Those of you who have both taught online and onsite, can you provide input on what you found most challenging adjusting from the class room to the digital room?

I noticed throughout the training that much of the content was repeated.  Do you find repeating content to be an effective instructional technique and why?

Do you find grading rubrics can constrain your ability as an instruct to provide fair feedback to students that may do an exceptional job on one part of their paper while missing segments within the other parts?

I just completed EL 102 Teaching Online Learners. I found the course to be very informative and intersting. I am not sure I would like to be an online instructor.  I have been an online student and I have new found respect for the Instructors. 

Many students find it dificult to learn how to use networking hardware such as a router or a switch or making a patch cable without hands on experience. I would like to know how online instructors overcome online learning (competencies) difficulties that may exist if the student is denied (lacks) hands-on experiences.

I teach both on-ground and online at graduate and undergraduate levels.

Online, there is no reading of body language (which is a high % of "in person" communication) and no ability for the "verbal" student to ask a question and no way for the instructor to see that "blank" look that signals lack of understanding by a student.     And yes, students do attend "live" classes and still play on their cell phones on the sly.

When an online or ground student does all their assignments for the week on the last due date I get the feeling that they are not involved, but just "doing the minimum" to get the degree.

The topic, "When to drop students from chat sessions?" is thought provoking. It's just like the classroom: When and what techniques do you, as the the teacher, use to  to preclude a student from dominating a discussion or changing the topic to something they want to discuss. It takes tact and skill but you need to be firm or the other students will see it as a waste of time, lose interest, and stop participating. 

Every hear poeple talk from both sides of their mouth?  I know of a group of people who say on the one hand that the classroom needs to be an active, fun experience, and then say on the other hand that instructor teaching loads should increase because, after all, what's a few more classes when all the instructor does is provide a platform for students to recieve information.  Why do I bring this up?  Becasue if I had a wish list, it would contain allocation of time and resources that empower instructors by providing hands on lab time with reflection so that active learning techniques can be developed, tried, and talked about.

There is a debate over whether to accept late work or not, when to accept it, and how much penalty (if any) should be assessed.  I wanted to know thoughts about late work in an online classroom in both sychronous and asychronous environments. 

It is easy to drift into a one hour monoluge during chat sessions. Stopping to ask questions increases engagement tremendously.

I am an advocate of online learning, but I must admit it is difficult in a course with low enrollment.  How do you keep students engaged and active if there are less than 5 in the course?  

What is needed to insure a student is ready / prepared for taking an online class?

It is important that the course revision process is ongoing and meets the needs of the students while taking into consideration end of course evaluations.

In an online environment it is imporant for students to realize that there is a live instructor behind the words on the screen. To do this an instructor should remain active in discussions, post voice messages, and hold chats.

Ensure you keep them in the game by providing enriched feedback

I provide lots of information up front to mitigate attrition.  Sometimes student attrition is unavoidable and they will just leave a course...there is nothing we can do about it.  However, any opportunity to demystify a course up front will mitigate some attrition. 

What are some of your strategies to mitigate attrition? 

Are you compensated by the number of students in your course?

It was interesting to review how an instructor's ability to manage their workload directly impacts the classroom.  Many times I am assisting students with workload management; however, it is equally as important that we manage our workload.

Has anyone ever taught a combination online/ground-based/flipped classroom? I teach computer graphics and find the students just want to jump into the computer work without listening to any background lecture or explanations. My thoughts are to have the "lecture portion" online, and the computer lab work done in the classroom. 

We use Blackboard, and I post the background material before the class. Students are responsibile for reading the material before they come into the classroom to work on the labs. But will they read the material and properly prepare? That is the question! 

The flipped classroom will only work if the students will work with it...