Thomas Pratt

This section of our lesson was focused on manaement skills. Time, workload, communications, etc. are all taken into consideration when you are attepting to manage an online course. Be thorough with your expectations and guidelines from the begining of the course to avboid confusion later. 

Work and time management skills are essential to a successful class. You do not have to reinvent the wheel either, there may already be systems in place to benefit you. Things such as FAQ sections can assist in technology issues without too much effort

This module focuses on student goals both short term and long term and how they can be related to their current life and future life. It touches on the student characterisitics of online learning and how to properly adjust to them. 

Technology can greatly assist your online classroom/teaching. However you need to be educated in how these certain programs work, and you need to make sure your students have at least the minimal level of tech knowledge to utilize these. 

Student participation and proper expectations are key to online communication success. If you can facilitate a well organized and active community of practice (CoP), It will stand to benefit the entire group by being interacted with one anther to learn from and contribute to

In this artcile we dive deeper into what it takes to provide a effective online course. Step one is assessment both for instructor and for student. Both parties must identify their strengths and weaknesses. They must both focus on using their strengths to their full capability and finding strategies to improve upon the weaknesses. Time management is talked about in great deal. Both instructor and student must figure out what is proficient for them through the course. deadlines and time frames should be clear and concise.

Online communications must be encouraged by the course facilitator. You should initially set up a rubric to establish guidlines to class discussions. Students should be encouraged to involve themselves in discussion. You can assist in this by asking the students questions instead of simply stating facts. Do not respond immediately to students responses, allow discussion to transpire before you interject. 

This chapter discussed further the importance of communication. It exanded into the different learning/communication style of different generations of people. Depending on the group you are instructing, you may have to adapt, and or combine communication styles. Communications should be clear and concise from the instructor. sometimes things such as sarcasm, and or joking remarks are tkane literal and can easily offend someone. 

continuation of the importance of communications with students was discused further in this section. It is important to develop and enforce a detailed code of conduct. All communications should be laid out in detail in the class sylabus/ rubric so the students know what is expected of them 

In this course we learned of many different technological communication tools to assist with communication at all levels. Email, social netwroking sites, voip's, sychronous meeting platforms, are all excellent tools depending on what the intended information is going to be. You want to determine what works best for you and your students before implementing. Always allow for feedback and adjustment as your class evolves.