I learned from this assignment that online teaching is hard for the firat time instructor, it is overwhelming and I am going to be very sensitive to the student who is not computer savy. I am learning that also that not being able to see the questionable looks on students faces is going to be diffculty for me to decern the weaknesses of a student.
The nature of online education requires online instructors to purposefully think about how communication with students, collectively and individually, happens.
Instructional involvement in disucssion should not be overwhelming.
CVommunicatin is key so feedback is a necessary tool!
As the text says: "Good communication is part of what makes a successful online course" (Module 3 - "Communication with Students" Section, Pg.1). Included in those "good communications" are important things to execute on, such as 1) Issuing commuications guidelines that include boundaries and will properly inform and serve both the students and the instructor (from a time management / workload management standpoint), 2) Providing regular and consistent student feedback (according to guidelines published by the online instructor) in a timely manner and 3) students and teachers working together to help build and maintain a collaborative working environment for all involved.
It was interesting to see students view online instructor effectiveness based on teaching presence, social presence, and instructor response time.
Communication and feed back are an important part of an online course. The student needs to feel noticed and cared for. Communtication patterns should be establised and used by both the instructor and student.
The online course is always different in fact the teacher as well as the student can agree. Both are lackig that face to face interaction and must develop a relationship through the discussion board.
Students need more support. Feedback should be timely. Making your feedback personal can go a long way toward keeping your students engaged.
Providing prompt feedback helps students understand that instructors value their time and learning needs. By instructors steering the conversation and not taking over will help develop group participation and development. There needs to be boundaries and clear expectations from both the stude and the instructors.
Utilizing collaborative learning can provide students with an excellent learning opportunity where they share their perspectives and insight into a given topic. In order to create these expericences without them becoming too burdensome, I would make sure that groups are small and that evaluation procedures were designed and projected to students to avoid confusion or misunderstanding.
The online instructor should be a "guide on the side" and not dominate discussions. There is no need to respond to every post. Small groups should be encouraged to rely on each other.
Best practice begins with purposeful planning and ends with accessing the students and strateg.
Communication within an online class is just as important as in a traditional seated class. It is critical that the instructor sets up a system for students and him or herself to facilitate the necessary information in the class while establishing good communication norms that foster cooperation and respect.
I like the idea of providing weekly, private updates on each student in regards to grades. The guideline that a student shouldn't go 7 days without this information makes sense. I will use this guideline to be sure my class understands exactly where they are and what they can improve on.
I learned about establishing communication boundaries.
Ensure that you take control over the class by leading in the way that you will hold the attention of the students. Short and to the point, rely to the students when they ask questions in a timely manner.
When posting a discussion question, "seed the discussion with an opinion" or ask for a critique, as opposted to just posting a general question. I like this idea to get the kids to discuss right off the bat to try to avoid canned responses like "Me, too" or "that is interesting". I struggle with teaching high schoolers on how to peer evaluate, so that is something I will have to look into further.
Keep groups small
Group members need to interact frequently; this is best accomplished if groups have fewer than six members.
Collabration is an excellnt way of learning in the online environment because it affords the students have peer and group evalutions. This lets the students have a hand on the wheel when ti comes to the course workload and allowing interdepence to take place among each other by keeping groups small.
