Kevin Dowell

Technology has the potential to enhance learing and extend learning opportunities to more people.  Technology can also become the gate keeper preventing students that do not have access to or do not know how to use the technology.  As technology evolves, I see more and more people being left behind because they can not afford the technology, aren't exposed to its operation and do not have access to the same opportunities/  I would advise use caaution when requiring the use of technology for learning and make sure resources are available for students that are lacking technology, I have been surprised… >>>

The comment about students aren't the best source of data for determining course content and design should be in bold letters on a screen by itself.  I see to many institutions putting disproportionate weight on student evaluations.  The students may have a sense of what they want to learn or think they should learn that may not have any basis in reality. Multiple data sources are important for driving curriculum development and should be part of an ever evolving curriculum.

Our program utilizes input from the industry we serve and peer review as the driving force for curriculum development.  Student… >>>

I often embedd the rubric information into content delivery and have examples of different levels of work.  Students have a copy of the rubric and self evaluation is used as formative assesment.  Students provide self evaluation first, I then discuss with them what I agree with and why, what I disagree with and why, adding feedback as neecded that the student may not have included in their self assesment.  "if the student needs priming to self evaluate, I ask "what do you like?  What do you think went well?  What do you think can be improved?" Asking the question "What… >>>

I wonder if other instructors experience the same syllabus apathy that I see from my students.  Unless they are forced to read it (some of our quizzes are about syllabus content because we found that was the only way to get the students to read it and show they located imprtant information like office hours, drop dates etc.) the students completely ignore the syllabus and want to get into the course content.  Lets be honest here, the syllabus is more of a CYA document for the instructor and the institution than it is anything else.

My personal learning experience and what I see from my students (granted that be the nature of the program I am part of, highly kinesthetic in nature) is in opposition to what is being "taught" here.  I prefer less "community building in courses.  The more effort that I have to put into partiucipating in the "community buiulding" the less I enjoy and get from a course.  When given an option of opting out of "community buiulding" in the learning envoronment, I see a vast majority of students opting out, they only participate at the minimum level required by the instructor… >>>

It is important to include time for revision and testing to create and verify consistency in module framework and material presentation.  Never underestimate the role of an "editor" in the creative process of course development.

I learned that myths about projecting presence and establishing rapport with students continue to propgated.  As an e-learner, I don't want to post a biography, I don't want to read biograpphies.  I am not impressed with degrees etc, I know many and educated person with an alphabet behind their name that still doesn't seem to know anything.  I have taken classes where the instructor knew less than students who have previously or currently self studying a topic.  It doesn't take long to figure out if an instructor is qualified to teach the course regardless of what they post in their… >>>

It is important for the online instructor to not only be prepared with quality instructional materials, formative and summative assesment tools, and engaging learning activities for students to both discover and apply course content, the online instructor must also be prepared and able to operate the mechanisms of the CMS in order for the student to have a good experience with the online course.