Ryan Rodino

It's good practice to establishing within your course what method of assessment best suits the needs of your students and the class as well. Personally, I prefer to use objective assessments as it is easier to get a baseline of the class's understanding of the material that has been presented. 

It is good practice to understand the differences and nuances of assessments and evaluations. One idea that I liked was the pre-course diagnostic evaluation to see where the students are prior to the class beginning. 

When it comes to online assessments of students you want to take stock of the options you have and then choose the evaluative tool that will be the most accurate for your students as well as be able to accurately assess them on the information you have provided in the class. 

Falling back onto the keyword of "communication." Students want to know that what they are saying is heard, and if we as instructors are not consistently checking and providing feedback students can feel like it is pointless to work in a discussion board. In regards to grading, following the rubric consistently will yield the best results. 

As a general rule of thumb, you want to make sure that you diffuse any conflicts that occur online quickly. Understand that different age groups will interpret different communications differently and to remember to use Netiquette at all times. 

The biggest takeaways from this section is the need for consistency in the communication with students, the need to establish Netiquette, and understanding that the model for these communications start with us as the instructors. 

In this section the biggest thing is to choose the right medium for how to get your messages across. Depending on what you want to speak about there is a good medium for that. As we get more seasoned making those choices should become easier. 

There are many things to consider when transferring from a F2F format to an online one. This past year has taught us that the ability to change directions in education is vital to the success of our students. By using the technology at hand and combining it with our knowledge of the subject material while keeping the course content as close to the F2F course as possible makes for a more seamless transition. From there we can start to tweak things as need be to make the courses as effective as possible. 

Being an effective instructor comes down to more than just the class structure and delivery of the content. You must be able to be an administrator, an effective communicator outside of class, and a shepherd for the students in order for them to gain as much knowledge as possible during their time with you. 

A well-rounded instructor would be able to utilize the best features of both synchronous and asynchronous learning for the best benefits of their students. If it is possible to establish consistency with classes that is also better as students will know what to expect as their program goes along.