I have found very few students who enjoy participating in discussion boards, I think it partly the idea behind them being obligated to participate, but mainly due my inability to facilitate discussions well. I need to do better about fostering a good conversation amongst the students. 

The most important thing about this section was the reminder about tone and clarity. As someone who thinks they are funny and likes to use their sense of humor to connect with people, it is important to understand I must be careful when using my sense of humor in an online environment. 

During my first course session of every semester, I only really cover one communication "rule" and that is that students need to be respectful of one another during our live meetings. I explain that I will remove any who is not being respectful from the live lecture. However, I do not give specifics, nor do I explain this rule with any depth. I think, in the future, setting down specific guidelines and sharing those guidelines in a more cohesive way will be helpful. 

I have yet to try using any social media when teaching online courses, however, it does seem as though it could be a very effective way of sharing supplemental materials to students. If I am scrolling through social media and I find an article about a topic related to what we are discussing that week in class, I can instantly share it. 

 This section made me think about the fact that many students are now "digital natives" and have grown up their whole lives surrounded by technology, and that I must consider that, but I must balance that with the older students I have in my courses. 

It is very important to align thoughtful assessment with the active learning activities. 

The thing that struck me the most was thinking about the inequities in students' access to particular technologies when committing to particular activities that can be helpful for active learning. 

Active learning is fundamental to engaging students. 

I have learned to be more conscious of evaluating my evaluations and how effectively they are illustrating student learning. 

I learned about how rubrics, while not taking the subjectivity out of grading essays, do help provide structure, and I will let rubrics help guide me more.