Every hear poeple talk from both sides of their mouth?  I know of a group of people who say on the one hand that the classroom needs to be an active, fun experience, and then say on the other hand that instructor teaching loads should increase because, after all, what's a few more classes when all the instructor does is provide a platform for students to recieve information.  Why do I bring this up?  Becasue if I had a wish list, it would contain allocation of time and resources that empower instructors by providing hands on lab time with reflection so that active learning techniques can be developed, tried, and talked about.

There is a debate over whether to accept late work or not, when to accept it, and how much penalty (if any) should be assessed.  I wanted to know thoughts about late work in an online classroom in both sychronous and asychronous environments. 

It is easy to drift into a one hour monoluge during chat sessions. Stopping to ask questions increases engagement tremendously.

I am an advocate of online learning, but I must admit it is difficult in a course with low enrollment.  How do you keep students engaged and active if there are less than 5 in the course?  

What is needed to insure a student is ready / prepared for taking an online class?

It is important that the course revision process is ongoing and meets the needs of the students while taking into consideration end of course evaluations.

In an online environment it is imporant for students to realize that there is a live instructor behind the words on the screen. To do this an instructor should remain active in discussions, post voice messages, and hold chats.

Ensure you keep them in the game by providing enriched feedback

I provide lots of information up front to mitigate attrition.  Sometimes student attrition is unavoidable and they will just leave a course...there is nothing we can do about it.  However, any opportunity to demystify a course up front will mitigate some attrition. 

What are some of your strategies to mitigate attrition? 

Are you compensated by the number of students in your course?

It was interesting to review how an instructor's ability to manage their workload directly impacts the classroom.  Many times I am assisting students with workload management; however, it is equally as important that we manage our workload.

Has anyone ever taught a combination online/ground-based/flipped classroom? I teach computer graphics and find the students just want to jump into the computer work without listening to any background lecture or explanations. My thoughts are to have the "lecture portion" online, and the computer lab work done in the classroom. 

We use Blackboard, and I post the background material before the class. Students are responsibile for reading the material before they come into the classroom to work on the labs. But will they read the material and properly prepare? That is the question! 

The flipped classroom will only work if the students will work with it...

I find the magic number to be no longer than three days (72 hours).  However. I strive for a 48 hour turn-around time.  This can be difficult when you have many students.  So, I think that it is critical that the assignment be appropriate for the size of class and support (or assesses) the learning objective/outcomes.

I believe it is important to assist students in managing their workload in the class. This can be done through a "road map" that gives them the amount of time each section will take. There is also a step-by-step guide in what need to be finished and when. Denise Haynes

Do you teach in an online, synchronous course? What are the parameters of the course, for example how many live session do you have and for how long?

Have you taught in an online flipped classroom? How was it structured? What were the results?

As an instructor in a pharmacy calculations course, am I wondering what others' thoughts are on active learning.  Is it really possible to do in ALL types of courses?  I'm really struggling with how this could be incorporated into this course.

What are some techniques you use to make your online students curious?

I have not used group projects in any of my online courses because I feared they may not be successful.  Please give me some examples of group projects that were successful in your online classes.