I certainly try to use scaffolding in my courses. Building on concepts and tying them together is beneficial for students. Also, I work to participate in discussions without getting too involved and "telling" the students the answers or steer them in their decision-making. I find it hard to do. I am working on my Socratic questioning.
There are many ways to encourage communication between teacher-student and student-students.
It can be helpful to have a dynamic syllabus. I had never heard of it, but it sounds like a good concept than a normal document form of a syllabus. It is important for instructors to provide guidance for online discussion format whether it is complete access, restricted access (if students feel more comfortable for only instructor to see ).
There are multiple types of Effective Online Communication including S2S, S2I, I2S, G2G, G2I, G2G, and I2G. Providing students with the opportunity to engage with the Instructor and their peers is a crucial part of learning, and will make any Online Course more effective and beneficial for the students.
Scaffolding provides structure for student learning and focus for student activities.
- Provide clear instructions
- Clarify purpose
- Keep students on task
- Offer assessment to clarify purpose
- Direct students to worthy sources
- Reduce uncertainty and disappointment
- Deliver efficiency
- Create momentum
One thing I have learned is that we need to convert or Syllabus to be more dynamic. Currently, it is flat and students need to download it to print if they wish to refer to it. I will have to look into ways we can make it more like an ebook.
Adding a detailed syllabus and reviewing with students before the start of class will help with any confusion and gives student a chance to realize how much work is involved in the course.
I really like the idea of scaffolding so that students are building off of their prior knowledge.
Importance of the syllabus, scaffolding and overall communication
Critical components of the online environment are creating and maintaining student-friendly, secure, comfortable communication channels.
I learned how to create a dynamic syllabus to assist students in anticipating online issues and situations. I also learned the importance of creating an online community so students dont' feel like they are individually learning.
I have learned that it is important to create am environment where students feel comfortable interacting in a synchronous or asynchronous manner. To apply this lesson, I feel it is important to offer multiple forums of communication (discussions, chats, emails) and to ensure that instruction for communication are clearly outlined in the syllabus and on the online learning platform.
A flat syllabus is no dofferent than a printed syllabus. Online syllabus should be dynamic.
The concept of scaffolding is the same in online and in person learning.
Having a dynamic syllabus is the basis for any successful class as an instructor. From there establishing the right environment to allow the students to scaffold properly also provides success for the student and instructor.
Building an online community for your course is important to student learning. Students shouldn't be left to feel that they are alone online doing the course. The student has to be aware that engaging in the community is important to their learning in the course. Web based tools are helpful in the development of a community sense that the students will want to engage in.
Developing a dynamic syllabus is important. This online syllabus is very different from our traditional ones.
My take away from this session is the building of a dynamic syllabus. My goal is to revise the syllabus so my students may access and see each component versus a flat line.
The amount of involvement from the instructor in the online discusssions needs to be asssessed from one group to another.
Define clearly in the syllabus the rules for participation.
