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.
A key component of collaboration is providing timely feedback to students.
The importance of clear and helpful feedback for all student work.
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.
" 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.
There are a lot of factors to consider when teaching online classes. Design, communication, feedback, and much more are all included.
Think for the students. They need actionable information to reduce uncertainty and keep pace
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.
Being a good instructor without F2F contact/interaction providing support for students is important for their success.
Feedback is critical for student experience
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.
Communication is the key tool in the asynchronous environment
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.
The online learning environment is importnt to the students because they rely on the instructor as a main source to update the course information, and give feedback.
Giving students feedback is essential for them to learn and succeed.
The frequent and continuous, timely feedback is crucial in the online learning environment
In this module I reviewed communication ways for an online environment. Proper feedback, timely communication, etc
The module provided good suggestions for communication with students and the importance of timely, frequent feedback.
Feedback is important for all students and should be provided in a timely manner.
Encouragement is also important and should be given to those who are struggling as well as those that are excelling. I tend to focus more on the students that are struggling and tend to forget those that are doing well. They also need a pat on the shoulder! I will try to do this more often.
