DAVID SULLIVAN

Different portions of your course may benifit from being sychronous and other portions asynchronous.  Nowing how and when to use both effectively is a benifit to both the instructor and the students.  Testing of both types may be necessary to realize the benifits or drawbacks of one over the other.

continuously trying and accessing online teaching tools is an important step to figuring out what works well with the individual teachers teaching style.

I think reflecting on outcomes of courses and how students performed can be used effectively to realize where courses need improvement.  If students are doing poorly in a particular course, it would show that improvement on what methods and expectations need to be reviewed and improved upon.

I like the idea of anonymous feedback between students.  This will allow students to learn and realize ways they may improve their personal project through reviewing others as well as provide constructive criticisms to their peers.  It may be a bit more difficult in a small class setting such as typical CADD classes as anonimity may be difficult, but still useful.

Having a clear and precise syllabus is pertinent to students understanding what will be expected and how they will be assesed.  Also the importance of allowing students the ability to brainstorm and openly converse on subjects without being assesed by the instructor can be a helpful tool through discussion with others to bring a different perspective and further clarity, or bring up questions about students understanding.  I believe these discussions need to be graded on relevant participation void of content in order to insure students get involved.

I learned what I have always suspected that the way we have been creating content for our CADD courses is completely incorrect.  The fact that we had several instructors create the courses with little instruction or guidance aside from what subjects and principles needed to be covered, means we have a curriculum with several different styles and flavors making it wholely inconsistant.  This is why other institutions follow a particular text for their teachings.  The provision of information then becomes consistant and familiar.

Dealing with disruptors in class may be the most difficult task due to the student never having to actually face their instructor and knowing what and how to react appropriately will be key in these instances.

I learned the importance and benefits of asynchronous discussions.  I think they can be beneficial whether online or in the classroom to reinforce the subject matter, foster critical thinking and create greater involvement into subjects being studied.

One thing I took from this module and actually copied to a word doc was information you would look for in a student's biographical information.

• The name by which they prefer to be addressed.
• Their academic background.
• Their employment history and current occupation.
• Their reasons for taking the course.
• Their expectations of you.
• Any special interests and hobbies.

I'll be using this in the future

This module reinforced some areas I knew where important and why.  One important item discussed in the module was responding to students in a timely matter and grading submissions quickly as this makes students feel there is someone actively involved in the course with them.