Frederick Poling

Meetings should have a goal; not just a regularly scheduled 'get together' to go over what is happening. It is important to splan to accomplish specific tasks, rather than just rely on progress occurring because the team got together to discuss "things>"

I do tend to think of a rubric as just a scoring guide. But I do see how it can provide students a clearer picture of expectations. And I agree with the point that the rubric shouldn't be to complex. In addition to the instructor's observation that an overly complex rubric can be confusing to the students, I would imagine that an overly detailed rubric could undermine an assignment by essentially providing a checklist; then students may become preoccupied with checking-off requirements and loose focus on the purpose of the assignment. 

Mostly, this module has expanded my concept of "assessment" - I had never thought of track changes as an assessment tool.

I was aware of the importance of good communication between students and instructors, I had never thought of it in terms of building a community. 

I learned the gross generalizations about how different generations differ; I do agree with the genral point that any group of student will have heterogenous communication patterns and technology skills, but I do not think it is helpful to make generalized assumptions based on age groups.

It is easy to take communication norms for granted; we just ASSUME that students will communicate in an acceptible manner. BUT acceptible can be a varying concept. It is important to establish those norms for students.

I was struck by the discussion that you should assess and re-assess what the most appropriste means of communicvation is. There is always that tendency to default to whatever means of communication that you (the instructor) is most comfortable with. But we have to renenber that there are many different ways of communicating.

This module really brought home the importance of attending to details when designing (or converting from f2f) an online course. The point that every step NEEDs to be assessed fir how well it fits an online environment.

I do have to resist a tendency to lapse back into lecturing; but as thelesson points out, there is a need to identify the best approach for each course. The key is to introduce the foundational concepts clearly enough that the students can begin to build on them, otherwise, their self-directed learning has unstable foundations on which to build.

I had never really thought of a 'pattern of learning' in a formal way. As a student, I always felt more comfortable in courses that had consistent patterns, and as an instructor I tended to set up my courses that way, but I did not think of it as a thjeoretical underpinning.