WLMS for Communicating and Collaborating | Origin: EL112
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Workload Management Strategies for Teaching Online --> WLMS for Communicating and Collaborating
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
Feedback is a form of communication. It is imperative that instructors provide clear feedback so that students may better understand how to improve or what to continue to repeat so they may score well. It is the job of the instructor to provide feedback continuously throughout the course.
Prompt and individualized feedback is important for students to feel engaged in the online classroom
In this section, I learned about three categories of communication in online courses: Student-to-Content (S2C), Student-to-Instructor (S2I), and Student-to-Student (S2S).
When teaching online, it is important to develop standards of communication and hold students accountable for their communication under those standards. It is also important to provide continuous feedback to students in an online environment.
We should provide feedback even to students in are successful course, in order to keep them engaged and motivated. This is also a way to communicate to students that their hard work is being recognized.
Make sure to seed the discussion, not just request a post
It is interesting how this says that instructors should be involved in the course at least 5 out of 7 days a week and no more than 2 consecutive days without course involvement. This seems overwhelming when also teaching F2F and clinicals.
Short and frequent connections will keep the connection and not interfere unnecessarily with student/ professor lives.
Validation of the importance of in-class collaboration and discussions. I notice students are often annoyed at first that the class is set up for peer interaction. After weeks go by, they know what to expect, and most lean into it more.
I am reminded about the importance of using S2C, S2I, and S2S communication to ensure students learn in dynamic and numerous ways.
Hello,
Some things I have learned is structured communication is key, use of technology, have clear expectations.
It is vital when teaching an online course to manage communication so it will not frustrate or alienate the students from you or vise versa. Developing clear standards of communication and holding students accountable for their communication under those standards is important. Having good teaching presence, social presence, and response time to students helps you be effective as an instructor.
More support is needed for online courses.
There are 3 types of communications: Student-to-Content (S2C), Student-to-Instructor (S2I) and Student-to-Student (S2S). Students continuous support and frequent feedback in the online class.
Effective communication with students online is huge and I believe, can make or break a student's experience.
I appreciated the focus on how important it is to provide relevant, ongoing feedback about students' performance and grades. I will be more conscientious in providing regular updates to each student moving forward.
This lesson reinforced much of what we already do at my institution. I understand the need to give prompt feedback, and we have 48 hours to do so each week, but I still find it hard to always meet that deadline for students in a composition class. I am not sure any of the guidelines in this lesson will help me with that.
I do appreciate the recommendation to not feel the need to respond to every student on a forum. I am required to reply to all, but I find that students wait for me to reply before going beyond their original post, or they address their post to just me, even though the forums are supposed to be class discussions.
It is important for the instructor to encourage and to model healthy behavior in regards to collaboration among students. An online learning environment has a culture of it's own and the instructor has the largest amount of influence as to the manner in which that culture is developed.
Keep it brief and to the point.
