Mandatory Live Chats
I've taught online for about 3 years. I think that at least some live chats should be mandatory. The best interactions I get with students is in a live chat environment.
Ligia,
Learning can come from the live chats, even if a student is quiet and not much to say.
Shelly Crider
I agree!! It’s a great opportunity to interact with your classmates and ask questions of your professor.
Well, mandatory online live chat can help reduce the frustration we feel every time we spend an hour communicating to ourselves in a live chat due to lack of student participation. If making attendance mandatory for the five-week course is too much for students, I will recommend at least three live chat attendance for every course session. Even more, I strongly will recommend a total elimination of live chats from the learning structure. The live chat could be replaced with a mandatory (3 times) instructor's appearance to the course platform each week.
Heather,
This is a good way to introduce students to one another as well....networking!
Shelly Crider
Karen,
There is a time zone issue to think of as well. A live chat can be a resource for another assignment perhaps.
Shelly Crider
This is a great idea! Getting students to participate online can be challenging. Having a mandatory live chat can help engage the student with the online learning process and solidify the fact that, the instructor is there, the classmates are there; this is an actual class that requires participation.
I think that the extra credit bonus for attending a live chat would penalize those students that have very busy lives. These busy students with obligations of family and work, need a schedule that is based on their own timeline of activities, which is ever changing.
Karen Elder
Yes, I think live chats do work and are great way to interact with students, especially in today's environment of smart phones and texting. Students today do most of their communication in this fashion, so if you set a live chat with the students you and them get immediate feedback to the topic at hand. The only issue I see with this would be contorting the topic and making sure that everyone stays on topic during the chat. If I were to conduct a chat of this nature as a learning tool I would limit the amount of time spent. The reason for that is attention span of today's students. Make this too long of a chat and you will lose your students at some point.
Veronica,
Maybe you could do an option of attending and participating in a chat or a research review. This way students can get points even if there is no way they can attend the chat due to time zones or work issues.
Shelly Crider
I absolutely love live chats as I love to teach. I teach for two schools and found that students just don't take advantage of live chats. I am not too sure if the chats should be mandatory; however, I think that the students that choose to attend should be given extra credit. What are your thoughts?
Keith,
True. Reviewing the chats and increasing discussion participation would be a nice plan.
Shelly Crider
I disagree. Time zones, family obligations, and work make this unrealistic. You can make reviewing the live chats mandatory.
I have always found if you want them all to attend you email them with a carrot. Tonight we are also going to look at "______" as a bonus. "Only to be seen "LIVE".
The carnival barker really did have the right idea.
Victoria,
I love how you involve the sense of community.....it is very important to the student and her/his success.
Shelly Crider
I agree. I have been teaching online courses for about three years now between two different schools. At one school chats/office hours are not mandatory but at the other school students are required to attend synchronous collaborate sessions for three hours a day. While I understand how it infringes on students freedom to do their work on their own time, meeting live makes the learning experience more meaningful and more engaging. I have always found that it increases student success and allows you to build a stronger relationship with your students. It also invites students to collaborate with peers and contributes to a sense of community.
Ken:
I have taught online for many years and I enjoy the synchronous environment. However, I believe that many students enjoy listening to the archived discussions, often because their work schedules will not allow them to partiipate live. Given that the online environment is designed to provide convenience to learners I don't think it would be wise to make it mandatory; otherwise, they might not see much difference between the traditional and online formats.
Les
I do not think they should be mandatory because students take online courses for the convenience of them. This will only discourage them. They should be optional and maybe you could use extra credit on these to get more students involved.
Deb Moerland
Zakevia,
How would you ensure learning is taking place without some sort of discussion?
Shelly Crider
Hello to all,
I am not sure if chats should be mandatory. Most schools include it as a optional feature to benefit and ensure the success of students.
Zakevia
