Dawn Davies

Managing administratively helps prevent teacher and student burnout.   Plan for reserved times to get back to students and communicate when that will be.   Model leadership and remember you are in the public eye.   Make expectations for the class explicit as soon as you can from course beginning so students can plan. 

Staying calm is an important element to workload management in an online course.   There are administrative supports such as tech support which can make online course development easier.   There are many aspects to consider in online course development.  TUrn off the chimes from email and think about working during your best time to work effectively.

Organization and look and feel are important to a class to build predictability.  You can't just import lectures to an online environment.   A mixture of synchronous and asyncrhonous communications are often best.   Check often for student engagement from all students. 

Holistic approach to evaluating the course is important - who knows what area you may learn from.  Reasonable gripes should be tolerated in the comments section as a sign of healthy communication.   Grades are a first place to look to see if learning outcomes were met, but not the only place.

However, as with any learning process, there are disadvantages with asynchronous learning. These include the challenge of students not procrastinating. 

I think the challenge is students procrastinating.   Does anyone know how to get this message to the course developers?  ty 

Asynchronous teaching and learning is often used for larger classes, but there are advantages and disadvantages to it and synchronous teaching.   It is important to consider the material being taught, the needs of the student and the teacher teaching style.   It can help to award points to those students who answer other student questions completely and accurately.   

One should adapt the teching tool to your classroom style and there are different tools that work with different styles.   Do not lecture for more than 15 minutes on a video.   COntinuously reevaluate the effectiveness of the tools, as the classroom needs may change. 

 C-Maps!  Who knew?  COncept maps can be developed in software that enable students to display nonverbal understanding of concepts and how they relate.   Use multiple methods to evaluate the effectiveness of a course, not just student evaluations, and continually do it.   Peer evaluations can be helpful and the process is dynamic as information contintually changes. 

I have not used peer feedback, but appropriately structured it can be useful.  Use rubrics, and give plenty of opportunities for formative assessment.  the rubric justifies the grade, feedback supports the learning.   Clear detailed feedback is best, but takes more time.   Overall feedback can be easier to do, but not always as helpful. 

Scaffolding is huge.  You need to encourage participation in a variety of ways, including polling students to see how much they want to feel your presence in chatrooms or blogs.   Use online tools when you can to enable a variety of ways to communicate.  CLose your rooms and ensure privacy for students who may need that to fully engage.