Creating Collaborative Communities - Week 6

I hereby resolve to:

• Create a syllabus quiz/scavenger hunt to make sure students read it
• Keep course due dates out of the content to make it easier to update for next semester
• Establish a file name protocol for student submissionsI am not really good at following instructions, so I actually included 3 Ah-Ha moments.

I have always struggled with a way get the students to actually read the syllabus. After reading Lehmann and Chamberlin, as well of the online version of “Time Management Tips for Online Teachers” I realized that as with anything, the only way to get students to do things is to “count” them. The only way to ensure that students read the syllabus is to create some sort of assessment, like a quiz or scavenger hunt.

Another thing I have struggled with is making sure the entire course is up to date with things like due dates. Having to change them in multiple places is a pain. It never occurred to me to keep them just in one place!

A third thing that I have struggled with is telling my students a specific naming protocol. I always just told them “make sure it has your name in the file name.” I realize now that I have to be much more specific. I intend to add naming conventions to my syllabi in the future so I no longer have a drop box full of “Untitled Documents.”

Creating Collaborative Communities - Week 5

I hereby resolve to:

• Develop icebreaker activities to build community based on the course content
• Be in frequent contact with students throughout the first week
• Be sure to check in with students who seem to be losing interest/working below their ability in the weeks after the initial course start
• Make sure I am present enough, but not too overbearing as the weeks progress in the course

The 70/30 rule will impact my online facilitation by making me more aware of how I lay the foundation for successful interactions with my students. I have always used the same Icebreaker in my courses, “As an introductory discussion, take this opportunity to tell us about yourself. Who are you? What grade are you in? What do you like to do? What are your hobbies? What kind of books do you like to read? What types of things would you like to learn more about? Why did you sign up for this course?” I did this more as a way to make sure participants knew how to post to the discussion boards than as a community building activity. It did have the side effect of allowing me to get to know my students, but that wasn’t really the intended purpose. I have also always used a welcome message to my students as a way to allow them to get themselves set up early, so they don’t feel quite as much pressure in the beginning of the course. Outside of the very easy “getting to know the LMS and each other” activities, the only other thing students will be responsible for in the first week is picking up their reading materials from the library. Based on what Lehmann and Chamberlin share, the first week is critical for student retention. One other thing I try to do in the first week is to respond to all email messages as soon as humanly possible. That means logging in more frequently than I normally would, and making sure I address students questions and concerns. One thing that will help me do this is to start building a database of responses to questions that frequently come up (see new addition of “Online Teaching Playbook” page, a work in progress).

I do wish the scenarios in this module were different than those presented in the text, as I felt like I was “copying” the responses that Lehmann and Chamberlin presented.

Creating Collaborative Communities - Week 4

I hereby resolve to:

• Focus on building collaborative opportunities outside of discussion forums
• Use personality assessments to get to know my students
• Use personality assessments to group my students
• Investigate Online Learning at lower grade levels
• Ask Dave W about their information literacy skills program
• Create really clear instructions on how to cite images, and which ones are ok to use

The biggest Aha moment I had was when I decided to start creating myself sort of a manual for online teaching. It was inspired by the amazing conversations I was having with my classmates, and I didn’t want to lose a single thing they had to say or resource that they posted. It’s an overwhelming task to accomplish while immersed in the course itself, so the for now, I have created a PDF of the threaded discussion in the course so I can capture the conversations. When I have spare time, I can go back through the discussion, whether the course is available in D2L or not, and try to collate them into a resource for myself, and perhaps others, to use. I am curious to see if I will be able to completely redesign my two high school courses based on what I learn in this program before I offer them to students again.

Another Aha moment I had was when we were asked to look at personality type and grouping. For so long, I have despised group projects, as a learner and as a teacher. There were always those who did more than others, and made working in groups frustrating. The idea that personality type may come in to play in creating better groups is something I am very interested in experimenting with. I am mentoring our health teacher as she builds her online health course, and she is allowing me to experiment with different aspects of the assignments as I work through this course. I used the Bourne/Bond poll to group students for their first activity, and it seemed to work out really well. I was fascinated to see that all members of the Bond teams waited until the day before to start their projects, and those in the Bourne groups started their work as soon as the groups were assigned! I am curious to see how grouping students for both projects and discussions will alter the way students see group work. I am most curious to see how online learning works at lower grade levels. I really want to see what an online classroom looks like in, say 2nd grade. How does that work? Does it work? Can it work?

Creating Collaborative Communities - Week 3

I hereby resolve to:

• Refrain from using sarcasm in my communication (p122)
• Use humor in my communication when appropriate (p121)
• Use positive reinforcement whenever possible
• Walk away from any communication that is emotional before hitting send
• Work toward understanding students’ backgrounds as they may effect interactions with the materials
• Create either electronically or paper based, a collection of tips, tricks and articles I can refer to in developing and facilitating online courses (ie: questioning techniques, activities design, etc)
• Create a list of stem starters for students to use in building responses
• Create a list of potential messages for students having difficulties
• Create a Discussion Tips Document with guidelines for participation in discussions
• Work on my VART list for students
• Find the time to re-read all of the discussion posts to begin building above mentioned resource!

This module has been quite an experience for me. Reading my classmates different techniques for addressing problems students are having and ways to build more dynamic discussion among students has been very eye opening. I want to take every piece of information shared and use it to create a guide for myself to aid in designing and redesigning my online courses. Every person brings a unique combination of experiences that allow me to see the materials from many different angles.