Are Five week classes long enough for students to get the basics?
Coming from a traditional school, I find it hard to teach as many of the basics students need. Maybe they do not need as much from one course. I teach Environmental Science and most of the time I skip the formulas, math and chemistry, just to get in the major concepts. For example, one week is global warming. Students poat to the discussion question and respond to two other students. This leaves out the hydrological cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorus cycle, chemical reactions, hazardous waste, not to mention the biological equations.
I seem to be teaching enough for them to be able to intelligently look for topics online. How do you get the basics in with such a short class?
I agree it is a big challenge! Especially with students dropping and adding the first week. So that leaves really only 4 weeks to get all the information across to them. I encourage early posting to discussion boards. I email and text when i dont hear from students. I make the topics interesting so that they want to participate.
I have to agree. My online classes lasted 5 weeks while the live classes lasted 10 weeks with more lecture. Online classes seem to be fast paced in comparison but it is ideally meant for students who may not have the time or availability to get to a live class. The online forum provides them with the opportunity to still go to school along with the other responsibilities in their lives. That being said, not every class should be taught online. We need to evaluate what subject matter would be a good fit for the online environment and also evaluate the course structure itself. As instructors we need to pull the valuable information and make it available to them within this time frame. It can be quite a challenge.
This is a tough challenge. However, the course should be tailored to the student and the time alotted. I hope this is not the case of fitting a brick and mortar style course into distance learning. Perhaps the best way to get after it is to add video presentation. My organization uses storyline to present multiple concepts along with required reading. Not sure if my answer helps, but perhaps provides additional insight.
I agree, this can be a significant challenge. Short courses encourage less "true" efforts and an over-focus (for lack of a better term) on outcomes (grades). Students may become grade oriented as opposed to knowledge oriented. This often results in cramming and short term memorization. However, I think that the structure of the course is pivotal in maximizing the overall learning in a short course. Perhaps the course should contain more hands-on experiments or student projects as opposed to papers and tests about textbook content. I think that offering alternatives to tests and papers may motivate students to appreciate the actual "learning" process, not simply the resulting grade. Any thoughts?
Having done this for about 30 weeks...I have begun to contact students by both email and text messaging. Many students may not have access to the Internet all the time. I stress that a lot of assignments can be done and uploaeded for grades later.
I agree teaching a five week session can be quite challenging because it is not enough time for the average student to learn and retain so much information. The major concepts need to be taught and the students need to understand how to find and use the formulas. This would be good to do via a test or quiz, which will help you to know if the student has the skill set.
