Elizabeth Dehart

I learned the importance of establishing a communication code of conduct which needs to be part of the syllabus and possibly taught to the students more in depth if they have little experience with online classes.

I learned how to evaluate different communication tools for online teaching before, during, and after the course.  It's imperative that I familliarize myself with the tools that I have only used on a limited basis or not at all.

I learned how to increase my online presence with the way that I organize my course with the use of welcome letters and best wishes messages to end a course.  I will strive to increase my students' comfort level with the course with regular and timely communication with my students throughout the course.

I learned about the different roles that an online teacher fulfills and importance of getting students engaged.  I think that I tend to be a high control type of teacher and will have to work toward being more of a facilitator of communication and learning.

I learned how to set a pattern of teaching so the students can navigate my course comfortably.  This again demonstrated to me how critical my level of organization needs to be. As a new online teacher, I will definitely need to plan and practice more extensively and thouroughly in the first classes that I set up and teach in order to provide a rich learning experience for students.

I learned that there are an array tech tools to use in the online classroom and job 1 for me will be to investigate them and practice with them so that I can make good decisions about which ones to use in online classes.

I learned the meaning of closing the loop as it pertains to evaluating and revising your course.  I will need to evaluate my course qualitatively and quantitativelly and use what I learn to continuously improve and revise my course offering.

I learned about the improtance of detailed rubrics in giving substantive feedback to students.  I especially like the idea of adding a self/peer assessment section to the rubric.  That section provides an excellent tool to increase interaction between and learning from each other by way of giving and responding to constructive criticism.

I learned what wikis are and about some of the other web based tools that are available in online teaching.  This is an area where I have limited experience and will need to plan to become much more familiar and proficient with these tools for future use.

I learned a lot about providing an online work environment that can deal effectively with conflicts that arise and with various behavior issues.  Also learned how to prevent attrition and work with students who are having difficulties.  I will definitely want to have a clear and organized way to communicate with students in a timely manner and in appropriate ways for the situation.  Organizing communication files will be a challenge for me.