Content Delivery Online
When teaching an online course it can be difficult to switch up how your content is delivered. You can accomplish this by assigning group projects or introducing different forms of technology like prerecorded messages to your class.
When I do online classes I find it important to still make the class interactive. I feel it is very easy to get lost in just a lecture format especially online. I try to make my online classes as interactive as possible by using demos and examples that the students can see how something is working. A couple times throughout an hour class period I will ask questions or show the students a demo of what I have been talking about.
Hi Cynthia,
I think you have done a great job of laying a plan for interaction between and among your students. You have a number of opportunities laid out for your students to contribute to the course even though they are not onsite.
Gary
What I miss about teaching face to face is being able to read body language which can tell an instructor if a student is engaged or about to fall asleep. Yet, I cannot do this in an online class, so I rely on Socratic questioning to make them think and participate in discussions. This helps me see if they are listening and engaged in the material. I do a lot of hands-on activities. We take virtual field trips into the school library, do mock searches on the Internet to teach them how to evaluate web site sources,etc. In live chats, I lecture about 15 minutes followed by discussing their ideas and trouble-shooting problems they are having with assignments. My overall goal is to get them to interact with each other and the course material/learning activity.
Hi Gary,
Thanks for this information. I am always looking for additional techniques I can use in my classes.
Gary
A good indicator for me is the amount of interactions I get from the "Introduce Yourself" thread. If the class is engaged and interacting a lot it lets me know they are going to need less nudging the interact as a cohort. When classes don't interact much in this initial post I will spur the conversation on and introduce a group activity early on to get them interacting with others.
I am fairly new to technology outside of the discussion boards so I am taking a class that will assist me with ideas to implement various technology vehicles.
Hi Gary,
When teaching an online course what are some methods you use to sense that you need to get the students into groups or introduce different forms of technology. In other words how do you "read" your online students so you can react and make the needed changes?
Gary
