Linda Gordon

Facilitating interaction is challenging in the synchronous enviroment because students often have competing issues in their environment and may not want to activate a microphone at times. I need to offer the tools such as chat and discussion board to fill in the gaps I notice in discussion from some students. 

Currently our classes that were pushed online due to Covid are being held synchronously, however, the potential for synchronous work has been very helpful when students have run into changing work schedules and family needs during this complex time. It is clear though, that if I were to actually purposefully offer the class as an asynchronous class, I would have to modify it with different assignments and content presentation to ensure that the students engage asynchronously with the material to the same extent they do in my synchronous class. 

I certainly see quite a few teachers new to online (due to our current Covid-19 challenges) who are overwhelmed by technology. The enthusiastic ones are grabbing multiple tools all at once and that also becomes daunting to those who are more hesitant. Just because it exists, just because somebody else is using it, does not mean it is going to be the correct tool for your course or style. I would suggest that it is important to look for an LMS and learn to use it fully and add to it gradually exactly what you need to achieve your goals.… >>>

With this sudden shift to online due to Covid-19, many students are taking an online course for the first time. Their technology skills are very raw and they require a lot of support to be successful. One challenge is "seeing" what a student is struggling with. I have used Zoom and had them share their screen however I also had a student who could not figure out the share screen option either. 

I loved the analogy of time management as cleaning a closet and I just shared that idea in an email to all of my new students. The idea of decluttering time is a great one and many of my students are likely struggling to manage the new online format and all the changes to their personal time due to Covid-19. 

I am also thinking about students who may have learning disabilities - we are a small vocational school and it is likely that more than typical students have some learning challenges. However, we don't have a specific department for learning… >>>

I liked the instructional design cycle - having had to toss a f2f class online suddenly midsemester due to Covid 19, now I am going to be setting up the next session purposefully online and can evaluate what was working in the first attempt and make changes. Helpful to know that it is normal for that to be a cycle of development. 

I had not thought of using quizzes as motivational activities. Now that I'm more comfortable making quizzes in CANVAS, I'll have to consider that possibility. 

For me at this time, I hope to gain new ideas of how to make my online instruction more actively engaging. I have well-structured courses, however, this abrupt change to online is creating challenges in the area of engagement, so I look forward to learning new techniques.