Monica,
Current events and supplemental teaching aids can really help students understand how what they are learning applies to real life. Nice job.
Monica,
Keep providing those provoking questions. We have to probe the students to help them get deeper in discussion. Thanks!
Michael,
It's good that you have developed these files in PDF format as that should be easier for all students to access. Nice job.
I agree. When I utilize supplemental teaching aids the students gain a better understanding of the conceptual content regarding the topic of discussion. Especially when I incorporate current events to give them a holistic perspective.
The on-line courses I teach have structured and formatted assignments and assessment test. The only coursework that I can slightly alter is within the discussion threads. Even though the original discussion question is provided I often will ask the students thought provoking questions as it relates to the original discussion question to promote higher order thinking. This helps the students to stay on topic as I set the tone and expectations.
I have loaded Pdf files as learning objects for students to download and use as reference materials. Some of these materials I have found on the text book publishers web site and the students have found them to be helpful
Jane and Theran,
Wow - wouldn't that be awesome to have more people show up than were needed. That's great.
Jane,
Yes, shifting gears from APA style to a lab report would be difficult. Your outlines should be very helpful. Nice job and a good tip for others.
Tomi,
We have to keep giving our constructive recommendations to the institutions to help improve the learning process. Thanks!
Tomi,
We continue to learn from each other. The more the better.
Thanks!
Katrina,
Definitely. We all see the same question over and over from students and if we can answer those questions to all students at once, great.
Katrina,
Do you provide your PowerPoint presentations to the students prior to the weekly chats?
Thanks!
Katrina,
Additional learning materials and resources can benefit students greatly. We can do that in all subject areas. Thanks!
Tomi,
Many times students like having the presentation prior to the chat. It gives them a clue about what's coming up and they can develop questions prior to the course. Nice job.
Hi Theran,
I see you have little input to the development of classes, as some others on this DB have also posted. I am sorry to hear that as those teaching the class really get a feel for what students need to master a topic.
I guess I am lucky to work for a University that supports faculty input. At any time suggestions are reviewed for revisions to assignment. Every term there is a presession review where we can make some changes before the course runs again.
We also have fairly frequent learning event reviews -- at least every two years. Faculty members are asked to volunteer to develop new assignments where necessary and to review, hone or revise existing assignments. Just this year I have revised all of the DB assignments for one class and one of the lab assignments for a second class. I was also asked to help review revisions made by others for additional courses.
It seems all instructors like to have some control over the course material. In a recent call for volunteers to help revise a lab class, more people than were needed jumped at the chance within hours of the request.
In one of my courses students are required to write lab reports. This is particularly challenging for many of them as they are constantly directed to write APA formatted essays for all of their other classes. Shifting gears and presenting work in a new format can be confusing. To help them out, I have developed outlines for each project; explaining what belongs in each section of the assignment. Students who use the outlines routinely score very well!
For another class I have recorded mini lectures/slideshows. These are less than 15 minutes each covering specific topics. They give the students a scaffold to support the details they will encounter in their reading. I am working to convert these to youtube videos for easier (ie android) access.
As I have mentioned a few times, I save my DB posts. I like to be the first to post to the DB each week, and have developed a couple of posts for each assignment. One such post always covers expectations along with explanations on how to proceed with the project. A second one may include an example, a news item about the topic, a link or two, or a sample post.
I am glad to hear that you find that the school is willing to listen to your recommendations.
These sounds like very good resources. I like the netiquette one :-)
I like the frequently asked questions idea. There are a lot of same questions asked by students session to session.
I conduct weekly chats sessions using Powerpoint presentations that I have prepared in advance for each week. These presentations cover the weekly assignments and topics in detail.
