Course Description Learning Outcomes/Objectives Assessment

I have both on ground and online experience. I like them both. One thing I particularly enjoy with the online environment is adapting my abilities to different students. It makes the process more exciting for both myself and the students. I am engaged and they are engaged. Dr. Albert

Initially, when I first began teaching via an on-line class, I struggled with my own personal feeling that I truly missed the face to face contact that teaching on-ground affords. While I am adapting, I still sometimes struggle and worry that I am not only effectively communicating with my students, but establishing a rapport as well. Do others struggle with this, not only in terms of being Instructors, but students as well? How do you work through this issue?

It is interesting to note that at many learning institutions, Wikis, primarily Wikipedia, are frowned upon in terms of being used as a research tool for students. Many colleges, including the one where I teach, will not permit students to use Wikipedia for research/citations, etc. The "reasoning" is that due to the community/self-editing nature of the site, not all information can be trusted as accurate. Yet this course and others talk of its many benefits with opportunities for learning. I am interested to know what the prevailing thoughts and preferences are. Thank you for your time.

Online instruction has been a learning curve for me. I am now at the point where I am enjoying it because of all of the preparation and revision up to this point. When we started I wondered if we would make it but the courses and modules in MaxKnowledge have really shed some light on the process and how to navigate successfully.

We have all been there with the class who has given the course a sad face. I bite the bullet and take the sound criticism and work to improve the course. When too many critiques come back with the same general comments from several classes, it's time to look at the course.

Once I started providing more detailed feedback, which takes more time, I noticed students started to improve more rapidly. I did not take as long for them to understanding key concepts of the course.

In the past when technology was used to provide a lesson but no follow up of the online material was provided, students did not "get" it. We have to reinforce all.

Once our staff developed uniformity students seemed to be less confused about their objectives and how to complete assignments. They are also less confused about expectations.

In addition to wearing several hats, how do we as instructors gain students trust for them to feel free to ask questions and make their concerns known?

I loved the suggestion to add a self-assessment column to rubrics and have the student actively engage in their own assessment - what a powerful idea; and one that I hadn't thought of on my own - thanks!

Let's talk about varying modalities. Clearly, this module is a good example of what not to do with regard to the modality effect. Having students read through the entire course, by your own admission, is not the best way to present materials. I find it very disconcerting that we are taught to avoid a particular way of presenting information by forcing us, the students, to endure this poorly created course. Dr. Henry Jonson

We all communicate online daily. We send emails, text messages, and often communicate through instant messaging. Words and attitudes can be misconstrued by the recipient as it is often hard to determine the tone of many electronic messages. Some are short and to the point and come off as being abrupt. It is important for learners and instructors to be very aware of how their electronic communication is going to be received. Always read your own emails before sending them. You may find that they sound abrupt or unlike what you are trying to say. I read every email before sending it so that I know I am expressing what I am trying to say without it sounding harsh and it gives me an opportunity to proof for typos and errors.

One of the primary assets that leads to learner success in online courses is instructor feedback. I have heard from many online learners that if they have a respondent instructor they are able to move forward faster, utilized the instructor's feedback to continue, and they feel like they are not being ignored. Several people have told me about online learning with instructors who are not responsive and they had a very difficult time and felt like they had no support. From what I understand this is the one key factor that effects retention in online courses.

I entirely agree with the video clip of the instructor to introduce themselves to the students. Also, the idea of students posting a bio is a great idea. It is human nature to feel closer to something or someone when you have seen them and learned something about them. People are more comfortable discussing topics online if they have at least seen a picture of you. e.g. the small thumbnail images that people have in gmail or on LinkedIn. I always feel like I know that person in come capacity if I have seen their picture. In online teaching it is imperative to create that trust by letting your students know who you are, what your credentials are, and where you live in relationship to the learner. Any means that we have to be more personal with the distance learners is a great asset to their success.

Noisy learners, I have found, attempt to move the discussion away from topic to both register participation, while avoiding engagement. I have found it helpful to immediately note such posts as non-credit worthy. What are some other ways to reduce such behavior?

I know that this is a little off-topic as we are discussing online education, but when I was teaching on-campus I would incorporate online elements in the F2F environment at one of the institutions I teach for. It is very nice that the college offers the same online tools to on-campus instructors as it does the online instructors. Students are able to submit their papers online, take exams online, and participate in discussions outside of the classroom. Donnie Burnette

With regard to clear directions, for several of my courses I provide my students with assignment templates that lay out exactly how the assignment should be completed. Not only has this increased student performance on these assignments because the students do not overlook an element, but it makes the assignments easier to grade because I know exactly where the pertinent information should be. Donnie Burnette

I have been somewhat familiar with wikis, but I decided to investigate them a little more after they were mentioned in the this course because I feel they may be a good tool for group projects. The current system one of the institutions I teach for is a little cumbersome and it is not always easy for students to see the work other students have done. The one in particular I am going to research is Wikispaces. The only issue that I can see is the fact that this tool exists outside of the university's LMS and therefore is not easily monitored by the university, but I may be able to work around that. Donnie Burnette

Over the years, I have taught numerous history courses for a number of institutions and I have found that the material I use for these courses often overlaps. For some time now I have given thought to how I can construct such a database that will help me organize this material and make it easily accessible based on the learning objectives for a given class. I am hoping that as I continue this course, I will learn how to construct such a database as I have not been able to come up with a good way to do so yet. How can the variety of learning objects, i.e., URLs, videos, audio clips, jpegs, etc., be easily stored in an Excel spreadsheet, Word table, or other system?