My big take-away is that "students are singularly interacting within the community. What does this mean? It means that your students have no classmates to “lean over to and ask a question” although there are technologies that can mimic this type of communication". We forget how much the social interaction impacts the learning process.
Communication is the key tool in the asynchronous environment
I agree with Huguette- due to the lack of face-to-face interaction, communication needs to be timely, frequent, and consistent...and I would even include positive and encouraging. Many online students are nontraditional students. Also, many are facing challenges that we don't know about, but might in a face-to-face class.
Feedback is critical for student experience
Being a good instructor without F2F contact/interaction providing support for students is important for their success.
Online Classes for students can create a feel of being alone. So help eliminate, feedback to assignments submitted, respond to questions asap, help or compliment.
Think for the students. They need actionable information to reduce uncertainty and keep pace
There are a lot of factors to consider when teaching online classes. Design, communication, feedback, and much more are all included.
" Do not feel obligated to comment on every student posting. Much like in F2F class discussions, let the conversation develop and give students a chance to participate before jumping in with in-depth comments/feedback or analysis."
This is interesting as it is counter to our current teaching guidelines. I rarely see "conversation" in my discussion forums - most peer-to-peer responses are supportive yet do not promote conversation. Without asking questions and offering additional prompts I'm unsure that any "conversation" would develop.
The concept of the "guide on the side" shows that the teacher is paying attention but not trying to steer the conversation. That said, providing feedback or insight can help bolster student interaction and confidence, especially if the student tends to be more introverted -- various techniques like the open question help to draw them out of their shell and join in the discussion.
The importance of clear and helpful feedback for all student work.
A key component of collaboration is providing timely feedback to students.
I work with high school students and teach college level medical assisting curriculum. The last few groups of students that I have worked with lacked experiences, which is something I struggle with every year. Thus, I have experienced that sharing of experiences and collaborating in group discussions within a synchronous environment is a great way to encourage confidence and learn from each other. Helping my students to feel comfortable about sharing their thoughts and interacting with peers is something that resonated with me after reading this section.
Keep it brief and to the point.
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.
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.
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.
Effective communication with students online is huge and I believe, can make or break a student's experience.
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.
More support is needed for online courses.
