I know that when I prepare for a new semester there is an aweful lot of prep work involved (I put in an average of 2-4 hours in the evening for the following day lesson plans). How much time on the average is needed to sucessfully launch an online course.

We are considering offering online courses for the first time this fall. At various times throughout module 4, you have referred to the code of conduct for online participation in managing an online course. How does a school go about creating or establishing a code of conduct for online participation? What type of reference materials or examples are available to schools that would provide direction? examples?

If a course is taught online and that same course is taught in a traditional classroom during the a semester, should they have the same timeframe for completion? We are considering offering a few classes online in the fall. We will also be offering those same classes in a traditional classroom setup. Should the classes be consistent with the same start date, assignment dates and exam dates, and end date? Is that reasonable or does it matter? Also, the number of credits for a course is dependent upon the percentage of contact lecture hours vs. lab hours. Would a course that is taught online have the same number of credits as the course being taught in the tradtional classroom? Is this something that is determined by the accrediting agency of the school?

At our school, we are constantly applauded and appreciated for our ability to be there for our students. They have the sense of belonging to a family. They know how dedicated their instructors are and how invested they are in their success. Demographically speaking from our market research, many of our students need this sense of belonging as motivation to succeed. As we transition some courses to be hybrid in nature, how can we continue to give them that needed sense of belonging? I agree with the exchange of biographical information and the commitment of the instructor but what else can be done to ensure a real sense of belonging to a "family" in the online arena?

With an online course, I feel that it is important to supply comments or critiques on student assignments. This provides the interaction with the student that makes the course more personal. It also shows that the instructor is monitoring the student growth and knowledge of the subject.

As a new online instructor, I am in the process of implementing tools such as pols, Q & A, and quizes into my presentation. It varies from class to class in regard to which tool works the best.

I feel that to keep the students attention, ones vocal presentation should be clear and concise. The instructor needs to keep the students attention on the subject matter. And if the student is not "captured" by the presenter, they become bored and lose interest.

As a new online instructor, I feel that it very important that one is comfortable with the applicaitons that available for the student as well as the instructor.

One of the points in this module was very intriguing to me. I find myself still thinking about a way to accomplish it, but am unable and am interested in hearing from the experienced online instructors. In the module, it mentioned having a backup method of receiving assignments when technical difficulties exist (I read this to mean they can not send the assigment electronically). My first inclination was that the student can mail it, but there has to be better solutions out there. What have you all done to resolve this issue?

According to the course material, asynchronous discussions tend to be "more deliberate and detailed" than typical instructor-led discussion. This isn't always the case -- looking at the discussions for this course, for example, entries typically are very brief and are asking questions of Satrohan. As instructors, we need to consider what aspects of course design encourage asynchronous discussions and when it is important for learning. In this class, we are required to participate in the discussion for at least one module -- that means that there will likely be less participation than if we were required to participate in all modules. Students can start the course at any time -- so we may be more dependent on the instructor for responses than we would be in an online class with fixed start and end dates. So what instructional designs encourage more indepth online discussions? Assigning discussion topics for online discussion? Grading the online discussion and providing a scoring rubric up front?

Hi Everybody, I think we all know that most of us think faster than we type. As a result, many people - myself included - make grammatical errors in their postings. Since we represent the school, and we are the facilitators of the classes, it is critically important for us to ensure that our posts are accurate. Otherwise, it is more difficult to provide feedback to students about their grammatical errors. Thoughts??? Thanks!

I have been a part of classes with students that tend to dominate the learning environment. How do you discipline a (know it all) student in a nice way?

With on-line courses becoming more popular, how do you encourage the inter-student exchanges that happens freely (and at times spiritly) in a traditional classroom setting to occur in on-line courses? What techniques and styles have been found to be successful in allowing the student to learn more than the course content and learn from the fellow student experiences (the how-to-apply the course concepts in the real world)?

Does the instructor need to research to see what will need to be taught asynchronous or synchronous? I think so because I like to bring in 'real world' scenarios. I would introduce this material in a synchronous (chat) session.

I think of biographies as being the icebreaker for the class. What do you think?

Is success in online learning based on the instructor or student? Please list reasons for answer.

I was really interested in this module because It will not only help me with the on-line course but with my classes I teach at the college. Pointers on how to bring in students into the conversation and group participation is a great way of assisting shy student to feel that they are involved and important. Assigning threaded discussions on-line as a grade makes the students get involved even if they want to make a good grade. I feel that I learned a lot of great ways to manage my on-line classes in this course.

Question: Do you think all online programs should include some sort of mandatory student feedback, where the students can rate the interactivity of the program and give suggestions?

We're a private trade school, so as part of our online enrollment process, our students fill out a series of skill surveys. This gives a good foundational background on our students before they even begin the program. We've found that this really helps -- when the student starts the program, we already know their skills, attributes, qualifications, previous professional experience and their career goals. The students seem to feel more engaged since we've refined this process, and more open to conversing with the online instructors. It also gives us a chance to help them create their resumes, if they have a need.

Its imperative to keep open and postive communication between student and instructor