Tamatha Lizyness

Utilizing email to communicate with is going to be new to me for teaching.  Learning about managing students in an online environment is much different than I had anticipated.  This module gave insight into managing students in the online world versus a face to face classroom.

I am a bit embarrassed that, because I have never taught an online class before, it had not occurred to me that I will need to do asynchronous classes due to the variation of location and availability of the students.  I recall my history with online learning the philosophy was if we wanted to learn it, we would figure out how to be available when we were told to be available and everyone was to participate in a synchronous class setting.

Offering ways to effectively communicate with students through discussion boards, offering small groups/activities that are outside of the discussion and building trust/rapport with students will help students feel more comfortable and engaged with learning the content.

Student interaction needs to be consistent and frequent, ensuring that the expectations are expressed clearly and providing tools and support needed to promote student success.

Lecture content must be broken down into fragments, easy to understand and process to prevent confusion or feeling overwhelmed.  I recall as a nursing student, one particular instructor strictly lectured - reading from the book mostly and could not understand how it was possible that 75% of her class failed.  

Comment on Heddy Hidalgo Rivero's post: I love this!  

I am excited about meeting my new students and getting to know them!  I feel that building a good rapport with them from the start, breaking the ice and starting to build trust from the beginning is vital to a good relationship throughout the course.

Being prepared, providing detailed syllabus, ensuring to be present early and taking the time to learn names and how to pronounce them properly, providing all content by multiple methods are all important to encourage students feel they have well prepared instruction.

I am learning multiple things from this course.  I am a new instructor to theory and somewhat new in the clinical setting as well, and there is so much to being an effective instructor.  I knew taking on this role that I would look to my past experiences to help guide me in what to and not to do in the classroom.  I really appreciate the breakdown that this course is providing to help me remember that there are different roles in which I will be playing, and insight on managing those roles as an instructor.