Davina Jones

Comment on Chere' Hobbs's post: Hi Chere'! I thought the same thing about the claim that email was the most preferred method of communication. Seems a little outdated. Most modern LMS and CMS platforms have a built-in Inbox or Messaging tool. It functions just like an email inbox, but keeps the conversation in the LMS and integrated with the course. Most students at my college use the LMS inbox and can also call and/or text the instructor for private communications. Email fatigue causes many students (and instructors) to miss important messages, even for those who do manage their inbox… >>>

I'll mostly use our Canvas LMS inbox to communicate with students and keep a record of email messages. Same goes for assignment submissions. I'll also consider downloading a backup of assignment submissions and critical messages to my college's enterprise OneDrive account as a second storage method and for easy offline retrieval. I'll make sure to follow college policies when counseling students and resolving conflicts. I want all students to learn and succeed so I'll do my part in ensuring they stay the course! 

Comment on Maegan Moore's post: Great insight Maegan! When students are interacting regularly and meaningfully, you have a better chance at catching misconceptions and misunderstandings more quickly and can offer remediation and corrective feedback.  Staying engaged with the student and supporting them throughout their learning can significantly boost their confidence and keep them focused. 

While recent research evidence has dismissed learning styles as having a significant impact on student learning and success, I do believe that people do have preferred ways they like to learn things. Nevertheless, the format of the content should match the outcome of the learning goal, and instructors should use multiple delivery methods in their instruction. The Avoidant, Competitive and Dependent categories mentioned in the lesson seem more like social interaction profiles rather than learning styles or learning preferences. These categories describe how students communicate and interact with others in the course, not necessarily how they choose to learn.

Comment on Kimberly Szadek's post: I think your ninth graders will enjoy making their biographies in a tool like FlipGrid. Learners usually are more invested in a learning task when there is a sense of ownership and authentic expression. Getting to know each other builds community in the class. It humanizes and personalizes the learning experience (especially for online learners) when you know that your instructor and peers are real people who live in a real place and have real emotions, feelings, joys, sorrow, hobbies, skills, aspirations, and goals just like you do. :) 

Comment on Andrew Gradall's post: I agree Andrew! The instructor can set the pace for discussion posting by modeling the types of interaction and depth of content they desire for the discussion. As long as they don't dominate it, they will project a guiding presence that will more than likely encourage students to take part in the discussion and put forth more effort to craft a post that keeps the conversation going strong.

Projecting your presence in an online course is vital to your student's success in the course and their confidence in you as an instructor. Unlike in face-to-face courses where you can see and interact with your students, an online course can be isolating for students at a distance. Visible online presence leads to regular and substantive interactions beyond just popping in the course to grade assignments and post new content. Instructors gain trust and interest by projecting their authority and developing authentic relationships with their students. This along with consistently projecting their presence strengthens the connection and leads to higher… >>>

Comment on Aimee Green's post: 

Hi Aimee! I once had an online instructor who was new to the LMS we were using and hadn't received any training from the instructional support team at the college. As a result, he created the entire course using discussion posts because he said he didn't know how to use anything else! Yikes! I can't remember exactly what the situation was, but I think he was new to online teaching and had been given a teaching assignment at the last minute and just had to roll with it. As someone who provides instructional design… >>>

Comment on Luis Serrano Tamayo's post: 

Hi Luis! You are right about the way forums help us with the co-construction of knowledge. We are actually modeling the type of interactions that we desire for our students. There is always something we can learn from our peers, no matter how much experience we have. One of the lessons in this section stated that different instructors are likely to take different approaches to teach the same course goals. This is because we all have a different way of seeing things, based on our life and professional experiences. Forums allow us to… >>>

I believe a quality online course is one that truly transforms students in a positive way. They are challenged but not burdened. They leave the course with a new knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that they either didn't have beforehand or that needed to be strengthened and renewed. An online teacher facilitates this learning journey. Content coverage alone can't do it. Just passing the course won't do it either. It takes true engagement, interaction and little bit of productive struggle to make it worthwhile.