Nancy Lorenz-Vega

Discussion Comment

Discussion must be graded, or the student might not respond. Motivated students always seem to participate; however, there are lazy students, who do the minimum, or none at all. The discussions should be in the syllabus, with a percentage allotted to online threads Discussion posts should be at least four sentences to qualify as a legitimate post. Any responses to classmates must also contain depth of content, in order to included as a full response.

Nancy Lorenz-Vega

Discussion Comment

DISCUSSION THREAD MANAGEMENT

When questions are posed to students for response, there must be guidelines. 1) THree or more original posts that answer the initial questions. 2) Three or four posts, responding to a classmate. 3) Redirect students back to the original questions, if they go off on a tangent. 4) Instructor should guide students to explore the topic, in depth. 5) Students should learn more through the discussion, by writing a "conclusion" posting. You must also watch out for "plagaiarism" in the threads as well.

Nancy Lorenz-Vega

Discussion Comment

PLAGIARISM IN TESTS AN ASSIGNMENTS ONLINE

ASsessment tools and assignments can easily be plagiarized in an online environment. To avoid this, you must include not only multiple chocie questions but short essay answers as well withcontent from the class that is unique to the class. This will discourage any outside source theft, if the tests and assignments are customized specifically to the content of the course. For instance: When teaching a course on Shakespeare, a posting assignment could ask for reflection or commentary on the overall ideas regarding, "Shakespeare, the Man," culled only from the discussions in class. This could be shared in the blog or… >>>

Nancy Lorenz-Vega

Discussion Comment

SYLLABUS - THE SKELETON FOR THE COURSE

The syllabus is the skeletal framework for the course. The teaching, along with additional resources, such as multi-media, handouts, activities, and instructor experience in their field provides the "muscle and sinew." The "halo" is the charisma, knowledge and demeanor of the instructor. Putting together the skeletal framework, muscle and halo creates a package that when delivered to the students, creates a terrific learning environment.