When does the facilitating end and the effort on the part of students begin? Can we over-facilitate so that we are the ones doing most of the communicating and encouraging? We need to be sure students understand the expectations that responsibility and commitment involve, and we need to encourage students who try to draw out and help others in discussions, etc. Otherwise, it is easy to burnout.

I am shocked when I hear from students that many teachers don't' respond to their emails or calls. I try to respond to emails 5 times per day (okay a bit obsessive), and I am always thanked profusely for this. Why do you think many educators don't respond to students? By the same token, I can't understand why some students don't respond after I help them in replies. I think we need to teach email etiquette in schools; if you get an email, respond, if only to say "Thanks"!

At one of my schools, which has both hybrid and online classes, we are being told that with the burgeoning online system of education, we need to make available many more virtual classes (despite an economy that seems to be challenging both in-seat and online enrollment in all of my schools). I love the live interaction of a classroom, but the idea of online teaching becoming more prevalent intrigues me as I consider retiring into the mountains and continue to travel around the world. What do you all think of this trend?

Use of clouds create a virtual enviroment surplanting almost all old styles of communicaiton I use Drop box forall classes and students anyone have a cloud they prefer to use Bill

the types of students that where discussed in this module are the same type of students that you would get in the classroom.I think it would be much harder to notice the different types of students of students with an online class at first. You really have to get to know your classroom online as well as in the classroom.

Feedback from an instructor is very important with online classes. I feel this makes the students know that you are avavilbe for them and that you are present.

I feel that online learning could be difficult for some people. If you are a person who needs to be ino a classroom taking notes well listening to the instructor, online learing is not for them. They may have a difficult time comprehending what they are reading and not understand the course at all. Online learinging does have its ups and downs. The plus side of it is that if you have a family you could really make up your own schedule for your class time rather then being in a class room from this time to this time. And the down side is if your someone who gets more out of being in the classroom.

One of the challenges I consistently have is when evaluating my class I see the need to change many things that are the "core" of the class. I am in the Internet marketing industry and it is always evolving at a quick rate. because of this, materials are often outdated every 3 months. When i look at my classes, I always want the best information for the students and having an industry that does this makes it difficult to keep up. Anyone else have these issues?

Email is obviously one of the most recognized forms of communication with a class but I tend to use other forms as well. One of my favorites is to use a VOIP service (Skype) to meet up with students whenever they need to have a discussion. I feel that the telephone (with most students) is a pretty uncomfortable situation and not many of them truly "want" to be on the phone. I am curious what other methods people use when contacting students. I have heard the idea of using text messaging but that seems odd to me.

Whenever I create a course, I always want to include up-to-date information for the industry. My industry is internet marketing so it is always changing. With that being said, how many resources do you typically pull from in classes created? I find myself ultimately using a minimum of four different resources to create any class. -Ron

Does anyone have a SPECIFIC brand of software that they have used and can recommend? Seeking solutions which allow for a blended classroom/online solution.

Overloading our students with pages of text is not the appropriate manner of engaging online students. This doesn't take advantage of available technology, and negates what gives online education an advantage over the traditional model. If we want our students to learn well, we need to provide them opportunities to manipulate the material. This can be typing in a blank, drawing a quick picture, or using innovative technology to communicate.

I must say that the technical support has been very supportive

I will be able to lead or guide my students in the right direction. I definetly need to look into the student orienation class for CMS.

I definetly need to look into the student orienation class for CMS.

Online classes are my full time job. In a timely manner, be able to assist my students in a timely manner.

I think that it is vital to the online/distance learning for the students to engage and help each other. So having students post questions and then rewarding other students for correctly answering them is really important to the learning process. It really develops critical thinking and the communication process, which will help all the students with their future career goals.

I have dealt with many student in a classroom setting that dominate the discussions with off-topic revelations. I was confident in my methods of handling those students by being respectful to them, but also getting them back on topic. I had not considered this type of student being online and how I would handle it. This situtation could be very difficuly especially if you have several noisy students and several quiet students.

I was thinking about the different learning styles and how some may decrease a student's participation in an online class. It may be an ineteresting exercice for student's to individually assess their own learning styles so th ones who may be avoiding or dependent may recognize it and work past their natural tendencies to not participate. Also praising the student's who are not as quick to post as the more outgoing students may boost confidence and increase their participation.

I really liked the idea of having students create their own bios as a first assignment. It starts them out with an easy assignment to get started with high marks and it allows them to get to know each other and allows me to get to know them. I was thinking this would also work in my on-campus courses as well. Especially my Intro courses where the students are generally new to the school.