Dr. Betty Tipton

Yes you need to make sure you use some tools to keep it of academic quality. That way it does not become a conversation. Use powerpoint for something like that to keep it focued. Some conversation will occur like any other classroom.

Mark Turner

Kiarash,

Excellent point that the instructor sets the tone for the entire class. As an online student there was no greater feeling to see the instructor provide such in depth feed back to each of our individual input. It truly made me and my peers feel the instructor was in tune to seperate ideas and respected our thoughts as a student directly and not as the entire class. I also enjoyed how the instructor would not just answer a question or simply reply summarizing the content of the discussion in their response but ask additional questions to make us think even deeper. The online environment provided a perfect sedgeway for those students who may have been shy in the traditional brick and mortar type setting of being in class, and via cyberspace they could feel free to come alive and speak from the heart without the intidimation that the face to face environment often provides. You could also address personal matters in your own private chat area that each student had solely and that was held between the student and the instructor only with no other eyes visible to your personal needs.