Lakeshia Walton

I found the table of best practices when communicating course expectations, helpful.

Technolgy has become one of the most intricate parts of our world over the years. So to equip and incorporate our students with the knowledge of technology is important. So much of what we do is centered around the language of technology. I have found this section helpful and reassuraning to alot of the processes that I already incorporate and plan to use.

I have found that the Community of Practice to be a great way to incorporate activities to help engage my online class. Communication is a very important part in everything we do, as miscommunication or lack of communication is responsible for many things gone wrong in the world today.

Hello,

I found the survey inventory questions to be a great ice breaker for a online course and plan to implement this in my first day of class. It is important to know sooner than later where your students stand. That way I may pair students based on this information that can be helpful to everyone in the group...where someone may be weak, another student maybe strong etc.

I found the use of rubrics to evaluate discussions very useful. Currently we have a rubric that evaluates students knowledge of the topic, critical thinking skills, and grammar...however it is missing the piece on netiquette. I currently have a student who is very rude and unprofessional in her tone in discussions. I think setting the tone in the beginning of the course "code of conduct" and have this reflected into the rubric would help redirect students with this behavior.

I found this interesting as I saw alot of the same issues arise in an online classroom discussed in this content. I personalized it at first, but now realize that these are natural conflicts that can arise in an online environment. I found the recommendations provided useful and I plan to apply them. Another interesting area of this content are the generational communication styles. This makes sense when working with adult learners in a college setting. I think the most difficult is when you have different generations, cultues, and learning styles all combined into one classroom. This becomes more difficult… >>>

I loved the recommendations of different options for platforms where students can communicate with eachother and the instructor. Currently, I teach and have a hard time with email overload. This can also sometimes negatively affect the relationship with the student due to poor response times. When a student has a question and/or concern, this is urgent to them in the moment. However, they forget that the instructor may have other students and/or tasks they need to prioritize. By having these platforms built into the course allows one hub for communication specific to the topic, course, and/or concern/question.

My observation of the following presentation are that there are many different tools that can be used to effectively communicate with students. Although, these tools are all useful tools, some are more effective based on size of the class or number of students. I think it is important to be able to differentiate which are more appropriate than others, especially now since technology is becoming more prevalent and utilixed in our classrooms.

This is helpful because teaching different students with various personality traits can be difficult if you are unable to identify them. Also, putting students in groups and having them work on group assignments can also be difficult. However helping students to understand themselves and others may provide a more productive outcome.

It was interesting to see this standpoint to have a more productive classroom environment. This will help get more students engaged by knowing how and why it is important to shift gears. Knowing your own teaching style is helpful and encouraging. It also gives insight about other instructors teaching styles.