Students need plenty of opportunitites to practice skills like reading and writing in an online envorinment.
Key concepts are ensuring that students know they can apply the information they are gaining to their own lives and know its importance, and the reason for its necessity. Engaging students more often with the content, such as using Exit Slips, discussion boards, or group projects, as well as reiterating and teaching effective and complete comunication skills are crucial.
I plan to use the following two new techniques: the FAQ Discussion Board as an ongoing tool throughout the course to address questions related to the overall course and assignments. This will not be used for content questions but rather for more system / technical / course operations questions. I also plan to utilize the Exit Slip method for synchronous classes early in the course and anytime I have students who are struggling to participate in a meaningful way.
It is important to set guidelines so students know what is expected of them. Reading and writing skills are needed within an online environment. Communication skills have to be a priority, you want to keep your students engaged.
Communication and motivation are the two main non-technical skills that should be encouraged. Communication not just with instructors but with other students and understanding that they are a part of this community. Create that sense of doing things together and it will make them more motivated to come to classes.
Communication online increases in importance as you lose things like body language when online. In my F2F classroom I could see if a student was having a hard time. Being online the student must be comfortable with reaching out.
Communication is essential to student and instructor success.
Commumication by the entire community is importaqnt. Be clear and professional in your communication. Have students work in teams when possible. I will desgin the course that requires communication from everyone. Have the students give online presentations.
Just as the students need to focus on their studies and be engaged in the learning process, instructors should also focus on teaching and learning and be interactive participants.
Having clear expectations and rules when online learning is a must to ensure an optimal learning experience!
It is important for the instructor to develop good techinical skills for online teaching
This is a great course gpt instructors new to the online classroom. The informatin provided is a good tool and very helpful for active open communication with the students.
Students should know what is expected of them and those expectations should be clearly projected to them throught the LMS.
Online citizenship is crucial to having a great online class and class environment.
With online learners it is important to connect with each learner and help them understand why the content is important to their lives. This may come in different forms for different learners.
developing a CoP will be a great when teaching classes online
I plan to communicate to students how I would like them to communicate with me, and provide a modified list of what to include in their communication. For example, I want to remind students to include a discriptive subject line and to include their name at the bottom of the communication. Also, I already implement a learning community within my classroom, and I plan to structure my online class to enable students to support each other in small group break-out settings. However, I also plan to engage students in planning a rubric for participation in these small group settings to ensure group norms and also consistent evaluation of participation.
This module reinforced that when students are involved in the communication venues within the class they should feel more engaged. There will always be students who don't like to participate in a class. A virtual classroom will give them a place to "hide" and not participate. Again, communication will be key in getting the expectations out to everyone. A Small group activity is a great way to get more people to participate within the classroom. Jigsaw activities can get the small groups to feel like a part of the "whole" class.
Clear communication is important from both instructor and learners no matter the format, I2S, S2I or S2S.
Based on what I learned, I developed an "orientation to online class" which list the course objectives, expectation from the instructor, and the guidelines of small group case study project.
This module is helping me to become more organized and clear in my communication to student expectations. I like the idea of community of practice very much!
