Establishing a Teaching Pattern
When establishing a pattern of teaching, what do you believe are the two most important things to consider?
Who is your audience is one important thing.
Jeanelle,
Knowing your audience is very important. How do you get to know your audience? Please share your tips.
Thanks!
The first day of class you can do activities to find out who your audience is. Maybe about their backround, why they are in the class or field.
Hi Dr. Kelly,
I believe the two most important things to consider when establishing a pattern of teaching are:
1. The content of the course, e.g. math, english, science, history, etc.
2. Whether or not the course is Synchronous vs. Asynchronous.
Thank you.
Susan Ceklosky
Both play a major role in pattern of teaching!
When establishing a pattern of teaching, the two most important things to consider are:
1) the learning outcomes, and
2) the assignment submission.
With regard to the learning outcomes, it is important that students understand what they are supposed to know after the completion of the whole course or part of it.
The completion of the assignments allows the instructor to assess whether the students have learned what they are supposed to learn. Therefore, it is very important that the students know exactly how and when to complete and submit the assignments.
It is important in all courses but particularly in online courses as students can be unsure in this environment.
Instructor guideline presentation to students.
Presentation consistency with sufficient instructor accessibility.
Instructor commitment to keeping with the pattern. Can the instructor keep up with the work? Also delivering content the same way; not voice-over PowerPoint one week, .pdf file the next, interactive content the next... this may catch all learning types but not in each week of the course.
Students focused on content and not disrupted by changes. Make sure if you set up the course where the students can use the chat box during synchronous sessions that you don't suddenly require them to go out and buy microphones to begin using a couple of weeks into the course.
Interesting comments. Good point about the microphone, don't require equipment that you don't use.
Student learning objectives
and a roadmap for all of the learning activities
Both are important and should also be linked. Good answer!
Personally, I attempt to gain an understyanding of the learning styles of the individual students in the class, then I develop a method of delivering the content based on the the learning styles.
Secondly, I prepare ahead of time, litterally reviewing the lecture material ahead of time so as to avoid gaps of dead space in the lecture which almost always looses a studetns focus.
In establishing a pattern of teaching, I think it's important for students to understand the educational background of the students. On the first day of class, I always post a welcome email and ask the students to provide a little background information. I teach accounting and finance courses and I like to know if the students have had any prior courses.
The second most important thing for me to consider is the consistency. The students need to know when to expect their grades, how much participation is required, etc.... All of this information must be clearly spelled out in the syllabus.
Those are both good techniques
Information regarding students is important for your courses. Do you have them email you or post their information?
The single biggest change I think I will have to make to transfer my effectiveness and success online will be a shift from reliance on visual cues to written and verbal cues. I am a visual learner myself, and, although I attempt to present to varied learning models in the classroom, I use visual cues heavily to gauge several important things “in the moment. Those include student-learner participation; judging the reception and impact of shared knowledge; a need for change of pace, topic, or interjection of a break; and other subjective “personal notifications†throughout an on-the-ground class.
Some technology, such as streaming video, may provide respite for certain portions of an online class, and, perhaps, for “office hoursâ€, but that certainly is not feasible for the entire class, as ours is and asynchronous learning model.
To address that transfer of focus, I must continue to develop my posting skills to ensure each inquiry online solicits an appropriate response. Largely, that goal seems to be achievable by: 1) Clearly delineating those inquiries which are empirical from those which are evaluative, and; 2) Steering threads in a productive direction, primarily through my use of divergent inquiry to expand online conversation; convergent inquiry to begin to narrow online conversation; and formal closure.
I believe the participation portion of grade should be close to 50/50, perhaps varying +/- 10% based on the content, rote versus higher learning .
