Teaching Online Learners

Public

Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Debra Hunter

Facilitation Time of Online Versus Traditional Classroom Settings

In your opinion, does the facilitation of online courses take more time than facilitation of the traditional classroom?

Francis Maffei

Discussion Threads

Question: What types of threads work best -- multiple threads by topic or one super-thread for all to converse in? I have have tried both I prefer the multipe thread approach for discussion content purposes but the super thread is good for socializing.

Francis Maffei

Classroom Clips

Have tried adding or enclosing video clips etc many times the issue becomes the bandwidth avaible to the student. If they do not have the bandwidth the student becomes easily fustrated.

Francis Maffei

Online learning and Technical Support

The question how critical is technical support to online learning being a fulfilling and successful experience. I have found if tech suport is not top notch the learning experience can really suffer.

Mark Watson

How important do you find using humor in the online classroom environment for establishing good student - teacher relationships?

I ask this because I have found that this is the keystone to many of my chats to make them enjoyable for the students. I encourage them to make humourous (British English spelling)comments too about what we are doing in the class in the chat box. I think it helps with participation and just basically showing up for class.

Debra Hunter

Mandatory Participation in Syncronous Discussions

Should participation in sycronous discussions be mandatory?

Debra Hunter

Demanding Students and Grade Expectations

Have you found that students are becoming more demanding and challenging when one earns a grade less than anticipated? If so, how should we use our authority to handle these students.

Susan Iiams

Keeping up on the CMS

I feel that my biggest challenge will be the technology support for my students. This will be my first online class that I teach, and since the program is different than the one I use at my present school, I hope I will be able to assist my students in a timely manner when they are confronted with a problem. I have already dealt with the technology group for gaining access to my class because they were having trouble for some reason in putting me into the system. I must say that the technical support has been very supportive; therefore,… >>>

Lisa Ward

Online Course Interaction

My experience has indicated the importance of the discussion threads within the online format. As a rule, I reply to every student within a given course at least once per week. The level and complexity of interaction is vital, but ensuring all students are recognized for their individual contributions is key to retention. Lisa

John Heppner

Keeping Students Engaged

As this module pointed out it it wise to keep students engaged in the classroom in the virtual world the same as the physical classroom for retention. I find that having a high presence in the classroom; being involved in discussions giving feedback on assignments and launching further questions all help the students to be more engaged. If I want students to be active then I need to model that behavior.

Kim Houck

Assisting online students

I have a passion for and love teaching online courses. I know that the online environment can be daunting for some students and like to make the CMS as easy as possible to navigate. I like the fact that our institution uses the same design for all of the courses that are offered to our students. The content is obviously different but the navigation of each course is similar. I have found that once a student is familiar with the CMS and has a professional relationship with the instructor that they (the students) gain the confidence to be successful in… >>>

Gary Gates

Creating a successful online experience

In my findings, giving students as much flexibility as possible while still holding them to the constraints of the class breeds a more positive, encouraging experience. What do you all think? Do you think that you need to "rule with an iron fist", or do you think that some leeway is a better idea?

Robin Lipke

Posting of points in written assignments

Though I am learning to appreciate the online posting of points received for written assignments and the reflection of "model" responses, I do wonder about posting feedback. I have sent individual emails to students about corrections and feedback (like written feedback in traditional classrooms), to avoid "losing face" or embarassment, though this is quite time-consuming. My training regarding confidentiality may also be playing a large role in my reluctance. Any suggestions offered regarding how best to utilize online, public feedback?

Rick Kendrick

Using Technology as an Excuse

I am going to be teaching an online course for the first time beginning at the end of this month. I have five years of in-classroom experience, and have heard many excuses as to why assignments are not ready on time, and I'm sure not all of them were completely truthful. It's because of our technology that we are able to offer online courses. For those of you that have taught online in the past, how do you handle technology related excuses for late assignments? In other words, do you often run into student issues such as "my internet connection… >>>

Isabelle Tardif

Presence/motivation in the classroom

Hello Colleagues, These are some of the tools I have been using. Let me know your feedbacks. Motivation in the classroom I believe that it starts from the beginning of the class as we first encounter the students. The teacher/facilitator sets the tone in the classroom and students take their cues from him/her. I will illustrate step by step how motivation can actually be â€œcreated â€œand sustained in the online class. I have already used most of these tools and intend to â€œtweakâ€ them even more in the upcoming sessions. 1-First impressions are key: I send each of my students… >>>