Teaching courses online
I would have to say teaching Medical Billing is a challenging course online. First, a program would have to have numerous "hands on" projects for students to complete; question is, how would you deliver and recieve the finished product?
Patricia:
Please describe the nature of the "hands on" projects as well as the deliverables. That would help me to offer some suggestions. I would like to begin with a recent experience I have had with an Online Instructor. Part of the course he is teaching requires returning edited documents to his students. He was unable to find a software application through which to make his editorial marks and comments. This is an English course. Two options were recommended. First, he edits the document, create a PDF version, scan it into his computer, then e-mail it to his students. This was the more practical solution. The other one would involve faxing the corrected assignment to thestudents.
Satrohan
Hands on projects such as completing various insurance forms claim forms, managed care authorizations or claims tracer forms. These have been difficult to upload, complete and submit to me to view. Students may be using older versions of windows and cannot upload PDF documents, others have Microsoft Works, Wordperfect which makes it difficult to compose letters for grading by the instructor.
Patricia:
I will inquire from my Technical Support staff if there is a way to facilitate the sharing of the documents; and advise you if we come up with a resolution.
When we work with universities, we avoid these kinds of problems by specifying up-front to students the hardware and softwae requirements they would require to complete the courses in the program.
Satrohan
If you are making documents available for student access, saving them as generically as possible will facilitate their ability to open them in Works or WP. saving a file as .rtf makes them nearly universal. As for accepting student documents from those venues: from MS Word choose Insert--File. I find Word 2002+ pretty easily interprets the format of those software pkgs. We often use them to "rescue" documents from home to classroom printers.
If you have pdf capability and the recipient has Outlook a completed online available form can be rerouted as an email. (File--Send to)
The new MS 2007 Info Path may have some application here but I am not as familiar with its capabilities. These are areas that I find interesting to explore for the interactivity and performance basis of an online course.
Would be interested in other ideas along this line.
If you are making documents available for student access, saving them as generically as possible will facilitate their ability to open them in Works or WP. saving a file as .rtf makes them nearly universal. As for accepting student documents from those venues: from MS Word choose Insert--File. I find Word 2002+ pretty easily interprets the format of those software pkgs. We often use them to "rescue" documents from home to classroom printers.
If you have pdf capability and the recipient has Outlook a completed online available form can be rerouted as an email. (File--Send to)
The new MS 2007 Info Path may have some application here but I am not as familiar with its capabilities. These are areas that I find interesting to explore for the interactivity and performance basis of an online course.
Would be interested in other ideas along this line.
Joanne:
Thank you for sharing your technical xpertise with us. I encourage other to share any ideas you have along the same lines.
Satrohan
Hello Patricia-
As I teach general education courses, which do not require hands on work, I have not dealt with this issue. However, I have taught research methods and getting students to understand how to calculate standard deviation in a live chat session is challenging.
I begin with requiring them to bring their text, a pencil, paper and calculator to class. We do one example in class as a group. Then we do one step-by-step where they each have to find the answer for each step. Then at the end of seminar, they are given one problem they have to complete on their own and send me via e-mail.
None of them have hunted me down yet!
Kathryn
Kathryn:
The strategy you have adopted works well for you as your course seems to be taught partially online and on-the-ground. I have at least two instructors who have adopted the same strategy; however, they have taught similar topics totally in an online environment with some other supporting materials such as for example, solutions to problems.
Satrohan
I am new to teaching online. I will be teaching Comp. I for the first time in a couple of weeks. I still have a lot to learn as I have been a secondary teacher for seventeen years, but have never taught online. My biggest concern is that I will not be familiar enough with the online version of the course I am teaching. What are your suggestions for being completely prepared to begin an online class?
If you have never taught the class before, you have the challenge of learning new course materials as well as learning online. One of the things you need to do is make yourself as familiar with your classroom materials as you can be (just like you would for a residential class). If you are comfortable with the content and material of the course, you will be able to spend more time with the "online" aspects of the class.
Another suggestion I would have is to schedule the time throughout the week that you will be logging into your online class. You need to discipline yourself to check your online class regularly--just like your students do.
Lastly, I would do whatever you can do to make yourself comfortable with the online software. Hopefully the school you are teaching at has materials that will teach you how to use the software--and don't be afraid to ask for help.
Good luck Lisa!
