About me
Leah Murray
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Discussion Comment
One thing I get a lot as a math/stats instructor is a negative attitude towards math. Many people come into my classes with the attitude they hate math and they are no good at it (something that sticks with them from high school). It can be a challenge to get them to keep an open mind. How do other math instructors allow help students turn these weaknesses into strengths?
Discussion Comment
One thing I find very powerful is to send outreach notes each week after I do grades. While it takes a little longer ( but only 5-10 minutes per class) I sent out individual ones that address them by their first name
Such as
Dear Joe,
.....
They seem to respond really well to this, if you take the time to respond to them by name they realize this is not just a form email (even if the body is) and you really do care. Many students respond positively to this small factor.
Discussion Comment
Several online colleges are introducing new apps for their school. These can be neat in that you can check in on the go from a tablet or smart board. However I find when students use these apps their quality of discussion posts goes WAY down. All of a sudden you see grammar and spelling errors and text speak start to slip in. I try to make it clear that expectations are the same for writing level for apps or posts made from web browsers but they jump into this more informal frame of mind. Does anyone else see this happening?
Discussion Comment
One of the hardest things I think to manage online is group projects. This is where students tend to get snarky or have an attitude if they feel they are doing more or people are not pulling their own weight. I usually have very few problems elsewhere on the discussions or within the class. Does anyone else find this to be the case?
Discussion Comment
I teach math classes that involve many tutorial math videos. From showing how to solve equations to using excel the videos are a powerful way to reach students when you cannot be there yourself. However I find just hosting these on youtube means the students don't use them, they don't want to sort through dozens of videos. Instead I have been sorting them all using a live binder, this free Web site allows you to sort things into categories (for shorter classes I tend to do each week) and place just the videos there for that week, then they can… >>>
Discussion Comment
I had never heard of the concept of a one minute essay that was presented in this class. This seems like a great thing to do after a live seminar, it would allow students to quickly reflect on what they have learned and what questions they have. Those students not able to attend live seminar would be able to watch the archive and complete one, this would have have the added benefit of showing they had indeed viewed the archive. Has anyone used these? Were they successful?
Discussion Comment
One very successful feedback method I have used with group projects is video feedback. I use a screen recorder such as jing.com to look at the groups assignment, this allows me to verbally point out good portions as well as portions in need of improvement. Students can see and hear the feedback and I can write notes on their document in live time. The response from students has been great they say it is the next best thing to being there in person. I must admit I only do this with group projects as it is fairly time consuming and… >>>
Discussion Comment
It is difficult to learn online as students don't have the opportunity to ask questions and get an instant response as they may face to face. I often strive to create VERY detailed instructions/expectations including a checklist of tasks that must be done for each assignment. The thing I struggle most with is getting students to READ these instructions. No matter how I share them, announcements, email etc it seems there are always some students who completely ignore the detailed instructions. Does anyone else find this? Do you have any tips or strategies to get students to make use of… >>>
Discussion Comment
One thing that is very important when developing courses is to have a partner or colleague that you can touch base with. Sometimes the order of content or the way things are taught may make sense to you as an individual but may not to others. Having another author or eye on the course can help you combine different teaching methods and styles to reach as many students as possible. For example when developing a statistics course I worked with an individual who specialized in application of statistics in industry, and one who was more education based. That allowed for… >>>
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