Gail Lewis

I teach Oral Pathology to dental hygiene students. Right now we are in a blended curriculum after coming off teaching mainly online for the past COVID19 year. I am not a fan of the current discussion boards that have been implemented within this course. So I have not made it a concern to be involved in whatever the discussion is about, but just grading it. It can be very hard to respond to 24 discussions on a timely basis. How would you recommend responding to a class on a discussion board without offending anyone?

I have often thought that students who were online learners were self-motivated on their own. And now I feel that is not always the case. I need to be more of a facilitator and work with the students to understand what I am trying to convey to them. Typically, my syllabus has been on-ground for students, and now I am learning to put in an online-based section, and cut out on-ground sections. This has not been easy, and I am trying to work through errors so students can benefit from having what is expected of them.  

I am still finding it hard to become comfortable with synchronous and asynchronous teaching. I haven't figured out how to add the questions for a discussion board so students can see and respond. I know this is important to various learning styles.

Deciding on a technology tool and whether this will aid my student's learning is a long process. And often it is not achieved by one cohort of students. Are there any suggestions to help with this?

loading presentations such as PowerPoints will aid in the sharing of information on SlideShare, of which I fully intend to learn how this is done.

Feedback is essential in a student's learning process. It's hard to decipher if written self assessment-feedback is helpful. A rubric definitely informs the student of what is expected of their work, and what the instructor is expecting for the final product. I have found that written peer review feedback is not always helpful. Most of the time, I have reviewed students giving others in their group all exceptional contributions, when you know that one or more students do most of the work. Not sure how to get around that problem.

I have a student that is constantly saying they can't get online to do the work, what do you do in this case? I have trouble believing her situation.

Since teaching online, I have instituted lots of technology-related communication that has become available. What I especially like is the ability to use a whiteboard on most media communications  

Learning to chunk information into a wiki is a new term for me, and to understand how this is applied.

This concept is very time-consuming for the instructor. With that being said, I find that the success for students has to be the positive feedback, and critique of the students' work to be time-sensitive. understanding a student's learning style with a ten-week instruction does not give the instructor time to help the success for their student. 

I teach adult students, and their time is weighed against being a student, mother/father, and employee. Most times, by the end of the course they discover that what works for some of their colleagues does not always work for them. And sometimes I have… >>>