will utilize Jing to upload/link their thirty-second recap of each lesson where they will include visual examples to accompany their narrative of the lesson. I have found this to be a valuable informal method of assessment that clearly allows me to see which students master the day’s objectives. A “Student Recipe” assignment will be developed that requires students to write and solve proportions so that the recipe can be increased to serve a larger amount of people and units of measurement will also need to be converted for family in Europe who would like to make the “recipe.” Students will create a scale drawing of their bedroom to apply their knowledge of proportions in a real-world scenario. Students will set up a proportion to show the relationship between height and shadow length. Formal assessments (quizzes and test) will be completed through the CMS; brief quizzes will be scheduled after every two lessons and a unit test will be completed one time at the end of the unit.
Course Communication Policy: Students should communicate daily with their 30-second recap of the day’s lesson in the forum; direct questions/comments for the teacher will be through email communication; students will communicate with other students by posting their 30-second daily recaps; students will participate in blogs in order to discuss lesson materials; parents will be members of the class and will be emailed progress reports.
DN Entry 4 (November 27)
I found that I did not want to include a lengthy project into my online course because I could see a mountain of confusion resulting from my attempt to include it, at least for middle-school students. Again, I have to stop and realize that not all students possess computer skills that are comparable to each other, or that they even possess minimal requirements. Therefore, I decided that I did not want to include a project that would result in frustrated students, even though I intended on providing detailed directions. As an adult online learner, I do understand the frustrations of feeling “alone” without immediate support and assistance when I am attempting to learn something new within an online course.
How could I have integrated a rubric? Since I do like to use a rubric as a “road map” so that students know exactly what is required, perhaps I could have included a rubric at the end of each weekly lesson that simply outlined whether each activity, task, or assignment was completed. There should be some feedback that the students receive throughout their online course participation.
The times that I use a rubric for a project/assignment, I like to consider it to be a “road map” to student success. I have found a rubric to be a better “directions” sheet than an actual “handout” that describes the assignment, typically in a verbose manner. No matter how succinct this assignment handout intends to be, not all students will actually “read it,” which then results in too many student questions. Granted, I do like to maintain high expectations for my middle-level students, but in education, just like in other real-life situations, teachers have to pick their battles. Through experience, knowing that middle-level students do not like to read directions in a wordy handout, I have found rubrics to be a simple list to success. Students then play a role in their success by taking ownership of their work before submitting the assignment. When students have asked me to look over their assignment/project before they submit, I simply have to tell them, “You have the rubric, you can decide if you have met all of the requirements.” Students do not have to read over every section of the rubric that I create, just the heading and first column that shows the requirements to receive full credit.
The choices for my rubric centered around math curriculum, cross-curriculum (language arts objectives), information literacy skills (when researching recipes for sample formats), and peer relationship building. The number of ingredients in the assignment is designed for the assessment portion for correct mathematical proportion objectives. Seventh-grade students are expected to write proportions that represent equivalent relationships between two sets and to solve proportions to find missing terms. Therefore, I determined that eight proportion problems worked into this assignment would be a valuable assessment piece for this unit assignment.
I spent quite a bit of time creating this rubric, so I am very satisfied with it, although during the creation of it (more of a re-creation since I have used a version of this rubric), I found myself modifying it quite often. These types of rubrics have to be very specific in each area and cannot contain combinations that would make assessment too difficult and unclear. I am so pleased with it, that I will be using it during December when I assign this assignment to my extended math students (7th grade students taking 8th grade math). I am creating this unit to use for my regular 7th math students in the spring, and will be using the extended students as my pilot group since I will be making this project a complete technology piece.
Aside from the expectation of curriculum mastery with proportions, I have designed the rubric so that students have a clear set of instructions of learning objectives prior to beginning the assignment, then can further their ownership once their assignment has been assessed. For example, if the student missed points on the section that required all ingredients and directions to be aligned, the student can look over their work and determine their error without me specifically pointing out what he/she was lacking.
The areas that I would like focus on within my course module are primarily technology related, specifically, “Instructional Design” and all of the elements from the OLC Checklist, and “Course Overview and Introduction” from the Quality Matters Rubric Standards. I find these important because they deal with development, most important, elements that are required for a successful online course. Since I have never developed an online course, I feel that the course overview ensures that I am including important features for an online course (assignments, communication, assessments, etc.), and the instructional design rubric requirements ensure that I include relevant technology elements. I am trying to adhere to technology requirements that will enhance student learning rather than using technology for the sake of using it, so this is why I want my assessment to focus on these two areas; I want to really know what that means and how I can become proficient at creating lessons infused with technology.
Link to Recipe Rubric
This is how I did it...
DN ENTRY 5 (December 8, 2010)
Rather than completely revising my original entries in my Developer’s Notebook, I added my reflection and what I considered useful knowledge in blue text. Coming from a person who is a visual, and hands-on “show me” learner, I tried to incorporate a final entry that would be helpful to learners like me, and unlike me. I found it difficult to even get started on developing my own online course all on my own, so my final entry is meant to provide a means for a novice to have a point of initiation.
DN Entry 1 (September 19)
- Grade Level: 7th
- Subject: Mathematics
- Particular Curricular Unit you are thinking of developing:
- UNIT: Proportional Reasoning
- Reporting Categories: “Computation and Estimation” & “Measurement and Geometry”
- Focus is Integer Operations and Proportional Reasoning, and the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) are, solving single-step and multi-step practical problems, using proportional reasoning; determine whether plane figures (quadrilaterals and triangles) are similar and write proportions to express the relationships between corresponding sides of similar figures.
- What do you want your course to look like?
- The best approach to begin thinking about what the course should look like is to refer to the curriculum guide that states the standards/objectives for learning for each particular unit of study. Since completing my online course, I still find this to be the most important piece in beginning the process. It is helpful to look at the curriculum and list the objectives that students are expected to master. In my case, I listed the essential knowledge which is the following:
- Use proportional reasoning
- Solve single-step and multi-step practical problems
- Determine whether plane figures (quadrilaterals and triangles) are similar and write proportions to express the relationships between corresponding sides of similar figures
- From this point, I found myself thinking how I would actually introduce these objectives in the classroom. If I am to teach proportional reasoning, I needed to address ratios and proportions before I could even begin the main objectives of the unit. This provided another element to the unit other than the objectives that I listed, and I listed what needed to be taught in delivery order so that I could have a clear sense of direction in the development of this course. Also, creating this list of ordered objectives provided the initiation to get me started. The first thing I did when creating my course in Moodle was to take each of my objectives, wrote them in the form of a question, and each question (i.e. “What is proportion?”) became the weekly unit of study. Within ten-minutes, I had the “shell” of my course, and all I needed to do was fill this shell.
- What parts of a regular classroom lesson do you want contained in your online course? For me, that was one of the next things that I asked myself. I knew that I definitely wanted there to be some kind of “hook” (anticipatory set) just like I would do in my classroom instruction. Since this is an online course, I felt that I had all kinds of ways to connect with my students by finding interesting videos on YouTube that could be an introduction to the weekly lesson.
- I do not think the fact that I was creating my online course for the middle-level student would ever change the idea of “keeping it simple.” There is nothing more frustrating, even as an online student myself, about uncertain navigation throughout an online course. Therefore, I decided that a clear “To-Do” list of tasks and assignments was the best way to design each week’s lesson. Also, each week’s task list should be consistent throughout the unit/course so that students can become more comfortable and proficient with online learning, rather than trying to figure out new technological skills, that will interfere with their academic learning. Further, it is a mistake to assume that just because today’s students are growing up in a technological world that they are all technologically proficient, so an online course should not be overwhelming. Keep it simple.
- Keep the students engaged with technology. That is one of the goals that I was hoping to meet while creating this course. It took some time and thinking about how I wanted to meet this goal, but I believe that I have done that. Developing an online course should be more than just a conglomeration of website links or embedded PowerPoint presentations that replace classroom lecture. Any links or PowerPoints that I included were relevant and brief, knowing that middle-level students will not sit and read or listen to lengthy works, even if it is while sitting online at their home computer.
- All I can say is that I want it to be simple. I do not want there to be a whole lot of confusion on what students should be accessing and I do want there to be a clear assignment and task calendar/schedule that is presented. Online learning is not going to be easy for students who have to think too hard about how and where to access their current lesson. There has to be a checklist or schedule where students can keep track of what they have completed because there can simply be too much confusion when there is a differentiation between “tasks” or “assignments.” As an adult taking my graduate classes online through MSU, I find that I get frustrated very easily when I have to differentiate between so much, and being that I am a visual learner and need that to stay mentally organized, I need to have an ongoing “To Do” list that includes due dates so that I can stay mentally prepared. I think it is going to be quite a task to create something that is infused with so much information while keeping it simple.
- What your ideas/thoughts/dreams for class interaction for both teacher and students?
- See below under “How do you think you will assess students?”
- I would like to have as much visual interaction as possible between both teacher and students, but this is going to take much dedication on my part because I am not at all familiar on developing an online course so I am really at a loss trying to think creatively right now. I have ideas of creating video tutorials but I am still a novice with manipulating the types of applications and programs that will allow me to accomplish this, so I am overwhelmed with the idea of even executing my vision. I am not completely aware of the types of “interaction” that are possible, or what is considered “interaction,” so answering this question is a bit difficult for me.
- I will want to incorporate opportunities for collaboration, just as I do in a regular classroom.
- How do you think you will assess students?
- How could I engage and evaluate my students in formal and informal manners? Just like being in a classroom where I can get an idea of what my students are learning through informal means (questioning, observing while completing a warm-up, practice problem, etc), I thought about how I could incorporate this informal setting through the online course that would not be a heavy workload when it comes to assessing (grading). I decided a blog and the use of GoogleDocs would be useful technological tools for this type of assessment. The blog will be used for a more “formal” informal evaluation where students get to use their own “voice” on a particular mathematical topic. GoogleDocs will be used for more academic vocabulary, but in a fun way. Since this online course is developed to supplement the actual classroom learning, I decided to create a closure game similar to one we actually use in class that the students love. These two ideas I will find to be simple, but useful, ways to assess my students in addition to formal assessments that I will include for my unit.
- Since I wanted there to be some visual interaction, I decided the easiest integration for teach/student interaction would be to utilize Jing. I created 5 minute tutorials for each weekly lesson that instructed students how I wanted their weekly screencast to “look.” This screencast that I made was another piece of a classroom lesson, the modeling, or guided practice element. I showed how to complete a math problem, including what technological tools (Microsoft Word and Paint, both used so that students can “write” while recording their screencast) and steps that should be taken before making the screencast, When students submit their screencast, it is teacher/student interaction along with a formal assessment.
- I would think that I would include some form of assessment that surrounds each task by using an assignment drop box similar to what is done within the MSU courses because it is the same as we would expect to happen with students physically turning in their work in class.
- To be quite honest, I am not sure how I will assess, and I have development issues in about everything that I do, but once I get started on something, that is when all of the ideas and creative juices get flowing.
- What are some of the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the participation in your online course?
- As a creator of an online course, I really had no idea about how any of these issues should be considered. Once I started developing ideas, that is when I began to question elements that I was integrating into my course. One, I know that schools do not allow access to YouTube, but since I plan on having my students access the course from home, I decided that I could still integrate the YouTube videos. Yet, the concern did not end there as I started to question whether parents would object to YouTube. I decided that I cannot assume that since students have access to “anything,” that they indeed have parental permission. This made me think that participation in an online course, especially for middle-level students, that would require students to access various websites, would necessitate parental permission to participate.
Finally, consideration was given to abiding by copyright laws while I was creating the course and blog. Since fair use laws should be a foundation with online learning, I would expect that I model proper usage.
- I really do not have an idea. I believe that creating an online class for middle level students is very technologically forward and may not necessarily be well received by parents. I would think that many parents would feel that their students may not be receiving a quality instruction or education, yet, I could be completely wrong. The teacher is still responsible for making sure that the standards that students are expected to meet are done so successfully and parents would need some assurance that online experiences would do this.
Deciding on which CMS to use was easier said than done. The trial navigation through each CMS that I contemplated led me to choose eFront, but once I attempted to upload eFront, I realized that it required much more technical savvy than I possessed. One of my roommates is an I.T. professional and he stated that even he would have a difficult time uploading eFront onto my computer. I chose to use Moodle rather than eFront since I could have access to it through MSU. Wordpress was also suggested to me, through my roommate and this course, but when I looked at Wordpress, I thought it seemed so similar to creating a website, such as ones I have created through Weebly, that I chose to try something new via Moodle. In the end, I am thankful that I learned Moodle, but thinking that I should have just used Wordpress or created the course through Weebly because now I have access issues to consider once I lose my Moodle rights that are temporarily provided through MSU. In the end, Weebly or Wordpress would have provided me with most of the same elements that I used through Moodle and I would not have to worry about server access and all of the highly technical considerations.
WHAT SURPRISED YOU: I was not surprised by much because I had already made my own decision to go with eFront while I was going through the demo.
WHAT DIDN'T SURPRISE YOU: See above.
WHICH CMS ARE YOU GOING TO USE AND WHY: I am going to go with eFront because of the ease of the interface. There is the visual element with the icons and the organization of this CMS is not daunting. I immediately was drawn to the structure and its simplicity. I like the calendar and scheduling of events; I also like the task/assignment check-off list that creates a nice "Road Map."
WHY IS THIS CMS A GOOD MATCH FOR YOUR COURSE AND CURRICULUM: I do not know how any others would not be good matches, they all offer everything that I would need or use, I just like the visual appeal and ease of eFront. If anything, the simplicity would be more advantageous to a middle-level student. There is no way that I could see a middle level student trying to use ATutor, or even something like ANGEL. eFront is simple and I believe in always keeping it simple so that young students would not be turned off.
WHAT ADDITIONAL TOOLS/FUNCTIONALITY MIGHT YOU NEED BEYOND THE FEATURES AVAILABLE IN THE CMS YOU HAVE CHOSEN: It is difficult to answer this question when I have no experience. For now, I am satisfied with what I have seen in eFront.
WHAT SUPPORT DO YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITH THIS ENDEAVOR: Hard to say at this point. eFront just really looked to be the simplest as far as organizing a course with the additions and editing features. As I was playing around with it, I found myself saying to myself, "OK, this seems easy enough." It seems like I could create an online course for a middle-level student quite effortlessly and with success, so hopefully that remains true and I need little support.
DN Entry 3 (November 7)
At course end, I do not find myself making any revisions to this portion of the development of my online course. I did not utilize every piece that I intended on using for my course, such as the weekly quizzes or a test, and that is due to the fact that I created my course to be a supplement to classroom instruction. My online lessons are brief, but meaningful, with the goal to increase the mastery level of my students with additional support via my online course that is meant to be engaging and fun.
Learning goals for unit: The students will use integer operations and proportional reasoning to solve single-step and multi-step practical problems and use proportional reasoning to determine whether plane figures (quadrilaterals and triangles) are similar and write proportions to express the relationship between corresponding sides of similar figures.
Learning outcomes for unit: The students will use problem solving, mathematical reasoning, connections, and representations to write proportions that represent equivalent relationships between two sets; solve a proportion to find a missing term; apply proportions to convert units of measurement; apply proportions to solve problems that involve percents; apply proportions to solve practical problems (scale drawings/scale models); write proportions to show the relationship between the lengths of corresponding sides of similar figures; determine if quadrilaterals or triangles are similar by examining corresponding angles and sides.
Potential methods of assessment: Similar to the closure at the end of the daily lesson, the students will participate in an online version of our popular “30-Second” game where students have 30 seconds to explain what they learned about the day’s lesson without using “uh,” “um,” “like,” or “you know.” Students will utilize Jing to upload/link their thirty-second recap of each lesson where they will include visual examples to accompany their narrative of the lesson. I have found this to be a valuable informal method of assessment that clearly allows me to see which students master the day’s objectives. A “Student Recipe” assignment will be developed that requires students to write and solve proportions so that the recipe can be increased to serve a larger amount of people and units of measurement will also need to be converted for family in Europe who would like to make the “recipe.” Students will create a scale drawing of their bedroom to apply their knowledge of proportions in a real-world scenario. Students will set up a proportion to show the relationship between height and shadow length. Formal assessments (quizzes and test) will be completed through the CMS; brief quizzes will be scheduled after every two lessons and a unit test will be completed one time at the end of the unit.
Course Communication Policy: Students should communicate daily with their 30-second recap of the day’s lesson in the forum; direct questions/comments for the teacher will be through email communication; students will communicate with other students by posting their 30-second daily recaps; students will participate in blogs in order to discuss lesson materials; parents will be members of the class and will be emailed progress reports.
DN Entry 4 (November 27)
I found that I did not want to include a lengthy project into my online course because I could see a mountain of confusion resulting from my attempt to include it, at least for middle-school students. Again, I have to stop and realize that not all students possess computer skills that are comparable to each other, or that they even possess minimal requirements. Therefore, I decided that I did not want to include a project that would result in frustrated students, even though I intended on providing detailed directions. As an adult online learner, I do understand the frustrations of feeling “alone” without immediate support and assistance when I am attempting to learn something new within an online course.
How could I have integrated a rubric? Since I do like to use a rubric as a “road map” so that students know exactly what is required, perhaps I could have included a rubric at the end of each weekly lesson that simply outlined whether each activity, task, or assignment was completed. There should be some feedback that the students receive throughout their online course participation.
The times that I use a rubric for a project/assignment, I like to consider it to be a “road map” to student success. I have found a rubric to be a better “directions” sheet than an actual “handout” that describes the assignment, typically in a verbose manner. No matter how succinct this assignment handout intends to be, not all students will actually “read it,” which then results in too many student questions. Granted, I do like to maintain high expectations for my middle-level students, but in education, just like in other real-life situations, teachers have to pick their battles. Through experience, knowing that middle-level students do not like to read directions in a wordy handout, I have found rubrics to be a simple list to success. Students then play a role in their success by taking ownership of their work before submitting the assignment. When students have asked me to look over their assignment/project before they submit, I simply have to tell them, “You have the rubric, you can decide if you have met all of the requirements.” Students do not have to read over every section of the rubric that I create, just the heading and first column that shows the requirements to receive full credit.
The choices for my rubric centered around math curriculum, cross-curriculum (language arts objectives), information literacy skills (when researching recipes for sample formats), and peer relationship building. The number of ingredients in the assignment is designed for the assessment portion for correct mathematical proportion objectives. Seventh-grade students are expected to write proportions that represent equivalent relationships between two sets and to solve proportions to find missing terms. Therefore, I determined that eight proportion problems worked into this assignment would be a valuable assessment piece for this unit assignment.
I spent quite a bit of time creating this rubric, so I am very satisfied with it, although during the creation of it (more of a re-creation since I have used a version of this rubric), I found myself modifying it quite often. These types of rubrics have to be very specific in each area and cannot contain combinations that would make assessment too difficult and unclear. I am so pleased with it, that I will be using it during December when I assign this assignment to my extended math students (7th grade students taking 8th grade math). I am creating this unit to use for my regular 7th math students in the spring, and will be using the extended students as my pilot group since I will be making this project a complete technology piece.
Aside from the expectation of curriculum mastery with proportions, I have designed the rubric so that students have a clear set of instructions of learning objectives prior to beginning the assignment, then can further their ownership once their assignment has been assessed. For example, if the student missed points on the section that required all ingredients and directions to be aligned, the student can look over their work and determine their error without me specifically pointing out what he/she was lacking.
The areas that I would like focus on within my course module are primarily technology related, specifically, “Instructional Design” and all of the elements from the OLC Checklist, and “Course Overview and Introduction” from the Quality Matters Rubric Standards. I find these important because they deal with development, most important, elements that are required for a successful online course. Since I have never developed an online course, I feel that the course overview ensures that I am including important features for an online course (assignments, communication, assessments, etc.), and the instructional design rubric requirements ensure that I include relevant technology elements. I am trying to adhere to technology requirements that will enhance student learning rather than using technology for the sake of using it, so this is why I want my assessment to focus on these two areas; I want to really know what that means and how I can become proficient at creating lessons infused with technology.
Link to Recipe Rubric