Michele Davis

What I learned in this section 'Meeting the Class for the First Time" is the idea of giving each student a 3 x 5 card to list their name, address, telephone number their current training status, and reason for enrolling. This will aid me in remembering names in the beginning and an insight into each student individually, their goals, passions, and priorities. 

Having a 'To Do List' outlining the flow of the day, being prepared for the course and anticipating student queries.

Students don't want to be looked down upon or made to feel inadequate or insignificant. 

Utilizing a peer educator to evaluate the online courses I develop in order to assess the effectiveness of the course goals and outcomes from a peer instructor's viewpoint. 

I learned utilizing peer-reviewed feedback is a new way for me to provide constructive feedback to students. 

I learned about the dynamic syllabus versus the traditional hard copy syllabus that only provides course objectives, dates, and textbook information; whereas the dynamic syllabus contains text (HTML) syllabus, hyperlinks to a printable syllabus, and assignments with due dates.

A course template may need to be revised several times prior to being sufficient for the needs of the course and learning objectives. 

This module made me focus more on the different personalities such as the intimidator, the disruptor, and the procrastinator, and how their individual behaviors can impact the asynchronous learning environment. 

I intend to address students individually via email when I detect certain behaviors.

I learned about ways to foster participation in both synchronous and asynchronous forums. 

I intend to utilize both structures asynchronous when addressing, encouraging, and providing constructive feedback and observations that all students would learn from and synchronously when I need to spend one-on-one time with a student who may need some individualized attention. 

I thought the recommendation to post a picture from head-to-shoulders was interesting, I suppose this implies the picture was not cropped and it's authentic.

I appreciate the recommendation to not only send an overall announcement to all students welcoming them to the course by the end of the first day but also an individualized personalized message based on each student's bio that would let the students know as an instructor you have taken the time to read each bio to get a better understanding of them as an individual. 

I intend to apply that tidbit of 'introductions' to the courses… >>>