Benji Lewis

I like the idea of weekly announcements and an additional announcement at the beginning of a unit to keep the students momentum going.  Waiting until a unit module is complete may lead to a student’s forgetting that they have to stay engaged in the course.   

Having student be very aware of class expectations from the beginning is very important.  It seems that the course should be almost complete before the beginning of the course so that the teacher is able to spend more time quickly responding to discussions and providing feedback from assignments.  As a beginning teacher, I’ve always had a difficult time creating lecture, assignments, and labs, while also providing quick feedback.  Having almost all (or all) course content ready on day one would be necessary for me, so that I would not fall behind with correspondence with students.

When delivering content to students, teachers should be consistent from the start.  This is similar to how content should ideally be given during in-class courses.  Online courses allow asynchronous learning, so care should be taken to consider whether to deliver it in an asynchronous or synchronous manner.

A teacher’s time is better spent finding a technology that fits their teaching style than to shoehorn their teaching style into technology that may not fit well.  Although this may be the best use of time, sometimes what is best suited is not what is available to the teacher, possibly due to cost.  If a teacher is knowledgably of what is available and how to use those technologies, then they should be able to find an optimal solution for their teaching style and available options.

I have always analyzing grade distributions on assignments, tests, and the course to determine if there any issues in my implementation of content.  I have found student evaluations after the course is over less useful than feedback during the course.  So, making students feel comfortable enough to provide honest feedback is important.

A FAQ page, especially tied to the syllabus, is a great way to reduce workload.  So many student will ask the same question over and over.  It is much easier to respond by sending them the FAQ page.  Forcing students to look for answers that already exist helps them achieve a level of independence they need to have.

Scaling down larger lessons into smaller chunks is something that I have been trying to do lately.  My initial thought for making video lectures would not consider having small chucks, since a student could pause the video when needed; however, breaking the lecture down into a series would force the student to stop and reflex, and it would force me to consciously create small activities, practice problems, etc. that could be done between each part of the lecture series.

The organizational matter of online instruction seems to be mostly determined by the course management system, discussed in module 1.  The CMS and the school’s email system would mostly bring the material together in some type of database or searchable format.  Knowledge of the CMS and email system would help the instructor in this case. 

Often advice given to students, as in giving time management advice, makes them go on the defensive.  I have done this in the past and had the student say they do not procrastinate, even though they often turned in assignments late.  Then the excuse that… >>>

Discussion boards are a great tool in online courses.  Although asynchronous discussions are the preferred way, I feel that deadlines for initial posts are essential – especially when a post & reply are needed.  Without a relatively early deadline to initial posts, engaged students may have to wait until the last moment to respond to the (vast majority) who procrastinate.  An early deadline for an initial post, will allow everyone ample time to respond to others.