Joel Phillips

Hi Gary, Thanks for the feedback :). When I first started teaching online I still relied on my natural instructional methods which are fairly "laid-back". I ensure that the students understand the concepts and methods that we work through, but use positive reinforcing techniques that place emphasis what they are doing properly and then build upon that to show where a particular element/concept needs to be improved. My e-mail etiquette and style is a bit less formal that what I generally see promoted for instructor interaction. I use a lot of ':)', and insert a fair amount of humor into… >>>

When composing my response to Dr. Meyer's main post topic I thought about it a bit and want to also use it as my personal thread as well. If we go strictly by the content in this learning module the learning environment should be a comfortable and supportive learning site that will enable students to focus better on the content of the course. I teach on-line courses so my Learning Environment is a bit less tactile but still needs to meet the requirements of being comfortable and supportive. Comfort does not come in the form of temperature or chair type/arangement;… >>>

With my math classes, I have found that students generally come into class with very polarized views of the subject. In their prior education the have either found that they enjoy the topic and learning additional techniques and methods or they have struggled with the topic and have determined that they really will have no practical application for the material we are going to be covering. In order to keep the entire class engaged, I find the Motivator role of the instructor very important. Within this role it is important to engage the students who begin the class with a… >>>