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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Demanding Students and Grade Expectations

Have you found that students are becoming more demanding and challenging when one earns a grade less than anticipated? If so, how should we use our authority to handle these students.

Keeping up on the CMS

I feel that my biggest challenge will be the technology support for my students. This will be my first online class that I teach, and since the program is different than the one I use at my present school, I hope I will be able to assist my students in a timely manner when they are confronted with a problem. I have already dealt with the technology group for gaining access to my class because they were having trouble for some reason in putting me into the system. I must say that the technical support has been very supportive; therefore, I feel pretty confident, I will be able to lead or guide my students in the right direction. I definetly need to look into the student orienation class for CMS.

Online Course Interaction

My experience has indicated the importance of the discussion threads within the online format. As a rule, I reply to every student within a given course at least once per week. The level and complexity of interaction is vital, but ensuring all students are recognized for their individual contributions is key to retention. Lisa

Keeping Students Engaged

As this module pointed out it it wise to keep students engaged in the classroom in the virtual world the same as the physical classroom for retention. I find that having a high presence in the classroom; being involved in discussions giving feedback on assignments and launching further questions all help the students to be more engaged. If I want students to be active then I need to model that behavior.

Assisting online students

I have a passion for and love teaching online courses. I know that the online environment can be daunting for some students and like to make the CMS as easy as possible to navigate. I like the fact that our institution uses the same design for all of the courses that are offered to our students. The content is obviously different but the navigation of each course is similar. I have found that once a student is familiar with the CMS and has a professional relationship with the instructor that they (the students) gain the confidence to be successful in all courses.

Creating a successful online experience

In my findings, giving students as much flexibility as possible while still holding them to the constraints of the class breeds a more positive, encouraging experience. What do you all think? Do you think that you need to "rule with an iron fist", or do you think that some leeway is a better idea?

Posting of points in written assignments

Though I am learning to appreciate the online posting of points received for written assignments and the reflection of "model" responses, I do wonder about posting feedback. I have sent individual emails to students about corrections and feedback (like written feedback in traditional classrooms), to avoid "losing face" or embarassment, though this is quite time-consuming. My training regarding confidentiality may also be playing a large role in my reluctance. Any suggestions offered regarding how best to utilize online, public feedback?

Using Technology as an Excuse

I am going to be teaching an online course for the first time beginning at the end of this month. I have five years of in-classroom experience, and have heard many excuses as to why assignments are not ready on time, and I'm sure not all of them were completely truthful. It's because of our technology that we are able to offer online courses. For those of you that have taught online in the past, how do you handle technology related excuses for late assignments? In other words, do you often run into student issues such as "my internet connection went down", "my computer kept rebooting and I couldn't email my work on time", etc?

Presence/motivation in the classroom

Hello Colleagues, These are some of the tools I have been using. Let me know your feedbacks. Motivation in the classroom I believe that it starts from the beginning of the class as we first encounter the students. The teacher/facilitator sets the tone in the classroom and students take their cues from him/her. I will illustrate step by step how motivation can actually be “created “and sustained in the online class. I have already used most of these tools and intend to “tweak” them even more in the upcoming sessions. 1-First impressions are key: I send each of my students a welcome note on the first day of class discussing the benefits of the course for their career and the best way to succeed in a distance learning environment. Spell check and on time assignment submissions are mentioned. I make this email upbeat and helpful. I set a tone of clear expectations and camaraderie. 2- Announcements: I place fun or enticing titles to spark their curiosities. I like to place a very happy “Welcome to class” post. I want them to feel as if they are part of a team. 3-Weekly notes: Every Sunday, I post a note in the classroom and reiterate how far the students have come and congratulate them for their participation. I am also proactive and discuss in advance difficult assignments and give them tools to be successful. 4-Webliography updates: It is important to keep refreshing the Webliography and send students to different links to reinforce certain topics and assist them in their research. Students feel that the instructor is really coaching them and that they are not alone in their learning process. 5-Discussions: I post additional questions regarding the weekly subjects to further the information or ask their opinions on related matters. 6- Gradebook: I use the comment section to acknowledge success and place many exclamations points (Great job!!!, Excellent effort!!!). I gently give them advice to better their grades and reinforce what is well done in their posts. I offer my assistance if I see that they are struggling with a particular subject. 7- Emails during the session: I email students who are behind/not passing on a weekly basis. I let them know that we can find options for them and that I am here to help them. I want them to know that their success matters and I remind them of their ultimate goals…a new career! 8-Prompt responses: Nothing is more important for a student that to have their concern addressed promptly. I sign in my classes every day to answer questions. I have used the above tools so far and have gotten good results. I want to continue these but also add more positive reinforcements and a more personal approach.

Cheating in an online class

Because you don't "see" students completing their work in an online class, how can you be sure they aren't having someone else do the work for them? What can you do to prevent cheating from happening in your online class?

Engaging learners

How should you attempt to engage or encourage cooperation with students that has difficulty formulating there words with the english language?

Projecting your authority

How do you handle students lack of teamwork ?

Questions

Some questions and answers and the wording are not clear in the quiz,

Live in the solution

How can we support our students to live in the solution and not the problems? Their challenges seem so great to them some times. Jim

Our authority will be respected when we earn that respect...

It is generally the case that students will have respect for their instructors just because it is a cultural norm. Most students respect the fact that their instructors know their subject area and their expertise. However, it is also necessary that students sense that their instructors respect them as well. If they do not sense this, they will feel intimidated and may not feel comfortable approaching the instructor for help. Attrition can only be high in this situation.

Online Community

I think one valuable component that is missing online is the community environment. I feel that it was a vital part of my success as a student to have a sense of "community" and to a lesser degree even a sense of "competition." Online students miss the opportunity to "hang out" and commiserate with other students in their classes and to share thoughts and ideas spontaneously. When I did my mentoring for my online students I encouraged them to try to find other students in their area to meet up with or to form an online community of some kind. Since that time another instructor set up a Facebook site for them to utilize as a place to share thoughts and ideas. I still think a "realtime" exchange would be more valuable such as a chat room session. However, I still feel that nothing replaces those relationships forged over coffee and cramming for finals.

online courses

how do we teach students, when the have no knowledge of computers?

tecnhical problems

Online courses can be diffuclt for students who don't have computer knowledge.

Using technology to engage your students

There are many different kinds of technology available to online instructors to engage students. What technology have you used to engage your students, and most importantly, did it work?

Preparing students for an online class

Ever since I have been involved in online learning, I have found there is a misconception by some students that online learning is easy. In addition, some students are not prepared for the amount of work involved in an online class. So, as the instructor, how do you prepare a student who is taking an online class for the first time?