I think it's important that students, from the very outset, understand that success in the course will be achieved by acquiring as much information as possible and, to that end, the instructor will be available to reinforce that ideal and be "quickly" reachable to answer questions, offer explanations and encouragement.

I liked the information about formative feedback and summative feedback. I am placed in an interesting position where my university wants us to use formative feedback but the only place where real feedback happens is in the grading process. We have development sessions on how to do formative feedback and it is all good, but it is integrated with the grade assignment. Based on these section that type of feedback should be summative. What is really being said in my past training applied to meaningful feedback and the points about formative were good, but seem to be misplaced. I always wondered how to include formative feedback in the grading process and now it seems more clear, that is really the place for summative feedback. I think I will reevaluate the feedback process in my class and explore how formative feedback can actually be given in the structure of the courses in which I am required to operate.

Dear Faculty, Do you have any strategies that have helped you improve student evaluations? In the online environment, it seems that we have some additional challenges in building rapport with students and it requires additional effort to communicate our desires to see them succeed. I also teach a subject area that encounters a high level of student frustration, mathematics, and have found the small sample size of student evaluations and the aforementioned circumstances to be challenging in terms of obtaining consistent student evaluations. I of course prioritize high quality instruction, create resources for students, email them personally, reply quickly and engage students whole heartedly, but I wish for these result to better reflect the work I put into teaching. What have you experienced? Sincerely, Eugenia

I can see where a video clip could help an instructor introduce himself/herself to the students. But what would be second best? What if that technology is not available in the online environment at present?

I would think it is important for students to have a clear set of expectations about the course before it begins...but what if the student thinks something entirely different than the school or instructor thinks about the course? What should be done?

In this module, there was a link to wikipedia for more information on netiquette. I was surprised to see this curriculum use wikipedia, since we are continually discouraging students from using it for reliable information. Any thoughts?

It is extremely important for instructors to demonstrate to students that their education is important to the instructor and the university. Instructors must have a presence on discussion boards and in the course room? What are you thoughts?

Why is it so difficult to get online students to participate in chat room discussions. Please give me some strategies to get them to participate.

Although I've been teaching for more than 13 years, I've been teaching in the online environment for less than one year. What are some tipe for keeping students engaged and excited in the online classroom?

Poll pods are a great way to add to the online learning experience. They are beneficial for both the instructor and the student. Not only do they stimulate interaction, the instructor is able to get a quick read on where the class is "at" so to speak.

I think that it is important to set up your students for success from the beginning. Sending an email to students and giving them a few tips on how to navigate the VC may be helpful. Many of these students may be taking an online course for the first time and it may be a bit intimidating.

Course evaluations should not be centered on whether or not the student liked/disliked the instructor, but whether the course provided an opportunity for learning through the quality of the learning experience designed, the quality of learner-instructor interaction, and whether the course reinforced the achievement of the learning objectives. Marcia L. Brown, PhD, PMP

Provide feedback that is constructive, noncontrolling, and informative. This will enhance the students' desire to improve and continue to learn. Additionally, whenever a problem arises, it should be viewed as something to be addressed and not a statement about an individual's worth. Marcia L. Brown, PhD, PMP

Online instructors need to provide clear guidelines for interaction with students. They need to provide prompt feedback in the form of information and acknowledgement. Additionally, online instructors need to provide well-developed discussion assignments, provide assignment deadlines, provide challenging tasks,and praise for quality work. Dr. Marcia L. Brown

Oftentimes, instructors lose sight of the fact that the overall course objective involves educating the students. The primary purpose when authoring a course should be to facilitate student learning and thinking. Additionally, we want to carry the goal even further by facilitating further learning. Dr. Marcia L. Brown

Different students have different needs, so it's vital that instructors be able to wear all four pair of shoes: *Instructor. Some students are fully capable and have no questions, and are thus just looking for straightforward instruction. *Social director. Some students are in the online environment to meet people and make connections, so we should be available to facilitate such activity. *Program personnel. It's out job to provide feedback in a timely fashion, and *Technical overseer. Students must feel comfortable with the technology we use to facilitate classes.

There are pros and cons to the online environment, and one of the negatives is the loss of "immediacy." When a student has a question, he can raise his hand in class; however, in the online environment, he must wait until the teach logs on or read his or her email (unles it is a synchronous class). The teacher, can however, devote time through the email to fully answer the question, while uploading web content for deeper understanding of the issues. This technique of transcending the traditional to online environment, is a blend that enhances student learning and outcomes. (SLO's) When transferring the traditional content to the web, there is a plethora of educational net resources that can enhance the lecture. Most books today have an online component for the students, even if the course is a traditional (on-campus) one. A true online course, uses an e-text, and all online resources for tests, assignments, posts, and other media-enhanced work. Therefore, there is the traditional class, the blended (or hybrid) class, the online class, and self-learning course, as well.

Discussion must be graded, or the student might not respond. Motivated students always seem to participate; however, there are lazy students, who do the minimum, or none at all. The discussions should be in the syllabus, with a percentage allotted to online threads Discussion posts should be at least four sentences to qualify as a legitimate post. Any responses to classmates must also contain depth of content, in order to included as a full response.

When questions are posed to students for response, there must be guidelines. 1) THree or more original posts that answer the initial questions. 2) Three or four posts, responding to a classmate. 3) Redirect students back to the original questions, if they go off on a tangent. 4) Instructor should guide students to explore the topic, in depth. 5) Students should learn more through the discussion, by writing a "conclusion" posting. You must also watch out for "plagaiarism" in the threads as well.

ASsessment tools and assignments can easily be plagiarized in an online environment. To avoid this, you must include not only multiple chocie questions but short essay answers as well withcontent from the class that is unique to the class. This will discourage any outside source theft, if the tests and assignments are customized specifically to the content of the course. For instance: When teaching a course on Shakespeare, a posting assignment could ask for reflection or commentary on the overall ideas regarding, "Shakespeare, the Man," culled only from the discussions in class. This could be shared in the blog or posting area. Only class-issued parameters would help to avoid plagiarism. ANy other sources brough t in from outside would be cited. How do you keep material within the parametrs, and discourage siblings, friends or paper mills from assisting with the assignment? You keep the assignment class-based.