William Becker

Hi In my 11 years of teaching online, I have had my share of conflict with students. It usually starts with a student who requests an extension for one week and then requests another the following week for some new and unrelated emergency. I realize the strain of being an online student and often bad things happen to good people. Therefore I have a rather liberal extension policy. Most times it works but there will always be the student who sees this as an opportunity to try and procrastinate all the way to the end of the course. As an… >>>

Hello As I mentioned earlier in my response that as an instructor it is easy for the facilitator to take a backseat or misunderstand the importance of instructor involvement when it comes to the discussion boards. I made that mistake in my early years of teaching online. I mistakenly assumed that the discussion board was solely for student interaction and that I really had no place interfering or getting involved. What I found was that my students were adopting the same the same philosophy and were posting weak or short comments and only reaching the minimum requirements each week. Since… >>>

Hi At my university, it is mandatory for the instructors to post their biography. I am lucky because I have 20 years’ experience in aerospace engineering and program management besides my years in academics as well. I am lucky in the sense that I have achieved a lot during my career. Normally I am a very private person who does not like to have my credentials made public. However, it has made a big difference for me when establishing my role as content expert and authority in the classroom. It helps add to the respect that an instructor needs to… >>>

Hi Using another instructor’s syllabus is an easy way to get out of doing your own. It relieves the burden of trying to figure out if our syllabus will be accepted or rejected by the Department Chair who usually has the responsibility of reviewing our syllabuses before they are distributed. After all they approved the original didn’t they? The problem is that there is no guarantee that the coursework covered is adequate or complete. My suggestion is that when using someone else’s syllabus is to just use it as a template as to how to format it. Most schools publish… >>>